To order.

I'm Martha Castex Tatum, the chair of our economic development committee.

And I'd also like to welcome the council members in chambers.

Our vice chair, Councilmember Flickinger is here.

I know Councilmember Cayman is here.

Ramirez is here, Councilmember Joaquin Martinez is here, and we have staff from Councilmember Castillo's office, staff from Councilmember Alcorn's office, staff from Vice Mayor Pro Tim Peck's office, also staff from Councilmember Tasha Jackson's office.

So council members and staff, thank you all for being here.

We do have members virtually as well as in person.

We are broadcasting live on HTV.

Council members and staff, if you'll hold your questions until the end of the presentation.

There are 27 members of the public who signed up to speak today.

If there are any public speakers present here in chamber who would wish to speak, you can sign up on the sign-up sheet that is on the table here to my left, uh to your right.

Uh and then at the conclusion of our presentations, any questions can also be emailed to the district K office at District K at Houston TX.gov.

Our first uh presentation is going to be done by senior staff analyst Andrew Busker with the mayor's office of economic development, along with Elaine Undergraff, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Integra, and Melina Marshall, the director of indirect tax at Integra, will also present on the Texas Enterprise Zone at Integra.

So we're very excited to have you here.

And uh Councilmember Huffman is also member Thomas and staff from Councilmember Thomas's office is also joining us online.

Umrew, we're very excited.

Uh we always talk about when will we hear back from these TEZs?

Um, and this is a great opportunity for us to amplify the impact they are having in our community.

So we are ready to hear from each of you.

Of course, uh thank you.

Ummittee.

Uh I'm just gonna say a few words real quick, and then it'll be most of the time will be for um integra.

We nominated Integra Mission Critical for a TEZ designation last year for uh your reference.

Historically, we haven't had companies present um an update to the economic development committee after city council is nominated them for a TEZ designation.

Um but the current work Integra is doing is definitely worth a highlight, and so we have them here today.

Um so with that uh we'll have um employees from integral mission critical um present about uh what's going on with their company in district B, and then from there we'll have some questions.

Great.

Sounds great.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

I'm Aline Uptigraff.

Uh pleasure to meet you.

I'm Alina Marshall and that's a little low.

Perfect, thank you.

Excellent, thank you.

That's greatly appreciated.

Um good afternoon, council members and uh uh chair.

We are pleased to be here to tell you about what's going on at Integra Mission Critical.

So I believe you're advancing the slides.

Is that correct?

Perfect.

So uh let's talk a little bit about what Integra does.

We design and build the most advanced um infrastructure for data centers in our industry.

So who are we and what exactly do we do?

I know some people when you think we're building data centers, you think about the servers and all the network cables and all that, but we actually build the physical building, and then we also uh uh support with the equipment that goes inside to support the building.

So the MEP equipment, uh basically your cooling infrastructure, your power infrastructure, backup power, um, and an electrical rooms.

So we not only produce the the equipment, and that's part of what we're doing here in Houston, but we do all of the design of the building, we uh design the equipment, and so it's a it's a really unique product.

Um basically the best way to say it is we're kind of the sandals of data centers.

So we do a turnkey operation if you would like a data center.

That's what we do.

We we it's you come and see us and you get the whole thing, right?

So next slide, please.

So this is just an organizational chart of our uh ownership who are at the top of the chart here.

So Brandon McDaniel, Matt Kerner, Tommy Newman, and John Kohler, uh, supported by our executive team, Lori Willocks, who is our CFO, uh Kevin Desaker who heads up construction, uh, Greg McNeil, who's our CTO over technology, Brian Carter, who's our counsel, and then Katie uh Rickle, who is our um CHRO.

So, how did Integra start and and where have we been?

So in 2014, we began as an engineering and design services organization.

In 2018, we launched manufacturing of our own equipment.

We used to design it and other people would build it, but we started building some of our own equipment in Akron, Ohio.

In 2023, we came out with a new design called the OptiStack, and in 2024, Integra uh opened additional manufacturing facilities here in Houston, and then we expanded operations in Akron, Ohio.

What you're seeing on the slide is uh a picture of that uh Opta Stacks uh unit that we're talking about.

Next slide.

So, what exactly is a data center?

So it is a physical location that stores all the computing hardware and machines related to supporting the things you use every day, like your phones and your navigation and uh live streaming and all the things that we do, right?

So uh a data center makes all that possible.

Um what most people don't understand is how important they are to our society since COVID.

Clearly, this has become uh a way of life for all of us that we are reliant on the things that we have with Zoom and like I said, with our phones, most of us couldn't leave home without them.

So data centers support all of that work.

The photo that you're seeing here is actually inside a data center.

Uh the equipment on the side is actually the server racks, and the top is the cooling that we provide as uh part of the MEP equipment.

So, what is a data center?

Like I said, we provide the the uh mechanical and electrical equipment.

The pictures here demonstrate some of that.

So you will see uh fan walls, our generators, and um, some of our um uh cooling equipment that goes on the outside of the building.

Uh inside for the computing, there's obviously racks of servers and there's blade servers.

We don't do that part of it, right?

That's that's part of what our clients provide.

Um it does the storage, um, so for file storage, block storage devices, and then obviously all the network cables and switches that make everything possible go inside the data center.

So this is a building that is one of our clients' buildings that we did for them.

We designed and built this uh this piece of infrastructure here.

Um what is unique about how we deploy data centers is that it's uh we do modular systems.

So the building itself is a stick build of regular construction, but the equipment that we provide is done modularly, so we can go faster.

Uh where we can produce a data center in roughly 12 months and get it up and turned over to the client, um, where normally that would take maybe 24 months under normal construction times.

Uh, this particular client had multiple phases and we have all of our times here that it took to build each phase out, but uh it is it is record pace uh for an industry standards what we're doing for our clients.

Next slide, please.

So this picture is really important to look at.

Um so this is actually two data centers butted up against each other.

So if you look at the lower uh picture, you can see the equipment yard at that how equipment used to be put on a data center.

So it's spread out in that equipment yard.

We we built that data center also, but that's a traditional equipment yard.

What you're looking at on the top of the picture is our unique infrastructure that we put out there to stack the the uh equipment for the equipment yard.

So what it does is it increases the density for the data center, which means that it can run AI, it means they can run more power through there and they can drive more data through there.

So basically what we're doing for an end client like a hyperscaler, and when you think of hyperscalers, think of your metas of the world, your Googles of the World.

Um, what we're doing for them is that they can get basically the equivalent of two data centers and one data center with the equipment that we're building today to support what they're doing.

So that you know saves on land, re and natural resources and everything else when we're able to produce this type of modular equipment.

Next slide, please.

These are some photos of our Houston facility.

We started up last year here in Houston with the help of you all.

