Good evening. Can I please ask everyone to take their seats? Good evening. This meeting is now convened at 05:01PM. I'd like, to ask everyone, to silence all cell phones. Quorum of the board members is present in the Board Auditorium. If there are any public officials in the audience, please stand up and be recognized. I see we have, Kathy Buford Daniels here. Welcome. And do I see anybody else at this point? Maybe not. Okay. We will now, be joined by a member of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, to lead our pledges. I would like to ask board member,
Edvard Colon, to introduce tonight's Thank you, President Campo. Cadet Dora Garza serves as the battalion commander for the Furr High School JROTC program. Demonstrating exceptional leadership, dedication, and commitment to excellence. She also leads as the commander of the Furr High School color guard team where she sets the standard for discipline, position, and teamwork. Beyond her leadership roles, Carla Garza is actively involved in serving her community. She has volunteered at Defer High School Food Bank,
supporting efforts to assist families in need and exemplifying the values of selfless service and citizenship. She has been recognized with the HISD JROTC Citizenship Award. Following graduation, Cadet Garza plans to continue her education and pursue a career as a licensed cosmetologist. Cadet Garza. In meditation. Please remain standing for the pledge of allegiance and pledge to the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands,
one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Now for the Texas pledge. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. Thank you, Cadet Garza. We'll now hear from public officials and speakers who identified themselves as students and parents. Please note that Spanish live captioning is available for those viewing the meeting via livestream, and live Spanish interpretation is available in person in the auditorium. Public comment during school board meetings will only be available to those persons who have
signed up to speak prior to the meeting time for current protocol. Verbal and other dis disruptions during school board meetings are not acceptable as they inhibit the board's ability to conduct business and public's ability to observe those processes. Those who participate in such behavior will be given one warning, and if the behavior is repeated, they will be asked to leave the meeting. We have a 100 speakers, registered speakers, who will be limited to one minute each per board policy as we have more than third 30 people signed up to address the board tonight. We ask that you may that you stay on topic and refrain from naming individuals,
especially students, as their identity is protected under the law. But you may name your own child. I ask that you please respect our procedures and and that of other speakers, and end your comments promptly when the time has expired and the timer bell rings. We'll we'll make a small adjustment to our public comment period this evening. I need to step away before the end of the meeting, so we'll be hearing from all speakers in one group tonight, public officials and HISD parents and students. We've heard in first in group a, followed immediately by other registered speakers in group b.
We will start with, US representative Christian Menefee, who is joining us on Zoom. Miss Smith, can you get that worked out? Oh, he's not here yet? Okay. We'll just wait for him then. Let's see. I don't see the, the HIC elected trustees here, do I? No? So, let's go ahead then with, with Cathy Buford Daniels, elected representative of the Harris County Appraisal District. Board of directors is next. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you. As a former elected board trustee, I'm here because still,
we're still making noise. The politics in education, so we're still making noise. Who loses? The students and the teachers and the communities. As a young person, I remember asked this question. Which is most important, the head or the neck? Some of you all may have heard that. And I learned that in the reference I'm making with this scenario is you all are making decisions because you all are the head, but we are the neck. And so you're making these decisions without the neck without the neck and so affecting teachers, communities, etcetera. Consolidations will be my focus.
Consolidation of schools and selling off properties, properties that we have paid taxes on myself for over forty years. And so you're using our money that we paid into to spend haphazardly. And I suggest when you talk about consolidations, consolidate some of these salaries. Consolidate Carrie Briggs at $252,000. Dollars Orlando Paul Riddick at 237,000. If you consolidate some of those position, this this information is available on government salaries 2025. 2025. So with the increase in raises that they probably got,
it's probably more than that. So if you consolidate some of those salaries, then we could save, as Anne Eagleton will say, over $1,000,000 per year. Consolidate the responsibilities and the salaries. Stop consolidating these schools, these children education. I was special. I probably was ADD before I was being diagnosed with that early on. These children are protected under the federal government. And if I had been isolated and sent to another campus, I just I I I just can't understand what possibly my cohorts,
my cheerleader friends would have thought of me going off to another campus because I couldn't remain on my own campus. So those are the questions, BOMs, that you all need to ask. What impact is this going to have on the consolidation of these children that have already made friends and have settled in into these positions? And so I'll just leave you with one more thing. No trust. No bond. Thank you. Miss Smith, do we have, a senior? We have elected trustee Felicity Pereira on Zoom. If we could see her online. Please go ahead. Please go ahead,
trustee Ferria. Are you able to hear us? I haven't is it my turn to speak? I haven't heard anybody. Yes. Please go ahead. Tell me it was my turn to speak. Yeah. Can someone confirm? Okay. Well, somebody's just texted me that that I can speak, so I'll go ahead. Felicity Ferreira, elected trustee for District 1. I represent the Northside Heights and Garden Oaks and Oak Forest areas. I apologize for not being there in person tonight. I'm actually on-site helping my mother move into assisted living. Three years ago, the state of Texas took over HISD on three exit criteria, with special education compliance being one of them.
And the state handpicked Mike Miles as the expert to deliver. Tonight, however, that same superintendent will present a plan to relocate 5,000 children with special education needs, a plan that the United States Department of Education has opened a federal civil rights investigation into, with the assistant secretary calling the allegations alarming. On this same agenda, item 17, which asks you to tell the state of Texas that this district cannot afford three point seatbelts on the very buses that will carry those children recourse. The state chose the superintendent to fix special education,
but here we are three years later, and special education is the reason why this administration is under federal investigation. We need to return this district to the families and the voters who built it. As my own mother, a proud former HIC mom, would say, the jig is up. Thank you. Thank you. I see that I see that trustee, Manzan has the right, so, welcome. On elected trustee district step District 5. 5,000 students, 5,000 families, and superintendent Miles chooses silence. Changes to special education hubs were leaked and quietly informed or shared at the year's
end. No notice, no input, no information at our meetings. Was this a last minute idea or did Miles know all along and deliberately cut families out? Either answer is a failure in leadership. His team says this isn't about budget. It's about student needs. But if that were true, why weren't parents part of this conversation? Why presented to the board of managers in May? Because families know the truth. What Miles is doing to children with disabilities is morally wrong, ethically indefensible, and a potential violation of federal law, which is exactly why the US Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights has now
opened a disability discrimination investigation into this district. The board knows that special education compliance is one of three exit criteria and move us in the wrong direction. Many of these students have severe needs, and one of those needs is stability. They have built relationships with teachers, staff, and classmates at their neighborhood schools. Those schools are not broken. What is making what is being proposed is not a solution to a problem. It is a consolidation that makes things easier for the district and harder for the child. Uprooting these students,
sending them farther from home, forcing them to rebuild trust from scratch is not best practice. It is disruption masked as innovation. I urge the board of managers to keep these students in their schools, communicate with and respect families and students, support them with the services and resources required by law. Thank you. Thank you. I see trustee McDonough is here. Would you like to, come to the podium? Thank you. Welcome. Good evening. I spent eight years in this district as a math teacher, primarily teaching seventh through tenth grade. And my favorite subject to teach was geometry because it wasn't just about shapes and
formulas. It was about logic, reasoning, and how arguments are constructed. Now one of the biggest challenges with students that age was getting them to slow down, to show their work, check their answers, and to think carefully before rushing into a conclusion. I would often tell them accuracy over speed. It is better to be right than to be first. Tonight, I'm making an argument concerning item 20, the first reading seeking proposed revisions to board policy CQ local. Now CQ local is a policy this board created just fifteen months ago in February
2025. At that time, you included specific language regarding artificial intelligence. Your policy also referenced the HISD handbook, which I did check out. It's on page six that caught my attention. On page six, the second guiding principle states that the I'm going to I'm just waiting. I'm here that the district will prioritize human originality. It says that, quote, generative AI is a powerful tool to enhance our work and support creativity, while also relying on teachers to use their professional expertise when incorporating AI into practice.
Now I understand all of that, and I support AI as a tool that can help teachers do their best work. When that guiding principle of prioritizing human originality was paired with the language you approved in CQ local, the policy clearly established guardrails. AI would be, quote, this is your quote, AI would be used only as a support tool to enhance student outcomes and would never replace teacher or student decision making. But tonight, item 20 removes all of that language. It removes the parameters, the safeguards,
and the restrictions that this board itself put in place just over a year ago. If passed, especially as part of the consent agenda, the superintendent would have broad discretion to extend the use of AI without the protections this board previously determined were necessary. Now if the superintendent believes these changes are essential to student learning, then require him to make that case publicly. Require independent research, require evidence, require transparency about why a policy created fifteen months ago suddenly needs to be stripped
of every safeguard, which brings me back to geometry and the study of logic. When the superintendent's argument becomes we can either move quickly or our students fall behind, he's creating a false choice, a false dilemma, a false dichotomy. The implication is that we if we slow down to involve the community, to review research, or carefully study the consequences, then somehow we are failing kids, and that is simply not true. We can be thoughtful and decisive. We can move carefully and still do what is best for our students, accuracy over speed.
Finally, my ask tonight is simple. Remove item 20 from the consent agenda. Consider it separately on its own merits after the superintendent has publicly made the case for why these safeguards should be removed. Because approving it tonight, especially without discussion, sends the message that this board is comfortable giving the superintendent unrestricted authority over the use of AI with our kids. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we will hear from speakers who identify themselves as HISD students or parents. Speakers, please state your name and topic,
when you step to the microphone. Miss Smith, will you call our speakers? I'd like to invite all HISD students to please move to the front row. You can start with Drapon excuse me. Catherine Brito followed by Ezra Flam. Do I start? My name is Kai Brito, and I am speaking about, SPED. I'm a senior at Wall Trip, and I am a student with disabilities. Before Waltrip, I attended DeBakey High School. If I didn't make their jobs easy, I was made to feel like I didn't deserve to be there because of my disabilities. They went through three coordinators during my time there.
Every time my supports were met, my grades would not suffer and I would pass. Then things would change and I began to fail. You say we don't have time and have to act fast, but when I need needed help, HISD was slow. I requested transfer to Wall Trip where the staff excelled in supporting me, which I'm afraid now will be affected. I don't see how these supports couldn't have happened at DeBakey. I would have expected them to be a leader since they it's a school for health care. Please don't touch Waltrip. I fear spread changes will not be what they are being sold to be.
I'm glad I'm done. I'm graduating because of the support we fought to receive that was severely hindered by Thank you. Yeah. My name is Ezra Flau, and and I am third grader at Memorial Elementary. I have dyslexia, and I cannot read it all in first grade. I have received special education services at my school for dyslexia. It is a small group that meets four times per week. Now I can read at third grade level. There are there are so many other kids like like me who need some extra help in school. I don't think that other students like me should be sent should be removed from
the our neighborhood schools and sent somewhere else. We should be able to keep learning with our friends and teachers who know us well. Kids with special needs shouldn't be taken away. Thank you. Thank you. Eliana Gottlieb followed by Andrea Hobert. Good evening. My name is Eliana Gottlieb, and I'm a ninth grader at HSPVA. Last week, the US Department of Education opened a federal investigation into HIC over its plan plan to move thousands of students with disabilities away from their neighborhood schools with almost no notice to families. My aunt has Down syndrome.
She thrived at a public school right down the street from her home. That proximity to her teachers, her neighbors, and her community mattered. It wasn't just convenient. It was part of what helped her succeed. The families affected by these changes already face enormous daily challenges. Uprooting their children and adding long bus rides to specialty campuses is a serious burden that deserves a real community input before any decision was made. I'm asking this board, slow down and listen to families. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Andrea Joubert, and I am a senior at Jack Yates High School.
I'm here today to speak on behalf of students, teachers, and parents about concerns regarding changes being made to the special education program and the overall direction of our district. Today, parents are furious after learning that their child may be relocated to another school as part of a new model. I, as well as others, believe that this is unfair and raises serious concerns about students' rights. I believe students receiving special education services should be able to attend and succeed at schools in their own communities without being forced elsewhere because of changes in the district policy.
At the same time, this reflects a larger issue within our district as many students and teachers still feel that the current system has become overly rigid, repetitive, heavily monitored, and disconnected from classrooms actually need. To Mike Miles, as a senior who has attended two high schools in your NES system, I can say with confidence that your system has supporting students and teachers. Instead of creating a more supportive learning environment, many students and teachers feel overwhelmed, unheard, and discouraged by the by policies that focus more on control and compliance rather than
learning. I ask this board to listen to the voices of students, parents, and educators before continuing policies that are causing growing concern across our district. Thank you. Thank you. Noah Ramon followed by Noah Sullivan, and then Reece Sullivan. Good evening. I'm a current senior at Bellaire High School. I'm here to talk about HISD's appalling changes to special ed program next year. My brother is currently in special ed at Beller High School. He transferred there about six weeks ago from an outside school because he himself pushed for it in his art at the beginning of this year, and his work is butt off because he wants an experience like I have had
and I'm joining a marching band, things like that. Now you tell him, all of these kids, those especially vulnerable to massive change, that you're suddenly shipping them off, that their choices, their connections, their relationships are of less value than mine, that they are of less value than I, what you would think a normal person is. You're all about school choice, but you give these kids the opposite. This plan was seemingly thought out in just a matter of a couple weeks with close to zero warning to parents and a gross lack of information given right before the school year ends, which is all too convenient to me. This is grossly irresponsible and morally repugnant.
