Top Houston ISD high schools could partner with outside organizations, district officials say

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A big change could be coming to some HISD high schools, as the district said it is considering having outside organizations oversee some of its campuses.

“HISD is exploring new ways to give more autonomy to its top-performing high schools,” the district said in a video statement on HISD NOW.

HISD said they are looking at allowing their top-performing high schools to partner with organizations, including non-profits. But those organizations would be in charge of managing the schools.

The district calls it level 5 autonomy and said it will create more “Innovation partner schools.”

All of this comes after the creation of S.B. 1882 which passed back in 2017.

The bill is “an act relating to a school district contract to partner with an open-enrollment charter school to operate a district campus.”

S.B. 1882 allowed for low performing schools to partner with organizations to avoid state takeovers. TEA’s website shows more than 20 districts across the state participate, but it’s been met with concerns over privatizing public schools.

University of Houston education professor Duncan Klussmann tells ABC13 it’s rare to use it as HISD is proposing: in high performing schools.

“So what’s happened with 1882 is that many of the school districts and schools that have taken advantage of it have been low performing. In this case, which I think is very innovative of HISD, they’re saying, ‘hey, if you’re very high performing, we’re going to let you qualify for an 1882 partnership and if you go into that partnership, then you can do that and get additional funding,'” said Klussman.

HISD says approved partnerships generally allow the schools to receive anywhere between $700 to $1500 per student and said some of it could go to the district, but it all depends on the contract.

A parent told ABC13 that while the change sounds exciting, it is just a way for the best HISD schools to get funds through a charter system.

ABC13 asked Klussman what parents should be aware of regarding this potential shift.

“I think clearly if you’re a parent and you’re at a high performing school, you’re saying, ‘So why would we change it for high performing?’ I think it allows the high performing campus to have some additional innovative ideas of where to take that campus in the future. What we know is that if you become comfortable where you are as an organization, you typically are then in decline at some point, whereas you always need to be looking at improvement and innovation. And what a great place to do it is in a high performing campus,” said Klussman.

Officials said partner organizations must be non-profits, institutions of higher education, or government entities.

They said the HISD board of managers and the TEA must approve any partnership, but it’s important to note right now they said no decision is final.

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