Uh, but we have uh 1.25 million square feet here in Houston, and we are actually building that infrastructure that we showed in the picture where we're starting to stack uh our units.

Um Houston has been critical to that operation.

We build pieces of equipment at ancillary factories, and that equipment is sent here to be integrated into uh the equipment that we build here in Houston.

And uh, this is the largest factory that we have in our fleet.

Uh we have uh three factories, well, technically four factories in total, um, but Houston is uh the flagship operation.

Um, and in one short year, we uh were able to set up the facility, get it outfitted, and start producing equipment almost immediately thanks to the support that we've had from the city.

Um we made a commitment to the city to invest 10 million dollars so far in the first year.

We invested 6.2 million.

We have another 3.7 million to go.

We have not built our offices yet.

The building that you saw is roughly just a core shell of a building.

We don't have offices built out in there yet, so we will meet our commitments to the city on that.

Next slide, please.

In the next couple of slides, we're providing you some of the employment data and the demographics around.

Can you pull your microphone down so we can hear you a little bit?

Sorry, no problem.

We're providing some of the employment demographics, the split of we do hire through contractors, and we hire full-time employees.

And you can see the split on the screen.

Um, one thing that's interesting to see is when I started preparing this deck on the 2nd of September, we had 744 employees we had hired in one year.

And by the same time following week, we were at 844.

Next slide, please.

Um, we do keep a lot of demographics.

So you can see here the head count by ethnicity or the head count by generation.

Next slide.

And one of the things that we've accomplished and we're very proud of, is on the slide on the left.

You can see the orange line above.

That is the industry standard turnover rate, and our rate is is one-fourth of that.

Next slide, please.

Um, and it's sorry, it was 863 is the total head count as of last Thursday at the Houston facility only.

Next slide.

Um the next couple of slides are heat maps that show for this slide here.

This is the heat map of Houston where our employees and contractors live.

The next slide is our uh full-time employees.

And then the following slide would be the contractors only.

And there's one more slide, which is the bivariate.

So you can see where the demographics are where our employees live in concentration of the city.

Next slide, please.

So one of the things that we do to help keep people engaged and bring new people on is that we have a buddy system when people are brought into the organization, so they're paired with somebody on day one.

It's not necessarily a person that is, I'm gonna show you how to do the work, but I'm here to make you feel comfortable showing up today, right?

So this is the person who tells you about all the things going on in the company, where to find the lunchroom, you know, just to make sure that you get to the destinations that you're supposed to.

It is a very large facility.

Um, and tied with this program, we also have uh a metered approach to how we do train the people, who's involved at different stages.

Um, it is a 90-day rollout for that uh buddy system, uh, so that they're tied with somebody in the organization that helps them feel like they're part of something.

We feel that this is helping to reduce the turnover and also engages the people in the organization overall.

We do have uh programs that uh are attached with the leadership so that the leaders are involved with the individuals as well.

Um, again, that it drives engagement with the employees.

Next slide, please.

Um we also have a lot of training programs within our organization, so clearly we do this uh training through the buddy system where we have people come in and then they have this 90 days for their orientation.

Um, obviously we do safety and compliance training that's standard throughout our uh organization.

Um we do obviously a lot of uh I'll call it heavy assembly, so there's a lot of big equipment that we're using.

So making sure that our people are trained with OSHA and no ISO and all those things are important.

Um we also do technical skills development and cross-training.

We obviously need people to be able to move from maybe one station to another.

Uh and we also have a leadership development uh program that people can be involved with uh to develop their soft skills, um, improve them as supervisors.

We actually implemented uh this last year, and it was uh really good.

We were able to get supervisors up and running quickly, um, utilizing um uh kind of uh an old method that had been developed during the world wars and is the uh basis of the Toyota production system.

So uh we were able to implement that.

But we have career pathways, we have mentorship programs, uh certification support, and obviously continuous learning that goes on.

One of the things we are really excited about is we're taking the training program and the detailed game and turning it into a game, so it'll be on their phones.

When you come in as a new employee, you'll have a video game to play on your phone that will give you the skills that you need to progress to the next level within the organization.

Um it's uh there's a picture there on the on the slide of the game board, and it has all the same mechanics as any regular video game, so it's kind of a fun way for them to progress through.

And while they may not be guaranteed a promotion at the end of each level, they know that they can achieve that next level.

Next slide.

And we can share with you all kinds of commentary, but we thought it would be even better if you heard from our employees themselves.

We're do one job and do it successfully.

I feel like a lot of times whenever people go to work, they dread it.

I I don't even though there's uh bumps along the way, I don't see it as that.

I see it as something that we can overcome and accomplish as a team.

It's very simple whenever you have people here that are working towards the same goal as you are.

So with how fast this company is growing, I I mean I see it every day.

Our warehouse gets pretty stacked up with material, and we're running out of space.

So I know we're gonna have a uh a new warehouse opening up here pretty soon.

And with that comes new opportunities, and I know there's many people here that can fill in these shoes, these big shoes, and I know that we can do it.

We keep getting new projects for a reason.

We're fulfilling customers' needs in a timely manner.

So I know we'll be probably all around the world soon.

Weird.

I would say the buddy system is basically where you're coming in new to Integra, and you'd pretty much be partnered with someone who's already familiar with the company with the process, the culture, whatever we're doing in that department.

Talking more once I went to the position, she basically explained to me how everything worked, and I explained to her how everything worked, and I just feel comfortable and safe, not like anxious, like when you start a new job, you're kind of anxious, like, oh, what's gonna happen?

I think it works because when people come into a company, sometimes you really don't know the lay of the land.

But with us having the buddy system, you have someone who either does something within your department or somebody that at some point you would work closely with, and you have them there with you to kind of guide you through it, and it just feels like a very comfortable situation.

I think that the buddy system really allows people to connect, um, and also just show the culture overall.

I feel like we have a lot of interaction going between the floor and office personnel that when you're integrating the buddy system, you're able to get to know that person and also feel safe to reach out to other people in case you need any help or guidance.

We're to do one job and do it successfully.

I feel like a lot of times whenever people do something.

Yep.

Weird.

I would say the budget.

Thank you for sharing those testimonials.

That's very helpful.

Um, is there anything else that you want to share with the group, or does that conclude your presentation before we move into questions?

There were several testimonials.

One of the testimonials that I think the council members would really like to know about and hear about is our second choice.

That we have we have several um is that the next one?

Or the last two.

There you go.

They of course saw my past, but they didn't let it define me.

They saw the potential.

I had quite a few supervisors go to bed for me and write good letters for me saying that they should take a chance on me.

It just renewed my hope in my life, tell you the truth.

For somebody to see the value that you can bring to their company instead of seeing that your mistakes from the past, it means a lot.

And uh it goes a long way to reinvigorate you with uh purpose.

