Good evening. This meeting is now convened at 05:02PM. I'd like everyone to please silence all cell phones. A quorum of the board members is present in the board auditorium. Okay. So we will now be joined by a member of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corp to lead our pledges. I'd like to ask Board Member, Marcus Rosales, to introduce tonight's pledge leader. Thank you, president Campo. Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Michelle Quintanilla, the battalion commander for the JROTC eleventh battalion of Wisdom High School,
will lead the pledge of allegiance and the pledge to the Texas flag. Cadet Quintanilla has a 4.18 grade point average and has distinguished herself in JROTC academics and community support activities. She is a senior class secretary, senior leader of Young Life, and a member of the color guard and flag folding team. She is also involved in after school athletics on the girls' varsity soccer team. She plans to attend Texas A and M University, to study business administration and communications. 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. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. Thank you, We appreciate that. We'll now hear from, public officials and speakers who have identified themselves as HISD students or parents. Please note that Spanish live captioning is available for those viewing the meeting via live stream,
and live Spanish interpretation is available in person in the auditorium. Public comment during the school board meetings will be only available to those persons who have signed up to speak prior to the meeting time per current protocol. Verbal and other disruptions by persons during the school board meetings are not acceptable as they inhibit the board's ability to conduct business and the public's ability to observe those processes. Persons who participate in such behavior will be given one warning. And if the behavior is repeated, they'll be asked to leave the meeting. We have 46 registered speakers tonight,
who will be limited to one minute each per board policy, as we have more than 30 people signed up to address the board tonight. We ask 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 you please respect our procedures and the other speakers and your comments privately when the time has expired, the bell rings. We will start our public comment with our elected trustees. So today,
we have with us Trustee Maria Benzon, I think I saw her, maybe not yet. And we have Michael McDonough. We have Savant Moore. I don't know if Savant is here. And then I think Felicia Perega. I can't say Smith, so sorry. I'll get it at some point. Pereira, okay? Pereira. Okay. Well, my Castilian grandmother would come up here and hit me if I couldn't pronounce the Spanish name. But let's go ahead and start. So we'll ask you to come up. Thank you for being here. Good evening. My name is Felicity Pereira.
Pereira. The elected trustee for District 1 representing the Near Northside Heights, Garden Oaks, and the Oak Forest communities. I ask you to please excuse my absence from the previous two meetings. Fortunately, I have been navigating both a miscarriage and simultaneously a hospitalization and dementia diagnosis from my mother. However, in the span of those two meetings, the administration has not only announced school closures, but they rushed to schedule community meetings, and the board voted to close the schools. And that doesn't seem like community engagement. It feels more like a notification dressed up as process.
And the families most affected by those closures deserved genuine input, not just the appearance of it. Specifically tonight on items twelve and thirteen, the appointed board is being asked to declare virtually every teaching position in the district eligible for reduction in force or RIF, including all bilingual and multilingual staff. Every bilingual position on a RIF list conflicts directly with that research and also with the needs of of our children. It's not a data driven decision. But I would also ask that the timing demands explanation.
For instance, this Saturday, HISD is hosting a job fair right across the street at Del Mar. And you can't tell the public that you're hiring while also simultaneously telling them that essentially every position is eligible for elimination. This is a sweeping authorization that seems to optimize for administrative flexibility rather than thoughtful analytical precision that over a 175,000 students deserve. It also seems to create an opportunity to perhaps accelerate the replacement of experienced and certified teachers with uncertified ones.
And again, here the research is unambiguous. Students across every demographic have better outcomes with certified teachers. The district has also, as you'll you guys are going to review in the agenda tonight, contractually committed itself to paying $285,000 to Teach for America, which is a program that by design produces uncertified novices while effectively placing every certified teaching position on the rift list. The community deserves to understand how those two decisions fit together. So as a trustee for district one, I would implore the managers to ask the administration to provide before any reduction in
force is executed, specificity on which positions are actually at risk, projected numbers of affected employees by category and clear fiscal justification. Our kids deserve decisions made with evidence, not blank authorizations issued without thoughtful analysis. Thank you. Thank you. Trustee McDonough, would you like to good evening. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak and for the respect you've shown by recognizing the elected trustees first. That gesture matters. It shows that you see us, you value our role,
and you're committed to inclusion. I appreciate that. Now on February 9, there was a meeting between six of the elected trustees and four board of managers. The focus was to begin the work of transition. Three days later, at the February 12 board of managers meeting, chairperson Campo publicly discussed the merits of the February 9 meeting. This was a specific action by the board of managers towards the trustees that affirmed that you both see and respect our position. Again, inclusion. Thank you. Now board chairman Campo, in your remarks that evening, you also shared your intention to continue those meetings and specifically committed to including trustees
in budget workshop discussions once those begin. That's important. That's what inclusion looks like in practice. Now there's a quote I often think about. The smartest person in the room is the room. It's about people coming together. Engagement with us to affirm that we are seeking the same outcomes, that we want to do everything we can to make sure the district is in the best possible position once the turnover begins to back to the elected trustees. That's what inclusion looks like and what it should look like, and that's where we need your help. I hope you'll continue to lead in that spirit by ensuring that trustees are included
in meaningful, substantive conversations so that together, we can build trust and reflect that transparency to the community. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. I don't think the other trustees have have arrived. So we'll go ahead then and start our public comment from speakers who have identified themselves as HISD students or parents. Speakers, please state your name and topic and step up to the microphone. When you step up to the microphone, Ms. Smith, you may call our first group of speakers. I'd like to invite our student speakers to the front row,
starting with Jalen and followed by Eliana. Hello, and good evening, board members. My name is Jalen Carruthers. I'm in eleventh grade, and I attend Sharpstown International School. And I'm here today to talk about the HSC curriculum and how it has limited students' ability to learn in the classroom. When my mom asked about how we learn in class, I explained how the HSC has made these changes to the education system, the use of classroom slides, the timers, the response cards, and and the think pair share methods. Then I explained how the classroom environment has shifted from engaging lessons to repetitive AI
slides that are not engaging at all. You know, if these AI mistakes makes mistakes, then why can't the teachers just make up the material? We need these teachers in order to help us. This is why teachers should be allowed to create their own lessons based on what they based on what they believe is beneficial for students. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Eliana Gottlieb, and I'm a ninth grader at HSPBA. In 2023, the Texas legislature passed the house bill 16 o five requiring the state board of education to create a mandatory reading list for every public school student in Texas.
This week, after seven hours of public testimony, the SBOE debated that list and took no action. The final vote is coming in June. Here's what concerns me the most. Under the proposed ninth grade list, I would read exactly one work by a woman all year. In eleventh grade American literature, there are zero woman authors required. And in the state where 53% of public school students are Hispanic, neither proposed list includes a single Hispanic author for grades nine through 12. I'm asking the board to send a formal letter to the SBOE before that vote
demanding a reading list that actually reflects the students it serves. Houston students deserve to see themselves in the books they're required to read. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. Next, I wanna welcome Houston City Council member Alejandra Salinas. Welcome. Congratulations. I wanna thank you all for the opportunity to speak and be with be with you here today. As you all know, I'm the newest selected member of the Houston City Council serving the entire city of Houston at large. And on the campaign trail, the number one issue I heard when I knocked on doors, and I knocked on over a thousand doors,
was not our water, was not police, but it's what this board is doing. And the fact that community do not feel like they have control of what's going on. I've heard from too many families and educators who are continually blindsided by the decisions by this superintendent. Decisions that profoundly impact our communities, yet are being made with limited transparency and minimal public input. Decisions that leave parents, students, and educators scrambling to wonder what's next for their schools.
We saw it last year when superintendent Miles terminated or reassigned nearly 450 teachers. We saw it again just If you focus on finding We must ask why families are leaving and what it will take to rebuild trust. We shouldn't just make these decisions without the input of community. I'm here today to tell you that I, several members of council, stand with the parents and educators and the Houston Federation of Teachers who are demanding their seat at the table, demanding transparency, demanding accountability,
and I and others will not stop until their voices are restored. Thank you. Thank you. I'm sorry. I didn't see you come in. Oh, it's okay. Welcome. It's snuck in. Hi. My name is Doctor. Maria Benzon, elected trustee in District 5. The budget, counselors, the people who protect students' mental health cut 10,000,000. But instructional leadership, up 4,000,000. More money for the top, less for the trenches. Items twelve and thirteen, you're setting up to fire teachers. And this week, HISD sent me a text to apply. Me, a former HISD teacher who left because of the takeover.
That text was either a mistake or an act of desperation because I'm one of the teachers you pushed out. One who speaks up, one who pushes back, one communities trust. So is the rift a loyalty purge? First, the teachers who speak up, who question authority, who who communities trust, then replace them with people you who won't, then panic when you can't find enough warm bodies to fill the classrooms. Is the rift manufactured chaos, create confusion and instability so the public loses faith in public schools, making privatization and charter schools?
Same time. If you riff and recruit at the same time, the problem was never about the budget. It was the people. That is not leadership. That is manipulation. Students need counselors. Students need experienced teachers, not bloated administrative salaries and not smoke and mirrors. Thank you. Thank you. We'd like to invite all remaining student speakers to the front row, please. Starting with Aubrey Barr followed by the rest of the students. Good afternoon, guys. My name is Aubrey Barr, and I'm a student at HISD. I'm in my third year of audio and visual production,
a class that actually prepares students for real careers. I'm also a photographer, so this class directly impacts my future. When I returned when I returned this semester because I fortunately had to leave at the end of first semester, I did not have access to Adobe, the main software required for the class. After multiple emails emails and months of waiting, I was repeatedly told it would be fixed. It has now been four months. Four months I have been sitting in a class without the tools required to fully participate. This is not a small mistake. That is a failure by the by the district. Students are expected to show up, stay on track,
and succeed, but how how are we supposed to do that when the district cannot provide basic resources? This situation shows a lack of urgency, communication, and accountability. I'm not asking for special treatment. I'm asking for the bare minimum access to the tools required for my education. Do better. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Zachary Youngler. I'm a student in HISD. I wanted to speak the way speak about the way DOLs are being used. Right now, students are intentionally failing DOLs not because they don't understand the material, but because they just don't wanna be sent out to class when they pass.
So instead of measuring learning, DOLs are encouraging students to fail on purpose. At the same time, the district allows DOLs to be the only grade in some classes. That means one assignment can completely determine the student's grade regardless of their actual understanding or effort. That is not fair, and it is not an accurate reflection of learning. And this is not a classroom issue. It is a district issue. The system is not is being enforced, creates pressure, limits real learning, and allows grades to be controlled without balance or accountability.
If this is the HID HID is serious about student access, then this is Thank you. Hello. I'm Micah Gabe, a former a former HID student. And a curriculum is supposed to help students grow, but sometimes it does the exact opposite. At my school, learning felt more like memorizing slides, rushing through worksheets, and preparing for tests that didn't really measure understanding. There wasn't enough time to ask questions, explore ideas, or learn at our own pace. Students who needed extra help fell behind, and those ready to move faster were stuck waiting.
