HISD Delays Decision on Outsourcing Top High Schools

Houston ISD Delays Vote on Outsourcing Management for High-Performing Campuses

Houston Independent School District (HISD) has postponed its vote to outsource management of four high-performing campuses and various pre-K programs. This decision came after organizations confirmed that some contracts were still under negotiation. The state-appointed Board of Managers will now consider the proposal at a special meeting on March 26.

If approved, HISD will grant control over staff, curriculum, calendar, and assessments to four nonprofits. These include entities created for Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Houston Academy of International Studies, Energy Institute High School, and Challenge Early College High School.

“They’re not charters, they’re not private schools. They are our schools,” said state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles during a recent meeting. “It will help our kids thrive, but it will also give those schools even more opportunity to innovate and change with the changing world.”

Two of the nonprofits have been in existence for years, while the ones established for HAIS and Challenge Early College High School are awaiting federal approval, according to district officials. HISD also delayed a vote to establish a pre-K partnership with Collaborative for Children, a local education nonprofit, under the same state law.

Pre-K Partnership with Collaborative for Children

HISD aims to partner with Collaborative for Children starting in the 2026-27 academic year. This initiative is part of SB 1882, a state law that provides additional funding to districts allowing nonprofits, universities, charter schools, or other groups to manage a campus.

Each school could receive an estimated $700 to $1,500 extra per student, with a portion potentially flowing back to the district for support services. Each nonprofit would need to meet a district performance contract. However, HISD has not released the contracts between the district and the nonprofit partners to the public.

Board member Janette Garza-Lindner emphasized the importance of ensuring these contracts hold each magnet campus accountable for remaining accessible and equitable to the entire HISD community. She questioned how the contracts would ensure schools are accessible to all students and prevent them from cherry-picking students to maintain accountability rates.

Other board members raised concerns about maintaining oversight over new nonprofits, how new funds would be distributed, future expansion to more schools, and equity. Miles stated that the board of managers would review final performance contracts before the March 26 vote.

Controversy and Concerns

The decision to delay the vote drew both praise and concerns. Elected trustee Maria Benzon thanked the state-appointed board of managers for postponing the vote and urged them to reject the proposal. She expressed concerns about the creation of brand new nonprofits modeled after existing Friends of HSPVA, which could take control of curriculum, discipline, and budget for students without transparency.

“Brand new nonprofits … were quietly created and modeled after the existing Friends of HSPVA to exploit this law. These inexperienced organizations would take control of curriculum, discipline and budget for our children, and still the community hasn’t seen the contracts,” Benzon said. “When these inexperienced nonprofits fail, the district absorbs the legal liability – not them. Public dollars will flow to unaccountable organizations.”

Many parents who spoke with the Houston Chronicle were unaware of the potential changes, while others were optimistic that the partnerships would prevent a “one-size-fits-all” approach and give their specialized magnet schools more freedom in day-to-day decisions.

“It’s been a tiresome three years of trying to do this one-size-fits-all type of mentality, and it’s just not healthy for a lot of schools,” said Naomi Doyle-Madrid, who has a child enrolled at Energy Institute and another who graduated from HSPVA. “I just hope that there will be some support for these schools to kind of let them do their thing.”

Push for Centralization

Since the state takeover began in June 2023, HISD has centralized many of its operations, from teacher evaluations to curriculum. More than half of its campuses are part of the New Education System (NES), which aims to improve student performance through standardized lessons. While schools have less autonomy, they receive more resources.

Almost every HISD campus, including those outside of NES, are using elements of the district’s curriculum, and teachers across HISD are now subject to its new pay-for-performance system.

Lidia McMahan shared her concerns about her daughter at Challenge Early College High School, who has seen more of HISD’s reform model this year, such as demonstrations of learning and frequent teacher evaluations. She hopes the partnership will distance the school from the NES model, which she believes does not work for students outside the median.

“I’m hoping this will distance us as far away from (that) as possible,” McMahan said.

How Would It Work?

Under the partnership, HSPVA would have more opportunities to boost staffing and create their own curriculum and teacher evaluation process, said principal Priscilla Rivas. The nonprofit model could allow the school to move its start date to accommodate summer internships, boost professional development, and offer more field trips.

“Last year, several of my peers turned down prestigious summer arts programs because our academic calendar didn’t have that flexibility,” said HSPVA student Bella Kalra. “The SB 1882 partnership will allow for adaptable scheduling, expanded opportunities and additional resources, and, most importantly … a public school accessible to students from all across Houston.”

Receiving Schools

Some HISD schools will receive hundreds of new students next year. Are they prepared? Energy Institute High School plans to partner with Friends of Energy Institute, a nonprofit that has worked with the school for many years.

“This potential partnership would further strengthen our instructional model, expand opportunities for students and help sustain the high-quality project-based learning, engineering pathways and industry-aligned experiences that define Energy,” the campus said in a statement to parents. “We remain committed to full transparency and engagement with our students, families, staff and community partners.”

Doyle-Madrid hopes the move will retain some of Energy Institute’s engineering-specific programs. “I feel like this is the only way we can get the programs that our schools want to implement done well with the partnerships that we have,” she said.

Still Under Negotiation

Contracts for the high school and pre-K partnerships were not posted on the meeting agenda Thursday, and several community members expressed concerns about transparency and equity. Potential partners for both Challenge Early College High School and Energy Institute said their contracts were still under “active negotiation” and being finalized the week of the scheduled vote.

“HISD needs to have a transparent, compliant process,” Doyle-Madrid said. “There’s just no trust with HISD, and I think there are just a lot of concerns. I have full confidence that Energy High School and HSPVA … are doing what needs to be done.”

Despite some misgivings with district leadership, many parents said they trusted their school leadership to make the best decisions for their individual campus.

“I don’t know a lot of the things (going on,) but I know that my kids are okay,” said Challenge parent Joana Trujillo. “They’re doing good … and I hope nothing changes.”