You have a you have a job, a job a duty to serve your students, so please do it. Thank you. Hi. I am a freshman at Bel Air High School. I worked hard to get to Bel Air. Now I'm figuring out that I won't be able to go there next year, and I'm very sad about it. I just started making friends, and now you're making me change and lose my friends. It was my dream to join the Bellaire band, and you've taken that dream away from me. Thank you. Are there any other students? Hi. My name is Noah Ramon,
and I am an HISD student at Lamar High School. I'm here to advocate for my brother who is disabled and cannot speak for himself. My brother needs special education services and deserves to have access to those services near his home. The district's plan to bus students to hubs will make access to those services more difficult for kids like my brother who cannot ride the bus. He deserves better. You must stop the plan to create hub schools. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Adida Sage Bittner. I have a math teacher who makes learning fun.
She doesn't just teach math. She makes us love it. Sadly, she's leaving HISD to become an accountant. She is not alone. Great teachers have left and are still leaving. Librarians, principals, certified, caring educators, gone. You cannot build a world class school district by driving out the world class teachers already in it. Instead of teacher tested curriculum, we have AI generated worksheets with errors. Instead of inspiring lessons, we have substitutes reading slides. That is not education. That's playing school. And now many students with special needs may be moved to hub schools.
Calling them specialty schools does not hide what it really is. Exclusion. Here's my ask. Stop. Listen. Change course before there is nothing left worth saving. HIC is being drained of its greatest resource, the people who actually care about us. Thank you. Thank you. Before before the next speaker speaks, I'm gonna caution the audience. We cannot hear them when you when you, make noise when they're speaking. So in in respect to respect to respect the speaker, we have to be able to hear the speaker. So you can cheer afterwards, but don't do it when they're speaking.
Okay? Just be respectful to the speakers. You can be disrespectful to us, but be respectful to the speakers. K? Aubrey Bauer followed by Emily Yanes. Any other remaining students? K. We're gonna move on to HSD parents, group, number one through 10. If you could please move to the front row. We'll begin with Eddie Brito and then go on from there. I have an idea how these Fed changes are gonna play out because HISD already did it to my kid over the past three years. Railroaded supports at other schools, so they'd be forced to change or move. Three coordinators in three years and a district employee fired the morning they were to
attend my kid's art. It's not like our our supports couldn't have been done at other schools. You refuse to enforce them. I've seen it firsthand. Sped law has always been an issue, but you compounded the problems over the past few years. And now you think you have a fix all solution, but all you're doing is gaming the system. The process, timing, and your leadership rob my kid of the opportunity to achieve to their highest potential. Whether you get away with this or not, your legacy will be that of failure no matter what reports you put out. I employ everybody here to vote out Abbott November for our children.
It's the only way to remove Miles for now. Thank you. We need a translator up here, please. Okay. Special education children belong in our schools and in our and in our community, yet decisions are being made without us, without notice, without proper paperwork, without meaningful parent input, without consideration of legality binding document needs. And still, they move forward anyway. And I say because we still don't know who made these decisions for our children. They say there are no options left. They say that this has to happen,
but convenience is not inclusion. Segregation is not support. Silence is not collaboration. This system has been broken for a long time. We have we have heard explanations and excuses by continuing a cycle of isolation, neglect, and exclusion is this is not the answer. Sped children are not burdens to move aside. Our children are students too. Our children belong. We belong to in our schools, and we will keep saying it until someone finally listens. Thank you. Hi. My name is Nayeli Ramon. I'm an HIC parent.
My youngest son has always had access to good special education programs no more than two miles from home even if those programs weren't offered at his own school. We've been planning to transition to middle school where he was finally gonna be able to go to his zoned school, but that program's being shut down along with every other program within four miles of our home. Special education has its problems, but forcing our kids out of their communities is not the solution. Thank you. Speaker four, Michelle Colvard. Next, five. Thank you.
Is there a microphone? My name is Michelle Colvide. I'm a successful, working adult who, growing up with a disability, arrived in my public school's general curriculum alongside my peers. HISD's plan to force students with disabilities to attend consolidated schools amounts to segregation and institutionalization violates the least restrictive environment. Further, I recently toured two middle schools for my daughter. Both had only one wheelchair accessible entrance. At Lanier, I had to enter through the trash area. Imagine the message that sends,
everyone else enters through the front door, but disabled students enter with the garbage. We would never accept that for other children, and we should not accept it for disabled kids. If this were your child, would that be an acceptable entrance? Would you feel this is exit is safe in an emergency? Accessibility is not charity. Inclusion is not optional. Separation is not equal. Disabled kids deserve the same school opportunities entering through the same front doors as every other child. Thank you. I'm Kristen McClintock Garson. My son, Ellis, is a bright autistic eight year old in the SLC standard program at our neighborhood
campus. Because of the special education changes being implemented, his program will no longer be offered on his campus. We are being asked to choose between keeping him at his home school or, with services that do not match his IEP or moving him to an entirely different campus where he does not have friends. Neither option is appropriate for his needs. I wanna ask this board, where was the community input for a decision of this magnitude? What research was done to evaluate the impact on students, families, teachers, and campuses?
How is each child's least restrictive environment being individually protected? I'm asking the board to stop these changes now before it's too late. Autistic students need stability, consistency, and trained support staff to succeed. These changes disrupt all three. Right now, it's difficult our students. Thank you. Hello. My name is Eastman Landry, and my daughter is in a self contained program at Memorial Elementary that is now being eliminated. On May 7, deputy superintendent Hall, in an attempt to shape the narrative, insultingly downplayed the fact that some families will have to move.
Some families. She implied it was to access new resources, not as a result of shuttering current programs. Now for reasons still unknown, our family has less than a month until the end of school to adjust in finances. Here is what I would like for you to know. We prepared over a year in advance for our daughter's transition to HISD to ensure her needs could be met on day one. We chose to stay local in our neighborhood so she could see peers outside of her school and be included in a larger community. The newly assigned campus is not in our neighborhood, does not have our daughter's self contained program, and is expected to develop one with fidelity in less than three months. This ill planned change uproots our daughter from her least restrictive environment and ultimately leaves
all students across HICU with less inclusive instruction as special education programs are consolidated in a process seemingly different to student needs. Delay for a year and let's do this right. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Allison Landry, and my daughter has been self contained, which has been reassigned. Board services provided a handout of what I'm gonna testify to today. I believe it's important to emphasize the egregious lack of communication with special needs families. HISD has shown capacity for a more proactive approach with families of typically able children throughout the year.
From 1882 supports to fall impact by campus closures in February, this last minute change to special education was communicated on May 6. The stark difference in engagement and support is not just demeaning. It is discriminatory. Miss Hall, you emphasized parents would get support. I'm dumbfounded by central office stating we can change our school choice phase two, but refuse to disclose which campuses now have SLL programs from us to choose from. Special education families must advocate in a world that does not support them by default. I'm asking for a delay.
And for our movie fans, your teammates say it's not possible to which we respond. It is necessary. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Dina Khushalieva, and I'm a SPED mom. And I want to highlight five key facts about the recent changes in special education. The district decision was made without any parental collaboration. This action violates the IDEA regulations, specifically 34 CFR 300.324. Special needs children require carefully planned transition processes. Studies show that while neurotypical children may adapt to change with minimal disruption,
special needs children can experience up to 50% increase in anxiety and regression during transitions. Announcing such a significant shift within a month before the end of school year robs our children of any chance to survive this change. Most importantly, this regression will detract from the instructional time in the classroom, which again goes against the fate, a legal right guaranteed under IDEA. Ensuring compliance with regulations is well within this board's governance responsibilities. Given the serious legal complications and violations associated with this issue
Thank you. My name is Mark Stadnik. I'm a parent of a seven year old with cerebral palsy and epilepsy and SLL. The district seems to be sorting thousands of kids, best I can tell, by their two digit instructional number without caring to meet or understand the individual student. The communication about this over the last two weeks has been nonexistent, either nonexistent, or like these sealed letters that were dumped in backpacks, insultingly lacking in substance. The district's sloppy and cruel implementation over the last two weeks infringes the dignity of thousands of disabled children in your care.
If you want to earn the trust of parents, you have kneecapped yourself over the last two weeks by these moves, and kids are already suffering. Many parents in my child's class are worried that the abrupt and opaque change to school routines and trusted caretakers will lead kids to self harm, and that is happening now. My daughter depends on her current teachers for her development and also her health. If a district continues to treat kids by the Broad Brush as an afterthought, kids will suffer more. Thank you. We've had three students join us. So while the next group of parents moves to the front row, can I ask the students to go ahead?
We have three students who are gonna speak next. Oh, yeah. And then in the group, 10 to 20, if you'll please move to the front row. Good afternoon. My name is Aubrey Barr, and I am a student at Northside High School. I'm here today because I'm concerned about how changes to special education placement could affect students and families across HISD. The issue is personal to me because my little brother is autistic and receives special education services. I know how important it is for students to feel supported, included, and connected to their school communities. Many special education students who succeed in general education classrooms with the right accommodations could
lose important academic and social opportunities if they are moved into more separate settings. Families are also being impacted by play by placement change changes that can separate siblings and create long commutes. Students with disabilities deserve individualized support that provides inclusion, not convenience. I ask the board to be transparent about these changes and to truly consider the impact they will have on students and families. Thank you. Thank you. I was originally gonna talk about something else, but I wanna now shift the focus to my special education because I was a
graduate from special education, meaning I'm not in it yet anymore. But it still matters a lot because you're basically undermining all the effort they put. I'm sorry. I get nervous. You're undermining all the effort, teachers, the students themselves who receive education, and the people who help them make sure that they get their, their accommodations and all that. You it feels like they don't matter to you anymore. You got it. You got it. It's shameful. It really is because they have fought so hard to get their rights for us
to have them, and it's not it's not a right. I'm sorry. Don't you polish it? You don't need to polish it. Also, there's a lot more of you now. There's usually four of you. Thank you. Great job. Good afternoon. My name is Michaela Castillo. I am a tenth grade student at Northside High School. I have always been a very strong student, but the NAS policy has negatively affected my learning. Many students, including myself, do not learn the best through constant DOLs and slideshows. Real learning should come in many forms like discussion, hands on activities,
creativity, and teachers being able to fully explain concepts. Slide shows are not real learning for many students. Teachers are often forced to stick to strict lesson plans instead of teaching in ways that actually help the students understand the material. Because of this, I have gone from almost a straight a student to constant c's and d's. I know I'm not the only student being affected. Students like myself deserve classrooms where teachers can actually teach, where different learning styles are accepted and supported. Thank you. Thank you.
My name is Anna Morello. I am the parent of a beautiful five year old autistic child currently attending HISD. My son is currently thriving in an inclusive international baccalaureate school setting. He is in early childhood special education and spends the majority of his day in general ed classroom with in class support, where his teachers agree he is thriving. Despite this, we recently received a letter recommending a more restrictive setting at a different campus without our committee collaboration. Decisions like this segregate children with disabilities. When students are moved,
they are not only separated from their peers, beloved teachers, and community, but also from access to programs like the International Baccalaureate program. My son, like many disabled children, also has therapies after school. An hour long commute from specialty campuses would mean he's wasting, he's wasting that time instead of accessing those much needed therapies. Thank you. I would just also like to note you look very bored and we deserve Thank you. Your time is up. Thank you. My name is Margaret Alvarez. My son, Knox,
has autism. He has attended Horn Elementary since kindergarten. He's 11 years old. For a child with autism, routines aren't a preference. They are a necessity. Knox needs day to day and days of prep for a simple fire drill. Removing his specialized classroom without any transition plan is a failure of leadership. You claim to put students first, yet you are leaving our most vulnerable children in a state of traumatizing uncertainty. Without his ARD meet, committee agreed designated space to regroup when overstimulated,
my son faces inevitable meltdowns and eventual displacement. This is not an educational change. It is an eviction from his support system. I need you to reconsider this decision so that Knox and every child in this district continues to have the safe, predictable environment they are legally owed through their Thank you. Speaker 12. I'm Jesse Dugan, parent to six year old twins in kinder in HISD. One is autistic and received services in special ed because of the, in special ed. We are moving out of my home state because of the takeover.
I have talked to them I've talked to you for three years, so now I'm here to talk to everyone else. My grandfather, doctor Gene Craig, former minister of Memorial Drive United Methodist Church, is 96 years old. He still watches the local news every night and was the first to call me after my husband and I were on the segment speaking out against the illegal and harmful cuts to special education revealed by the leaked documents here in Houston ISD under the, under the takeover. Over. Back in the day, he was a prominent civil rights preacher here in Houston.
He spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in 1968 to armor to honor former president LBJ. There he said, the crisis of our time is a crisis of the human spirit. We have learned to fly through the air like birds and swim through the ocean like fish. Ma'am, your time is up. Ma'am, your time is up. Ma'am, your time is up. Ma'am? Ma'am, your time is up. Ma'am, I'm giving you one warning. Ma'am, I'm giving you one warning. Ma'am? Ma'am, we're gonna ask you to leave the meeting. Please escort her from the meeting, please. Janine Marias followed by Andrew Taylor.
Speaker 13, Janine Barrias, followed by Andrew Taylor. Good afternoon. And I'm here to speak on my child's school placement for the next school year that was made without a prior written notice or an art committee meeting, both required by federal law. My child has already experienced what happens when a campus cannot accommodate her differences. After an art meeting in the 2024, she started in a new school. Since then, she has grown tremendously. She has wonderful teachers. She has made friends with both special and general education students.
A new placement will take that stability away. I'm asking the board, please ensure that regulations are followed so students like my child don't lose the progress they have made. Thank you. Thank you. I'm, Andrew Taylor, HISD parent. Mike Miles likes to see himself as a man of vision, inspired by technology and science fiction to look ahead to 2035 while his critics are stuck in the past. But look close, you'll see a darker story. Miles isn't the great man of a sci fi novel. His is the simple hubris of Miles' great leap forward,
which isn't fiction, but human tragedy that actually happened. Much like Mal, Miles is forcing a wholesale transformation on HISD. To him, Houston's teachers aren't experts, but witless pawns in a power fantasy directed by his superior mind. With four minute scripts scripts and teacher control protocols, his NES system is similar to that of another sci fi writer, l Ron Hubbard. And don't forget fantasy. Miles explicitly cites Tolkien's ring of power, not as a warning, but self empowerment. He promotes AI because he wants to cut costs and make people obsolete to replace
classroom teaching with the scripted output of a cheap factory. Thank you. Time is up. Thank you. Wow. What an emotional night. I'm Laura Henry, teacher in another district and a parent. Yesterday, Washington Post article titled why The US job market is so hard, especially for recent college graduates, includes an analysis of millions of job postings, which found that communication skills appear in nearly 42% of all listings, followed by customer service and then leadership skills. These soft skills are hard to prove on a resume and they aren't measured by star.
AI is mentioned in less than five percent of the listings. Students don't learn communication skills from AI generated slide decks or turn and talks. They don't learn leadership skills by reading excerpts of books and answering multiple choice questions. Those skills are learned through interactive lessons and group projects created by professional educators who know how to engage and encourage kids. NES is not a quality education program. It is never ending test prep. Answering multiple choice questions on a screen is not listed on a single job posting anywhere.
It is very different than knowing how to read. It is very Thank you. If news is leaked about the possibility of changes to special education classes on April 20, and two weeks later, parents get notifications that their child's life is about to be completely changed, you know that this is brushed. There has been no community feedback before it was rolled out. SLC special learning classrooms, for those who don't know the language, teachers were handing out letters to their students saying they were moving before the teachers
themselves had been notified. This has led to at least one twenty year veteran in SLC to decide to leave the district. What is going to happen when new kids show up at their zone school and need SLC, but no longer have that option? Are they moving mid school year? There are so many questions, yet the district has no answers. Thank you. My name is Marie Patman, and I'm here because something is going very wrong. Last week, I was told my son would be moved to a select school. The call felt rushed, careless, and predetermined.
The person speaking to me didn't have correct information about my son's current school, and yet she told me his placement had already been decided before an art happened. That moment tells the whole story. When decisions are made before meetings, before parents, and before teams, students' rights are being violated. Special education is built on individual needs, not mass moves and scripted phone calls. My son is not a number, a code, or a placement. Neither are thousands of other children affected by this change. I'm asking you to step in now, order, stay put on all moves connected to this restructuring,
then require a full special education audit on the data and the process behind the decisions before any family gets a call like mine. Do not let faulty systems be rushed decisions, strip our children of protections the law promises them. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Adriana Isquierdo, and I urge the board to reconsider the proposed special education restructuring plan that will relocate vulnerable students and teachers away from their school communities. For many students with disabilities, stability, routine, trusted staff, and family peers familiar peers are essential to their success and emotional well-being.
These changes may look efficient on paper, but for families and students, they are deeply disruptive. On eleventh grade, Bel Air High School student wrote, quote, they are part of what makes Bel Air feels welcoming and inclusive. I think students should have the chance to make friendships with all kind of people, and keeping these classes in Bel Air helps everyone feel connected, end, quote. That student understands something that this plan and this board ignores. Inclusion benefits everyone. Please slow this process down. Thank you.
Hi. My name is Miriam Lopez, and I'm reading on behalf of, Wharton Dual Language Academy, employee. I want to address my concerns with the growing enrollment and work to do a language academy. And what it will mean for the quality of the education of our students receive, our building is already what it seems like beyond capacity. Adding a student With increases in staffing and resources, we compromise the learning environment for every child every child. We do not have a counselor. Common spaces are already strained, and supervision will only only get hotter.
When our AC breaks down, classes temporarily move to other rooms. With every room full, there will be nowhere to go. Unsustainable workload will drive good educators away. We are opposed to grow grow without a clear plan for additional support. As someone who really cares about our school community, the only thing that you have brought to our school is incompetent principal, which she gives nothing but a toxic environment to or Thank you. Thank you. Jay Comstock, proud Durham parent. I wanna issue a heartfelt congratulations to the entire unelected leadership of this school board.
Y'all have done the seemingly impossible, and you've done it in an innovative way. We are innovative with we are inundated with talk that our society is deeply divided and that unity feels impossible. Yet y'all managed to unite education academics, CVPE, and the Trump administration's Department of Education with just how forcefully and unlawfully you're running this district. And it is truly innovative how you've done it. I would have never thought to apply the logic of military invasion where you treat your constituents, students, parents, and teachers as insurgents to be quickly and brutally overwhelmed to reform a school district.
When The US moved into Iraq in 2003 was shock and awe, I never would have thought, wow, that's how I should run a school district. Yet you had the courage to look yourselves in the mirror and say, we are invaders and we will invade. Thank you. Good evening. Jessica Yanes, Durham Elementary. You recently decided to invade special education. All students, but particularly many types of special education students thrive on routine and predictability. If a major change is to come like moving from elementary to middle school or from middle school to high school,
this is typically carefully orchestrated. Months ahead, the students go to the new school. Their IEPs are carefully crafted because a major disruption to routine can massively hamper or set back their academic progress. Your invasion instinct ignores all of that. You throw together a set of undercooked and massive changes and dump them on students and families right at the end of the year. You seem to deliberately throw them into chaos, and you do this to a population for whom chaos will have a particularly harmful
impact. Thank you. Could the remaining parent speakers move to the front row, please? All remaining parent speakers. Thank you. We at Durham understand in some ways because you invaded us in August, and the harm is still reverberating through our community. You ran off or summarily reassigned 10 of our returning teachers and replaced them with teachers the district has decided to leave untrained and unsupported, and the bad district decisions and bad implementation continues to trickle down and affect the mental health of our kids every day. Our enrollment dropped precipitously through the course of the year,
and many more families who have tried to hang on just can't take it anymore and will be leaving at the end of this year. Many of many of these families are committed leaders, volunteers, and advocates who love Durham and the community and are not opposed to change or improvement for all kids. As people continue to leave, they share a similar sentiment. We love this school. We love this community. But what we love has been destroyed, and the damage is too much on our kids. Thank you. Sandra Bolger, Durham parent. Long prior to your invasion,
Sped has always needed more support. Durham had an achievement gap that needed to be closed. This district needs to change. You should have announced a life altering change to spend in September or January and given teachers, parents, and case managers time to prepare the students for change. You could have announced in May that there was a possibility of a major change at Durham. You could run the district with the same urgency but with lead time and communication. Instead, what we keep getting from you is a military style intervention where your goal is to take your adversary completely unaware and then grind them to dust with overwhelming force.
Look at me. If the school district run as if a fleet of stealth black hawks are gonna come show up at any moment with a team of rangers ready to fast rope down and in, you say it's urgency, it's an excuse for violence. I don't wanna spoil the ending, but perhaps, mister Miles, you should read the story of Icarus. Thank you. Your time is up. She can now translate. My name is Jessica Campos. I'm advocating for Spanish speaking for our Spanish speaking community. And today, I'm here speaking specifically for our Hispanic special education families.
Honestly, parents are asking, what are you doing with my child? And saying things like, this is my child this is the fourth school my child is going to. Families are being notified by call centers without certified specialists explaining what is, explaining what is happening with their children. Some families also receive vague letters without clear explanations or real support to them and understand what their fam what this means for their child. And we are talking about children with disabilities who need stability,
routine, and support. Many of our Spanish speaking families already face enormous barriers. Some parents don't know how to even make an email. Some parents don't even know how to read. I personally have helped children who helped their Finish it. You you went over your minute to start with, but go ahead. Finish the translation. And yet these families are expected to suddenly understand ARD meetings, placement codes, and legal terminology overnight. This is not equality. We constantly hear that parents deserve choice. Governor Abbott says parents deserve choice.
So where is a choice for these families? Thank you. Thank you. Do we have do we have Beatrice Villareal, number 24? Go ahead. Good evening, members of the board. I address to you a few an urgent concern. Our special education programs are a lifeline, not just these children, but for all students. Limiting them to the confines of their opportunities and deprives them both neurotypical children, neurodivergent children, and all children with disabilities of a chance to build essential lifelong skills, skills of empathy, understanding,
and inclusion. For my daughter, special education has been life changing through this gift that allows her to reach a wider audience, the gift of speech, to express herself and connect with others in ways once thought impossible. These are all skills no parent can fully provide as it is through the peer interaction that these abilities grow. And now with the very late notice of the campus switch, we are left scrambling. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Your time is up. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Good afternoon. My name is Beatrice, and I'm an advocate with Houston Parent Action Network and a mom of special education students. Every child in every HISD neighborhood deserves access to a great public school. That includes our special education students. Families should not have to search across the city, transfer schools are constantly pushed through barriers to receive the services our children are entitled to. Edicable special education support means every neighborhood school has trained staff, strong communication with families, timely evaluations, quality services, and the resources needed to help every student succeed.
As a parent, we are not asking for special treatment. We are asking for HISD to honor its responsibility to all children. Our organization believes in great public schools for every kid in every neighborhood, and that must include students receiving special education services. Thank you. And thanks to all y'all who have come to to support all of our special education students. Thank you. Your time is up. I'm a parent of an autistic 10 year old sorry, tenth grader at Bel Air High School, and I'm seriously disappointed that the decision of this magnitude is being made without meaningful
parent or student involvement. I beg you to treat us like human beings and not statistics on a report and make sure each IEP is being considered and equally aligned. Unfortunately, our family has experienced a lot of this as we enter into the Houston ISD where several of your members after being investigated were terminated. We experienced this going into middle school as well as into high school, and we should not continue to have this type of experience dealing with your school district. We have, we have to understand that the transition of kids that have autism, it affects them materially.
And it usually takes about a half of year for them just to adjust. And you're making decisions for families, not just children, but for families. And you should slow down the process and involve the parents before you make these decisions. Thank you. Thank you. Melissa Yarbrough, educator and parent. Mike Miles is fond of saying that his policies are for the kids and that adult politics need to stay out of it. He must be projecting about himself and his board of enablers because what I saw you all do to Michelle Williams students last month is criminal.
Her students had a great, experienced, caring, and consistent teacher, and you tore that away from them as you have done and continue to do to so many other students across the district by terminating, non renewing, and encouraging their teachers to resign. Even the TEA found you in the wrong for terminating miss Williams and and others, and you did it anyway. Is this why you now are removing special ed programs from half of the schools because you ran off so many certified teachers that you don't have enough left? Oops. You're not doing this for children,
but for yourself and your adult politics. Shame on you. Shame on you. Shame on you. Thank you. Your time is up. I'm Diana Candida, parent of a third grader at Wharton, where we continue to lose excellent teachers because of misguided HISD policies our principal enthusiastically enforces. A New York Times article for March 29 describes how giant tech firms competed to capture the classroom and train children on their tech products in the hopes of hooking students as lifelong customers. They said they were preparing students for the future. It sure sounded good, but there was no evidence to support their claims.
They spoke of supporting schools, but were really thinking about profits and children were pawns in the game. Now after billions of dollars spent on Chromebooks and iPads, the data shows academic results and graduation rates have not really improved. In fact, several researchers and organizations like UNESCO are warning that over reliance on technology can actually impede learning. The untested expensive NES experiment is another iteration of the same story. Tech froze with egos using public school students to get rich. It's shameful. Act now and fire Mike Miles.
Thank you. Hello. My name is Veronica Guzman. I have a third grader in Brony Elementary. My son used to love going to school before all this takeover happened. He hates school now. Do you know how hard it is to tell my eight year old that he has to be there doing all this testing, all these these things that don't make sense to him? I I've never had so much trouble with my baby. And it's sad to see that all these kids and all these parents out here trying to tell y'all that changes should come subtly.