When I switched to an online school, everything changed. I could pause lessons, replay explanations, and move forward when I truly understood the material. Teachers focused on learning, not just finishing chapters. I became more independent and more confident and more motivated. This experience showed me that learning isn't about where you sit or the work in front of you. It's about how you're taught. When curriculum supports students' needs, success isn't just possible, it's expected. Thank Thank you. Adida Sage Bittner. Hi. My name is Adida Sage Bittner,
and I'm a student in HISD. You're discussing MAP scores to improve STAR results, but that just shows how everything revolves around one test. Like, that's what makes a successful student. It's not. The star doesn't show who we really are, our creativity, our ideas, or how we think. It also isn't fair. Schools with historically less resources get punished for low scores while other schools get more freedom. That's why we're in this takeover. If a student struggles to read, what help what helps is testing for dyslexia and other learning disabilities and giving them real support, like specialists and certified teachers, not AI generated curriculum.
More standardized testing don't doesn't fix the reading gap. I've said this before. Students are more than a score. I opt out of star for more or less than other families can too. A zero on star in grades three through eight does not mean failing the grade. No more at t x e d rights dot net or choustoncvpe.org. Thank you. Thank you. I'd like to invite HISD parents who've signed up to speak to move to the front row, starting with Cassandra Bolger. Good evening. My name is Cassandra Bulger. I am a somewhat disheartened parent at Durham Elementary School.
We know that there is exactly one sound that you hear when we speak, and I'm gonna demonstrate it for you right now. Trey Comstock proud Durham parent. Your resting I'm not listening face gets one of the core issues here. We know that we are not heard. It's our city, our children, our community, but you're just gonna do what you want and cash our checks along the way. When a member of the board of managers, supposedly your main accountability mechanism, runs afoul of you, they tend to cease being members of the board of managers. Yet in this environment, with essentially no elected accountability or direct accountability to the community,
you vote to close 12 schools without apparently listening to the input from those communities. What makes you think you have the right to hijack our city, hijack our communities, hijack our money, hijack our schools for your goals, not ours? You don't know what our goals are. You don't listen when we speak. Thank you. Nealey Stewart, proud Durham parent. You send an inappropriately trained principal to an elementary school with no input from the community. Under his leadership, the school loses 10 teachers, at least two administrators,
and between four and five dozen students. Dozen more plan to walk out the door at the end of the school year. Field trips get botched. Camping trips get missed. And even after months of coaching, we still get reports of teachers being embarrassed by administrators in front of their students and students coming home wondering why their teacher was made to cry. We come here every month and give you our input as Durham community. You don't ask for it, but we still keep coming until we get our school back. Edna,
Durham parent. More broadly, across the district, long after the school choice application deadlines, special focus schools are finding out that there is a strong chance that they'll be going NES for the 2627 based on a closed door boat that's open, to returning faculty only. Will there be an opportunity for community input? That's what I'd like to know. Supposedly. But how much will it actually matter? Based on how everything else, goes around here, it becomes difficult to put in one's faith in it.
Like, in the entire experience of being a special focus school this year, it's happening too late and with little transparency or advanced, communication. Families are left in the lurch. If you don't want NES for your child, it's too late to use school choice. And if you're like the majority of Houstonians and can't go to just a private school, you're just stuck with a thing. Thank you. Hello. Jessica Yanez, proud Durham parent. You plaster our city in billboards and spend millions of our district dollars on a
daily propaganda channel that none of us are allowed to opt opt out of to run a nonstop, we're doing great, why do you hate us campaign. You seem to think that this is how you should build trust by lavishly shouting at an entire metro area that we should definitely like you. But even with the propagandizing, we hear the disrespect and the disregard. We want a real voice in what's happening in our communities and to our children. We don't wanna be gaslit, demeaned, and pat on the head as if superintendent always knows best.
Just today in the car pickup line at 03:00, YES Prep representatives were going up and down the car line passing out their materials to our parents, you know, trying to get some parents to peel off of the Durham community. So that's a testament to the weakness and distress. Thank you. Dana Ladner, Durham parent. I am sure that you are tired of us airing Durham's dirty laundry here every month. We're tired too. But our principal limits parent access, doesn't answer emails, and would rather hide in his office than communicate with us and explain why two
beloved teachers were summarily dismissed. When district officials come to gaslight, lecture, and tow the party line, when you seldom seem to take community input into account in major decisions and don't bother even make eye contact? What else are we supposed to do? Just trust you with no accountability? You haven't earned that, And that's not a fun that's not the fundamental principles of a representative republic. Here, this space, at least we get our legally mandated one minute to air our grievances to people none of us voted for and are not listening to us over and over again,
month after month. We did not elect you. Listen to us. Implement what we are asking. Thank you. Good evening. Christine Hamilton, Carrillo parent. In just a few weeks, our school community has endured constant disruption. First, the school consolidation and now a push to have Koreo become an NES campus. What is most troubling is not just the change, but how closed and dismissive this process has been. At last night's parents meeting, families came prepared with sincere questions about what this decision would mean for our children. Not a single question was answered.
The question cards were collected and the meeting was abruptly ended. After pressure from the parents, we were said, well, we're gonna maybe make an error FAQ, but without giving a timeline for when that would be available and without dialogue. We were told there was gonna be stat there is staff and parent support for this change, but the claims of parent support accounted to one parent on the SMDC that was not even present the day that the NES was discussed. To make sweaters worse, all of these changes were announced after school choice deadlines, stripping parents of real options. Of real options. Okay. All we're asking is for honesty parents to get Okay. All we're asking is for Thank you.
Thank you. Hi. My name is Audrey Nath. I'm the proud parent of two students in HISD HISD schools. So according to recent reporting from the Houston Chronicle just yesterday, it was reported that Harper disciplinary alternative education program was closed over winter break. And this is the fourteenth consolidation that's happened this year. And this is aside from the 12 school closures that we've been discussing. But unlike the other 12 school closures that we've been discussing, HISD did not put the decision to consolidate Harper before the board of managers.
And what's concerning is that this consolidation now forces these high school students with disciplinary issues to share a campus with middle school children. So we're talking about 18 year olds with serious disciplinary issues in a building with 11 and 12 year olds, and we, as parents and community members, want to know Thank you. We have a student, Ella Taylor. Student. Hi. I'm Ella Taylor, a senior at HISD. When I looked through the list of proposed of,
like, library materials that HISD proposed purchasing in the agenda, I thought back to something our superintendent had said. He talked about how our district was in faring divided, a tale of two districts. Miles said he was working to change that, but when I looked at the list, it seemed like an even greater tale of two districts. River Oaks Elementary is proposing to purchase 192 of the three sixty seven books on the list. Our district is 77.8% economically disadvantaged, yet half of the proposed book purchases in HIC are going to less than half of 1% of the kids in our district at a single school with a population that is less than 10% economically disadvantaged.
When you close libraries at economically disadvantaged schools, you take books away from the kids that need the libraries the most because their parents can't just buy kids books off of Amazon whenever they feel like it. You say you're ending the inequities within our district, but all you seem to do is increase them. Thank you. Diana Condito. Hi. My name is Diana Candida. I'm a parent, and I come and speak here month after month because I want this harmful takeover to end as soon as possible. Don't assume that because I'm on this side of the podium that what I'm saying is wrong. I urge you to think analytically about what you're being told by Mike Miles.
What's being done is illogical. How does closing libraries and firing librarians improve literacy? You have firsthand experience driving in Houston, so why do you think busing kids to another school for CTE programs you've closed at their own school seems like a good idea? And families who need wrap around services the most may not have reliable transportation. Prior to the takeover, families had access to resources they needed at their respective schools. Those students would perform better if they still had access at their schools. So please start thinking,
start listening to the parents and the kids in the community because what you're doing is harmful. And I know you want to do the right thing for Houston kids. Thank you. Thank you. Laura Henry followed by Kelly Vickrey. I'm Laura Henry, a parent. On slide 10 of the progress monitoring report, you're gonna hear that the district plans to provide structured literacy support for for secondary students who have not yet mastered foundational skills and will now pre teach vocabulary. Awesome. Totally necessary, but also really sad because that's what we needed in the first place. And you guys walked in looking for what was if you guys did that instead
of putting a wrecking ball to the entire district, you could have discovered that the day you came. You could have piloted strategies for that group of students instead of holding all students back, losing all the teachers, wasting all the money, and still not supporting the students that you came to help. For the last three years, teachers have been forbidden from pre teaching vocabulary because it took too much time. It should be apparent that Miles is interested in what he can brand and sell, even if he destroys something just to bring it back. So yay for pre teaching vocabulary. Why is he discovering now what we've always known?
The state gave Miles the opportunity to profit from Houston kids regardless of what he's He's their own business. Thank you. Good evening. Kelly Blickery, parent. This week, West superintendent Casey Bailey reported that nine additional schools are choosing to voluntarily opt in to the NES model. I have my doubts about the word voluntary here, but what do I know? I know this, enrollment at NES campuses is declining at about 9% compared to 1% at NES non NES schools. NES campuses cost at least 2,000
more per student on the low end, which is millions of dollars across the district. So you're telling me in an enrollment driven budget shortfall that caused you to close 12 campuses, you are expanding a deeply unpopular, more expensive model to even more schools. You know we still have to keep the lights on after y'all leave. Right? Thank you. Thank you. We've been joined by, elected trustee Savant Moore. Great. So, trustee Moore, would you like to, come up? Thank you. Good evening, Sabon Moore, trustee, HISD parent,
sixth grade teacher. First, I wanna publicly thank the 392,043 Texans that voted for me and the 90,000 Houstonians. Your voice matters, and I will continue to fight and advocate for you. This mic is powerful. We should never stop coming to it to advocate for our children. Never. Tonight, I'm thinking about Henriques, an 18 year old senior at Sam Houston that was deported to Honduras. I'm asking his board of managers and his superintendent to make sure that he gets his high school diploma. He was a captain of the soccer team about to graduate,
and yet he was deported. Even though ICE did our student wrong, we can still do right by him. I want to say we must fight for our humanity. Sometimes we get lost in our selfishness instead of our humanity. From ICE issues to school closures to broken promises, we cannot become known. Was closing. The barn's still not built. Checks not that were donated, still not cashed. Those are not small issues. They are broken promises. Parents should not be running from our district. They should be running to our district,
but that can only happen if we build trust through action. I wanna thank every teacher, every teacher aide, every assistant principal, and every principal that actually drives the data that we love to celebrate so much. Let's fix what's broken. Let's honor every student, every dollar, and every promise because our children are watching and what they wanna grow up to be the adults that you are. God bless you, and God bless HISD. Thank you. We have HISD student, Naya Duarte, and parent, doctor Anita Wadewa,
on Zoom. Good afternoon. My name is Naya, and I'm a fifth grade student. Right now, I'm reading books like Refugee, which is a room for seventh graders. But I'm confused. Why are there students in the higher grades who don't have access to books, I don't know, and are being given books that are far below their level by fourth grade books. It that is not fair. It makes me feel something that I learned from reading, a damnation. It make it means feeling upset with something that is unjust.
And honestly, this isn't even my biggest concern. My biggest concern is that 12 schools, places filled with history, community, and thousands of students are being shut down. Schools are more than buildings. They are where we learn, grow, and feel like we belong. So I wanna ask you, do you really care about us about students in HISD? Because your decision affects our future. Thank you. Thank you. Can I start? Yes, please go ahead. I was reading the Houston Independent School District board packet and I have to be honest,
the time use tracker is hard to take seriously. We're in a moment where students, families, and educators are asking to be heard. And yet instead of spending that time listening, the board is spending time tracking how it spends time, minute by minute, category by category. At some point, we have to ask when does the measuring start getting in the way of the mission? Because every minute spent documenting whether something counts as a student outcome is a minute not spent actually hearing from students, not hearing from families and communities directly impacted.
