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| CASE Report
Smart Brevity ®
count: 5 mins...1260 words
CASE is a collective of Houstonians committed to ensuring that every student within Houston Independent School District (HISD) has the opportunity to receive a high-quality education.
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HISD Right-Sizing its Budget
 HISD’s Board of Managers voted to approve a reduction in force due to budget constraints at last night’s board meeting. Although almost every department will experience cuts, teachers will not be laid off due to budgeting concerns.
The Houston Chronicle’s story is here.
Why it matters:
The expiration of more than $804 million in federal pandemic relief funds has necessitated budget cuts for nearly all school districts in Texas and across the country. By eliminating recurring expenses that were paid for with one-time funds, the district will balance its budget and ensure a healthy fund balance going forward.
By the numbers:
Despite an estimated $450 million budget gap, HISD plans to keep the cuts as far away from the classroom as possible, and will even spend $120 million more to increase teacher salaries and expand the NES program to 45 more campuses next year.
What they’re saying:
“Effective budget management is paramount for closing the 2035 competencies skills gaps of creativity, critical thinking teamwork, problem solving and resiliency, while ensuring financial sustainability,” said Shannon Swoope, a parent of two HISD students.
What’s next:
Since the basic allotment for school districts has not increased since 2019, it is expected that K-12 stakeholders will urge the legislature to revisit school funding in the 2025 legislative session.
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Mike Miles Headlines GHP’s Annual “State of Education” Event
 Superintendent Mike Miles headlined yesterday’s “State of Education” event, which is hosted annually by the Greater Houston Partnership
, the region’s primary business organization.
Superintendent Miles and GHP CEO Steve Kean held a fireside chat that covered many hot topics, including student achievement, principal evaluations, budget cuts, the proposed bond, and more. Her are a few highlights:
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Student Achievement- Early indications are that student achievement has improved under the state intervention of HISD. Superintendent Miles spoke about how mid-year assessments showed significant growth in NES and NES-aligned campuses
, and how that growth is expected to continue through the end of the year. We don’t yet have STAAR score data from end-of-year exams, but that data is expected to show positive results.
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Principal Evaluations- Superintendent Miles acknowledged that more should have been done to communicate with staff and the community about how principals would be evaluated during his tenure. The communication challenges led to concerns from the public
that were voiced at board meetings in the past few months. Superintendent Miles reiterated his commitment to communication and transparency and assured the audience that lessons learned during this matter would be applied going forward.
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Budget Cuts- Superintendent Miles spoke on how the end of the federal pandemic relief fund would affect the district’s budget. Despite the expiration of over $800 million in federal funds, HISD is still poised to avoid the “fiscal cliff” predicted by previous administrations
and maintain a health fund balance of roughly $850 million.
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Bond- HISD is exploring a $4.4 billion bond package to upgrade its severely aging facilities. Superintendent Miles explained that the last bond for HISD was in 2012, which targeted high schools. The last time that elementary and middle schools got investments through a bond was back in 2007. Since most school districts seek bonds every 5 years at minimum, HISD is long overdue for a bond. There has been no shortage of news coverage
of the facilities challenges that HISD its enduring and their effects on student safety and achievement.
Why it matters:
The Greater Houston Partnership, Houston’s top business and economic development organization, is interested in the progress of HISD because it is a primary source of workforce talent, and because strong schools lead to strong communities. Meaningful coordination and collaboration between the business community and HISD will lead to better outcomes for students and families.
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How HISD Ensures High-Quality Curriculum
 Documents
from last night’s board meeting provided some insight into the ways that HISD is ensuring that its curriculum is not only consistently high-quality and meeting all state standards, but also properly educating students to grade level.
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The first step in HISD’s curriculum development process is reviewing Texas’ standards, which are known as TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills). The TEKS are broken down into lesson objectives and then sequenced out on a curriculum map for the school year. This process ensures coverage of 100% of TEKS, meaning HISD students are always learning grade-level material or above.
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Once the curriculum maps are complete, daily lessons are prepared by using State Board of Education and Texas Education Agency-approved resources to develop learning activities that practice problems aligned to the lesson objective, again ensuring full alignment with state standards.
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All NES curricula can be customized within the provided lesson objective based on student data and teacher needs. This means teachers can adapt the activities, timing and delivery approach in the student facing materials as needed to support their student’s learning.
Why it matters:
Teaching high-quality, grade-level, rigorous curricula ensures that HISD students will graduate with the skills they need to succeed in college or in the workplace, and to compete with graduates from any other state.
Go deeper:
Since the curriculum is developed in-house, there is no cost to the district to pay for outside vendors. There is also no additional cost for updates or modifications.
What they’re saying:
HISD previously stated
, “HISD uses TEA-approved high-quality instructional materials as the source content for HISD curriculum and adapts them to meet the unique needs of the NES/NESA campuses. TEA underwent an intensive vetting process to ensure that all materials are aligned with the science of how students learn reading and math."
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HISD Continues to Prioritize SPED
 HISD continues to strengthen its special education department through a systematic approach to professional development for teachers, recruiting the best talent, and improved student-need identification. Last night’s board meeting documents lay out the district’s plan and are available here.
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Professional development is being prioritized for special education teachers. SPED teachers now receive professional development in a systematic way, alongside campus principals. Division Superintendents and Executive Directors receive weekly reports from their SPED divisions, which allow division leaders to ensure compliance and monitor progress, and quickly provide support where SPED teachers need it.
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Houston ISD’s 2024-2025 Compensation Plan outlines a historic, precedent-setting starting salary of $80,000 for special education teachers at non-NES campuses ($86,000 at NES campuses). Bolstering compensation for special education teachers not only offers credit for the highly-specialized work being done, but also incentivizes niche educators with qualifications to teach SPED to take on these more challenging, highly-regulated teaching assignments.
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HISD is expecting a “significant increase” in the percent of students receiving special education services due to new culture of compliance. Since staffing and efficiency has increased, more students with special needs are being identified.
Why it matters:
Special education compliance is one of three metrics the state will use to determine when HISD can return to local control.
by investing in the development of special education teachers, HISD ensures that its special education student population will receive the best instruction not only right now, but well into the future after the intervention has ended.
What they’re saying
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“HISD is steadfastly committed to ensuring our students with special needs are identified, supported, and positioned to achieve at high levels.” - Billy Solomon, HISD Executive Director of Talent Acquisition.
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