Yeah, going through the the process of transferring over from the Temp company to uh Integra, a legal uh problem came up in my past, and that could have held me back from being hired on, but Integra saw past that and saw who I was and actually talked to my supervisors and talked to me and got to uh know who I am.

And uh I mean I uh thank them for that.

It's a great culture to come to a light human work.

It is like a team.

And I mean, this place is like a live real you know, it really is a life like breathing.

Things are moving and growing each day.

I want to be the lead of grand operations for the night shift under McGill supervision and David Lopez's supervision first.

I know it takes time.

Everything that Integra has done is changed me for the good, and like I said, my family has really noticed the difference, and they appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for highlighting that.

I know that um council member Jackson today during her pop-off, she talked about the job fare uh that she is going to um partner with Integra on.

Um so making sure we have uh living wage jobs in the city is critical to the economy in our city, so we appreciate you coming back with the uh update uh based on our our T Z vote council members.

It's always good to hear from uh the companies that are doing the great work in our city.

We do have a couple of council members in queue.

Um we'll start with council member Kyman.

Thank you, Madam Chair Mayor Pratem, and thank you all for the presentation.

I had one question, and you may not be prepared to answer today, if you can follow up.

Uh it we've been having a lot of conversations around data centers in general.

So setting aside integrus commitment and what we aligned on as a city, right?

Now there's a broader conversation happening about data centers, about AI, the power generation that that requires, as well as from an environmental perspective, uh not just power generation but water, correct, as well.

Um so it would be very helpful to understand within your buildings, how are you mitigating?

What types of uh resilient infrastructure or building are you incorporating into that to reduce energy usage to reduce um water consumption for the surrounding area, right?

And this is something as a city we're gonna have to grapple with across the board and in the state of Texas.

So just trying to understand more within your business model how you're uh addressing those needs.

Um we do actually like I said, we design uh our own equipment, so it's just the MEP equipment that we're responsible for.

So again, that's that's uh backup like generation.

If the if things shut down that the utility goes down, do we have backup power, we provide that, right?

And then uh conversion, that's what our uh PDCs do.

They convert from utility power to generator power.

Um, and then we the cooling equipment is often where you're seeing the issues with uh using a lot of uh water, right, as a resource.

Our PUE is actually very low for the uh data centers that we build.

Um we've done a lot of things to integrate uh uh can uh system for the cooling that ties it all together so each piece of equipment isn't necessarily running individually and suck sucking up a lot of water, it's all tied together so and we're able to recirculate that water to reduce the amount of um water that's consumed by the data center because it is a concern not just for Houston, but for almost anywhere that we're building.

Uh and yes, they do consume uh quite a bit of power.

Um there's a lot of uh equipment in there to run from the server point of view, so a lot of that depends on uh the owner of the data center and and what type of power sources might be available on the land.

We're seeing things like you know, people have natural gas uh behind the meter, uh they may use solar, they may use some different things that could be used also to help support the data center to to reduce the taxation on the uh infrastructure.

Water recirculation is a terrific example, and I would just ask as a c is a city that as we have more of these programs and buildings coming online that we're looking at those things as well.

Absolutely.

Councilmember Flickinger.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh you mentioned forever rate.

Is that similar to a turnover rate or she meant turnover rate?

Yeah.

Okay, same thing.

Yes, I'd never heard it spoke about forever before.

Who are your competitors?

Oh, we don't really have any in this exact market that we do because we're the only people doing full turnkey.

So most of the time you'll be an equipment provider, or you might build the physical building, which would be a normal construction company.

There are very few uh in fact, none that do all the whole thing.

So that's why I kind of joke that we're the sandals of data centers, because we're full turnkey.

If you came to me with a piece of property, we'd say we can do all of it for you.

And how long have you all been in Houston?

Uh just over a year.

So we started in January last year, roughly.

July or August.

I think we got the keys in August.

We started talking about it.

Early last year or March, yeah.

And I assume the tax abatement was a big piece of that that was the driving factor for us coming to Houston, yes.

Okay.

Um are you able to quantify what that benefit has been in the last year?

Well, we promised you 291 jobs in five years, and we were able to bring that up to 863.

But what about the the tax abatement, the dollars associated with that to integral?

What kind of benefit?

Um, that has obviously helped us financially to be able to take on more employees.

Do you have a dollar amount associated with that?

I don't have a dollar amount now.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Staff from Councilmember Alcorn's office.

Thank you, and thank you for this presentation, and thank you for sharing the testimonies as well.

Um, just to follow up on what Councilmember Cayman had mentioned, um, Councilmember Alcorn's been in a few conversations about data centers this week, so this is really timely and really great information.

Um we want to keep learning more about the permitting side and building code and um the incentives that there are to grow this industry in Houston.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Can you give us a range on salary for the assembly technician one and two?

They start at 25,000 a year.

Um they the assembly one and two goes to four is it 40,000?

They probably go higher than that.

Okay.

25,000.

Yeah.

I think so.

That's how we're going to do that.

I'll have to check it.

Yeah, I'd be interested to know.

Um it's good to have lots of jobs.

I'd be interested to know what I'm going to say that they start in the high teens uh to 20s per hour, right?

And so their hourly rate right now we're running uh full operation two shifts, right?

And we do have opportunities for overtime for people.

Um so there definitely is a lot of growth opportunity.

Plus, we have people that have get into some of the skilled type trades, right?

Our electricians make significantly more money, right?

That uh people that are skilled.

Uh we do have welders, plumbers, all those kind of things.

So they definitely uh elevate.

So that that wage is probably higher than the that's way higher than I apologize.

Yeah, I said annually, I meant hourly.

I know you probably have 25 dollars an hour.

Yes.

Yes, it's it's an hour.

Okay.

All right.

Well, um, if there are no other questions, are you back in the queue?

We just we had one other question.

Councilmember Km.

On that, if on that, that's for a standard eight-hour shift, correct?

We're not talking part-time.

Okay, thank you.

So full-time employment.

Full time, yes.

Full-time employment.

If no other questions, we appreciate you being here today, and thank you very much for your time.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Andrew, anything else?

Yes, I'd just like to close out.

Um saying thank thank you for the opportunity to showcase economic development happening within the city and in real time.

Um, and that you know, moving forward, if this is something of interest to the committee, we're happy to uh provide more updates like this.

Um so let us know uh feedback and or if there's any other particular projects that you'd like to see.

Thank you very much.

We appreciate you.

Okay, our next presentation will be uh an HISD update by Superintendent Mike Miles.

Superintendent Miles, thank you for being here.

Uh we are ready to hear from you.

We've got your presentation queued up.

We all have a copy of it, and uh we're ready to hear from you.

If you want to sit or do you want to stay in?

Is it okay if I stay?

You can stay in, that's fine.