And with time to let parents be involved because that's what everybody wanted to begin with, was to have parent involvement. The that's what makes the the school better when you have parents there. Keeping us out of the schools, keeping us out of decisions is not good for anybody. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Now we're gonna u move to Zoom for parents who've signed up to speak via Zoom. Morgan Batista. I'm sorry. What's your name, sir? My name is Christian Garcia. Go ahead. Good afternoon. My name is Christian Garcia. I'm the father of Abra Garcia.
She attends Maryland Middle School. I I have two kids that have autism. It is a very hard situation for us as parents. If you are parents or maybe you have a relative that has a kid that's that is under the spectrum, you should know more about it. Kids are not furniture. Kids are not furniture. You cannot move a kid from one place to another one just because of whoever wake up with that brilliant idea. My daughter is not a piece of furniture,
gentlemen lady. My daughter is not a piece of of of furniture that you can move from one place to the other. They require time to adapt, to accept the changes for the other kids, for the new teachers. My daughter knows about the situation right now, and she's been crying nonstop the whole freaking Thank you. Stop me. You do not stop me. Thank you. Your time is up. Your time is up. I'm sorry, sir, but you had one minute. I appreciate that. I'm sorry. Your behavior is disrupting the meeting. I'm gonna ask you to leave the meeting.
Is not You have you have one more you have one this is your first warning. You either you you may be I'm gonna give you a warning too, miss Campos. I'm asking you now to leave the meeting. You're disrupting the meeting. I will ask the officers to exit you out. Thank you. You should instead of doing this, you should talk to the parents. Thank you. You've had your moment. You you must leave the meeting now. Mister Campo, we have a speaker on Zoom. Hi. My name is Morgan. My son is a seven year old at auction One second,
miss Bautista. One second. Scooter's on Zoom. Started. One second. You may begin. Please go ahead. Go ahead. My name is Morgan Bautista. Oh. Go ahead. My name is Morgan Bautista. My son is a seven year old with autism in the SLC program at River Oaks. He could not speak at the age of four, was turned away from pre k because he almost ran out of the school due to lack of care preparation for his needs and his staff at that school instead of that school or the district helping us at that time. We took it upon ourselves and worked tirelessly to get him into kindergarten at Mark Twain by moving across town and fighting to ensure that he had good school options
nearby. He was moved from Twain to Roe due to the SLC program he needed being at River Oaks and not Twain. His IQ has now nearly doubled since starting at River Oaks thanks to the phenomenal support and guidance Gabriel receives but also we as parents receive. With these proposed changes you are, you are taking that progress away is a violation of our rights. It's not just 5,000 children that you it's not just the 5,000 children in special education, You have to consider the siblings who now have to face transfers. And if they're not accepted by those transfers,
you have separated families, stuffed them in multiple schools, making drop off and pick up a nightmare. Myself and staff members at our school and many other parents are deeply concerned and upset by the decisions that that appear to be handled before the art committee fully review each child's individualized needs and before meaningful parent participation has occurred. You may have a simple campus decision to suggest to protect our children's emotional regulation. Thank you. State Thank you. Your time is up. Miss Batista, thank you. Naomi Alvarez, you may begin. Hi. Our children need stability. We need to keep our children in their school of choice.
Do not segregate our children. Our children may have a disability, but that does not give you the right to discriminate against our children for their disabilities. Our children are not a value to you. Our children are our future. We, as parents, were not given any notice, no art meeting, or ask our opinions about our children's future. You do not have the right to decide our children's future. Separating special ed students into certain schools is frankly segregation. It creates exclusion rather than inclusion.
Every student deserves to be a part of their community and inclusion benefits all children, not just children with disabilities. This decision risks violating equal access, will isolate students. Let's embrace integration and share resources because an inclusive environment fosters growth for everyone. Stop these changes for our special education students. Thank you. Thank you. Edna Garcia, please turn your camera on, and you may begin. Miss Garcia, you may go ahead. Today,
the International Festival or iFest was going on at Durham, and it's a Hallmark event. The mural on our office wall declares us the home of IFEST. It's taking place through the great efforts by parents and faculty. However, already we see signs of a fractured community. Many of the leaders who have drove the I Fest of the past have already left. Many more of the current leaders feel like they have to leave as well. It was much harder to get volunteers this year than previously. We don't you don't care because it's the kind of educational value that doesn't show
up on your star tests, and it's isn't generated by AI. But this is a part of the wreckage of your invasion, and we don't appreciate it. Thank you. Mark Garcia, you may begin. Mark Garcia Pratts? Please go ahead. Any more of the leaders, the beetle, like as well. It was much harder to get volunteers this year here because it's the kind of He's mutating. And you may begin follow-up under our test isn't generated by AI. But Yes, please. Part of the rest I can still hear the other one in the background.
K. For my family, the HISD takeover has been a crisis. Six months ago, I asked mister Miles why families were kept in the dark about major changes at special focus schools, changes that harmed my children. His answer? He was too busy and you can watch the video. Decide in secret, wait until transfer deadlines pass, and then shame parents for asking basic questions. We're seeing the same pattern again over and over and now with special ed changes. For children like mine with histories of trauma and brain based disabilities whose lifeline is stable, caring, trained professionals,
this sort of upheaval cuts deep. To be clear, this failed takeover experiment is a major obstacle that my children must overcome. Mister superintendent, your failed leadership is the next obstacle that my children have to overcome. Board managers. This community of parents here tonight is showing you what love looks like and what it sounds like. Please listen. Please pause this change and remove those responsible for this terrible, terrible, terrible plan. Thank you. Thank you. Christine Hurley, you may begin. Hi.
These disastrous change Miles and company have forced on us. Terribly, poorly planned, with little to no meaningful communication, and then when it all goes up in predictable flames, principals, teachers, and staff will be thrown under the bus despite being just as in the dark as the rest of us. NES, trash schedule, trash curriculum. Dyad, massive waste of our title four funding. Transportation, never ever been worse, but somehow it's gonna be better by the fall when it needs to start shipping Fed students to their separate but equal schools. And yes, Marty, Fed students are currently at all campuses,
but y'all are trying to consolidate them. Try to keep up. How embarrassing to be so loud and wrong, but you do have the confidence of an ignorant white man speaking on something of which he has no authority. Thank you. Also, stand here. Sarah Miller, please go ahead. Sarah Miller, please unmute yourself. You may go ahead. Okay. Hi. I'm Sarah Miller, and I'm here to speak on behalf of libraries. I'm a parent at a school with a library staffed by a certified teacher. Our PTO just approved a significant investment into our library to update the collection.
PTOs are important partners with our schools. Despite the fact that the district has deprioritized libraries, our school has made this a focus. We have had volunteers throughout the year helping in the space because we want our children to become lifelong learners, not just short term testers. We want them to have choices in their learning. This board should make sure all campuses have a library with a certified librarian. HISD recently announced an initiative where every child will be reading at grade level by second grade. In their announcement, the district said strong reading skills open the doors to success in every subject and
in life. If the district truly believes this, then why are you shuttering libraries? Bring libraries back to every campus. Thank you. Thank you. Tom Hurley, you may begin. Hi. This is Tom Hurley again. It's been a while since I last spoke here. In fact, the last time was the November board meeting. If you recall, I challenged you to live up to the HISD beliefs published on the VIPs training course. The beliefs about meaningful community engagement and the community's rights to transparent operation. That board meeting was November 13. And as you can see on the current web page, all of those beliefs were removed on December 1,
only seven business days later, replaced with watered down insulting beliefs. Here's what your the belief the board believes that you should have now are. Here are the beliefs that we had previously, beliefs about customized instruction, about transparency, about meaningful engagement, all of it removed. So they're reminded of George Orwell's book of 1984, where history is rewritten when it proves inconvenient to the ruling tyrants. I guess the board does actually listen to us. It just chooses to ignore us.
Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So we'll go forward with the rest of the next you'll hear from our remaining speakers in Group B, first in person then on Zoom. We have seats in the front row reserved for the next group of speakers. So please occupy those seats. If you're up next, please come to the microphone and your number to order beginning with number 67 is where we're starting. Is that correct? Okay. And please state your name and topic. Number 68, number 78, and group b speakers. Take me to the front row. We'll have the next 10 speakers beginning with number 68.
68. Kathy Beasley. My name is Kathy Beasley. Now the most vulnerable students in the district will be bussed to other schools for no reason. This HISD has clearly not demonstrated the ability to do anything without utter chaos. Therefore, we have little faith. Because of your chaotic takeover, I was placed in both an SLC and SLL class during the first year of this clown show as teachers quit when their job environment became compromised. Your job is to ensure the best services for these kids. Mister Miles, your leadership reminds me of the old story,
the emperor's new clothes, because no one on your team has the guts to tell you how irresponsible and damaging this decision is, as well as a plethora of others you have made. This HISD is a house of cards. We will not forget. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Carmen Nuntu. Mike Miles, you are not listening to us, and this is not acceptable. Public schools are funded by our tax dollars, and we deserve a voice. Not having an elected school board is cheating, but that was your plan after Dallas kicked you out.
You are a dictator and a bully. You base all your actions on your wallet and the almighty dollar. You lied to us about fake data, fake numbers, and and fake results. You find ways to make more money by moonlighting and selling our schools. What a sellout. We know how to end it, and we will do all we can to win. We will vote in November just like we did on your bond. Again, three words, Gina and Josef Baby.
Thank you. My name is Danielle. I I am advocating for my daughter, Alexandria. She is a first grade student at Caldwell Elementary where she receives special education services under the SLC standard program. I am deeply concerned with HSD's proposed changes to the special education program and harm how it would harm my child. Alexandria has been reassigned to a school that is eight to 10 miles away from our home. That means longer bus rides, longer days, unnecessary stress. My daughter is autistic. Any change that is major like this breaks her down.
For a child with special needs, that's not a small small issue. It directly impacts her well-being, her routine, and her ability to learn. This decision also is a serious concern with the IDA Act, the law that requires all children be educated in the least restricted environment along with their peers. This is not okay. The results are these are causing segregation in our classrooms and our students, and we will Thank you. Hi. I'm back. Michelle Williams, Houston Education Association and candidate for state state representative where you all will be removed.
I am here because I raised the alarm about the unlawfulness of special education, which you decided to remove me from my classroom for doing so. So now you have a bigger problem, and you all are sitting up here looking confused as to why the people are here. Houston ISD belongs to the people. As long as Houston ISD is here, I will be here. It's unlawful. These children deserve better. We have a duty. You you have a duty to teach all children.
That's what needs to be done, and what you're doing is wrong. You let listening to a prediction ring. Thank you. Doctor Mccoff and Wack, community member. On March 29, The New York Times reported that 10 states have recently introduced bills to restrict screen time in schools, require proof of safety and efficacy efficacy for school tech tools, and allow parents to opt their children out of digital learning devices. Meanwhile, Mike Miles is claiming that his future two schools will be the greatest new thing
in education. But just like NES, this is a zero data to support that. None. While the rest of the country is recognizing the importance of student teacher relationships, project based cooperative learning, and reduced tech classrooms, Miles is firing. Experienced certified teachers and shoving AI generated computer based instruction down students' throats without allowing parents an option to get out of it. This is your guy? Like, the whole country knows that this does not work, and this is your guy. Like, you're letting him keep going.
It it's wow. Thank you. I'm Krista Michelle Brewster, your retired certified Emeritus School nurse. Wanna say belated happy school nurse. Wait till my colleagues that you drug up here after their long days. Hey, Miles. How you doing? Do is it true you got a hit list? You know, if your miles manufactured chaos and destruction. You know, retaliation, termination of a good certified teacher that was trying to teach him to read special ed. You heard of the law. Now you're trying to isolate segregator?
Y'all in it too. And then you got the removal of recess from some campuses and certain cancellation of field trips at other campuses. So what's up, Miles? How's your health? How's your mental health? Well, we're gonna learn y'all something, and it's called come November. We, the people, gonna vote in Gina Henner Hosea. Ain't that right? Volunteer. Thank you. Hello. Good evening. This is Britt Corso. I'm gonna introduce her. I'm here today to to recognize Britt Corso, this year's Texas Librarian of the Year,
Bestowed upon the TLA Association with 500 members from all types of libraries, for the past eight years, Britt has served as the librarian at Pinnock Middle School. She is the living library because it is continual balance of reflection and innovation. Her students are passionate, expressive, and eager to be heard, middle school. And the library is a place where every voice matters. At Penn Oath, every type of reader is welcome, and every kind of book has a place. With its new John refined Barnes and Noble style library,
the library inspires creativity, curiosity, collaboration, and discovery. All HISD libraries deserve a librarian, like miss Corso, and an open library. Show me your award, Brooke. Please join Thank you. I'm very honored to receive the award of grant of the year for 2026 to from the Texas Library Association and to represent Penn Oak and Houston ISD on a state and national stage. The diversity of our wonderful community and our school district is one of our greatest strengths, and the Palms Library is called the living library as its structure and composition reflect
the voices, cultures, curricular needs, and interests of its students. I am so excited for next school year and the fresh ideas that will engage my students so that everyone, regardless of background or fluency level, is an active part of a dynamic library program. I welcome you to visit our research based, student centered, award winning library anytime. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you and congratulations. Oh, we're not done yet. Hold on. So in addition to Brooke winning the Texas librarian of the year,
I am very pleased to recognize Jennifer Moore from Travis Elementary. She won the Shirley Igoe Award, which is an award that, honors outstanding collaboration between libraries and PTOs, parents. Okay? The Friends of HISD Libraries, and I'm Suzanne Lyons, also representing Friends of HISD Libraries. We are awarded scholarships to 11 HISD staff. Many, if not all of these staff, would have been unable to attend this conference as HISD places little to no support in in emphasis on fostering professional growth.