You reported spending 90% of your time on student outcomes, but if listening to us does not count in that number, then the metric is broken. We don't need more tracking, we need more listening. Thank you. This concludes our public comment from Group A. Okay. Before we move into the Meetings business, I'd like to ask Board members to share any reports or comments you have from since the last meeting, if you'd like to. Everybody good? Go ahead, Marty. Last week, I attended a Sunrise Center update, which they held at the Orem YMCA
Sunrise Center, all eight Sunrise Center leaders were there. It was very inclusive. It was very well attended and which really showed the strength of what they're doing for the communities in which they operate. Thousands and thousands of families use them for all sorts of purposes for food, for clothing, for uniforms, for physical health, for mental health, and just as a way to build community. And so I want to really applaud the work that's being done at the eight communities, Sunrise Centers. Great. I had the privilege of attending the,
annual luncheon held by the HISD Foundation where the superintendent gave remarks, but what I really wanted to talk about was the student performances. They were they were awesome. The the drum line was that from Austin High School? I'm trying to remember which high school it was. The mariachis from Sam Houston. The there was an elementary dance troupe that I didn't know elementary schools were doing that. They were all outstanding. And then it's always encouraging to see, the number of people who are giving and supporting to further more, that we can do for our students.
And so it was just a a a a great one. President Campo, you are recognized in absentia, but your your remarks were wonderful too. So it was a it was a great event. Thanks. Anybody else? What yeah. One more. Yeah. Go ahead. On, sorry. I just was looking up the date. On April 23, there's going to be a, two twenty twenty six state of the arts and education symposium at the Asia Society, which is gonna be a partnership between that organization and HISD and other school districts. It's it's gonna be from nine to 11:30. I plan to attend, but it also highlights,
I think, the, continuing work with this organization, and with the arts programs at HISD. So if you're interested at 09:00 on 2023 at the Asia Society, I happen to be the Chairman of the Asia Society Board, so I know where it's going to be. And we're very proud to be sponsoring this event, which I think will be very fulfilling and learning more about what's going on in the arts at HISD. Okay, great. Thanks. Okay. Up next, we have Board Member, Lauren Gore, who's going to read our proclamation for volunteers in public school recognition week.
Mister Gore. Thank you, president Campo. Right. Whereas every year, thousands of parents, businesses, and community partners support students and teachers in the Houston Independent School District by donating their time, resources, and knowledge. And whereas these con contributors serve in a variety of roles, including mentoring, tutoring, and assisting in the classrooms. And whereas a robust and successful education system requires community engagement and volunteers selflessly illustrate the power of that partnership.
And whereas National Public School Volunteer Week is observed during the April, now, therefore, we, the Houston Independent School District board and superintendents of schools, proclaim April 20 through April 24, twenty fourth twenty twenty six, volunteers in public schools recognition week in HISD, and encourage all to express appreciation for the dedicated supporters who assist and enrich the lives of our students and teachers. So in witness thereof on this April 2026.
Thank you. Next we'll, we will, have recognitions and reports from the superintendent. Mister Miles, you have the floor. Thank you, President Campo. Good evening. At this time, I would like to invite our Deputy Chief of Community and Family Engagement, Najah Callender, to come forward and introduce this evening's campus close ups and district recognitions. My name's Nadja Callender. I serve as the deputy chief of family and community partnerships, And this month is a good one. We are celebrating and recognizing our incredible HISD volunteers, and we are celebrating fifty five years of the volunteers in public schools program.
In HISD, volunteers can be found making a difference with students and families both inside and outside of the classroom. Volunteers act as field trip chaperones, classroom assistants, they pack hygiene items and food bags, they do beautification projects, and they celebrate teachers. On the screen here, I'll show you a few pictures of our volunteers in action. We celebrate volunteer contributions every year during National Volunteer Month at the VIPs recognition event, which will be held in a few weeks. Volunteers are nominated by their campuses and departments for awards in several categories.
Parent of the Year, Parent Volunteer of the Year, Senior Adult Volunteer of the Year, Youth Volunteer of the Year, Faith Groups, PTOs, and then an overall big impact award called the Jean Davis Myers Award. This year, HISD's VIPs program facilitated 56,070 volunteers. This is bigger than the Houston rodeo. So, congratulations to the district for that. These volunteers contributed more than 245,000 service hours to our school communities. So because the the awards event is in a few weeks,
I am not gonna share with you all who are who won this year, but I do wanna honor some folks who won last year. So we're gonna hear from our twenty four twenty five youth volunteer of the year, Samara Alfano. One of our outstanding nominees is Austin High School student Samara Alfaro. Samara has been involved with LULAC and has also contributed her time at events for senior citizens through the academic achievers program along with volunteering at the Houston Food Bank. She's very passionate for everything she does. She's gonna be a great community leader one day.
She's already doing a lot for our community at a young age, and I look forward to seeing what else she has to offer. Even through transportation challenges, Samara has managed to attend study sessions and volunteer daily at the local library while also participating in several community service events. The Towson community is so proud of Samara Alfaro with with all her contributions that she's made from ROTC to her academics. She's an amazing student, and she is well deserving of this award. Her determination is evident, and she has set an example by demonstrating to her peers that they too can
achieve their goals. I wanna thank those who nominated me and as well as giving back to my community because my community gave me a lot to me, so I wanna give something back. This evening are the stellar Sam Houston m t s oh, sorry. MSTC parent volunteers who have contributed more than thirteen hundred hours of service this year. So they are doing big things. They are the winners of the twenty twenty four, twenty five PTO volunteer group and some of my favorite people, but don't tell the other PTOs I said don't. So I'm gonna have them stand.
Thank you all. Every month, HISD Now takes a deep dive into our campuses to highlight the great work happening across the district. This segment is called campus close ups, and here's a look at the four campuses highlighted this month. Highlighting schools across HISD. In March, we visited four campuses, Revere and Black Middle Schools and Wheatley and Bel Air High Schools. We kicked off the month at Revere Middle School, home of the Patriots, where excellence and diversity go hand in hand. Students are building confidence through dance and karate, while others are already earning high school credit in engineering.
So this is a high school course. So if they pass this course, they get a free high school credit. Oh, oh. So they don't how to take it, when they go to high school. Week two took us to black middle school, where hashtag Panthers potential is on full display. Inside the classroom, students are taking on advanced academics and fine arts, while programs like band, student groups, and karate karate are helping them grow as leaders. You know, for the kids, you you have to, as a teacher, you have to be that person who who can not only motivate, but you also have to be that inspiration too. Week three brought us to Wheatley High School,
a campus with deep roots in the community and a strong sense of pride. From a playoff run on the court to a valedictorian heading to UNT and across campus, programs like culinary arts and JROTC are helping drive a real growth and opportunity for students at this b rated campus. In 10, I hope to see myself as a well experienced biomedical engineer who's making prosthetics for kids all over the world. And we wrapped up the month at Bel Air High School, where students are finding their path and aiming high. One senior has been accepted into Yale and Harvard,
and she's still weighing her options, while others are discovering passions in theater and embracing the school's diversity along the way. Bel Air High School is the type of community that truly fosters recognized, all of our school partners. Thank you, Deputy Chief, Najah Callender. Special thank you to Najah because I know that, your hard work is one of the reasons why we have so many volunteers in this district. So thank you, Najah. And, as they as they leave and you're you're welcome to leave. You don't have to stay for the rest of it. I do wanna thank them. You make a meaningful difference for our students and schools,
and we truly appreciate all you do. Thank you very much, volunteers. At this time, I would like to invite Chief of Staff Monica Dreyevsky and Courtney Thrash and her team from the Houston Education Research Consortium, HIRC, they will present their research on demographic shifts in HISD. This work provides insight into how our district is evolving and what those changes mean for our students and for our families and our future planning. We appreciate their efforts in helping us better understand these trends and inform our decisions.
After their presentation and questions, I will spend some time sharing an update on Earned Economy Framework. But right now, let us hear from Herc on the demographic shifts in HISD. The presentation. Oh, I'm so sorry. Okay. Hi. My name is Courtney Thrash. I'm a researcher at the Kinder Institute for Urban Research's Houston Education Research Consortium at Rice University. That's quite a mouthful, so we're commonly referred to as HERC. We are a research practice partnership. HISD is one of our eight partners in the Houston region. Our research agenda is jointly developed with our research with our district partners,
and we like to say that we do research with our partners, not on them. All of our research is done at no cost to our district partners. The research study I'm gonna talk about today started as a regional study looking at population change in the Houston region broadly. And it focused on the 68 districts that fall within the 10 counties in the Houston region. And that's a report in interactive dashboard was released yesterday. HISD asked us to take a closer look at what was happening within its district boundaries, and that led us to the following research question. How has the population living within Houston ISD's boundaries changed over time?
So why is it important to think about population change? Changes in the population living within changes in the population living within Houston ISD's boundaries, can affect enrollment. And there's multiple ways that this can happen. There's children being born in the district, children moving in and out of the district, and then, like, the presence of other educational options, like private schools, charter schools, homeschooling. And so the first two are some of the demographic processes that affect how many children live within the district and are therefore eligible for enrollment in the district.
And so this is going to be the focus of our presentation today. So I have four key findings that I would like to talk about briefly. First, the total population living within HISD's boundaries has increased, but the school aged population has remained very stable. The number of children born in the district has declined. There have been geographic shifts in the home language of children who live within the district, and there are now a lower proportion of children living below the poverty line than there were ten years ago. Importantly, changes are not uniform across the district.
So what's happening in one part of the district is not necessarily happening in other parts. So here we have a map showing total population change between 2013 and 2023. So, you'll see variations of this map throughout the presentation. And we use high school attendance zones as our geographic unit of analysis, and we focus on the population living within those zones. So across, you know, throughout the presentation, blues are going to represent kind of increases. Oranges are going to represent decreases and no color kind of represents stagnation or stable. And no no real change.
So in HIST, there's been a 6.9% increase in the total population between 2013 and 2023. That's, translates to about 96,000 residents. And we generally we see kind of like a pattern, on the eastern side of the district. We see, population stagnation or decline. In the western part of the district, we generally see population growth, obviously, with some notable exceptions. So next, we want to look at the students, the school age population. So those children age five to 17. So here we have a map showing percent change in the population.
In a school age children. In HISD, there has been a 1.4% increase in the population of school age children, which is about 3,000 additional, children within an HISD. So while the number of residents in HISD, like the total population has increased quite a bit, we haven't seen that same corresponding increase in the number of children. Additionally, total population change isn't always consistent with change in the school aged population, so I wanna give a couple of examples here. Wheatley High School is a zone where we are seeing that the population living within that zone is actually stable,
So they haven't had big population change as far as total population, but we have seen that, the number of children living in that zone has declined. Another example is Madison High School. This is a zone in which the total population is actually increasing. There are more people living there today than there were in 2013, but the population of children is declining. We can also look at the number of children being born in HISD. So between 2013 and 2023, there was a 9.4% decrease in births, which translates to about 2,000 fewer children being born every year in the district. Slightly over half zones show declines in births.