We can raise up the podium.

How's that?

And is it this is on already?

Yes?

Yes.

All right.

So uh Mayor Pro Tem, members of the council, thank you for giving me a little bit of time today.

I understand we have about 30 minutes, so I'll try to be short with the presentation because I I suspect there's some questions, and I'll happy to answer them.

Um but I did want to talk a little bit about um HISD and its results first.

Uh next slide.

I don't have to tell you this, but I'd like to just frame it and make sure that we understand that public education as the public schools are the aspirational expression of the national admission and promise, the promise of a bright education or good education leading to successful careers, college experience, or just successful citizenry.

And that's what public schools do.

However, in this country in the last 20, 30 years, next slide, please.

We have not, we, the public education system, have not lived up to the promise of America.

We are a nation at risk, and still are.

Some of you may remember the 1983 Nation at Risk Report.

And most recently, the Hoover Institute did a nation at risk plus 40 years report, and you can see on the slide in front of you that we have been proved very little since that time.

Not only have we uh not improved, we have not narrowed the achievement gap, and the promise of America isn't real for most kids.

In fact, in the Institute, you can see the report on your screen there.

Um it's no longer a matter of public urgency, but of emergency.

That's where we are.

Closer to home, next slide.

And in that, it also showed that the graduates of year 2017 from the Greater Houston area, six years later, were not engaged in a livable wage job or career.

You can see there that only 17 percent of the HISD graduates were earning a livable wage in 2023, six years after graduation.

That is a cause for alarm for the entire area, and you can see the some of the other districts.

That report is filled with a bunch of other data and statistics, all of it not very good, um, and also the reason why it was important for my administration to take some of the bold steps we have taken.

So we did.

Um other thing before I tell you how we did it.

In the profession, education profession, um, there's a phrase that zip code often equals destiny.

And if you know Houston and you look at a map of Houston, and I asked you two years ago, or any other large district, if you know or large city, and you know the city, and I asked you, where are your lower performing schools, and where are your higher performing schools?

And most people would be able to identify those schools, the areas of town.

For example, not to um diminish the current work, but if I said two years ago, how are the schools in the North Forest area?

Almost all of you would be able to tell me low performing.

Um, next slide.

If you look at a map, and next slide, please.

Of Houston in 2023 by accountability rating.

You can see there on the map the pink and red dots are the D and F schools, and the light green and green dots are the A and B schools.

Take a look at that map for a second.

And then you would ask the same question.

Can you tell that the type of school, the rating of the school, even without the colors, if I asked you the color of the dots, you probably would be.

Because next slide.

It would follow the geography of the schools that are challenged by poverty and language barriers.

This is the same map, 2023, just circling the geographic areas of the low performing schools, and they mirror the schools challenge, the areas of town challenged by poverty and language barriers.

And you can see the area of town that is not doesn't have any circles, and has mostly light green and green schools, and you would be able to predict that before you saw this map.

But I can tell you, next slide.

This is the map of Houston today based on TEA's accountability ratings.

And I just need one person to say amen.

You know, can we have the audience to um just listen to the presentation, please?

Thank you.

I know he did, but we just need one person say amen.

Um thank you, Superintendent.

No amount of jury is going to change the fact that these schools, data from TEA, are A and B rated schools.

You cannot tell looking at this map, and there's no other large urban district in America that can show a map like this, where if you don't know Houston, you would not be able to tell where your poor areas are or the areas challenged by poverty or language barriers are, and that is a feat.

It's a historic feat, and it's a it's a feat that our kids did and our teachers did.

And if nothing else, we got to be able to say congratulations to teachers and students for doing this.

This is a huge difference for this community for this city, and we have broken myth after myth that poor kids challenged by uh poverty and language barriers, mostly black and brown kids, because the district is 85 percent black and brown, another 7% Asian, mostly minority kids, are achieving at levels never seen before, and we have broken the myth that zip code equals destiny, and that is a fact.

Next slide.

So we have broken other myths too.

I've got other data here, but I'm gonna skip over a couple so that uh uh we can get to questions.

Go to the next slide and the next slide and the next slide.

These are all data points that you've seen or you can get, and one more slide.

But one thing that's rarely talked about, but it should be talked about.

When I got here, there's a vision statement that we that we uh adopted, vision, and there's two big parts to that division.

Number one, we will significantly narrow achievement gaps, and we're gonna break the myth that achievement gaps closure takes a decade.

That was part one of the vision that we will break the myths that we will narrow the achievement gap significantly.

The second was we are going to help our kids with year 2035 competencies.

Those two were in the vision statements.

So it's kind of odd that we don't talk about it enough.

Not the district does, but people outside the district.

Um look at the achievement gap or the growth in our scores.

At the time I said that there's two things.

One, if you want to close the achievement gap, the way to close it is not by bringing down your higher performing kids.

Yes, that will narrow the gap, but that's not a way to do it.

The way to do it is to raise up your higher performing kids, but bring up the bottom even faster.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what we have done.

Look at the scores in just two years.

No other district can claim this growth or the narrowing of the achievement gap.

So our white students did well in reading overall by seven percentage points, but our black students have doubled that.

And our Hispanic students and our economically disadvantaged students, students with disabilities, emergent bilinguals.

And the question that is rarely asked is how we're able to do this.

And we're doing it exactly like we said we would.

We're raising the upper uh students and bringing up the floor even faster.

That is really tough to do, and it has to do with all the things that I'm about to tell you with regard to how we're doing it.

The next slide, please.

Our math, not quite as good as our reading, but still any district would be proud, any large group would be proud to have these kind of gains.

Again, our upper students going up, our our school are uh subgroups that were lower are rising even faster.

And I challenge the broader communities to look at the achievement gap of every school, and if there is one to say, is that okay?

And challenge us, what are you doing about it?

Because we're doing something about it, we're gonna continue to do something about it, and it's time we talked about it, not just as a nation, but also as a district, how we are closing the achievement gap and whether that matters to our kids.

It matters.

So moving on, I'll spend just a minute on a couple minutes on how.

So if you go to the next slide, and the next slide, I'm moving faster here, and the next and the next, then.

So let me talk just about a few things.

This is complicated work.

It's really, it's not rocket science, but it's close.

To raise achievement like our teachers and kids have done, to close the achievement gap, since hardly anybody has ever been able to do it in a district this size, uh, is complicated work.

It takes real professionals and it takes what we what you see on the screen.

One of the things that uh most people in the profession understand, most leaders do, but is not talked about because it's the hardest thing to do is change the culture to a high performance culture versus one that has lower expectations and lower accountability.

That is very hard to do, and it's the one that gets the most pushback, especially from people that don't understand how organizations can change.

Um culture is what we've worked on, and uh I'll give you an example of that in the next slide.

So, for example, culture is about your expectations and your accountability with support.

