Hope is not wishful thinking. It is seeing the truth clearly and choosing to act anyway. That is why we use every tool we have to fight this harmful takeover and change what is happening to our kids. Speak at the HISD Board Meeting on Thursday. 

Tell the board what you think about Miles’ plan to eliminate or move some magnet and Career & Technology (CTE) programs from the 10 high schools closest to the Barbara Jordan CTE Center, forcing students to spend up to an hour on buses two to three times a week just to access classes that, in many cases are already available on their home campus. Speak out about his decision to approve another lease-revenue bond that bypasses voters to build a second CTE center, when families and educators have been clear that HISD should prioritize fixing aging HVAC systems. Or speak about why a conference room is being named after a sitting mayor, the first time this ever happened. #stillnotrustnobond

Or simply remind Miles that real success comes from respecting teachers and parents, not deriding them. That is how we build schools that are both academically strong and deeply human.

Register at https://houstonisd.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx by noon Wednesday. Instructions are here. If you want to speak around 5 pm in Group A as a parent or student, you must also complete the link you receive via email.  They will ask you for your school name, who your kid is and their id. You can write n/a for id, etc. Otherwise, you speak in Group B after 6:30 pm. Zoom speakers also must fill out a second link.

The agenda packet is here. Details about items 2, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14 below. 

Agenda Item 2: Budget to Actual Report (p 9) shows Miles burning through public dollars even faster than last year while driving away teachers, principals, and families instead of investing in students.

Agenda Item 4 would cut CTE and magnet programs at Heights, Kashmere, Northside, and Waltrip and bus students to the Barbara Jordan Career Center. HISD now states no vote is needed to move CTE programs from North Forest, Wheatley, Sam Houston, Mickey Leland, and Booker T. Washington, arguing only magnet changes require Board approval. But Constraint 3 is clear: the Superintendent cannot make significant changes to magnet or specialized programs without first engaging the Board and community. Read our blog for more here, here, and Defender reporting today. Go to our CVPE FB group to see slides of what is being eliminated.

HISD is selling this plan by claiming students can earn over $100K right out of high school, when those salaries are typical for mid-level professionals with degrees, not new grads with certifications. Also, why were there no board of managers present at Furr, Kashmere or North Forest? 

Did you get real answers at the barely advertised “community meetings”? Take the parent-created survey, not HISD’s. 

Agenda item 11: Approval of $205 Million for a Lease revenue bond arrangement for a CTE Center at the former Grimes ES on Jutland. Up from the $182.5 Million bond price tag approved in November, this lease-revenue bond bypasses voters to build a second HISD CTE center, even though families and educators have made clear that HISD should prioritize repairing aging HVAC systems. One wonders if Miles has inflated the CTE center costs to funnel money into vanity projects, like his news station, instead of to support students.

Agenda Item 7: Approval of New Campus Library Book Orders and Donations. Early in the takeover, Miles gutted libraries in under-resourced schools. Now, new books are going mostly to already well-off campuses like River Oaks and Oak Forest, deepening the divide and exposing how this takeover actively worsens inequities. Every school deserves a fully resourced library.

Agenda item 8: Changes to the student code of conduct to confiscate a student’s cell phone for an entire semester (current maximum confiscation is 2 days.) 

Agenda item 10: Approval of the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report. No report attached; usually released by November, now overdue.

Agenda item 13 will allow another four years of hiring uncertified teachers in core subjects.

Agenda item 14: Approval to name a Waltrip HS conference room after Mayor Whitmire: Why a conference room is being named after a sitting mayor, the first time this has ever happened. What do Miles and Whitmire have in common? They refuse to talk to the media and ignore public feedback. Democracy dies in darkness.

Thank you for standing up for public education and for a better democracy for both HISD and for the nation.