Adam Zuvanich/Houston Public Media
Houston voters will decide the fate of a $4.4 billion bond proposal for the city’s much-maligned school district after its state-appointed board of managers elected Thursday to place the measure on the Nov. 5 ballot.
Houston ISD’s board members voted unanimously to sign off on the bond package, which is the largest in Texas history and the first for the district since 2012. That it’s been more than a decade since HISD’s last bond was a significant factor in supporting the plan, according to Rolando Martinez, who was the lone manager to speak about the proposal before the vote.
“Our schools need new buildings,” Martinez said. “We just need them across the district.”
The proposal includes $2.05 billion to rebuild more than 40 aging campuses and renovate many others, with a focus on elementary and middle schools. The district also wants to spend $1.35 billion on safety and security upgrades, such as lead and mold removal, replacing HVAC systems and creating single points of entry at all 274 schools. Another $1 billion would go toward technology upgrades, expanding prekindergarten offerings and constructing three new career and technical education centers.
Voters in November will see two bond-related propositions on their ballots: Proposition A seeks $3.96 billion for new buildings, renovations to existing buildings and safety and security infrastructure, while Proposition B asks for $440 million for instruction technology as well as technology systems and infrastructure.
HISD Superintendent Mike Miles said the district does not plan to increase property taxes in order to pay for the bond. But elected trustee Myrna Guidry – who does not have voting power on the board because of ongoing intervention by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) – expressed skepticism about that.
Guidry joined a large contingent of parents, community members and elected officials who voiced opposition to the bond proposal at a time when many are upset about the state takeover, which began last school year, and a series of reforms and staffing shakeups under Miles. The superintendent and board of managers were installed last summer because Wheatley High School received a string of failing accountability ratings from the state, triggering a state law that required a takeover or the closure of the campus.
“Until Houstonians regain control of our schools and how our tax dollars are spent, this bond should be rejected,” resident Sean Leder told the board.
Adam Zuvanich/Houston Public Media
The 80 or so public speakers Thursday also included supporters of the bond proposal, such as HISD campus principals, representatives of nonprofit organizations Environment Texas and Good Reason Houston and former Greater Houston Partnership president and CEO Bob Harvey. Some of the district’s elected trustees also asked the board to place the bond on the ballot so voters can decide, as did members of HISD’s community advisory committee, which was charged with driving public engagement about the proposal.
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“This bond needs to pass,” Marcos Rosales, a member of the community advisory committee, told the board. “It has nothing to do with you. It has nothing to do with Superintendent Miles. It’s about our kids. If you put the kids first, it’s the easiest decision you’ll ever have to make.”
What could be challenging for HISD, the largest district in Texas with about 180,000 students, is convincing enough voters to support the bond package. One of its most controversial components is the plan to rebuild or renovate seven campuses that will house a total of 15 schools through an arrangement billed as “co-locations.”
Some said Thursday the plan amounts to closing schools in low-income neighborhoods that are predominantly Black and Hispanic.
“Hiding a school closure in a bond vote is deceptive, cruel and divisive,” resident Don Macune said.
State Sen. Molly Cook, a Democrat who serves a large swath of Houston, said she would vote against the bond if the election were held now. Along those lines, she urged HISD leaders to build trust with both community members and local elected officials such as herself, saying, “They need to earn our trust if they want us to help pass it.”
Judge Genesis Draper, another elected Democrat who told the board she was speaking as the mother of two HISD students, expressed a similar sentiment.
“I will not be supporting this bond, and I will encourage my friends, neighbors and family to do the same,” she said. “No taxation without representation is a longstanding principle of our democracy. And while the state of Texas seems to have canceled democracy, I have not.”