Accountability without support just breeds fear, accountability with support will lead you to a high performance culture.

But accountability is real for us, and culture is real for us, meaning this.

Um it is an expectation in HISD that we continuously improve.

That's part of a culture of continuous improvement, which means that all schools, all kids need a great education, and if we have achievement gaps, or if we have 30 or 40 percent of your kids that are not proficient, I don't care which school you are, you will continue to improve and work on that.

We insist on using high quality instruction and insist that the teachers use the strategies that equate to high quality instruction.

We have a culture of insistence.

We don't just train people and then let the teachers not do uh the strategies that make the most sense in our profession that have been research-based and proven.

Or attendance, a high uh performance call uh culture is also about coming to work.

So we have higher attendance in most districts because we insist on high attendance.

If you don't qualify for FMLA, if you don't qualify for long-term disability and other exceptions, then you will come to work, and you will only have the days, the PTO days that you're that you're given.

And we're serious about that.

That's a high performance culture.

Um the last thing I'll say about high performance culture, um, if you can go to the next slide, is that um or go back, please, one one slide.

The last thing I'll say about high performance culture is that we ensure uh that teachers have we we make it clear that teachers have a choice to work at HISD.

Nobody else would say this because uh they're worried about what the Nate Sayers might say.

In HISD, you get to choose at the beginning whether you want to work here.

We outline clearly what's called an employee value proposition, and we expect professional behavior, for example, in that employee value proposition, professional behavior in that employee value proposition, and we say this is this is what we're gonna do here.

This is how we do it here.

In in HISD, we're gonna give you the highest salaries, we're gonna give you the curriculum that's already described for you, we're gonna give you the best professional development, we're gonna give you this many days off, etc.

etc.

etc.

On the other side of the coin, your principal will be in your classroom a lot.

You will be evaluated on pay-for-performance system, you'll be required to do certain things instructionally that are non negotiables, and some other non negotiable.

Please choose the system that best fits you.

If this is, if you don't want your principal in your classroom, this is not the place to work.

And it's about time, it would be about time if our profession, education, was more clear about that.

In our profession, because we're not clear, we have not closed the keynote gap.

And HISD because we are clear, our teachers are way more effective, and they're getting results.

That's what we do in HISE.

This is how we do it here, and I don't apologize for that phrase because every elite organization, business, State Department, Army, or HISD does the same way.

This is how we do it here.

We want you, but when you come, this is how we do it here, and this is how you have to do it here.

Please go to the the slide that says all means all, and then I will end my remarks.

Right there.

Not only do we have kids who are still not proficient, we have achievement gaps still.

Some schools, I'm ashamed to say, has a 45% achievement gap.

And even a 20% achievement gap would be uh bad even for today's day.

In the country, it's around 30%, if you look at reading and math between black and white students and Hispanic and white students across the country.

So we've got a lot of work to do.

And this notion that all means all.

Yes, 74% of our kids are attending A and B rated schools today, and not one HISD student is in an F-rated campus this year, which has never happened since the accountability framework came along.

But all means all, and it then that phrase should mean something.

So we will not be done until everybody has a good high performing school.

So the Houston promise, go to the next slide, please, and then the next slide.

Is that by August 2027, all schools in HISD will be in A or B rated school?

And that is what we're that's two years from now.

That's a challenge.

And we put that challenge out for ourselves, but also for the community.

It has never been done.

No urban district would make that promise, but we're making it.

But here's the here's the last point I'll make before taking questions.

All of this starts with the belief.

Two years ago, if I said this, if I made this the goal, two years.

Facing that map that you saw, a hundred and twenty-one D and F rated campuses.

No one would believe that we could get to an A and B.

And today, uh the third time, but um the first time with the principals, half the principals were in the training today, and I was training tomorrow, the other half, and their EDs.

So we had about 200 people in the room.

And I asked them, you know, do they think this can be done?

And we took comments from different uh tables after they had a chance to talk.

And to a person, our principals believe it can be done.

I asked this question at the uh teacher advisory committee.

I asked it at the principal advisory committee.

Our teachers, our principals believe this can be done.

Two years ago, they probably wouldn't have believed.

But because we have gone from 121 DNF campuses to just 16 D campuses, because we went from 93 A and B rated campuses to 197, these data from TEA.

Because of that, people believe, and those of you who know about change, it's kind of it's and really tough things.

It's a little bit like Yoda and Luke Skywalker.

If you've seen Star Wars, where Luke Skywalker couldn't raise the ship out of the water, and Yoda says, okay, he does it, and Luke Skywalker says to Yoda, you know, I can't believe it.

And Yoda says, that is why you failed.

So the same thing applies.

It's hard to believe the sort of transformation that we we were faced with.

It's hard to believe that we could get these sort of results.

But we have broken those myths, and now the biggest thing this administration and our teachers and principals have done is we've given the whole public education system and this city a chance to believe that hard things can be done, that the achievement gap can be closed, that we can have high performing schools, regardless of the conditions under which the kids are challenged.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Superintendent Miles.

I think we can all agree that a world class city wants to have a world class education system.

And I'll I'll ask this with um all due respect.

Uh we've received several um emails and lots of communication from Houstonians, and um I will tell you that many of them don't believe this information.

Um I think you've said I I think that that's no surprise to you.

I think you've said um a lot of things, um, but for a lot of people, it's very difficult to believe that some of these schools have gone from D and F ratings rated schools in a year that are now A and B rated schools.

Um if you are not a parent in those particular schools, or you have not witnessed what is happening in those schools, what do you say to someone who is on the outside looking in that is having a very difficult time believing that these schools have gone from D and F rated schools to these A and B rated schools?

A couple things.

One, it's it it is I I said it is hard.

Two years ago it was hard to believe that this could happen.

It doesn't happen normally.

So it would be you know hard for someone, I think, who who isn't steeped in data, what the TEA does, what accountability is like, what the what we're actually doing, to understand or believe the the transformation is getting these results.

So I get that.

Um but here's the other side.

We've been at this for two years, and so you can have all the conspiracy theories you want.

The fact is the fact, the data comes from TEA, and the people who do believe it are the parents and the kids who are succeeding.

And the parents if you are in the audience, we're gonna give the audience members a time to answer questions to ask their questions and make their comments, but this is his time to speak if you'll respect his time to answer our questions.

So the parents and the and the and the kids, they believe.

They're the ones who are impacted by the data, and there's no denying when a kid can read at grade level and couldn't read before, there's a lot of pride and joy in that.

And they don't doubt the data because there's so much data NWA, NAEP, Dibbles, STAR, that says the same thing.

So those are the people that we focus on, those are the people we listen to because they are the ones that that in the end of the day, that's what we're doing.

This A and B uh promise, that's about the kids.