Majority of the other show kind of stability, and then there's only two high school zones where we're seeing more children born today than they were in 2013, and both of those are in and around the heights. So what does all this mean? How do we think about all three of these components and what it means and how it can affect potential enrollment in the district? And so I picked a few zones just kind of randomly and I'm gonna show how we can put all of this information together and what it means for enrollment. I'm gonna focus on two zones that included in the appendix, of the presentation that was provided. There is going to be this for every zone high school zone in the district.
So Austin High School, on the east side of the district is declining on all three measures. So the total population living within Kewpa Austin High School has declined. The percentage of children or the population of children living within Austin High School has declined, and births are declining. So that means that there are fewer people in the district who could have children. There are currently fewer children in the district who would be eligible to attend school in the Chai State, And there are also fewer children being born who could potentially attend HISD, right, or eligible for enrollment. And so,
really, what that means is that barring a change in any of these patterns, barring more kids being born, barring mobility into the zone. That is a zone that's gonna see fewer and fewer children living within it that are eligible for a limit. We can look at another example, Heights High School. This is a zone where we are seeing an increase in the total population, an increase in, the student, school age population, and an increase in births. And so once again, there's more people who are there who can't have children, more children currently living there, and more children being born who could one day attend HISD.
And so this is a zone that barring, major changes to those patterns is going to see more children eligible to attend school in HISD. And like I said, for all of the other zones, these maps are provided for you. So we've looked at how the number of people living, in the district and the number of children being born in the district has changed, but it's also just important to think about how the characteristics of the population has changed because that has implications for the types of services that the students who show up in your schools might need. And so changing demographics as far as numbers might signal changing needs of students.
And so we, picked two characteristics to think about, home language and poverty among students among children living in HISD's languages. So, we have seen geographic changes in the home language of children living in HISD. For instance, in the Upper Northeast around North Forest, we've seen a decrease in the percentage of children speaking English and an increase in the percentage of children speaking Spanish. Conversely, in areas around the heights, we have seen an increase in the percentage of children speaking English and a decline in the percentage of children speaking Spanish. And so these, changes affect,
you know, affect what kinds of services students showing up might need. Right? So areas of the district where maybe historically English language services have not been heavily needed, there might be more of a need now. We we've also seen a decline in the number of children living below the poverty in the district. But even though there's been a oh, I'm gonna slide that back out. That's okay. Even though there's been a decline, in poverty, 26% of children living within HISD's boundaries live below the poverty line or living below the poverty line in 2023, which is higher than many other large cities in The US.
In 2026, the federal poverty line for a family of four was $33,000. So that is not a lot of money to live off of these days. In 2026, the federal poverty line for a family of four was $33,000. So one in four children are living in households that are maybe less than that. We also don't know if the decline in poverty will be sustained. So after or during COVID, there were some tax policies put into effect that did move the needle on child poverty. We saw that nationally. And we don't know if, since those policies have elapsed, we don't know if that there's gonna be that sustained decrease in poverty moving forward.
And importantly, overall population trends don't always align with who enrolls in HISD. So although we have seen a decline in overall poverty, for residents living within HISD, the number of, HISD students who are economically disadvantaged has remained much higher. So thank you for the opportunity to speak today. If you are interested in our regional briefing dashboard that was released yesterday, there's a QR code on the screen that will take you to, that, and it includes district specific information about Houston ISD and the 67 other school districts in the region. We look forward to continuing our work with HISD on this and other projects,
and I am now going to pass over to Monica. Before we move on, would you like to ask any questions? Amari is going to okay, good, good. Okay, great, because I know there's some questions. Okay. I wanna begin by sharing my gratitude to the HERC team for the work and the partnership that we have with HERC. This holistic data is incredibly insightful and will continue to support our district's strategic decision making. And so when HURC shared this data with us, a couple of weeks ago, we wanted to go ahead and layer on the locations of the school closures for
school year 2627. And as you can see on this slide, the data validates the internal demographic analysis that we conducted, as part of the holistic data review that we did to make decisions on school closures. And so as you see on this slide, the majority of our closing campuses are in zones that have experienced a large decrease in births, while the remaining four campuses are in areas where we've seen a moderate decrease or have been stagnant as far as the number of students who have been born in those areas.
And as you saw in the previous slides, these, zones on the East Side were kind of affected by all three components that Courtney shared with us. And so, that is, of course, coupled with the aging facilities that we have, and so those were all the data points that we looked at when we made the decisions around the school closures. And so I just wanted to quickly speak to what is next as far as how we use demographic data like this, as part of a comprehensive data review process. And so this robust demographic data will be incorporated into our annual strategic school review
process. Demographic data, campus utilization data, enrollment, facility quality, and academic performance data are all critical inputs in the process that we use, every single year to look at our campuses. These data points will continue to inform future school actions, such as consolidations and collocations, strategic facility investments where we see zones where we're continuing to see an increase in the population, as well as, very insightful for programmatic decision points, such as where to expand pre k,
what languages to offer, and potentially locations of Sunrise centers based on where we see an increase in poverty rates. And so with that, I wanna open it up to any questions that you have either for Courtney or myself about the data presented. And we'll start on this side. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for the presentation. My question is on your slide that shows, I believe, a moderate increase in other languages spoken. I'm curious if there are any surprises about what those other languages are, or are they just an increase in the languages that are already spoken in that
area? I do not know exactly what languages. So sorry. I I don't have that that off the top of my head. I the reason we had to group all the other languages is just for data, you know, security concerns. So I don't know, what exactly those languages. I imagine it's probably, like the Vietnamese is those kind of, common names, but I I don't know if I took them out. I apologize. Thank you. And, chief of staff, my question to you is, as a district, how do we accommodate those other languages? As a as a board, what factors or levers might we consider that you would need to use to accommodate
those other languages that students might be bringing and that they need to be successful in school? Great question. I'd likely defer to the superintendent or deputy superintendent whole as far as the academic adjustments. But, we provide differentiation and scaffolds for students, you know, across the district. We have students who speak a number of different languages. So I'll let the superintendent speak a little bit more to to those specifics on the the language support that we we provide. Yes. And then, you know, we have a number of ESL teachers, English as a second language interventionist. And so depending on the type of school and the number of students,
you'll see that sort of programming. And I think we haven't yet used translation as much as we probably will in the future, but that's another way we'll be addressing those languages. Anything else, Kristen? That's about it. When we look at the when we make staffing decisions around the the ELD, the language interventionist, we look at the number of students who are coded, as English as a second language so that we can ensure that the staffing ratio is appropriate based on where we see the increase in students with different home home languages.
So, just so I understand the methodology, this is a ten year ten year review? Is that how? Yes. We used, for the population estimates, we used American Community Survey. So those are conducted, between the decennial census. And then we also used both data from the Texas Center for Health Statistics, and we looked to, yes, it from 2013 to 2020 2023. And that was because at the time that we were getting data, the 2024 release of the ACS had not happened yet. So that was the most recent data we could get. Okay. Great. And and so we obviously,
look at data at a much more frequent cadence within, you know, our our, district. Can you tell tell us a little bit about what our internal methodology is for because we're so nimble and we think about this stuff every year and, you know, maybe maybe you could provide some context as to how what our methodology is for how we review this because this is almost like a belt and suspenders approach. It's it's confirming a lot of things that our internal analysis brought to light. Mhmm. So maybe you could talk a little bit more about that and how you're thinking about, you know, our methodologies going forward and just from a practical measuring standpoint.
Sure. We have a full time demographer on staff at Houston ISD who we've been partnering with very closely. She runs our projections data that we use to inform our staffing decisions, our budgeting decisions. And so she looks, over five years, and makes strategic decision points based on all the inputs that she has. She can be more specific than I can, but we have an internal demographer who does this, professionally because to your point, we can't wait, for when these studies come out. We have to continue to do it, but it's helpful to have these studies come out and,
validate the internal projections that we're doing. The other thing, and this happens every year and actually all year long. We look closely at the enrollment projection, the actual enrollment, either increase or decrease. And then we also have a breakdown of the demographics to the students, Hispanic, African American, white populations in each school and how many kids are attending, how many have enrolled this year versus last year. And we do that actually every time I go to school, I get a printout over the last four years of the numbers and the types
of students who are enrolled in that school. And that we roll up all the time and Executive Directors pay attention to that, the Chiefs of Schools. And so even right now, because we're doing budgeting, and the schools have their budgets, we had to give them an enrollment projection. And that's based on the demographers, yes, and the trend that that school has seen over the last five years. Well, I just would follow-up. I celebrate that that, you know, intense focus around these demographics because I think one of the wonderful parts about being in Texas is that a lot of people wanna come into the great state of
Texas. The down maybe downside or the challenging part is that things are, you know, quite volatile in terms of specific neighborhoods and specific streets and specific school communities. So I really appreciate that the team is staying on top of that and and watching it closely because things can move, and we wanna be as supportive as we can to the school as it sits on any given year. I just have one question. I understood, you talked about, maybe we have people moving in, but not school age children. I'm wondering about the people moving in. I'm assuming that these are young people moving in to the loop,
and it's expensive. That's what I'm assuming. Do do we have data on, like yeah. Maybe they don't have kids yet, but we're talking about 30 year old moving in. Is that am I I'm just saying that from what I'm seeing, but is am I on track with that? Do you y'all look at that? Are there is it that we're just not there yet and in ten years, it'll look different because they'll have children, or do we not know? Yeah. We we don't know exactly. So, yeah, I do think rising housing prices and just cost of living is is driving some of this. I think it's even driving some of this mobility,
that we see in home language of children. So there is a possibility that it is young professionals moving in who, don't have children yet. But we also know that young professionals generally have lower birth rates. Right? They they have fewer children. So I think it's it remains to be seen, what what that is. And there's there's ways to estimate it, but, obviously, until it happens, we don't really we don't know for sure. But, yeah, that is a possibility, in in some of the regions of of the district and something, especially, like, east and town. I think my question might be more for the soup. And I'm not sure how to quite answer this.
Maybe from a project manager standpoint, this is a lot of data and you're telling us we do our own data, right? So it all gets kind of mixed together, which is important. From a big picture perspective, when we get all this data, who in our district starts delegating everything, right? So much, okay, you get this, you get special ed information, you get this. Is there one person within the administration that just looks at it as a whole and then says, this is in your area, this is in your area to bring it back together so that we can know
what to do with it. Does that make sense? Yes. There is no one person. It depends on the function. So for example, you mentioned demographer. Right now, we have to make budget estimates and we have to estimate what is our possible enrollment decline. So that in that case, the demographer is working with finance and they have a small team that says, this is what the enrollment projection is. And part of it's looking at research like the HERC research and part of it's looking at enrollment declines. Last year, for example, our democracy did really well,
except for the possible impact of the immigration policies. Other than that, the information was really good. For possible movement forward on school future school closures or whether or not we need to ensure that we put a modular somewhere because of enrollment increase. Steve Chaffee, Chief of Staff and the data team, Rachel Rucker and that group, are looking closely at that data and have assigned them that so that we don't invest a lot of resources facility wise in schools that might close two years from
now. And we can also suggest to the Board reasonably what should be next on the list or what shouldn't be even with the medium FCI. So FCI is also connected closely with this data. And so Alicia Jolivette and that crew is looking at that data. So there's no one orchestrator of this, but every department, almost every department uses the data. And we have a good dashboard with all of this data that's available to all
the chiefs. And if I can just add for this particular study, like the superintendent mentioned, my my central data and impact team, they have already convened a group of internal stakeholders who we believe all have a role to play in this. Right? Even when we think about recruiting students back, into the district, when we think about pre k expansion. And so she has already convened that group and shared this data with them so that they can begin to incorporate it in their work as well. I have a quick question. Would you put back the put up the Austin High School
slide? Yes. Okay. Great. So on this slide, not great. The data is not great from from an enrollment perspective. When you look at ten years of population decrease, ten years of children population decrease and then births decreasing, the simple math is that over a long period of time, the customers, young children, have been disappearing, right? Because they're not in the district, they're not being born. And so the only thing that can happen to a school that faces this kind
of demographic shift is the loss of enrollment, correct? That's the math. And as good reason Houston put out just in the last couple of months, a chart that showed all districts in Houston and that same demographic shifting is causing lower enrollment across the Houston area. Now the interesting part is the Census Bureau just came out with their 2024, twenty twenty five numbers that came out and they do it through June 30 of every year.
