Houston ISD’s state-appointed board of managers voted Thursday night to close 12 schools in the urban district at the end of the school year, making a unanimous decision during an emotional meeting where parents and community members begged the board to delay the vote.
Nearly 80 elected officials, parents, students and community members spoke at the board meeting. All of them complained about the school closures.
The vote was taken just moments after the last public speaker. The crowd immediately began booing and Daisy Mariano, the parent of a Port Houston Elementary student, burst into tears.
“In a way I kind of blame myself,” Mariano said. “What if I could have done something different, maybe we would have had a different outcome?”
Two hours into the meeting, members of the audience erupted in anger. Another parent from Port Houston, where there was a protest last week after the school was earmarked for closure, was physically carried out of the meeting by HISD police officers after refusing to conclude her speech to the board. Another parent began a verbal altercation with another HISD officer and many in the crowd were yelling and shouting at the board.
The board recessed for 5 minutes to calm the crowd before allowing the rest of the public speakers to have their turns.
State-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles made the recommendation to the board two weeks earlier, surprising many in the state’s largest district and prompting pushback from some community members. District officials previously said they had paused plans to close schools in December.
“Decisions like that require real partnership – real partnership – with parents, teachers and stakeholders that did not happen here,” U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, told the board. “Families in my district are telling me they were completely blindsided, but many felt the outcome was decided before they even had a chance to be heard in my district.”
In his presentation to the board earlier this month, Miles said aging infrastructure and years of consistent enrollment declines made closures a necessity.
Consolidating several schools into a series of newly built or renovated campuses was part of a $4.4 billion bond proposal in 2024. But the plan was rejected by Houston voters by a wide margin.
“I have resisted bringing something to the board for three years, and the reason why is because I feel that schools should be community schools,” Miles said Feb. 11. “But they’ve been losing enrollment for a long time, and the facility isn’t working. I can’t justify keeping kids in a school with some of the pictures you’re seeing, or that has, you know, an air conditioning unit that goes out all the time [or] can’t be heated.”
The HISD press office did not respond Thursday when asked how much money the district would save by closing the schools. That was not discussed during the board meeting.
Here are the 12 schools to be closed, along with the schools where impacted students will be transferred:
- Alcott Elementary, whose students will transition to Mading Elementary
- Briscoe Elementary, whose students will transition to Carrillo Elementary
- Burrus Elementary, whose students will transition to Kennedy Elementary
- Franklin Elementary, whose students will transition to Gallegos Elementary
- Henderson NQ Elementary, whose students will transition to Bruce Elementary
- Port Houston Elementary, whose students will transition to Pleasantville Elementary
- Ross Elementary, whose students will transition to Roosevelt Elementary or Clemente Martinez Elementary (family’s choice)
- Cage Elementary, which will be co-located with Lantrip Elementary
- Fleming Middle School, which will be co-located with Mickey Leland College Preparatory Academy for Young Men
- McReynolds Middle School, which will be co-located with Mickey Leland College Preparatory Academy for Young Men.
- Hobby Elementary, which will be co-located with Lawson Middle School
- Gulfton Middle College, which will be co-located with Liberty High School
Elected officials wanted more transparency, community engagement
Under a state takeover initiated in June 2023 – because Wheatley High School received a string of failing academic ratings from the Texas Education Agency – HISD’s elected trustees are sidelined in favor of a state-appointed board of managers. The elected board will resume voting power in waves as early as June 2027, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath previously said.
That will be long after the closures. Parents complained about “irreversible changes” made by the temporary board.
“If you are going to make decisions that reshape entire communities, then you should answer directly to those communities,” Mindy Wilson said to the board.
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Houston City Council member Edward Pollard had asked Mayor John Whitmire to formally invite Miles to appear before city council and answer questions about proposed school closures. At a city council meeting Wednesday, Whitmire said Miles had respectfully declined to appear before the council and that he’d already spoken to Pollard’s office.
Pollard pushed Whitmire to bring Miles to city council to answer questions about how the schools set for closure were determined.