And that's about putting kids first and celebrating their success, and and they believe, and those are the ones we will focus on.

We do have some council members that have a couple of questions, and council members, if you'll be succinct with your questions, and we'll try to get as many of those answered by the superintendent before he has to leave.

Councilmember King.

Thank you.

Superintendent, um, I think we're all here because of our commitment to public education.

Uh I have received countless questions.

You talk about those on the outside versus the inside, but every question I have, and we'll be submitting these as well, comes from teachers, students, and parents within HISD.

And the and let's hit through the questions, guys, because I want to hear from y'all as well, please.

And I want to be respectful.

Um there are very real concerns.

And first and foremost, I would like to ask you a question related to safety, if I may.

We are seeing throughout the country, this is not a Houston specific issue, more and more school shootings.

It's my understanding that within HISD, though, however, that doors are still required to remain open and unlocked.

Can you please let me know?

Is that still the rule within HISD?

If there's a sprinkler system, then we uh ask the doors to be open during instruction if there's a sprinkler system, because that's about the fire marshal and the firefight.

If there's no sprinkler system, and most of our schools don't have a sprinkler system in the hallway, then they can be closed.

Um the research is pretty clear.

Uh the doors can be open and locked so that you can just uh pull it shut.

What's more important is to have a vestibule, a single point of entry, and that's what we're working on.

Right.

We have we have a lot of schools without that, and we're spending extra money to trying to try to catch up.

I understand, and but again, I'm gonna just voice my concern about as it pertains to firearms in schools, um, and that concern remains.

As you talked about facilities, the budget deficit has increased, but executive executive salaries have grown, uh including bonuses, millions have gone to PR, but there's vital services like wraparound specialists, librarians, autism support in district C specifically, HVAC systems have been failing.

So there's a long list.

Given the decision to spend, let's say, for example, a couple hundred thousand on billboards.

What is being done to address non-working AC and mold issues in many of our schools?

Again, these are emails that I get as a council member.

Um, what is being done to get students wrap around services and disability support, and we talk about the faith in HISD.

The bond that was historic failed overwhelmingly because, in my opinion, the lack of faith in what is happening right now.

So, what are we doing to build that faith?

But what are we doing more specifically to address the facilities and the issues and services that I'm mentioning?

So it's uh interesting to me when KIP or other charter schools put up a billboard, we call that recruitment strategy to get more kids or to recruit teachers.

Right?

And yet, and they're public education institutions, so those are tax dollars.

Um when HISD does it to get enrollment or recruit teachers, uh, you call it something else.

Uh to answer your question though, on uh we are prioritizing resources.

Let me tell you a little bit about the budget and and then talk about priorities because that addresses your wraparound uh specialist question.

Um I don't know where the administration and the elected board was when ESSER dollars were used for recurring expenses.

1.2 billion dollars of ESSER used.

Superintendent Miles, will you just pull that microphone there so we can make sure we have the recordings?

Thank you, sorry.

Um point two billion dollars of Esther money, two-thirds of it in recurring expenses.

So for those of you who are familiar with big budgets, recurring expenses are things like a salary increase used with one-time dollars that then has to continue unless you want to take salaries away after the one-time dollars stop.

All the people that were hired at central office wraparound specialists and others to uh because of SRE dollars, and then when the money stops, what do you do?

What you do is you do zero-based budgeting and you figure out a way to prioritize, otherwise the deficit would have been and was 256 million dollars when I got here, with all of these positions paid for by ESSER dollars.

Now that's a fact, um, but what little known is we prioritized and made sure that we put the money that would get the best gains and performance for our kids.

So despite the deficit, despite the need to prioritize, we still got best reading gains, math gains.

This is opportunity for kids.

70,000 more kids in A and B schools in two years, many more kids able to read the the 50,000 last year, over 50,000 this year, more students who are able to read at grade level.

This is not just growth, it's achievement.

So, to answer your question, we prioritize resources, and that was what we required.

You cannot keep all the things you've had.

And most districts are in deficit, and some are willing to cut um uh things, and some are not.

We don't want to be in too big a hole that we can't climb up.

We were in a big hole, now we're just in a small hole with our deficit.

Councilmember Pollard.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim, and good afternoon to everyone, superintendent, good to see you.

Um we spoke last year, I made a reference that you know data can be interpreted in different ways.

Uh different people can put out data that says one thing and the same data can say something else to someone else.

So I want to focus on uh parents and parents' evaluation of their child and parents' evaluation of the school and the school leadership, because I think that gives that individual parent uh an idea of if they believe that their child is performing well or not, because they see their child on the day-to-day, right?

I'm a product of HISD, and I believe in a strong public school system, and so I put my child in HISD.

My child goes to St.

George Elementary, and last year there was a lot of uh community uproar regarding some transitions at St.

George Elementary.

And what I discovered a few weeks ago when the HISD scores came out was that St.

George Elementary went from uh 89, almost an A, to now a 79, a C.

And it's the same students in the same school, but there's something that caused that score to go dramatically lower.

And so as a parent, that caused me to have some pause because I'm seeing that this school that myself and others believe was going in the right direction, took a change of course in leadership and direction, and now is underperforming.

I also see that schools in my district that were underperforming historically now got higher grades, right?

And I don't want to pinpoint all of them to call them out, but there does seem to be a shift in schools that were performing well and now they aren't performing as well in a shift in some schools that historically have underperformed and are doing better based on the scores.

So can you give some color and clarity on why these shifts have occurred?

There are 170,000 students, twice as many parents, uh there are 273 schools, and yes, there's going to be some variability, and I can give you the the answer in a second, but I just want people to understand the data.

The fact that you have one school, two schools, or five schools.

We went from 93 A and B schools two years ago to 19.

That means the vast majority of the high performing schools are still high performing and have been joined by others.

Could you find in 197 a handful of schools that went down?

Yes.

And that's why the Houston Promise is going to try to limit that variability to 273 A and B campuses.

We had some schools that go down, yes, but overall we had 121 DNF campuses, now we have 16 D, zero F's.

Can you find in that group some that went from a C to a D?

So the issue that I have is when you have schools that are performing well already, you leave those schools alone.

And so then you then you focus on the underachieving schools to try to bring them up.

But when you have when you have a school that's already performing well, and the community says we want to keep things this way, you run the risk of then that school not performing well when you change directions, and it starts to impact the credibility of the direction of the district when the school that was already performing well now is underperforming.

And so I do want to point that out.

And I can tell you why.

But here's the other things you have to look at.

Okay.

Can you tell us why?

I want to know why.

Yeah, sure.

Okay.

Um, first of all, we have defined autonomy.

I don't hear a lot of the SUS schools complaining anymore about defined autonomy, uh, special and unique schools.

Um they're doing fine, and the the biggest fear was I don't want this to happen to me, and the sky did not fall.