And Houston was one of the cities we added 124,000 people. The people, however, were in the North Part, Montgomery County and Fort Bend. So the Harris County did actually add people, but they but the central city and especially the East Side has been having population issues and children issues for a long time. This is not new. So the good reason Houston study showed that this trend is not the friend of enrollment. And ultimately,
all schools, especially urban schools, are going to be facing this issue for a long period of time. The other equation that's out there is that is that people if you look at twenty years ago, people got married in their 20s, now they get married in their 30s. If you think about first children, they used to have first children in their mid 20s, now it's into the 30s. And so you have this longer term issue about people having fewer children and having the children later in life. So this trend is not gonna turn around anytime soon and we need to be
prepared for it. And I think it's really important to get data internally and to partner with the Kindred Institute. We really appreciate that partnership and with these other entities, because at the end of the day, the revenue stream for all urban schools is going down. And we're going to have to figure out a way to use our resources in a way that maximizes the utility of what we have for the students that remain. And that's going to be an existential problem for every every urban school district going
forward for the foreseeable future. Can I add something, sir? So one of the things that we mentioned a little bit about poverty and economics, but we've asked her to look a little bit more closely at the economic factors, whether it's rising housing costs, the availability of affordable housing, that sort of thing, because that also impacts enrollment. You just have to look at like the good reason Houston report showed that Aldine and Pasadena had a higher enrollment decline. More kids left Aldine and Pasadena
percentage wise than Houston. And that probably has something to do with economics, not just demographics. And so that would be another interesting area to pursue because I think that also will have a long term impact on parts of our community. Yes. Yes, we are pulling some of those measures to try to look at just changing housing prices and median income things of that nature. I I will say, generally, across every single zone, there's been, housing, increasing the housing prices. We're also looking, planning to look at,
kinda charter school locations. I mean, in the eastern part of the district is there's been a proliferation of charter schools in the past past few decades. So, we're also looking at that and how that may impact enrollment because while we have seen a decline in the population, there's still thousands of students in these areas that need to be served. Can you just real quick see the slide on Heights High School? Yes. Thank you. I'm good. We'll be sure the board has access to all we have this slide for all the zones, so we'll make sure that you all have that in your appendix. Did that spur any other questions? Okay. Great. Well, let's move on.
Thank you so much for the data. We really appreciate partnering with the Kinder Institute. Thank you. All right. Mr. President, members of the board, I would like to spend just a few minutes talking about, learned autonomy framework. So just quick history, three years ago when the administration came in and the Board of Managers took over, we had a problem. We had two seventy four autonomous schools, 121 of them were DNFs. So clearly, we had a problem and the problem that we were trying to solve is on the board as you see it and that is how to allow for some flexibility
and innovation at high performing campuses because it was a tale of two districts while significantly improving low performance schools and maintaining rigorous expectations for all in one system. And the bottom line is the top line only, you don't have to read the rest of the screen if you want, but schools that have high performance should have more autonomy and yet that autonomy should be earned. And coming into a system of two seventy four schools, we didn't know who really had earned it.
Yes, there were some high performing campuses, some of them had high achievement gaps, some had higher populations of students who were already proficient, so who has really earned the autonomy in instructional expectations? So we didn't have earned autonomy, we had defined autonomy. And you see the list here, this is the system that we put in place towards the end of the first year, you may recall. In the spring, this was rolled out and then this is currently the system we have and we're moving to an earned autonomy framework now that we've had three years of data and
instructional focus to move forward. So just again, for context, the thing about the defined autonomy, people had autonomy in certain things. For example, if you were an A or B rated school or an SUS school, you could pick your curriculum, you could use any curriculum, but the district wouldn't pay for it. The district would pay for three selected or vetted curricula if you chose one of those. NES schools had no autonomy around curriculum and they used the HSE curriculum.
But hardly anybody had autonomy over instruction, and that was one of the pain points in the in the in the district and communities around little instruct little autonomy over instruction. In other words, everybody used a teacher evaluation system, the same one. Everybody had the principal evaluation system. Everybody had spot observations and things like that. Instruction was not autonomous. So what we would like to do and moving towards is to have autonomy levels
based on not just one year of accountability, which we did in the first year, so over three years of accountability data. SUS and NES are not automatically given the highest level of autonomy or the lowest level of autonomy. Autonomy levels at the time did not differentiate over an evaluation system and it did not incorporate achievement gaps, so we want to change that. So autonomy will be based now on multi year academic performance. Eligibility is based on TEA accountability ratings and achievement gaps,
instructional authority and decision making is earned and if the board approves, this is the area where if the board doesn't approve, they'll have level three autonomy. Level four and five will have more autonomy, but only if that board approves an eighteen eighty two partnership. Level three, two and one operate within the current defined autonomy system, but level three has more autonomy than level one. So here are the new five levels of autonomy. The board has already entertained
level five for four of the schools, and any futures will also the board will either approve or not approve any future level five schools which is full autonomy. We'll talk about that in a minute. Level four is similar to level five because instead of four consecutive a ratings, they have in four years three a's and one b. So they've earned a level of autonomy because we feel pretty certain that they will maintain that.
And all of these come with lower than average achievement gaps. Level three is what you would think right now the highest level of time is today and then level two for High C rated schools and level one is for NES and special focus skills. So again, level five and four, only if approved by board of managers. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Any school with four A's. This year was only high schools. In the future, we'll open it up to middle. And then, again, this is a board decision for 1882,
so board decision for level five and four. And then eventually we will open it up to elementary as well. But it's good to call out that this year was only high schools were eligible. And I want to be clear on a couple of things. There's little autonomy for schools that don't do well academically for kids. And so if a campus receives an F rating at the end of the twenty five-twenty six school year, we think that would it's not likely to happen, but if they do, they will automatically become an NES campus.
And if a campus receives a D rating at the end of twenty five-twenty six, they will automatically become a special focus campus. So we have a goal of only A and B schools and students should not have to go to a D or an F rated school. And really, we're trying to make it so that no school no child will go to a C rated campus. These are the eligibility that you have this document, so I'm not gonna read it, but it shows you the eligibility for these different levels. Level four and five,
again, the biggest thing is about the accountability rating four years in a row or out of four years only one beat in the rest of us. You can see there's also an achievement gap. We know we need to narrow that to part of the performance contract that you signed with before is that they had to bring down, decrease their achievement gap by five percentage points in just five years. So even though 25 gives you eligibility and almost all of them had a lot lower than 25, they still have to decrease it by five percentage points.
Level three, you can see there, most of our schools will be level three if they're not NES because they're A or B rated. We have 197 A and B rated schools today. We'll have more than that hopefully, pretty sure, by the end of the start period, which just started, by the way, today. Again, I won't read this, but this shows you that there's each level has several economies outlined pretty clearly in the document called Earned Economy Framework. Level four and level five have almost full autonomy and it's the autonomy granted in
the performance contract that you signed with the level five schools, which is full autonomy. Even to the point where they have their own evaluation system that they want, their own instructional program, their own spot observations, salary schedule, all of that. So there's several errors and these are not much different than the ones we had in the defined autonomy document. The biggest difference between level two and level one is if you're level two, so you're a C rated school,
we we will probably insist on a couple of things that, you would not have autonomy over. For example, you're C rated or you have a huge achievement gap, your gap is 40%, then you must have ninety minutes of math and ninety minutes of ELA in your schedule. And you can design your schedule the way you want, but there better be ninety minutes of math and ninety minutes of ELA in your schedule. We will also probably, depending we will review your curriculum. If we don't think it's strong enough and tied to the Texas standards,
then we will insist on the HISD curriculum. So every school will be specific about that, and so you will lose a little bit of autonomy in that way. We still you know, despite the earned autonomy or defined autonomy framework, we're still really keen in on hone in on special education and minority team of cap, and so all schools have to do work on special ed compliance and minority team of cap as you see on the screen. The level five will do it their way, but that is something that we wrote into their performance contract on SPED compliant and
minority treatment gap. I know that was fast, but you have the document. I'm prepared to answer any questions. Superintendent Miles, I like the framework. It's great. I like how it's how clear this presentation was. It's very helpful. If you're a parent and you are in a a school or a b school or c school, how should you interpret this information? Well, I I think for for parents, the way you should interpret it is if you're in A or B, you have a lot more economy than the rest of the district, especially if you're level five or four,
so if you're A for several years. But if you're normal a and b, like you had two years in a and two years of b, that's really good and you have a fair amount of autonomy. However, you are still part of the teacher value system and the principal value system. For your child, I know we we talked about these frameworks. For a student experience, they're not gonna experience much different. Even even if a school loses some autonomy, that teacher student interaction is still gonna be strong and tight. It just might be more math,
more language arts, and it's in a slightly different filter. And is it the plan is to roll this out for the 2627 school year? Yes, sir. So we are waiting for the accountability results to come out. That'll be August? The the initial ones that that what they call the first preliminary is going to be in June. Okay. The second preliminary is usually in sometime in July, and then the third and final will be in August. So we'll we'll base a lot of this on our initial preliminary in June towards
the June. And if we have to make adjustments, we you know? And and so, you know, you're talking about level four is also gonna end, so we wouldn't have any of those next year. That's correct, sir. Okay. So so there will be no more for that. Five for this year and and level four for this year. And and so there will be the four that we've already approved. Everybody else, even if they're high performers, they're gonna be basically in that third and and level three, earned autonomy. That's correct. And, part of that is because, one, only the board can approve that. And so
we wouldn't be able to approve it in August and then put things in place for that school year. So it's it's there is a little bit of delay, but it is there's a delay. And so I guess what really what it boils down to is there will be the four autonomous schools, and then now we've got three levels. Yes. And if you if you notice again, the level three is what level four is today. So level three is, is is really what the highest autonomy schools are having today, not counting level five. Is is level four
level three is the same as that. How does NASPUA overlay this or underlay this whichever way you wanna think about it? So NAS has very little economy. They always have had little economy. They are level one. The only PUA schools that are level one are the ones that would either be a d or an f, campus or a special focus school. So I don't know how many special focus schools will have it depending if they have a D or low C or if the trend line is like they went from
90 to 80 to 70 in three years. So there will be a small number of PUA schools that are special focus. Go ahead. Follow-up on the last question. So if an NES campus over four years got As and lowered the achievement gap, how does that fit into this equation? Yes. So in the earned economy framework, if an NES school has three accountability ratings in a row, that's an A, starting with this year, they're allowed to ask to apply to leave the NES orbit and become a PUA school.