Improving library programs relies on using using the latest technology and trends as well as exposing children to full books and reading good books, not just passages. With less than 30 librarians in the district, few students experience even a good library, and the majority do not experience an open library. Thank goodness for librarians like Thank you, and congratulations. Thank you. Curtis Hand, community member and retired librarian. Students reach greater heights with school librarians. We just saw two fine examples.
Thanks to ongoing mismanagement of HISD funds since the takeover and before, libraries are often seen as an expense without adequate return on the investment. Libraries are not a distraction. Expander of minds, a catalyst to broad learning and further curiosity, and a strong contributor to excellent teaching of the curriculum. Oh, wait. The NES curriculum does not encourage curiosity, only regurgitation on multiple choice tests. Without the libraries you have dismantled at great taxpayer expense,
Houston will have a generation of students not as well prepared for their future as they should be. Test scores are only the tiniest glimmer of a student's potential excess success. Libraries build Thank you. I ask the remaining speakers to please move to the front row. We're speaker number 78. Go ahead. Hello. My name is Roy Solis. I find this district revolting. Coming from a son of a special ed teacher in Pasadena ISD and a nephew within your district, both have felt the impact of this Texas outsider and his repeating micromanagement of teachers
and poor support for students and running it into the ground, calling it success, with no evidence to show their previous success. My mother has received an influx of students from this district and heard parents' complaints on how there is no support for their kids, yet felt relieved coming into her classroom Coming from a dyslexic who's thrived on proper support, students are more than just numbers on a docket. They are not meant for profit. They are the future. Terminate this superintendent. Don't fail the kids. Thank you.
Hi, I'm speaking on behalf of concerned parents, staff and teachers at Wharton. Our campus is facing a serious behavior crisis across all grade levels. Daily classroom disruptions, aggression, bullying, verbal intimidation and physical threats means students feel unsafe at school. HIIC's intense focus on pacing and instruction has come at the expense of supporting the whole child. Teachers are overwhelmed by large class sizes and rigid schedules that limit their ability to address behavioral issues effectively. Campus leadership often ignores parents and staff's request to act.
And when they do, the consequences are inconsistent and thus ineffective. Staff are leaving. The very people committed to our students are walking away. A school cannot succeed academically when students feel unsafe and educators lack support. We are asking for leadership, accountability, and meaningful action. Our students and families deserve better. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 80. Number 80. Move on to number 81. I am speaking as a human rights consultant. So this is my question of many. What does it take for you to actually act upon the comments of this community?
This is a one minute, and it means nothing. I've emailed you repeatedly. No response. I've reached out to the commissioner and the governor. Got the same thing. I filed complaints with the DEA. I even filed a formal complaint with the district for a disability discrimination violation at a board meeting here. Still silence. So, again, what are you doing? Do you understand that every decision you make and even more importantly, every decision you refuse affects the students, parents, and teachers of this district? Maybe I'm wrong, but there's no transparency.
You are the board of managers. You are responsible for overseeing and managing the district, and his decisions reflect you and who you are. And the worst part, this is Paul. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Your time is up. Thank you. According to the Washington Post, the job search platform Indeed analyzed millions of job postings and found that communication skills appeared in nearly 42 of the listings, followed by customer service and leadership skills. Gee, it's funny how employers aren't looking for star testing skills, for correctly answering questions about fake reading passages from fake AI authors.
They aren't paying a premium for skill at computerized math games. Miles thinks that students are widgets that produce test scores. AES is his assembly line approach to producing the widgets. It's rigidly standardized, which should mean that it's cheaper and more efficient, but we all know that it's top heavy and expensive. It is true that the future may pass our students by. The future belongs to creative innovators, to critical thinking, collaboration, and communication skills. NES doesn't teach any of that.
It just bumps test scores so all of you can congratulate your Thank you. Miss Kravitz followed by Rebecca Williams. I'm a little sad. You tell yourselves that you have a righteous purpose, that you are saving our children, that you are making historic learning gains, that you yourselves you tell yourselves that public schools were failing before you came, that you saved us. You are wrong. You are stealing our futures. When you close libraries only in black and brown schools, you are stealing our futures. When you demote the poorest kids in Houston into remedial courses to make ratings look
good so kids can no longer take the most rigorous courses for which they qualify, you are stealing our futures. When you close schools illegally denying special ed students their rights by law and decide students will learn online with AI next year, you are stealing our futures. Board of managers, stop looking at us with your emotionless, stoic faces. You are people too and the decisions you will have to deal with for the rest of your lives. Teachers rise up. Students rise up. Parents rise up.
Don't shake your head. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, Floyd. How are you today? Mike Miles, Mike Miles never does anything for kids. Everything that he does is for his own sociopathic ego. He is getting he is getting trashed about this NES program because it sucks. I know I taught it. And because it's a failure. So he wants to take the high performance schools and go to the non profits, and then he wants to separate the special ed campuses so he can brag about these falsified scores. This does not fit his fairy tale narrative.
And to the board of managers, this is for you. If you ever think about get elected office in Houston after this is said and done, you won't make dog catcher. Thank you. Speaker 85. Caroline Marney. Last week, like many other students and parents in HISD, the students and parents in our specialized special education programs were told they will be moving to another campus next year. This decision was made without input from the campus, parents, or students. At our school, we have worked hard to create an inclusive community. We have had students from our SLL and SLC Alt programs who are captains of
our swim team, members of the dance team, and students who are vital contributors to groups in our CTE programs. Just like their peers, our students with significant disabilities deserve this type of educational experience in their home community. In their home community. Because most of our students have consistently attended their community schools, they have developed meaningful relationships with their non disabled peers, and these connections, which benefit all students, will be lost with these chaotic changes. Many of our students also participate in CBVI and travel training. What is the value of the services if they aren't learning how to travel, work, and participate in their own community?
Thank you. We're moving on to speakers on Zoom. Jessica Catrett, please unmute yourself, and you may begin. Please there you go. I'm trying. Okay. Can you hear me? Yes. Go ahead. Alright. Excellent. Jessica Capturing, HISD parent. Board of managers, I urge you to listen to the parents, students, teachers, and community members who have spoken out about the proposed changes to special education. Moving kids that need stability is disruptive, unnecessary, and discriminatory. It is hard to see this move as anything other than another attempt to destabilize
school communities. Please reconsider. Thank you. Thank you. One moment. We have another speaker joining. Sister mama Sonia. It looks like she's dropped. There are no more speakers on Zoom. We have one more speaker who's, rejoining. One second. Okay. Okay. Great. We can see you and hear you. Please go ahead. Sorry. Hello? Hello? Yes, ma'am. Please go ahead. Hello? Because the simplest one to read. Thank you, woman. Thank you, fike. Thank you. We have another speaker on Zoom, David Landry. Hello. Mister Landry, please go ahead.
Hello. My name is David Landry. I am a resident of Houston, grew up here, went to HIV schools, graduated from Jefferson Davis, now Northside High. I have a bachelor's and master's degree from University of Saint Thomas, and currently, I'm a professor at TSU, Texas Southern University. I am speaking, as a concerned citizen, who still, has a residence in HISD. I believe that what's going on in this district is detestable. I believe that if we continue down this path, we will lose an entire generation.
As a person who promotes literacy throughout my everyday life, I'm striving to have hope, and I want to remain optimistic. However, the things that are happening are concerning. And so I want to leave this as a note that we need to turn this around. If we do not turn this around, we will lose another generation. Thank you, sir. We will lose this generation. Thank you. Okay. That concludes our public comment. At this point, we're gonna take a ten minute break. So we're gonna adjourn for ten minutes, and we'll be back in a few minutes.
Thank you. I'd like to reconvene this meeting at 07:07PM. Now I'd like to invite board members to share their reports or comments. Yes. Board member Cruz Arnold. Thank you. Since our last meeting, I had an opportunity to join the superintendent and his team at Kennedy Elementary School and Heights High School, and I mentioned this to say thank you to superintendent Miles. These visits are very great opportunities for me, to not only see what's happening on campus, mister Miles,
but to see your team in action. I know a lot of people always ask, what does the chief of schools do? What do do EDIs do? What does the deputy superintendent do? And I can answer that because I have seen that happening in action with my own eyes. I have seen what is happening on campus. And so I want to thank you, for this opportunity, these ongoing opportunities. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Other board members? No? Thank you. Before we move on, I would like to acknowledge the passing of former HISD superintendent, doctor Kaye Stripling.
Doctor. Stripling served as HISD superintendent from 2001 until 2004. After a career in HISD spanning decades, we want to recognize her lifelong service to the students and teachers of HISD. Thank you, Doctor. Stripling, and condolences to her family and loved ones. We will now move on to recognitions. Superintendent Miles, you have the floor. Thank you, Madam Vice President. Good evening. And before I invite Deputy Chief of Community and Family Engagement, Nadia Callender,
to come forward and introduce this evening's, district recognitions, I just want everyone to know that, that this week and this month, we recognize teachers across the country, but also HISD, who are doing the work every day to support our students. Naja, you have some recognitions to do. Superintendent Miles mentioned this month, we are recognizing our outstanding teachers. Our teachers are the foundation of academic achievement. Every day, they deliver high quality instruction, set clear expectations, and ensure our students are progressing towards measurable outcomes.
So in celebration, we ask principals, students, and district leaders to share what makes HISD teachers exceptional. Four three one two three. Teachers are the heartbeat of possibility. They show up. They love our kids. They are game changers. Page 21. We're on track. Teachers are life changing. Yes. So we get mothers, surrogate fathers. Thank you to my teacher, miss Phillips and mister Turner, for helping me learn in agriculture since I wanna be a vet when I go to college. We are nothing nothing without our teachers. Teachers are the foundation of the school building.
So we're so grateful for everything our teachers do to help us go to infinity and beyond. Thank you for getting me through my four years of high school. You helped me me with my career choice of being a pediatric nurse. The teachers, they make the greatest influence and without them we would not be able to do the amazing work that we're able to today. Go ahead and tell finder feet. They're with the students every day. They are the ones that are inspiring them. They are the ones that are taking care of them. A teacher I appreciate is Michelle Ovett for teaching me how to do networking, live computer networking and working with switches or routers on PCs.
Our teachers do more than deliver lessons. They inspire, they encourage students. I get to walk around my building all all day and see teachers like that. And I know I'm not alone here in HIC. I know there's a lot of schools with that exact same feeling. So I appreciate everything they do. Mr. Mitchell, he has helped me through a lot of things. He's someone I can go to and talk with. Any problems or any advice that I need, he's the person I go straight to. They are truly changing the trajectory of lives of our students. So once again, thank you for your impact,
your dedication, your commitment, your love, and your care. Sanchez, Schurn, Stevens, Browning, Worthing, and Milne, as well as our teacher talk leaders from across the district. So we would like to thank them and, acknowledge all their hard work. We'd also like to take the time We'd also like to take the time to acknowledge two other groups that ensure that our students are healthy, safe, and fully able to engage in learning, our school nurses and our HISD police officers. Please join me in thanking those two important groups who are also being recognized this month.
And to conclude the month of recognitions, I want to kick off graduation season by saying congratulations to the class of 2026. This year, graduating HISD seniors sore scored big wins, including earning more than 500 associate degrees and more than 7,800 industry based certifications through CTE programs. We will be highlighting the amazing class of 2026 over the next several weeks and sharing more of their good news. But to kick off the celebration and to kick off grad season,
let's take a look at a video featuring students from Northside High School, some of the first in their families to attend college already on a path of long term success. If you're at Northside High School with principal Garza I love my kids. They are amazing. For the first time in school history, Northside High School seniors are graduating with both their high school diplomas and associate degrees. My name is Marco Vasquez. My name is Tamela Carzales. Hi. My name is Jalen Zavala. My name is Jane Gonzalez. In total, Houston ISD's class of 2026 has earned more than 500 associate degrees.
