J.R. Harris is an elementary school located in the Harrisburg/Manchester neighborhood. It is a public, zoned, HISD school. Originally, Harrisburg School, it opened in 1895 and was named after John Richardson Harris (1790-1821), an early settler in the area, and the founder of the town of Harrisburg. The school offers a dual language English/Spanish program. It is an additive bilingual program for native Spanish-speaking students and foreign language immersion program for English-speaking students. In two-way classrooms, a combination of native Spanish speakers and native English speakers are taught together in an effort to develop full bilingualism and bi-literacy for both groups of students by the 3rd grade.