And so and it will not be unreasonably denied. I always say this as an asterisk. I I think it's gonna be rare that an NES school, even with three As, would apply to leave the NES orbit because the salaries are higher, they they get teacher apprentices, they get learning coaches, and we'll see. I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but I suspect I won't be. We have special focus schools today that are no longer gonna be just special focus schools, we believe, who are asking for learning coaches and and, teacher apprentices.
We also have special focus schools that wanna be NES because they don't wanna lose the the salaries that are not the salaries, but the, apprentices and learning coaches, and they want the salaries of NES. I have a few more questions. So eighteen eighty two was created for low performing schools and for innovation, and I understand with the eighteen eighty twos that that we did, those four schools were clearly innovative, long history of specialization. But now we're saying the criteria is just achievement scores, and the achievement gap.
And I don't see how that's predictive of a campus proving that they can innovate and can handle all that burden. So how are you thinking about that? Because those seem like two different definitions. Yeah. So that there's one is an eligibility, and the other is what is approved through your application. Remember that the eighteen eighty two partners level five and future level four have to apply. And in that application, they have to show and prove to the board and the TEA, otherwise TEA won't grant eighteen eighty two rights. They have to prove that they have either the ability to turn around the school
on the one side or to innovate on the other. So you see that in in the programs that we brought to you. Yes, they were eligible, but they still had to pass the application process. They had to get by you and then they also had to get by TEA. And, so in in our applications, for example, energized was talk we talked about how they would offer greater programming because they have a little bit more money, expand some programs, and and things like that. So, that's what would happen. But that but then that application is being you're looking at that application.
So the board aspect of us, we are not we haven't seen any assessment for innovation. We don't have any criteria for innovation at this point. Correct? That that's right. And and but as part of the process, we could, what happens is that if the board approves the contract, that contract would not even have started without the application process going forward. So maybe to remedy that, we also showed you the application. But we attest to the fact that they passed an application that has to go to DEA.
Well, to your point, ultimately the board has to prove it. So if we want to set a criteria that says it has to be innovation or turnaround, then we can do that. And then in addition, the TEA has to approve that as well. So they're not they have another level of authority and level of rigor that they apply to it as well. Right. That's right. For sure. That's the way I would see it working. Okay. I still got more questions. So we've got this new goal of all AB campuses. And so if we meet our goal, then virtually everyone,
not everyone, but virtually the district, this is available to everyone. And so I'm trying to think long term about this and what we're saying because we're taking four and five and wrapping it in 1882. So conceivably, 80%, 90% of the district could comply could apply. So then a board would have to manage innumerable other boards. And so I don't see how that's setting us up for success. Like, the success of success, which we want, we want all students to learn. If we're wrapping it up in in this in District 1882,
where does it stop? And we have we now then created a monster that a board cannot manage, and we want to set the board up for success. And what are the parameters around size? Because we are now making a virtual decision that then says we're fundamentally changing what our district is and what it means. And so I wanna make sure that we're all super clear of the down the line ramifications. So can you talk about your bigger goal of if we meet everything and we are all a campuses,
how are you envisioning this district and what that means and how anybody could manage all that? I I can. Context first. There's there's such a thing as a portfolio model, and this district actually had that. That's where 274 schools were autonomous. The difference was it wasn't earned, and every school was doing their own thing. No. You didn't have 274 individual boards, but you had 274 schools doing their own thing the different curriculum, the different, class schedules. Some few things that were the same because of transportation,
but there was great variability in what they were doing. And I appreciate that you have that you have put us in the right direction. I wanna make sure we don't, you know, create something that that creates the very same problem. That's right. Let me answer that then. But I I wanted to give you the context because, you know, it's it was a monster, and it was it was unearned autonomy, and now we we have, you know, put some parameters. The reason why there's only four out of 274 schools, level five autonomy is because we're very conscious of the fact that,
we need to do this slowly and there may have to be a cap on the number of schools. So that's why we started with four. I I messaged some other at another meeting, that we probably would add only a handful more next year and maybe a handful of level four if the board approves. And I think the board is in in control of the accelerator, whether we do more or whether we do less. I do think that if you get to 200 and some autonomous schools with their own board, that would be unwieldy and unwise.
Just logistically. We still are one district and we still have kids who come to us who are, who are either underserved, challenged by poverty, challenged by Langley Berry. We have an unknown future coming with workforce and workplace. So the move, the board, and the administration, to go slow, especially around these 1882 partners or So can I ask you though your real endgame vision? Because go slow towards what? Like, what are you seeing is the right fit? Because we're talking about structural changes to the district,
and I wanna make sure we're clear about our workforce as the staff work on that. K. So so we're diverting from the broader picture here and what I don't think we are. Oh, I think we are. This is not a debate about eighteen eighty two's right now. I I promise I'm not debating. I I I just want to be clear. I promise I'm not debating. I really would like questions answered. The your question, though, is what is your future vision of eighteen eighty two and eight That's not my question. I do. My question is, you've got a framework for a series of schools and how we can innovate,
how we can have the best outcome for kids, and how we can capitalize on funds to do that. I understand that. I would like to know because you're envisioning this. You're saying, well, maybe so you say you agree that it wouldn't work if everyone is this way. This is your your plan you're envisioning. So I'm saying, and your best estimation of what would work best for our district based on your leadership now and what you're envisioning for other people in the future, how are you seeing this? Because I want to make sure we have the right framework for the beginning.
So what are you saying this would look like? Yeah. So, I mean, part of that will be, you know, part of that will be informed by how this process rolls out. I'm I'm optimistic that the four level five schools that the board approved is gonna work well. We know that we have to work out some bugs because this is this is a new thing for the district. There's still education that has to be done for 1882. What's what's the difference between that and how much autonomy I have?
I'm not a charter school. I'm an eighteen eighty two. So even though we we move faster, we also move in a way that is informed by practice. So long story short, I don't know what the optimal number is. I will know in the next and you will know in the next couple of years what logistically can be done and what the negative consequences are. If if it turns out that the eighteen eighty twos, decrease access and equity, then maybe we wanna slow down even more. Maybe we wanna stop.
But I don't know that to be sure. My my assumption is that it won't. My assumption is that it will be good for kids, especially in those schools, and that means it'll be good for the district as a whole. And once we get an inkling that it's not, then it's time to to put on the brakes. But, again, you all are you all are the you're you're in control of the accelerator. I can propose all I want. But And I I appreciate your answer. Understand. I'm I'm literally asking the question because these are important questions and I do want to know how you're envisioning this.
Thank you. Great. Thanks. There'll be a lot more discussion about this issue in the future for sure. Anybody else? Okay. All right. Thank you. Went dark. I don't see this. Okay. Now we're discussing the report of the Agenda Item one. So we're going to get a presentation on the Board monitoring update, Tools three and four and Progress Ventures 3.4, three point five and four point one and four point two. Mr. President, I would like to invite up Allison Lavecki and Deputy Superintendent, Kristen Holt. Encampo,
members of the board, superintendent Miles. I'm here to present, the progress monitoring report on GPMs 3.4, 3.5, and GPMs four point one and four point two. We're going to begin with goal three. And as a reminder, of the top line summative metric we have, goal three is tied to TSI readiness and IBC achievement. This is, data that was presented to you previously and it is also lagged. So this is class of 2024 data that we see here.
When we look at current data related to GPM 3.4, this is the performance of HISD students in grades four through eight and their performance on reading and our all students in this group is at 64% med expected growth, which is above the target of 55. When we look at this data broken out by NES and PUA, we see both school types are achieving above the target of 55. When we look at the data split by NES and PUA and also the programs served, again, we see student groups performing consistently above the target of 55 in rating.
GPM 3.5 is our students in fourth through eighth grade and their performance on the math assessment. What percentage of these students met expected growth, and here are all students are performing at 58%, which is above the target of 55. Looking here by grade level, we see that all students and split out by NES and PUA, we see that all students are performing across both school types above the target of 55. And these are the percentage of students that met expected growth on the math assessment.
I should have probably clarified, but this is the same metric that we saw in last month's presentation. The only difference here is we're looking at fourth through eighth grade instead of just third grade performance. So, this is true for all the GPMs related to Goal three. Looking at NES PUA split out by program, again, above the target of 55. And I'm going to let deputy superintendent Hulte talk through these strategies. Hi. Good evening, board of managers. To address and support, continued growth in this area, I'm gonna start with reading language arts. So a couple of things we're doing is staying focused on our most struggling readers
and upper grades. In the TEKS and in the standards, there's less focus on building foundational skills in those grades because the state assumes that kids already know to read at that point. So we are adding courses that specifically focus on structured literacy support for our students who demonstrate that they still need support, in in decoding and multi syllabic words in those upper grades. So we're adding a foundational literacy intervention there, and then we're also adding a pre teach course. So you can think of a pre teach course as a student students who get access to their tier one lesson ahead of time.
They have a chance to pre read text, to front load vocabulary. So by the time they attend their tier one lesson, they're better able to access that lesson with the rest of the class. So we'll have those additional courses for curriculum and then those, implemented on campuses. For math, our accelerated math program at the middle school level will also continue to support growth for these students. Those students will receive additional support in sixth and seventh grade and then in eighth grade if they still need an extra year of support they'll be able to do that eighth grade course again. So those are initiatives we'll continue to implement next year.
For both reading and math we are focused on content focused teacher and leader training and implementing new and additional training supports for teachers as we go into next year, both in the summer and throughout the year. And then we've continued to talk about our special education co teach model where our special education teachers and our general education teachers can teach classes together, where special education teachers can leverage the content expertise of general education teachers and then general education teachers, leverage the expertise of the in-depth knowledge those special education teachers have of students in
their individual IUPs and have us the best support support them and accommodate them for learning in the classroom. So we'll continue to expand co teach across our general education classrooms as well. What we have we're going to a goal four. So if you have questions about goal three, we can answer them now before we go to the next goal. Yeah. So this is all based on number of students achieving the expected growth. Is that is that a number that comes from NWEA? Is that an internal number? Yes. So, we look at all of the students who take the MAP test and the percent
that reach their individual growth target. So every student will get a growth target personalized to them, and we look at the percent that get it and the percent that don't. Can you help us understand a little bit what goes into what a particular student's growth target is? So the actual assessment, though, the way that the assessment works is a student will take a question, and NWEA will continue to give that student harder questions until they get a question wrong, and then they'll basically find the level at which that student is operating and use
that to give that student a particular rate score. Then based on that student's rate score, they'll get a growth target from where they start to how much they should grow typically in a semester's worth of time. And Allison is also an expert here, so she can add to that. They really they really look at three specific specific things of setting the target. It is for similar students with a similar starting rate form, like Deputy superintendent Hall said. A similar grade level and a similar number of instructional weeks. So you're only compared against students that have had ten weeks of instruction or twenty
weeks of instruction or however many our students have in HISD. They're also compared to students with the same amount of instruction. So we had a a presentation from a gentleman from the NWEA Yes. That's two months ago. Mhmm. And he was talking about how you've got some, like, the raw scores. I I remember numbers from, you know, two zero five to two ten. And so a student gets a a raw score, and then there is data historically that says fourth graders who score a two ten tend to gain you know,
tend to get to a two twenty five With 10 instructional weeks or 20 Okay. Instructional weeks. Yes. Alright. And so and so again, I guess, the the point being, this is these are normed based on national norms based on number of instructional instructional weeks based on students' baseline and their grade level? Yes, sir. Great. Thank you. Excuse me. There as I looked across all the categories, the higher growth appeared the NES students appeared to provide higher growth,
achieve higher growth than the PUH. Is there some correlation there to anything or is that just random? I don't know. You go back to several of those categories and the NES NES students had higher levels of growth than the PUA students. I would say the the NES model specifically focuses on strong differentiation for And so students in the NES model, they have ninety minutes of time in reading and math. And in that block of time, they have a specifically designed curriculum where if students did not master that objective,
they get extra time with the teachers where that teacher can reteach that same concept to the student, in a different way and give them more time to comprehend and understand while other students get more advanced work. So the model is designed for differentiation, which really can help drive growth. It works. Thank you. And thank you for answering all of our questions that we submitted in advance. I know there were a lot of them. I have two questions with respect to Goal three. The first is, how many students on Slide one are TSI ready by exam? I can't give you that number off the top of my head. We can get that to you.