I'm the first generation going to college because, I mean, it's not my mom is like, oh my god. I can't believe it. But, yeah, she's, like, really proud of me, and I'm proud of myself for going with the journey because, honestly, I could've given up, but I did. I pushed forward because I know my mom worked hard to get me here, so I'm definitely working hard for myself as well. I'm excited to actually live the university life. I could actually study what I want to study, you know, have a load off me because of the associates and just have being in that field of music therapy, it just it all excites me, so I'm ready for that. The associate degree program here at HISD is free and saves families up to $12,000
setting each student up to earn their bachelor's degree in just two years after graduating from high school. I feel like what that means to me is that other people are going to be just like me, and I feel like that's a good thing because we should be striving to be better and great at this school. Twenty twenty six graduates have also earned more than 7,800 industry based certifications or IBCs this year. I did it. I got my associate. I feel very proud to be among the first graduates, and I'm proud that I became the person I am today because of the people I'm surrounded with.
Thank you, Deputy Chief Callender. Next, we will have a presentation related to the requirements of Senate Bill five forty six. Superintendent, please proceed. Yes, ma'am. I'd like to ask our Chief of Organizational Effectiveness, Kari Feinberg, to come forward for this presentation. Next view, robust seat belt analysis and the implications of that analysis for the district's ability to comply comply with senate bill five four six. Senate bill five four six went into effect on 09/01/2025. It's an amendment to the current Texas transportation code,
and it requires all school buses of all model years to be equipped with three point seat belts. The code or the the bill also provides an exception for a school board to determine that by the end of the 2526 school year, the district's budget does not permit the purchase and retrofit of the number of buses needed to be in compliance with state bill, five forty six. So HISD currently has 773 operational buses. Our buses range in capacity from nine student capacity up to 81 student capacity,
and they also range in model years from 2005 to 2025. All buses with the model year of 2018 or greater are already equipped with three point seat belts. Buses with the model year of 2017 or earlier have a mix of three point seat belts, lap belts, or no seat belts installed. Of our 773 buses in operation, 495 units or 64% already have three point seat belts. 86 units or 11% are equipped with lap belts,
and a 192 units or 25% of our fleet have no belts. This slide gives you an overview of the cost to comply with senate bill five four six in HISD. The total cost is slightly over $29,000,000. 24,500,000 of the total cost comes from the cost to replace any bus with the model year of 2010 or earlier and to also replace all of our Bluebird buses that are model years 2011 to 2017.
We would need to replace a 152 buses in total. 4,500,000 of the cost comes from the cost to retrofit all of our international and Thomas buses that were made between the years of 2011 and 2017 with three point seat belts. And so when I say retrofit, I mean that we will remove the lap belts if those buses are replaced are equipped with lap belts to replace them with three point belts. Or if those buses don't have any belts, we would install three point belts. We would need to retrofit a 126 buses to be in compliance.
The district's budget does not permit an investment of over $29,000,000 in new school buses and retrofitting current buses with 3.6 belts. Given this, the administration requests the school board's permission to seek an exemption, from state bill five four six. Thank you. And at this time, I'll I'll turn it back to the board for questions and comments. Any questions? Yes. Board member Rosales. Do you have a a timeline in mind of when compliance is feasible in in terms of getting the three point belts in every bus?
Yeah. That's a great question. Our hope is to be in compliance as soon as possible, and, we would not be able to be in compliance along the timeline set up by the state, which is why we're asking for the exemption. That said, we would want to begin working towards compliance, as soon as we are able to identify and allocate funding for either new buses or for retrofitting those buses that I mentioned. And and and can you help me? It's not something that I don't think we've talked about Yeah. In the time that I've been on the board. What is the process for kind of modernizing the fleet?
Like, what what is that cycle and process look like? Yep. So we had we received about 30 new buses last year. The previous year, we were the beneficiaries of a beneficiaries of a grant where we received, 15 new EV buses. So we do have 45 buses that are, new within the last two years. I believe in the last three to four years, we we had a big purchase, of around a 100 new buses. And so one of the priorities for my team is establish establishing a medium term fleet replacement program to present to the superintendent,
for the next few years. Yes, sir. Board member quote. At the current replacement and, purchase schedule, are we remaining in compliance with just children's safety and, you know, the normal obvious things that people would be concerned with us being being on top of? Yes. We are. Okay. Good. Board member Cruz Arnold. Thank you, Ms. Feinberg. I know you do not have a crystal ball. But is it possible for the twenty twenty seven legislative session that we either might as an individual district or through collaborative advocacy might seek additional funding from the legislature
and some sort of relief to obtain additional buses? Yeah. That's a great question. Certainly something that I personally would like to see happen. Part of the purpose of this bill across the state is for the TEA to gather information, from districts like HISD that are seeking an exemption. We're required by the end of the month, should the board approve the exemption, to report to the state, all of the specifics about our current fleet. The exact amount of money that it would take us to get up to compliance with this bill, the number of buses we have by make and model year.
And my understanding through the bill is that it is the state's intent to gather that information from districts across the entire state to present back to the governor and the legislature in order for them to have a discussion about whether or not there's funding at the state level that can help support this initiative. Thank you. Yeah. Any more questions? Board member Goosen? Yes. I mean, in terms of the exemption, is it a one year exemption, or is it a go forward exemption? How long is this exemption going to take if you could Another great question. The bill does not specifically say,
for how long the exemption is. My understanding is that it is at least for one year, and although the bill does not explicitly state for how long the exemption is, it may be up until 2029. I would certainly like to see some sort of a plan in the future of what our capital expenditure putting this in a plan, what it would do to, let's say, over a three year time frame or whatever, assuming the exemption is is that long or not. Right? Because I do think from a safety perspective, it would be better to have particularly the older buses, which are perhaps themselves not necessarily Yes.
As safe as some of the newer buses would have been. So making sure that we can retrofit those or as you're suggesting there, replace those old buses. Would be that for the older buses, we're gonna replace them. Yes, sir. While we do have 773 buses that are operational, we run a smaller number than that of routes each day. And so we always want to prioritize using our buses that do have the three point belts and that are the newer buses. So those older buses tend to be backups if something were to happen. So that's something we'll continue to do moving forward.
Any more questions? Thank you, chief Feiner. Thank you. Now we have reports from our superintendent. Superintendent Miles, you have the floor again. Yes. Madam president, at at this time, I'm going to invite, Deputy Superintendent Holt to present on our special education and K-two literacy updates. While she's taking the floor, let me, with your permission, I'll give a short preamble. In 2023, as part of the intervention, part of the exit criteria was explained that we are not complying we were not complying with special ed state and federal laws. But it was much more than that.
It wasn't just IEPs and compliance. It was also about the system of how we are delivering services that had not been changed and not been fixed for over a decade. In 2020, even well before the state intervention, TEA had placed this district on notice because of the same issues, compliance, IEPs, not evaluating students, not evaluating enough students, denying evaluations to students, a lot of IEP problems, and on top of all of that, poor instruction.
And one of the things that that the profession has always known is that in many, many cases, not just in HISD, but across the country in special education, the students aren't always given rigorous instruction. In fact, in many cases, the instruction is less than rigorous. I'll use a phrase that you hear out there in the field, dumbed down. As if our students can't reach their potential, as if we need to lower our expectations. And so it's important to have IEPs.
It's important to understand, the specific disabilities. And on top of that, it's important to have good instruction for every kid regardless of disability that will bring them up to their potential. And so in the last three years, what we've done mostly is we've done compliance, we've improved our IEPs, we've improved our ARDS, we've improved the evaluations and we have done some work to improve instruction. In fact, special ed achievement is up
in this district pretty well compared to other districts and their special education proficiency levels. But that's not enough, and we know that we have to really not only continue to improve IEPs and compliance issues, but also our services and our instruction. And with that preamble, I'll turn it over to deputy superintendent Holt. Good evening, board of managers. Tonight, we're gonna talk about some special education updates, and I just wanna start by acknowledging that these changes can be difficult for families,
and we heard them tonight. We listened, and we know that their feelings are real because they care deeply about their children. And so I hope tonight we spend some time focusing on, clarity around some of the changes that are happening as well as sharing that we also deeply care about the children and who are special education students, and and that's the focus of today. So with that, we have continued to think about everything we do from the perspective of what mister Miles just shared, which is that all of students with disabilities should get access to grade level instruction
with the supports they need to be successful, and that really anchors everything we do in the district. This year we thought about three big goals. The first thing is we wanna improve the academic outcomes for our special education students because we know they can achieve. The second thing is in order to do that, we really need to focus on improving the quality of instruction in every single classroom where a special education student is sitting. And then finally, in order for students to receive what they need, we wanna make sure every student has a high quality IEP that is implemented with
fidelity. When those things happen together, we know our students will be successful. So first, just looking taking a step back, and looking at special education holistically, students are really they sit on a continuum where they need different levels of service. So on the furthest left side of the continuum, we have students who sit in our inclusive settings. Many of these students are serviced right alongside our general education students. All the way on the right, we have our students with most severe disabilities who are often served in a more in a self contained environment, which means they are taught by a special education teacher and only other special education
students. And so students sit on this continuum, and we really, support those students differently based on what their disability and their IEP requires. So in the district, we have about 16,000 special education students who have primarily served in the general education setting. They fall on that left side of the continuum. And then we have about 5,000 students that are, provided services in the special in the self contained setting where the majority of their time is spent, with other special education students and a special education teacher. So we're gonna talk about these groups,
differently today. For the 16,000 students, our primary focus is improving quality of instruction in their mainstream inclusion classrooms, and the big initiatives we are focused on to do that are related these two. We've talked a little a little bit about them before. The first is co teaching. As a reminder, that is just when a general education teacher and a special education teacher are teaching a class together that holds both general education students and special education students. We did a lot of that this year and our hope is to expand that
next year and further support teachers in being successful in doing that next year. And so for those 16,000 students who are served in our general ed classrooms, they will experience a lot more co teaching. Another thing that we're launching, for the first time more broadly across the district next year is what we call pre teach courses. So for a lot of our special education students, sometimes they need more time, and just more exposure to a grade level topic. And so for many of these students, they'll be able to attend a course or a class ahead of their typical reading
or math class where they get exposure to the content early, they can read the text earlier, they get more exposure to the vocabulary, so that by the time they go to their math or reading class, they can be successful and really engage in the content with their general education peers, and be more successful. So those are two really important supports that we're focused on implementing really well in the district for those 16,000 students who are in our least restrictive environment, who have served in mainstream classrooms. For these students, it's really important to note that no services are changing and no campuses are changing
for any of the students that sit in this group. We also have some students who are in this group that are in some of our BSC programs and our SLC standard programs and these students have historically been required to attend certain campuses but going forward they will be able to attend any campus to receive those services And so they can participate in the school choice process in the same way that a general education student would be able to participate. We wanna focus a little bit on our self contained students and our students who are serviced primarily in this setting.
This is about 5,000 students in HISD, and these students are typically in one of these instructional programs, so the behavior support classrooms, BSE, structured learning classrooms. We have, students that are supported through the standard curriculum and an alternative curriculum. We have skills for learning and living, our SOL classrooms. Our early childhood special education, supports where our primarily pre k students are served to our special education, and then preparing students for independence or PSI. So these are special education success programs, and historically in HISD,
the way that, HISD has supported these students is through a centralized support model where not every campus will have these programs, but a subset will and students will travel to that campus to get these supports because they're more intensive supports, and they require classrooms, in the self contained setting to receive them. And so for the first time, we really looked at where do these programs sit across the district and are they set up to really enable the right conditions for our teachers to provide high quality instruction for our students. So when we looked at what was going on,
there's a couple things that we saw. At first, we saw that there was a large age range in many of our classrooms, and so when you walk into an elementary student classroom and you walk into a self contained classroom, oftentimes we were seeing classrooms where you had kindergartners and fifth graders in the same classroom, and then you had a wide range of class sizes. We walked into classrooms that were that were large for some of these students and and most struggling students. And what that means for teachers is that you have teachers every day showing up having to support students across many grades in the same classroom.
It's really difficult to think about pointing for all of those different levels and standards across many different contents, and so our teachers were coming to work. They were working really hard to service, these students in the best way that they could, but the underlying conditions created in the classrooms weren't, setting them up to be as successful as they could be. Deputy Soup, can you I know you have a slide on it, but can you tell us the percentage of classrooms that were like this? Over 65 of our self contained classrooms had over three day levels sitting in one
class. And so, you know, in in our role, we have the privilege of walking into so many different classrooms, and we're walking into classrooms over and over again and seeing teachers really trying to support those students, but it's being very, very hard because you have a kindergartner and a fifth grader sitting three feet apart, and the teacher was trying their best, but that's a hard environment to to really provide that quality instruction, and we were seeing that over and over. So when we're looking at our special education success programming,
there's a couple of things we're trying to do to better support instruction for our students. The first thing is we're limiting the number of grades in a classroom. And so if you go into a campus right now, in our future state, you will see only two grade levels together in one classroom. So campus will have at least three classrooms, one that would support four one, one that would support two three, and one that would support four five. And that right off the bat gives our teachers much more ability to serve the students based on their needs, based on their IEP, based on what they need to improve their learning.