Um but let's say you have a school that's a B, and the achievement gap is 45%.

Um but let's say you have a school that's a B, and the achievement gap is 45 percent.

Do you do something about that or do you not?

And I can tell you, my answer.

Um because I'm in front of you, I weren't won't cuss.

But yes, I will do something about that.

We do have B schools that have a high achievement gap.

We have A schools that do.

So even though they have a certain level of defined autonomy, instruction is not autonomous.

Instruction is not autonomous.

Why?

Because all means all, and we have 45 percent achievement gap.

That means your most of your kids or a good portion of your kids, your wealthier kids are doing fine, and your kids challenged by poverty are not.

And so the school can hide behind that grade if they want, but they're not going to under this administration.

I'm not talking about 20 percent of team, I'm talking about 45 percent.

Do we want to do something about that or not?

Do you want me to just well there bees, so you know what, let them alone.

Yeah, but when this when the parents in the community don't want you to do it, I think you don't when the parents in the community says we like the way things are going here, and these are our keys that we're putting in the school, then you focus on the schools that do want some changes, because if you start to interfere with the schools that are performing well because you or others may believe that there are still some deficiencies, right?

We're not talking about regular deficiency.

I'm talking about a team gap of 45.

But uh we'll we'll agree to disagree.

Um look, we're gonna educate all kids in this district while I'm the superintendent.

That is what's called for.

And I want to challenge the notion that the parents want that.

We did a sentiment survey in May, sentiment survey, before the accountability scores came out.

71 percent of all parents think their school is doing fine by their kids.

71 percent.

The overwhelming majority of parents feel that their school did better the second year than the first year.

This is before the achievement uh uh results came out.

So I think now, after the achievement, we're gonna have even more.

When you go to school, when there's a third of the families that are privileged, and two-thirds that are not, you're gonna hear everybody from the privileged side come to you and complain.

Where are the people whose kids are not being served well?

Who's gonna be their voice?

Who's gonna do what they need to do for them?

That's my job, and so I'm gonna continue to do that job, and same with my teachers and principals.

Thank you.

Councilmember Martinez.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

Uh, and I had similar questions, so my hope is that we can submit these and we can get these.

Hopefully, um getting all these answered though in front of the public, though.

Um, you know, I've had some about proficiency at some of the lower rated, now higher, and then what's happening uh to those similar to Councilmember Pollard.

Um also about engagement, um, having real engagement other than just surveys, um, how do we continue to make sure that we're doing that?

But what I want to focus on, um, we know that there's been a decrease in enrollment at at uh HISD.

Um something about sustainability for me is if your enrollment continues to decrease and there's a high turnover of of teachers as well.

Um how do you see that long-term um being able to keep HIS E functioning financially uh to serve all kids?

It's it's it's it's always a challenge if you lose enrollment.

We've been losing enrollment since 2017.

Um most recently, and we'll do an analysis once it does settle, we'll have enrollment uh data more uh uh more accurate enrollment data once we get the October count and the PEMS the sorry to throw out uh technical words.

The the uh um the record from the state.

Uh we call it PEMES data.

Anyway, uh across the country, one of the things that's unique about this year is that uh New York lost 70,000 kids.

Los Angeles lost about 100,000, Chicago lost 12,000.

Locally, I've talked to my peers.

I won't they can give you their own data, uh, but you can look it up too.

Surrounding districts uh have lost uh a lot of kids more than usual, and the reason is uh that's unique this year is the deportation scare.

And that's uh that's borne out by our own by our own um anecdotal information, we'll get more information to you eventually.

How do we get long-term things?

Yeah.

That means if we have fewer kids, we'll have fewer teachers, which means we'll have fewer central office staff, fewer purchase services.

We will be rigorous on the budget.

Um that will also be uh a challenge, just like the first year, we had to cut a whole bunch of staff because of Esther.

If we lose enrollment, we will be cutting staff also and purchase services over time.

I'm not announcing that we're cutting staff right now or anything, but um over time we'll be uh cutting down and right sizing.

Um that's how we're gonna do it.

Councilmember Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

And thank you, Superintendent Miles, for being here and presenting and taking questions.

Um with regard to the test scores, um, they look great, but many have charged that the numbers have been skewed somewhat by moving students out of tougher courses.

Um cite two examples that that have been uh suggested.

Um eighth grade algebra at Fondren Middle, and ninth grade biology at Wheatley.

Um the charge is students have been moved out of these courses so that the test scores could be increased.

How do you respond to those charges?

First in context.

Oh, sorry.

First the context and then the specifics.

The context is, guys.

We improved in every single grade compared to the state.

Every single one.

In math, there are seven different exams in math.

Algebra is one, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth star exams.

We were behind the state by a lot in 2023.

We are now ahead of the state average in five of those exams.

Do you think that we got there by manipulating the data?

That's the that's a that's the question for you know, average people who are just objective.

And the answer would be no.

Let's talk about algebra.

If you look at, I mean, I've been a principal, I've been in school systems for a long time.

On any given year, you're gonna have an algebra class, enough kids to have an algebra class in eighth grade, or two classes.

But the next year you might have only enough kids for one class.

It does fluctuate.

In this district, the percentage of kids in algebra this last year was 21 percent of the eighth graders were in algebra.

What was it in 2023?

21 percent.

What was it uh uh a year uh year before that?

20 percent.

It's it's very similar in the number of percentage of kids.

So, yes, maybe there's a school that didn't do algebra, there's 40 uh uh seven middle schools.

So, yeah, there might be a few.

I can tell you this though, if you look at what we're doing, we are accelerating kids.

In just a couple years, as things catch up, you're gonna have more kids in algebra.

I will point that out to you when we get there.

There'll be no apologies, I'm sure, but yes, there'll be more kids in algebra than ever before.

And yes, biology.

We have algebra one, English one, English two, U.S.

history and biology.

The state requires biology as an end of course, you have to pass that before you can graduate.

So whether you do it in ninth or tenth grade, you still have to pass it.

If you have a lot of newcomers or kids who are challenged by language barriers taken in the ninth grade where there's two other exams, algebra one and English one, of the five, you have three in ninth grade.

That's penalizing kids with language barriers.

They are more likely to pass the biology, and we've proven that, if they take it in tenth grade.

So, yes, it's a smart strategy to take biology in tenth grade.

Most of the districts in the state do some portion of that.

Dallas does that.

So it's only here because you get uh people who don't really understand how things work uh complaining about it.

But our kids still have to take biology.

Now we have more tenth graders taking biology.

And they are there are fewer retesters, fewer retesters, which is a good thing for kids because then they can take other things rather than retesting biology or preparing for biology.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Okay.

I'll go back in the queue.

Councilmember Fleckinger.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Speaking about the lower enrollment, I think one of the things that hasn't been mentioned is the demographics.