But we do know that this particular metric does include students who who are taking the college preparatory courses. And so we're looking at that and we're preparing that as we go forward, we want to specifically focus on helping an increased number of students pass by exam. So that is in our strategies as we think about how we wanna maintain this particular metric in the future. Thank you. That helps me. Yes. Report in June is over this over your exact question. Okay. Perfect. So maybe this next question should wait until June, but I'm going to ask it anyway. And that is there any merit in changing the goal three,
because I see if we're going to increase by 11%, not to jinx anything, but it looks like we're going to get there. So is there any merit in adjusting this goal in the short term? Well, yes. However, we it seems every time we wanna make it harder, it it causes some angst, and sometimes people think we're we're changing the target to make it easier. I I don't know. But, I I I have PTSD or flashbacks from the first time, and it was my fault I didn't ask the board.
I just made them harder because we'd already exceeded it. And so we're not doing that without asking. But, yeah, I do think we probably should talk about it because we're already exceeding it. At the same time, we need to get credit for having done a good job of meeting the target and exceeding the target. The challenge, however, is that for in loans for our governance, we would get we would get points taken off our governance skills for changing our goals. Some of the guidance they have given us is to wait until the 2028 goal
is exceeded. And so we're right there, but once we exceed it, then it opens up the conversation. But until you exceed the five year goal, then we continue to keep fulfilling guidance. Two quick questions. I really, appreciate your focus on expanding, the co teach model and all the the benefits the students are gonna get from that. Do you have to have, a plan a staffing plan, or are we good with this? Because co teacher you know? So how do we make that happen? That's wonderful. And then how how do we make sure you have the staff to implement?
I will say to support special education, staffing is truly the complexity here. It is one of the most complex things to staff because you have students with such specific needs and you have them all throughout the district. And so, we actually have to go school by school and look at every single the group of special education students in that school, what their IEPs require, and then make sure we're looking at the staffing model correctly. Because with co teach, you also have to make sure your special education teachers have common planning time with
general education teachers as well. So, because schools are so different in the design of what special education students are there and what their IEPs require, we really have to go school by school to make sure the staffing works. That you feel confident that we can do I mean, because you guys have said across the board. So that that's a you feel confident that there's a that there's a way to get through all of that and and have that in place? Yes. We're and and when we're looking at it, we're wanting to make sure that, students, when they're in their general education program and have their, service minutes in that general education,
program to or class to be required to be taught by a student. That's where we're focusing that could be. And so for some students, that might be three days a week, and for some students, that might be less. Some students, it might be more. So that's really what we're looking at. I just that's a mammoth tap. I just wanna call out that I really appreciate that you guys are hitting big on this. That's that's really wonderful. The other thing I wanted to ask, and I appreciate that you're growing by metrics and we're saying we're doubling down on instruction. We never talk about the other parts, the human parts, that I know it's harder to kind of quantify what that's gonna do to you
know, with that lift. But for instance, with sixth grade where it's where that's a hard time and we can see it in the data, Are y'all talking about, thinking about, or or will we get to the part of the plan where we are so where we can talk about how those other supports like, on the campus level where something's happening with sixth grade, are there other plans, social, emotional, whatever it is besides that? Have y'all gotten to talking in that area about how to support? Yes, actually. We're thinking a lot about what's turning them habits of success.
What are the things that we can build to have really strong tier one behavior supports across the board at campuses and incorporating that into the curriculum actually itself so that all students get access to some of that guidance and that learning. That's one of the things we're doing. And then for more severe behavior stuff, we actually are thinking about how do we staff up based on students' IEPs and what's required for behavior support as well. Indeed. We've been thinking more and more about that. Even today, we had discussions about coursework on habits of success for the future two schools,
but then expanding that to the ANES schools and voluntarily for the PUA schools every third Friday to where we're working and coaching kids on the habits of success, which is one more support for their social emotional learning. Thank you, guys. This is excellent work. Thank you. And I appreciate the answers provided ahead of time, especially around the the if you can go to the slides where we see that gap in sixth grade, because I wanna I appreciate understanding. One, the gap looks dramatic on this slide compared to the other grades.
And so maybe it was mentioned here. I don't understand. What would you be if we're not sure if the district isn't quite sure what the explanation is for these differences, that it could be, you know, a variety of factors, varying student needs is what I see in cohort differences, instructional shifts. What would be the next measure that we'd look for to see that this sixth grade cohort is, let's say, responding to the supports or changes that you might be applying? Or is it that next year at this time,
we'd see seventh grade gap, you know, closed? Or I don't understand, like, maybe what the next measure might be to to see that whatever is applied here for our sixth graders, this observation is being addressed and that it's effective. Our primary focus is actually looking much more closely at the campus level. And so pulling up every single campus, particularly the campuses that are showing, a lower growth percentage and then looking at the individual teachers to say, where can we provide specific teachers in the sixth grade at the campuses that are struggling the most with coaching on quality of instruction.
Because at the heart of this, that is a little bit of what we see too. The The sixth graders can do it. We actually just wanna make sure that teachers have the right support to improve quality of instruction, particularly at the actual campus level. And our data can actually help us drill down to the actual teacher level so that those teachers receive the support they need. And and if I can add, so one of the questions that the team is researching as a result of this looking at this and trying to analyze the why is whether or not the level of proficiency at which a kid starts impacts the amount of growth they can have.
So we are actually doing a study on that to see whether because the students in the PUA schools are academically higher already. My contention is that they still students who are proficient should still be able to grow more than students who are not proficient, but we don't want that to be a hypothesis. We want to actually look at our data to see if that hypothesis bears out. And the second thing is to look more closely at the quality of instruction, especially around those schools or the subject matters where we see this dip.
So we've got a lot more to look at. And then once we make that determination, we can set the right metric. This is a middle of your metric, so we will Visit this exact metric at end of year, so we'll be able to see middle of year numbers compared to end of year numbers. And then I also wanted to flag for you that originally, GPM 3.5 was written from a proficiency lens, how many students are at projected meets, which is really the best way. That's what map tells us in terms of how they're going to master grade level curriculum. Right? We switched to a growth metric to account for all the changes that were made
with MAP. So we're looking forward to making it to the end of the year where we can also provide proficiency data. Right? So this is only one piece of the story. It's telling you how students are growing, which is fantastic and wonderful, but I think there will be another element to the measurement of success when we're able to look at proficiency as well. And then the last thing I just wanted to remind the board is that these, growth targets are set by NWEA so that the fiftieth percentile is where the where they would expect students to be meeting their growth.
So they basically set the growth target with the intention that 50% of students will get there and 50% of students will not. So the fact that we are discussing a gap where we're two percentile points away from what is the national average, I think is is still something to celebrate. We're not we're not talking about extremely low rates of growth that are down in the thirties. We're talking about nearly average growth when compared to the rest of the nation. Sounds like number four. Okay. Okay.
So looking at goal four, the top line summative metric for goal four is the number of the percentage of students in grades four through eight who achieve growth as defined by domain two a, which basically just means that when we compare star scores from last year to SCAR scores from this year, did they earn a growth point? Did they grow or maintain a high level of mastery? Again, this is old data that we've presented to you in the past, and it showed that with 2025 administration of STAR,
sixty eight percent of our students with disabilities did achieve a growth point in either reading or math or both. In order to measure our progress towards that top line goal in GPM 4.1, we're looking at students in grades four through eight and their percentage of MET expected growth on MAP in reading. This was a GPM that we already had in place. We did not reset this one in November, so we already had targets here set by prior year baseline just like all of our other targets were set.
So our target for students with disabilities in reading was is 52. And here you can see that all students in reading in grades four through eight, are performing at fifty eight percent are meeting their expected growth. Again, these targets for MET expected growth are normed among national peers regardless of whether or not they're students with disabilities or not. So we have fifty eight percent of our students when compared to grade level peers that are meeting their growth targets, which is fantastic. When we look at all of our students with disabilities split out by NES and
PUA, we see both school types and all grade levels meeting or exceeding the target of 52. Looking at our students with disabilities and participation in programs, we also have all students exceeding the target of 52 in reading. GPM 4.2 mirrors 4.1, except we are looking at four through eighth grade students in math, the percent that met expected growth. Here the target is set at 52 and we have all of our students with disabilities,
fifty four percent of them are meeting their expected growth. When we look across NES and PUA, we see both school types are exceeding the target of 52. And when we look at programs, we see also across NES and PUA that our students are exceeding those targets. Deputy superintendent? I I won't spend too much time because a lot of this is things we've already talked about. Again, implementing co teach. We're we're focusing a lot on how of contained settings, both from a curriculum perspective and a staffing perspective. We're launching the pre teach courses,
which is, again, a pre exposure to their tier one lesson, and really looking at improving the quality of IEPs. And so, making sure that all students are placed appropriately, based on their disability and also that they have the right accommodations and the right service minutes to get the support and learning that they need, and looking at that systematically across all our IUPs as we move forward. So, I'm happy to expand on any of these. I just know we've talked about them before. I think we're good. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Next, we'll hear from our remaining speakers in Group B, first in person then by 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 29, I'll invite all of the speakers to move to the front row. We'll start with Ms. Nuncio, number 29. Number 29, Carmen Nuncio. I don't see miss Nuncio. We can have number 30. Good evening. Charles Collins, former teacher, Challenger College High School, speaking to agenda item 13. Although the board overturned my non renewal in December 2024, I was never offered a new term contract. Instead, I faced ongoing retaliation from district employees.
As recently as last month, two administrators called my personal cell phone in a manner that was harassing and threatening. My case began more than three years ago, yet no one has been held accountable for their actions. Because of these violations of laws, I filed a complaint in federal court. Serious allegations were made against me, but none of those are true. I did nothing wrong. So I asked the board to ensure administrators follow district policy and provide proper oversight. I respectfully ask the board to deny consent agenda item 13.
Thank you. Good evening. Jackie Anderson, president of the Houston Federation Of Teachers. A budget is more than numbers on a page. Miss Anderson, please speak into the microphone so we can hear you. A budget is more than numbers on a page. It is a statement of values. And right now, the HISD budget is telling us that our students are not a priority. If students truly came first, we would see their investments in classrooms, small class sizes, fully staffed campuses, mental health support, and resources that meet the real needs of our children. Instead,
we are cutting seeing cuts, vacancies, and overworked educators stretch thin. We're seeing programs reduced while administrative priorities continue to grow. Our students are showing us what they need, stability, support, and opportunity. But when campuses lack lack counselors, when teachers are asked to do more with less, and when basic resources are inconsistent, that is not putting students first. Until those priorities are reflected, how dollars are spent, we cannot say this budget is about students because in truth Thank you. Hello.