The other thing we wanna do is we wanna, cap the class size and the adult to student ratio. So when a parent sends their student to a school, we want them to know that they're not gonna walk into a classroom with more than 15 students, if they're in this self contained setting. And then in addition to that, every classroom will have a certified special education teacher as well as additional adults, paraprofessionals, special education paraprofessionals supporting that classroom. And so we also want to cap the the adult to student ratio at five
for all of our self contained settings so that, regardless of the class that you walk in, you know that you are getting individualized support from a professional who deeply understands your students' IUP and the supports that they need to be successful. From the teacher's perspective, the goal is that we give the teacher a much more manageable approach to better support their students. Instead of having that k through five range of students, they're really focused exactly on what kindergartners and first graders need, for example, and they have the time to spend with smaller groups of students to respond exactly
to the needs in their IEP and exactly to the needs, for what that student needs for instruction. The other thing that we observed happening is because of the range of grades in a classroom, teachers are spending a lot of time trying to adapt. How do I create a curriculum that can serve the six grades at once? And so we're going to help them and provide them with readily available resources so they can spend their time internalizing those and thinking about how to adjust and amuse them to support the students that sit in front of them every day. So this is what mister Miles was referencing before.
When we took it, we were seeing this over and over again and we took a step back. 65% of our self contained teachers supported three plus grade levels in a single classroom. In the future state, that will go down to less than 5% of teachers. 95 or more percent of teachers will serve, one to two grades of students in one classroom. We also will have a max class size of 15, and that will actually be smaller for our BSC classrooms with a b nine and our FLC classrooms with a b 12. And so we wanna keep those classes small so that teachers can support students.
And then again, we wanna to max out the adult to student ratio, which will be again smaller for BSC, one to three, smaller for SLCL, one to four, but but max, one to five. Again, for that pushing that small group instruction for individualized support for our students. And I I just wanna iterate that this is, we're talking about self contained classrooms. Yes. The other classrooms will be co teach and the pre teach that, just like always, the the kids who are included in the general population. Yes. And for for these,
for these supports, students who are in SLL, for example, will continue to be in SLL. These are students who are already receiving services in this self contained environment that will continue to receive services in a self contained environment. We also want to focus on adopting unified champion school sites, with in partnership with special education. The goal here is really to make sure that when students sit in a self contained classroom, they also have the ability to engage with the general education students, in some way outside of that classroom as well. And so really looking for how do we,
with every single campus principle, think about integrating those students with our general education students throughout the day. So then, for this group of students, right now, we have we do want to you heard from us tonight. Some of these students have to change locations and that comes with extra support that's needed, that comes with challenges, but we do know that all of our campus principals and all of the sites that are supporting, these programs, they have all already been supporting these programs. These principals care deeply about making sure these students can be successful.
We care deeply about making sure these students can be successful, and we we're here to support that. In addition, these students can also participate in the school choice process. On our website right now, we have all of our SLL, SCL, SLL, BSC programs, published, and then, parents can participate in school choice, to find other SLL programs that support the students' needs based on their IEP. We do have a call center that's up and running. We have the number right here really big for folks. We have staff who are dedicated to sitting and talking me through everything that's going
on, making sure you understand the details, anything that you need to get your questions answered. At the end of the day yesterday, we had called 2,500 families. I think that's up another 900 at the end of the day today. We have had, I think, at the end of the day, close to 1,300 calls answered, and 90% of our parents, have responded positively to the changes because they understand, they see the supports. For those who still have concerns, we wanna support them in, understanding how to request I'm sorry. That's super I need everyone to be quiet so we can hear the presentation.
Thank you. So this call center is available to support families as we move forward. We do wanna name that there's no changes to our PSI program. That's a program where, students will continue in the program, last year as they were this year. Same thing with the 18 plus programs. No changes to locations. And then lastly, special education success program will be offered at over half of our campuses, so that we can make sure it's geographically representative across the district. If a student is, has transportation as a as a related service in the IUP, they will continue to get that transportation service regardless of what location they go to.
If a student is transferred to a success program and their sibling wants to join that school, they also can request a transfer. And then the other thing I just wanna name is, they're our special education teachers are so much a part of what makes the experience so important for our students. This change doesn't impact the jobs of any special education teachers. These teachers are SOL teachers are staying supporting SOL programs. And so I just wanna name that, the teachers are a part of these supports, and that this is not about efficiency.
This is about better supporting our students in the classroom. And through all of the changes, there when there's no changes to the services in a student's IUP, when we're looking at these programming changes. The IEP changes can only happen in an hour. We're really focusing again on those, smaller age ranges in a classroom, smaller class sizes, better adult to student ratios, really to improve the quality of instruction. So that's the end of our special education update. All possible questions before we move the KT literacy. Superintendent Miles, do you have a statement before no?
I just, I just wanna stamp that, there's been a lot of misinformation, and thank you, deputy chief, for presenting, the facts and the objective about what we're actually doing. No IEP has been changed and cannot be changed, except through a new art. And people can request new art, and that happens all the time, for various, circumstances. And so, we will we will have the same services, except that they will be delivered more effectively now because the teachers will not have three or four or five grade levels in a classroom.
And, I'm sorry. I'm talking right now. Excuse me. We do not have questions from the floor. This is your first warning. Second warning, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. We want you here. We'd like you to be able to listen, but we this is not a back and forth conversation. So that's your first warning. Thank you. And so and so, the fallacy of logic is not to jump to conclusions without the information. Let's start to my left. Yes. Board member Goosen? How does it look in middle school and high school? Is it similar? Can you just you you focus on elementary. How does it look in middle school and high school? In those schools,
whenever we have an SLR program or SSCR program, we're also trying to have at least three classrooms in the schools. They also will only be, and hopefully most pieces one grade level in a class, but sometimes two. And in that instance, one of the things we're really excited about is supporting teachers and focusing on one content area, when they can. So, you know, they can focus deeply on math and support math across different settings, but similarly only, one to two grades in a class. So presumably if a a special needs child enters at kindergarten and gets into one
of these special programs, he will then go through that same elementary school with the same students that he becomes friends with and will move through from that first group to the second group to the third group. Is that is that the way you expect it to work? Yes. Students were assigned into their programming based on their home address. And so we always assign students to their zoned campus when there's a program available at that campus. So, yes, if there's a program available, they would remain together. Thank you. Break me up, Thank you. This is a great presentation,
deputy superintendent. I appreciate the simplicity, and I know a tremendous amount of thought and and, research and contemplation goes into it, so I appreciate the simplicity of it. My question is on implementation. Right? Like, I I think the, pedagogical underpinning is brilliant. This has to go from where it's at today to where it will be on August 10. There's some sort of project management process. There's logistics, and I know we're working that. Families may have questions about the state of implementation. What opportunities do we grant to them?
What mechanisms do we give to them to check-in on the implementation of our progress against the the the plan you laid out today? I think the first thing I'll just say is that we are going to keep the classroom up until there's no more families telling, because we want to make sure that families have a special education expert who can look up their child's IUP on the spot and answer questions for a parent specific to their child, and someone who has access to understand what's going on in in the district as well. So that's the first thing. And the second thing is the the principals who,
who are overseeing success programs, these principals are experts at what they do and they already have been, they already have hosted self contained settings and so they are going to be there ready to receive students coming who might be new to that campus. Some of them have already started opening tours and making sure families can help to get to another school, but they'll be doing a lot more of that towards the end of the month and early into June. So, again, any family who wants to go visit their new school and hear from the principal and understand, that school setting has the opportunity to do that.
So that's that's lovely. So just so I understand the number if you could go back to the slide that we had with the big number in black letters, so that phone number, one more. Yeah. That one. This is the phone number that if a family is curious about implementation, where does the process stand, how do how does this work for my family? Like, they're not they're not, grading us on our pedagogical theories. They're just trying to understand where where what's going on. They call this number or they reach out to the principals. Is that Yes. Campuses and families can call this number. We review all of the incoming calls and questions and make sure that if a
new set of questions is coming up, that we are readily available to support what plans are asking. Okay. Thanks. Yes. Board member Rosales, please. You talked about how 95 of the classes would be limited to one or two grades. What are the circumstances you foresee where you might have to exceed that, the the other 5%? Yes. In in a couple instances in our behavior support classrooms, we do see sometimes more of that, and and so that's one scenario, but we also do the best we can to organize based on our projections.
And And so the number of students who show up at a class might be different than the number that are projected and in that instances we're we're always doing what we can to make sure we can provide all of the supports. And so if we in a rare situation have to go above that, it will be because we we must service the student's IEP and, and support the student when they walk in the door. Thank you. Yes. Board member Cruz Arnold. Thank you, Deputy Superintendent. I wanna follow-up on Mr. Gore's great question about implementation. With respect to student outcomes, what does teacher training look like between now and August 10?
We've been working really closely. The chief of academics and chief of schools have been working really closely to prioritize training for special education for our principals, our assistant principals, and our teachers, as part of the teacher orientation and principal orientation when they come back. And so we'll have dedicated priority focus on training very specific to programming for all the teachers as part of this support. If I may, also add to that. We've already had some teachers come up and say, this is exciting that they won't have to have that many,
kids to that many grade levels to teach, and and it's gonna be very supportive for them. Let's not forget our, 16,000 kids who are included in the classroom. I don't know if you were with me, but at Edison, last week or the week before, the co teaching was so good. Every kid would you couldn't tell who was special needs or not. They were all engaged. And the two teachers, you couldn't tell which one was the teacher, which was the special ed teacher, and they were both, you know, giving instruction to the whole class. It was it was just dynamic.
And it's those sorts of classes that will become a model. We're already filming different classes, but as far as co teaching, we will also be filming teachers and helping the other teachers with that sort of co teaching model. Any more questions? Yes. I've I've got an another one. So these the the these success programs, are they gonna be housed within, schools with a general education, or are they gonna be stand alone, locations, stand alone campuses? Yes. I'm I'm glad you asked that.
There are no stand alone campuses. Like, only special education students. None. We have always had classrooms within schools that are self contained. That is that was two to four, but it's true now. There are no stand alone schools of just special education students. Deputy superintendent, Hull, can you tell us a little bit about the unified champion school model? I know you referenced it, and I could see the model. But can you just talk a little bit about what what that might look like? In that model, really, the goal is,
when a student primarily through their IUP is supported in a self contained setting, it's an opportunity for those students to be a part of the general population of students in different ways. It might be sports, it might be, some you know we heard some folks today talk about partnering with CTE, with swimming. So we've heard different examples of that today where even if you are primarily served in a self contained settings, there should be opportunities for you to engage with the general population of students at your school, and that's what this type of model can support. And does the principal implement the model,
or is the district helping? Like, how how are we making that happen? Yes. The district is gonna do a lot to apply and help the principal some of the paperwork and the logistics through that so that they can focus on instruction. So the district will support the application process and going through that process and partnership with the principals. Thank you so much. Any other questions? Thank you. Okay. And the next topic is early literacy. So reading is the foundation of a student's journey. That's we know that and that's critical, and we also know that there's research that supports that if a student doesn't know
how to read by third grade, it leads to higher dropout rates, higher levels of unemployment, higher levels of incarceration, and that early literacy is tied to overall academic outcomes even math. And so reading by third grade is incredibly important for our students and we pay a lot of attention to that. Even our own board goals look at third grade reading and third grade math. And so, the the early years really matter. And I wanna name that HISD has made tremendous progress, in literacy outcomes in our early grades. And so what this slide shows you is that in the far right in kindergarten,
if you look over the past three years, the percentage of students that are well below their reading level on our DIBELS assessment, which is the assessment we use to measure whether a student knows how to read, has significantly dropped and that trend has held true for kinder, for first grade, and for second grade. So in second grade alone, we see a 17 percentage point improvement in our readers, who are who are well below, so 17 less percent well below. So this is great. This is the results for,
our NES schools. Our EAF schools have a similar trend. We didn't provide this assessment in second grade or first two years, which is why you only see one bar in second grade. But for kinder and first, you see, a continued decline in the percentage of students who are well below their reading level. Can we can we just remind the board that e a EAS is our end of talking system, which used to be the Yeah. PUA. Yes. So NES and the e a EAS as well. And so, again, as far as I've made tremendous progress, and that's a great testament to our principals and our teachers working really hard to
support reading. With that said, we still have a significant percentage of students, who are of our second grade students who are leading second grade well below benchmark on the DIBELS assessment, and so 40% of the students are still, below that, well below mark, and we wanna think differently. How can we better support these students to reach that proficiency level they need by third grade because that really is what sets them up for success. Another reason third grade is so important is what this slide shows if you look back and just look at the colors,
the light purple is really how what the state says, in our standards. It's the time students have to actually learn how to read. How do I learn letters and sounds and put those together to make words? What's in the green is what the state really expects us to be able to do with the text once they can read it, analyze it, finding an idea, and make an inference. And so what you really see and prior to that third grade mark is the standards spend less time on teaching students to learn how to read and so if
they don't know how to read by that third grade mark, they don't have that grade level support anymore to learn and they will always be behind without extreme intervention and support. So So that third grade mark is critical because that's how the standards are defined, and so that's what we really wanna pay attention to. We want to ensure kids are on a path to success in third grade reading, and so what we are recommending is that at the end of kindergarten this year, students who are well below are identified as at risk in their reading progress.
