Updated: In a move designed to “share our discontent” over Fort Bend Independent School District’s plans to move the Marshall High School Electronic Engineering Academy, the Fort Bend Pastors Association and area community and elected leaders are planning a Saturday march.

Beginning at 8 a.m. at Together We Stand Christian Church at 1430 Texas Parkway in Missouri City, the march is being held in an effort to keep the academy at Marshall.

Pastors association President Theodore Deaver said in a statement that the FBISD Board of Trustees has approved moving the academy to Elkins High School, and “we want to send a peaceful yet profound message that will resonate throughout Fort Bend, that we will stand up for what is rightfully ours and that there is unity in our community.”

Yet it’s unclear whether moving the academy from Marshall to Elkins is official. The district’s web site lists the move as “proposed” for the 2010-2011 school year. But the Marshall High School web site states that “no decision has been made to move the Electronic Engineering Academy.” District officials couldn’t be reached for most of the day Friday to clarify the fate of the academy. Then, at 5:30, the district issued a statement that says the Marshall academy will be moved to Elkins in 2010, but also says FBISD’s superintendent has “committed” district support to the idea of keeping the academy at Marshall.

“That’s one of the reasons we’re marching, because we want them to give us a definitive answer,” Deaver said Friday afternoon.

What could be described as a grass-roots movement to keep the program at Marshall sprang up in Missouri City beginning early this year, when a group of students, educators, parents, pastors and business people began working to recruit enough incoming freshmen to apply to the academy to satisfy the school district that the program should remain at Marshall.

The EE Academy was targeted in spring of 2008 for removal. “There was a plan to pull the academy from here and move it to Elkins,” said one district employee, who spoke only on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from district administrators. “Nobody in the program was consulted,” the employee added. “Our advisory committee was livid when they found out.”

After push-back last fall from the committee, made up of corporate sponsors including Shell Oil Co., Fluor Corp., Schlumberger Ltd. and Dynegy Inc., district officials decided to give supporters a chance to keep the academy in Marshall.

“They gave us the rest of the semester to get 100 students,” said Matt Davis, an engineer, a mentor in the program and also an area pastor. Sources involved in that effort said that number wasn’t reached. However, an instructor in the academy questioned the logic behind the recruitment goal, saying the academy didn’t have the physical facilities to handle 100 new students.

The EE Academy’s supporters point to its record with pride. Students enrolled there have achieved a 100% graduation rate, and have gone on to prestigious schools including MIT, Texas A&M, UT, Stanford, Purdue and Syracuse. Graduation from the academy means an automatic 21 credit hours at Houston Community College, supporters say.

“This academy needs to stay at Marshall High School,” Deaver said Friday. “It has the support of major corporations. It has the support of the teachers, and it has the support of the community.”

He said U.S. Rep. Al Green and a slate of state, county and city elected officials are expected to attend the Saturday march, along with a variety of community leaders.

“If we don’t stand for something, we will fall for anything,” he said in an invitation to the rally.

Participants are being asked to wear black and gold - Marshall’s school colors. Green is scheduled to make a keynote speech, and then participants will march from the church to the high school and back.

Deaver said he has been trying to schedule a July 16 meeting between the pastors association and FBISD Superintendent Dr. Timothy Jenney to discuss issues surrounding the proposed move to Elkins.