The city government does not have any authority over the school district. HISD did not respond to a request for comment about Miles declining to appear before city council..
“I think these questions need to be asked in a public forum, because right now, the elected body of HISD has no authority,” Pollard said. “They do not serve on the board, and so residents don’t have the ability to speak to them directly in a public forum.”
Elected trustees expressed outrage after the initial announcement. Five elected trustees spoke at Thursday’s board meeting, all urging the board to delay the vote.
“I urge you all to vote no on this plan to close schools [and] force the superintendent to engage with us before submitting another one,” said Placido Gomez, an elected trustee. “If you vote to approve this plan with two weeks’ notice with no community input, I ask respectfully, what do you think is the point to even having a board?”
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A district regulation from 2011, initially reported by the Houston Chronicle, requires the board to receive community input prior to the board’s consideration to close or consolidate a campus.
At the board meeting, Catosha Woods, general counsel for Houston ISD, said the district’s community engagement over the last two weeks was in compliance. Woods said there is no “prescribed process” outlined for receiving community input and that despite the superintendent pausing plans for closures in December, the process started early enough to be considered for approval Thursday.
Several local officials have also spoken up about a lack of community engagement ahead of the board’s decision.
On Wednesday, state Sens. Carol Alvarado, Borris Miles and Molly Cook sent a letter urging the board of managers to delay its vote.
“Decisions of this scale demand transparency, deliberation and genuine community input,” the letter read. “These are not minor adjustments; these are fundamental disruptions to students’ daily lives and educational stability.”
City council member Tarsha Jackson asked district leadership to “slow down, listen to parents and community members, and explore every possible alternative.”
“Closing or co-locating schools does more than shift students from one building to another,” Jackson wrote. “Schools are anchors in our neighborhoods. They are places where families gather, where children build lifelong friendships, and where communities come together for events, meetings and support. When a school closes, it leaves a void that extends far beyond the classroom. It disrupts the sense of belonging that helps young people thrive.”
Impact on students and families
In an effort to keep disruptions for families to a minimum, the district is transferring impacted students to campuses roughly 1 mile away from their current schools.
For the children at Port Houston Elementary, that means transferring to Pleasantville Elementary. Pleasantville is a nearly 30-minute walk from Port Houston. The neighborhood is boxed in by active train tracks and many of the roads lack sidewalks.
RELATED: Houston ISD parents protest at one of the elementary schools slated for closure
The longer walk worries Vianey Torres, who has two kids enrolled at Port Houston.
“Sometimes I have to be at work earlier than expected, so it’ll just throw off my whole schedule,” Torres said. “I’ll have to figure out a way to make it work.”
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District officials, in direct response to the community feedback they received over the last two weeks, said Thursday that shuttle buses from closed campuses to new campuses will now be provided for both morning and afternoon commutes for families to use.
Miles at his initial presentation on Feb. 11 said many of the schools recommended for closure were clustered in underserved areas of the district and that some transfers were difficult decisions.
“Port Houston, Pleasantville, and Holland [Elementary], there are three campuses [where] there is no nearby school that has a much stronger facility,” Miles said. “So you’re going to see, we’re going to pick the best of the two bad facilities.”
At the board meeting Thursday, Miles reiterated a school’s physical condition was a significant factor in deciding to close it.
“If we have the 12 schools, let’s close them because of facilities, not because of the academics,” Miles said. “We are [recommending] the schools that we think are just not good or just not safe.”
Pleasantville also has a lower state rating than Port Houston.
“You may know, Port Houston is a B-rated tool,” Torres told the board Thursday night. “Y’all are wanting to transfer our students to Pleasantville, which will be a C-rated school. It’s a huge difference.”
Torres said she wishes the district would renovate the school. District leaders say renovations can cost as much as $40 million and rebuilding a school can cost nearly double that.
“I feel like they’re just kind of neglecting us, instead of being able to help us with some repairs and renovations, because it’s been around for a while,” Torres said. “Just because something’s old, you don’t get rid of it.”
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