Then those students will get two years of intensive supports to grow quickly and to catch up. We're gonna do a lot during those two years to really make sure we spend focused time on helping them learn how to read. And then two years later, in the 2028, we're recommending that we implement a literacy promotion standard for students to implement third grade. We we are we want this recommendation to be true because, again, we know how critical it is for a student's educational long term outcomes if they
pass their grade and they don't yet know how to read. But before that standard is put in place, we wanna make sure all students have the support they need to be successful and to reach that standard. There's a lot of research on this. Florida has implemented this. Mississippi has implemented this. They saw significant improvements in reading in their NAEP scores, but over 20 states have done this as well and so people are really looking at a literacy standard, promotion standard, just as part of the way we, part of things we put in place for students to make sure that they're successful
before they ask third or fourth, but varies by state which they choose. So the main one of the main supports we also want to share today is one of the things we know is true is that some students actually need more time. Students develop their reading skills at different rates developmentally and cognitively, and actually with our own data, we found that time matters a lot. Students are 11% more likely to meet grade level on third grade reading based on the month they are born, and so no other factor of their own.
If they are born in September, if they are born in September, which makes them the oldest in their grade versus August, which makes them the youngest in their grade, they are 11% less likely to meet grade level, on their star in reading in third grade. And so this just confirms, you see that linear trend downward, oldest kids at the top, youngest kids at the bottom, it could develop at different rates and that time matters a lot for students, and the other thing we saw is that this carried with students into eighth grade. So the the,
the slope decreased a little bit, but kids were still 10% less likely to meet grade level in reading if they were born in August versus if they were born in September. So because we know that time matters a lot for students and some students just need more time, we are implementing a kinder bridge program and so this is a structured year in between kindergarten and first grade. You can think of it as a new grade called Kinder Bridge, and it gives kids that extra year of time to really develop the skills that
they need. The student experience for Kinder Bridge, again more time, but also it's not a repeat year for kids. Students will get additional exposure to their kindergarten standards, but they will also get early exposure to their first grade standards, to better prepare them to then, accelerate upwards in their in their reading journey. They will also be with age of like peers, so a group of students together will be a part of that that were in kindergarten will be a part of that kind of bridge program and they'll stay in that cohort. How will this work next year?
This is part of all future two campuses in their design, so future two campuses, based on the data for their students and the need of their students, will provide Kinder Bridge and then for all other campuses and principals, we've given the campus the opportunity to opt in to providing this and then if a campus chooses to opt in, families will have the opportunity to also opt in. And so campus is offering kinder bridge, we actually just finished our end of year assessment for literacy in kindergarten this last
week and so we're looking at the data now, we're providing that to print. And principles, we'll be able to announce based on principle at then what campuses will offer Kindergarten next year. Coming back to looking at it being really important for students to be ready to read by third grade, if a student participates in Kindle Bridge, it really gives them again that extra year of learning. So instead of two years of intensive support, they get three years. And then, when a student is at risk for learning in kindergarten, we're gonna continue to focus on providing as much support as possible.
Kinder Bridge is an option. We focus on additional target supports during this school day, so multiple hours of specific targeted interventions for the exacts that they need, we're implementing a summer school reading intensive program, and then we're also providing after school and at home supports for those students. So over those two years, they really get support for for building proficiency. And that is it. Thank you. Questions? Yes. Thank you, deputy superintendent. You sort of briefly touched on this, but I didn't hear it explicitly. Can you touch on the eligibility metrics for students that would be in KinderBridge?
Yes. For KinderBridge right here, what we what we're really looking to prioritize and support students who are, well below benchmark on their double assessments. But once we name for next year, it is optional for parents. And so we want to make sure that if a student is identified as at risk based on their end of year kindergarten literacy score that they know that this is an option for them and they have that chance to opt in. But if they are above that, they also have the chance to opt in, and so it's truly an opt in process for all campuses.
In future two, again, it's part of the design of future two where we wanna offer Pinto Bridge and students who are well below, DIBELS in that situation would be a part of Kinder Bridge as just the normal trajectory in their educational planning. Thank you. So a follow on to that. It's not just what month the child is born in. Right? It's their level of achievement in reading at that stage. Correct. The data supports that the month matters, but we're actually looking at individual student data to say if you are well below yes.
Yeah. Because it's always a question for a parent to hold a child back or not hold a child back. And sometimes that a lot of times that is age specific. It's not necessarily achievement specific. Yes. And if a parent has a younger student, they even if their student is not well below, they can choose to opt in to kindergarten. And some parents we hear, want to do that. Can you talk a little bit about the other supports? So the summer school support, this would just be offered to this cohort of students. What if another parent felt like they wanted, reading supports?
Is this how widespread is this summer school gonna be? Yes. We are piloting a summer reading intensive support this year in summer school. I believe it's 600 students who are in second grade, rising second grade students right now, and their full day is focused on a structured literacy program for students. We're partnering with my house which has been a great partner in this. We wish we could offer this program to as many kids as possible but we
have a really strong pilot in place this year, and we're gonna be thinking about how we can provide as much support in that program to students. Awesome. And just for a second, can you explain what Nye House is? It's such a wonderful organization, but people may not know the name. Yes. They are an organization that has been incredibly focused on literacy. So they're an organization that brings literacy expertise. They actually have a really strong programs for dyslexia, but they also have really strong programs, structured linguistic phonics programs to really help students catch up especially if they're behind.
And so they're gonna be working with us to pilot this summer school program? They're gonna be working with us. We actually have literacy success teachers, that we have hired specifically to run these, literacy programs next year. They're gonna be supporting some of the school that my house will be helping train them. They'll be a part of that design. They'll be a part of the curriculum, design and communication this summer. Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. Can you, deputy superintendent, help me understand a little bit. Now I was thinking about this a little bit as we were talking about the special ed and the the pre teach classes.
And here we're talking about extra support. Where are those hours coming from? Right? How how like, what are how are the kids' days changed? Do they still get to be a kid? And, and then, I guess, kinda related a little bit a little bit different is is what is this what is that experience gonna be like for that KinderBridge student who is in that that extra year? Let me answer your second question first. FingerBridge for a student will feel like a typical classroom. The difference is that they have accelerated coursework for that year,
and so they'll be in a in a kindergarten classroom with age alike peers, receiving a reading class and a math class and a science class, but when they receive those classes they'll receive kindergarten in an accelerated fashion and some entry into first grade as well. But it'll feel like a typical classroom for those students will still have play and recess and all the things that are inappropriate for kindergartners. And then to answer your second question, about time in the day. I can speak a little bit to it for NES because it's more structured whereas
EAS, they have a lot of autonomy for how they design this time. But for NES, one of the things we think a lot about is in the LSAE model, which is, after a teacher teaches the first speech, kids have that differentiated experience for the second teach. But for some students who are really behind in reading or need that really extra support, they actually can go and attend a structured literacy program, designed specifically to help catch them up. And so it would just be an additional form of differentiated support for those students,
during that second teach. We also have art of thinking, in, those schools. Students will always continue to get art of thinking. It's incredibly important for the future and their success. But during that LSAE time of art of thinking, that's also when they can get the pre teach for the next day. So, we're really looking at making sure that the student gets the most important instruction based on their literacy needs at the time that makes sense for them without taking away from any first teach tier one instruction. Yes. Board member Gore. Yes. Thank you.
I like the box on the right here. All other campuses have the option to to opt in. Can you, describe the process in which they opt opt in just a bit more? And the reason I ask is parents as Marty correctly said, parents are constantly evaluating, you know, do I double up on kindergarten? Do I hold back in pre k four? Like, these are do I red shirt? Right? These are practical questions that parents are asking, not just because of birth year or birth month, but because maybe they want their kid to have that second, you know,
this can some informal version of the bridge program. Mhmm. So I think this this may be very exciting to a lot of parents. How can they be a part of the process for their school to opt in to something like this? Yes. One of the things that we're doing, to support principals is starting with their own campus's data. So we just took the kindergarten literacy assessment. We will provide them here are the number of students who are well below benchmark, and that will help inform a campus if they have enough students to make a classroom.
Because we still have to be mindful of budget. We still have to make sure that we can fund a teacher for that classroom. And so it will help them look at their data to say, hey. Can I, structure a classroom? Is there enough students, who are interested in this, who, could make a classroom for this? So just to so I understand the first look is needs based, and then within the sort of profile of an of a qualified needs based school, then they have the determination to opt in or opt. But it couldn't be a school or couldn't be an environment where there is not a demonstrated need for this kind of bridge program that could opt in.
Correct. Yes. There might not be, enough students to make the grade level. In that case, though, we are also still writing that accelerated literacy course for students, in who would be rising into first grade. So if a campus doesn't have Kinder Bridge, in, literacy, they can offer that Kinder to First accelerated course, which can really help students, catch up if they're behind and they are still well below. So there's still some accelerated course offerings that a principal can use and implement to support those students. Are there costs associated with with this,
and would the district absorb those costs, or how are we doing that? The way that we think about it is, we've got a campus that has two homelands of students in first grade. If there's enough students rising into first grade that are well below, one teacher could stay back and run Converge and the other teacher could stay in first and then Converge first. So we're really looking at that cost neutral way to provide the support, which really depends on having enough students to fill up classroom in Converge. Any other questions?
Thank you so much for your report. We will now consider action items on the agenda. Board policy requires board members to abstain from all discussion and votes pertaining to contracts that might involve a conflict of interest. Board policy, BBFA local defines a conflict of interest as any circumstance that could cast out on the board member's ability to act with total objectivity with regard to the district's interests. Do I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda items by consensus? And do I have a second? I have a motion by board member Rosales and a second by board member Gore.
Is there any discussion? Please vote. Voting is closed. Yes. The motion, I have not, how many of us are there? I have five. One, two, three, four, five. I have five in favor, none opposed. The motion to approve tonight's agenda by consent consensus passes. At this time, the board will recess to closed session under chapter five fifty one of Texas government code open meetings act subsection 551.004 through 551.089 should board final action vote or decision on any matter considered in the closed session
be required, such final action voter decision shall be taken at the open meeting covered by this notice upon the reconvening of this public meeting or at subsequent public meetings of the board upon notice thereof. The board has recessed a closed session at 08:13PM, May 14, 2026. Good evening. This meeting is reconvened at 09:24PM. We are now ready to consider items discussed in closed session. Are there any motions? I have a motion. I move that the board approves a closed session personnel agenda, including specifically that the board approves proposed terminations and non renewals of continuing term performance
and probationary contracts and authorizes the superintendent or designate to provide notice of same that the board approves suspensions without pay for continuing term probationary contracts and authorizes the superintendent or designate to provide the same. Am I reading the same thing? That the board voids continuing term probationary and performance contracts and authorizes the superintendent or designee to provide notice of the same that the board approves withdrawals of contract recommendations and that the board approves issuance of final orders on contract terminations and nonrenewals as
discussed in closed section effective 05/14/2026. Is there a second? I have a motion by board member Goosen and a second by board member Colon. Please vote. Voting is closed. Six in favor, zero opposed, zero abstentions. The motion passes. Is there another motion? Yes. I move that the board adopt the resolution of the Houston Independent School District School Board regarding the sale of surplus real property, which authorizes the board vice president to complete the sale of the property known as SB 26 Dash 08 Dash 94 Roads facility at 4103 Brisbane Street,
Houston, Texas to Pressureless Zone Inc in partnership, with Back to Work two. Is there a second? I have a motion by board member Goosen and a second by board member Colon. Please vote. Voting is closed. We have six in favor, zero opposed, zero abstentions. The motion passes. Is there another motion? Yes, there is. I move that the board adopt the resolution of the Houston Independent School District Board regarding the sale of Sir Prospero Property, which authorizes the board vice president to complete the sale of the property known as SB Number 26 Dash 08 Dash 98 South Area Office 404 West Fuqua Street,
Houston, Texas to Hiram Clark Fort Bend Redevelopment Authority. Is there a second? I have a motion by board member Goosen and second by board member Colon. Please vote. Voting has closed. We have six in favor, zero opposed, zero abstention. The motion passes. Is there another motion? I have one last motion. I move that the school board adopt an amended resolution claiming a good cause exception to the specified specified requirement of HB three and that the board delegates authority to the superintendent to develop, amend, and refine an alternative standard for compliance with HB three
as discussed in closed section effective 05/13/2026. Is there a second? So second. I have a motion by board member Guston, a second by board member Colon. Please vote. Voting is closed. We have six in favor, zero opposed, zero abstentions. The motion passes. The next regular board meeting will be held on 06/11/2026. There being no further business, this meeting is officially adjourned at 09:27PM. Thank you.