My name is Anne Eagleton, and I would like to, since we're going to have a budget workshop, there's an area that I'd really like you to focus on in terms of a great place to save money. That would be the bloated instructional leadership category. That has more than tripled under mister Miles' leadership. Our enrollment is going down, so I'm gonna guess we can cut away some of that bloat and maybe get exterminators so there aren't rat infested schools. We could get some hand soap in bathrooms. I really hope you will look at that.
I hope you will also look at the campus leadership. That is also increased. We don't need more middle management, highly paid people that nobody can figure out what they really do except harass teachers and chase parents away. Please really look hard at this budget and figure out where we're getting value for our money. And I'd also like to say, we can't Thank you. Robinson on behalf of my son who was a special needs child that came through the special needs program for HISD,
Pin Oak and Lamar High School. Speaking on behalf of his, transition into college here at Saint Thomas University, being a graduate with a cybersecurity degree coming out in May, which was a program designed by miss doctor Torres, started and currently they'll have 20 graduating students out of a 187 students in that program and a 200 student waiting list, to continue that process, which we find out maybe the only one in the country at this particular time. Thank you for all the work at the base level, but we need to transition into,
degrees, not certificates degrees, and they are capable. However, due to the success of that program and the degrading of the education component, that poor college was absorbed into the education component at Saint Thomas where doctor Torres, on a mission trip with my son and 14 students, were notified by text that she was terminated. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Michelle Williams, Houston Education Association. I'm speaking to your you really don't need a reduction in force. Teachers are not coming to Houston ISD because you've run them off.
But one thing I can tell you is I'm a taxpayer in Spring ISD, and we're going to take your teachers because your trash is our treasure. And we want experienced teachers. Unlike this board, they listen. They started recruiting your HISD teachers. Your students are leaving. Your teachers are leaving, and other dentists are reaping the benefits. You don't want them, we will take them. Also, why would anybody want to come to HISD? I have filed 17 grievances. I have two
grievances that that have been stalled intentionally at level three. I have another one coming up at Level 3. So Thank you. Sister mama Sonia Jack Yates, class of 1974. What's a library? During an after school program, a third grader asked me, what's a library? As we sat in the room formerly known as the library that was filled with books, I gestured around the room and said, here we are. Take a look. You check our books out of the library, take them home, and read them. His eyes got big, and he says,
wow. We take these home? Our sister, we get in trouble even if we touch these books. My eyes watered at his words, and for a brief moment, I traveled back in time to the enslavement period when my ancestors and ancestors, forefathers and foremothers, faced severe penalties for just yearning of learning to read. When a guest for literacy was penalized, chastised, agonized, traumatized, people who were oppressed, brutal beatings, clippings, eyes gouged out, foreselled, even death for them would manifest.
Thank you, f Mike Miles. Thank you. Project twenty twenty five and bring back our lives Thank you. And let's not continue to treat Your time is up. Thank you. My ancestors and ancestors retreat. Thank you. Christy Michelle Brewster, the retired school nurse. Mike, why are you still here? Why don't you go enjoy this stolen money? Oh, I mean, your HISD salary. Why don't you go do some good with third future? I hear they're improving and and expanding like a metastasis. You know, Fort Worth, Beaumont,
San Antonio, even Austin. You don't have to be the underground leader. You can be upfront. The on top of at the table, CEO. Aren't you tired, baby, of being deceitful, deceptive, and destructive? Closing schools and not telling us about it. Forcing campuses to be under your not ever successful curriculum. Selling off our properties real estate rent, riffing staff that you don't even need to riff, and then having a a job fair day and night. Well, we got the answer for it. As miss Carmen said last month, it's called vote for Gina in a host of baby.
I wanna thank miss Flowers today for, her questions about eighteen eighty two partnerships, and I think you have really put your finger on it. It's privatization for the sake of privatization. At the high end, these schools were already our most innovative schools. And even Miles just now said, with a little bit of extra money that they get, they might be able to offer a few more programs. That's not innovation. That's tinkering at the margins. And at the low end, if you're so in love with NES, I can't imagine why you would ever need the 1882 in off any low end
school because 1882 is just NES on the low end. That's what my Miles' old company did, Third Future. They specialize in that stuff. Where do you think we got the NES from? So once you privatize the school, it's never coming back. That's the thing we need to understand. We those people will fight to keep it private forever. So we don't wanna give them away for no good reason. Thank you. I'd like to invite all remaining speakers to the front row, please. Hi. Doctor. Ruth Hoffman Lack. One of the things that is different now than before the takeover is is,
that students like at Milby High School and Sam Houston High School who are in the cosmetology program, who had a a field trip that was planned for four days to go to a competition, had paid for hotel rooms and had buses lined up. They, at 11:00 in the morning when they supposed to were supposed to have left yesterday, they were still standing there because somebody somewhere didn't sign off on approval for this trip that their parents had paid more than $700 for. That didn't used to happen. I'm not gonna say who's responsible.
All I can tell you is it isn't teachers because they make sure that they have done everything they have to do for those trips that are so important for kids. And some they certainly don't get parents paying money on down payments for hotels when it hasn't already been approved up and down the chain because they know they're Thank you. Hi. Y'all know who I am. I'm speaking on items twelve and thirteen. I'm reading from an anonymous teacher. It's 10:21PM. I'm annotating slides, adding MRS turn in talks, adding DOL aligned questions to my premade district curriculum,
and a totally different set of DOL aligned questions for my LSAE, all with their own MRS. That's an extra 30 slides. Because if I don't, the retaliation is too much. You get spotted every single day because Monday, you get feedback, so they want to see it implemented next period. Then again Tuesday to see how you improve. Then again Wednesday because there was room for growth. And then you'll be spotted again on Thursday to see if you bring it together. I'm exhausted from doing the song and dance every single day. And I teach two subjects. It'll be around 2AM when I finish the second one. I've been working on them since six. My after school duty ran long because I needed to have a quick meeting about,
quote, looking more joyful when delivering content, end quote. I'm just trying to make it to the end of the year. You don't need to rift teachers. They are running away as fast as they can. Thank you. Good evening. Hey, Floyd. How are you? My name is Rebecca Williams, and I'm here to speak on behalf of the reduction in force on behalf of school closures. I will continue to speak truth to power. The truth is this superintendent needs no power. I still do not understand how as an others un I still do not understand as an uncertified superintendent how he's able to make staffing decisions.
But I'm asking the board because I know y'all are going to vote for this. I'm asking the board that you make sure that those displaced teachers, those parents, and all of the staff have somewhere to go in the fall, just like his $200,000 cabinet over there. Alright. Thank you. Good evening. Thank you for your service. On 08/03/2023, in your first months on this board, Mike Miles, you were prescient. You said, and I'm quoting, My take is that bad actors are bad actors. It's not going to stop them from acting badly.
Bad actors should get caught and dealt with accordingly. You are that bad actor, a bad actor for giving families just one extra week to find a new school after closures. We all should extend the deadline that you gave them and prioritize their placement like you would for your own kids. You're a bad actor for getting Morath to replace four board members to ensure your contract will give you the golden parachute of two years' salary even if terminated. You're a bad actor for keeping thousands of black and brown students in the poorest neighborhoods out of rigorous classes just to inflate ratings,
then claiming improved learning. Years from now, your words will be remembered as textbook authoritarian propaganda. It's time to Thank you. We have a final speaker on Zoom, Anne Papa Conestino. Was that close? Please go ahead. Ma'am? Hi, Ruth. You're on to Oh, well, I can you hear me? I haven't gotten a prompt. Okay. I'll start talking. My name is doctor Anne Papa Constantino. I have spent more than fifty five years in math education as a teacher,
curriculum developer, and director of the Rice University School mathematics project, where I led major initiatives to improve math teaching and learning across Houston, the state of Texas, and beyond. I'm deeply concerned about HISD's plan to replace the long established algebra one geometry algebra two curriculum sequence with algebra one, algebra two, then geometry. This plan is not supported by the math community,
by national standards, or by decades of research on how students learn math. Geometry is the critical bridge between algebra one and algebra two. It builds deductive and spatial reasoning and reinforces the algebraic thinking students must have before they reach algebra two. Thank you. When you remove that bridge, students struggle. This change will not expand opportunity. It will restrict it.
We Thank you. Your time is up. This concludes our public comment. Okay. We'll now go to a discussion and a report on the agenda items. So let's start with, do I have a motion to accept the Board monitoring update goals three, four, three point four, three point five and four point one, 4.2? You may have to log back into your computers. We know how to do that? Okay. Okay. We have a motion. Is there a second? Okay. We do. Please vote. The motion passes. Next, we'll consider action items on the agenda.
Board policy requires board members to abstain from all discussion of 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 doubt on a Board member's ability to act with total objectivity with regard to the district's interest. Without objection from my colleagues, I'd like to take Agenda Item eight, the authority to negotiate, execute and execute amend the interlocal agreement renewal with Texas Southern University for dual credit course offerings to Houston Independent School Districts off the consent agenda and have it as a separate
agenda item. Do I have a motion to approve item eight? We have a motion and a second. Please vote. The motion passes with one abstention from Board Member Gore. Do I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda by consensus? We have a motion and a second. Please vote. The motion 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 considering the closed session be required,
such final action, vote or or decision shall be taken at the open meeting covered by this notice upon the reconvening of the public meeting or at a subsequent public meeting of the Board upon notice thereof. The Board has recessed the closed session at 07:34PM on 04/09/2026. Okay. Good evening. This meeting is reconvened at 07:56PM. We're now ready to consider items discussed in the closed session. Are there any motions? Yes, please. I move that the board approves the closed session personnel agenda,
including specifically that the board approves proposed terminations, non renewals of continuing term performance and probationary contracts and authorizes the superintendent or designee to provide notice of same, that the board approves suspensions without pay for continuing term and probationary contracts and authorizes the superintendent or designee to provide notice of same. That the board voids continuing term, probationary and performance contracts and authorizes the superintendent or designee to provide notice of same. That the board approves withdrawals of contract recommendations and that the Board approves issuance of
final orders on contract terminations and non renewals as discussed in closed session effective 04/09/2026. Is there a second? Okay. We have a motion and second. Please vote. Motion passes. Are there any other motions? Yes, please. 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 Number 20 Six-eight 99 East Area Office, 2201 Telephone Road,
Houston, Texas 77023 to Lubbock GM Properties. We have a motion and a second. Please note. Motion passes. Thank you. Any other motions or Yes, please. Okay, good. 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 No. 20 Six-eight 97 Fawnwood Facility, 10719 Seneca Street, Houston, Texas 77016 to Enclave Property Management,
LLC. Second. There's a motion and second. Please vote. Motion passes. I think we're done with motions. That's all. Thank you. Great. Okay. Our next regular Board meeting will be held on 05/14/2026. We also have an upcoming budget workshop after our hearings on April 23, I believe it's coming up. So great. Well, there being no further business, this meeting is officially adjourned at 07:59PM. Thank you.