The birth rate and the demographics are changing.

And there's families are having fewer kids.

So obviously your goal needs to be that you don't lose enrollment more than the other schools do, that you're, you know, changing at the same rate.

That's right.

That the others are.

How many F campuses did you have before you came onto the scene?

Fifty-six.

And you've got zero now?

That's right.

That's right, sir.

Okay.

One of the uh speakers for public session, I believe two weeks ago came in and said that yes, Houston ISD improved, but everybody improved.

So that's not the reality.

Did you improve more or less than what the rest of the state did?

How did you do compared to the state?

So let's take a large district like Dallas.

Did Dallas improve?

The answer is yes.

Dallas improved, not as much as we did.

And if you look at Dallas's achievement, like proficiency on exams, we call that meets and exceeds, meets and exceed score for math, fourth grade, fifth grade, all the subjects, reading, there's 20 exams.

When I got here in 2023, we were behind Dallas in every single one.

Today we're above Dallas in every single one.

And I have some affinity to Dallas since I helped there for a while.

But here's the other thing.

And you and you really have to understand the data, and I suspect you will if I just explain it just quickly to you.

You get a one-time growth bump.

So Dallas and all the other districts in 23-24 school year, 23-24 school year, went down considerably.

And we went up pretty dramatically.

That's how we went from 121 DNF campuses to 41, if you remember.

41 DNF campuses.

And so the state went down, even the state went down, not just our surrounding districts or the large districts.

We went up.

So whenever you have a big gain, part of that gain is growth.

Part of it is achievement, part of it is growth.

The next year, you don't get a growth score unless you actually grow that much more.

So we grew, so Houston grew and achieved.

And so we did well this year also.

The other districts brew a lot more or grew than where they were the year before, barely going above where they were two years ago.

So then the question is, can you do it two years in a row?

So the right thing to look for a year from now, so yes is the answer to your question.

We outgrew the others still.

And the question next year is will we still be on that same trajectory?

Up and what will the other districts look like?

You mentioned pay for performance.

Can you speak about that?

Yes, sir.

Um organization can maximize its effectiveness if what it values is disconnected from how it compensates people.

That's a principle of organizational effectiveness.

If you value higher achievement for kids, the fact that they should read and write and do math at higher levels.

If you value year 2035 competencies, upgrading CTE courses, then what you value should be compensated for.

And so in Dallas, 12 years ago, I started a pay for performance system that is still going on today, and the overwhelming majority of teachers love it, and it's still going on, and nobody has challenged that system.

Nobody wants to end it.

It's been 12 years and they still have it.

And so it is the way to ensure that your most effective teachers are rewarded for that effectiveness, and your least effective teachers are disincentivized.

And so that's the that's a pay-for-performance system.

I know that's very simplistic.

It's a there's a you know 50-page document if you really want to know about it.

But that in the in shorthand is the pay for performance system.

Thank you.

Councilmember Evans Chabass.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim, and thank you, uh Superintendent Miles for coming today.

Um certainly uh it's not a good position to be in sometimes when the morale of the district is somewhat low.

And uh I am a former educator, and I do believe that people do better, teachers, personnel, they do better when they are valued, they feel valued and secure.

What is being done to help the teachers and the staff to feel that intrinsic value so that they can perform even better, because I think that they the delivery model is much better when people feel valued and secure.

I was at the um bipartisan policy commission on education and workforce yesterday in Washington, D.C.

And that was actually a topic of one of the topics of discussion.

Bipartisan Policy Commission.

Um I'm the only sitting superintendent on that uh commission.

We talked about the value, and there's a couple of things that uh across the country we we know.

One, uh the morale across the country is low, and a lot of teachers don't feel valued.

That's number one.

Number two, that um one of the biggest reasons they don't feel valued is they're not being paid a wage that they think is a professional wage.

Third, they don't feel um like the like there's there's broad support for teachers in the community or in the in the nation or wherever they are.

Uh and fourth, the local condition, their local leadership, the leadership there, are they are they treating them like professionals?

Uh that's so it's it's not any one thing.

And I would I would say that our teachers are are have higher morale than what's the average in the country.

We actually actually ask teachers those questions.

Um we have a a beat on that.

We we kind of know where they are.

But the other thing is this pay for performance, and the other things we've done is to raise teacher salaries have uh have given us the highest salaries in the in the in the area.

I raised teachers' salaries $8,000 since 2023, 8,000 average salary.

In the NES orbit, it's larger than that.

And with pay for performance, it will be larger than that.

Those are facts.

I have challenged the the Chronicle to report it.

We reported, it's on HISD now, and uh still uh, you know, and we we put billboards up to try to uh bring teachers here, so our salaries are the highest, and uh teachers get a lot of support from their principals.

I wanted to ask another question very quickly.

Um back when I was teaching teachers were required to be certified or working towards certification.

And so I I'd like to know what percentage of the teachers are certified in HISD.

If I'm not mistaken, we have about 1,700 teachers who are not certified, so that would be about 17 percent of the teachers who are working towards certification.

So they're either in their first year or second year, um, they have two years to get certified.

So um so we will we we have that percentage.

But let me let me challenge your the notion of certification.

The country has a teacher shortage.

Um, and it's it's not necessarily a teacher shortage, the certif uh uh shortage of effective certified teachers.

That's what they have.

We don't have a shortage in Houston.

We had 9,000 teachers apply for 1700 jobs in this in this district last year or over the summer.

And but we didn't we didn't choose most of them, obviously.

So that's a that's not a shortage, the shortage of effective teachers.

If that is the case, where 50 percent of all new hires in Texas are without certification.

That's a fact.

Then we might have to change the way we think about how we recruit and get up to speed new teachers.

Last year, with all these teachers working towards certification, they still got the best results the district has ever done.

So the question should be how did we do that?

Is it possible to have a bunch of teachers working towards certification still teach well?

And the answer is yes, but you have to have good on the job coaching and feedback.

You have to be clear about what high quality instruction looks like.

You have to have good professional development.

You have to insist that they be coached and trained almost daily.

And then you have to be honest about the ones who can stay and the ones who can't.

Uh staff for Council Member Castillo's office.

Okay.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh good afternoon, Superintendent.

Um, Councilmember Castillo wasn't able to join us today because of a scheduling conflict, but he asked me to share these questions with you.

Um these questions come directly from Durham Elementary Community.

So first one reads the Houston Chronicle compared HISD and Dallas ISD recently, suggesting they have some remarkable similarities.

You have spent time in charge of uh Dallas ISD years ago.

What lessons did you learn in that role?

And what were you able to apply in Houston?

What have you done differently in Houston?

We did a lot of good things in Dallas.

Um things that are now statewide.

One is uh pay for performance.

Now what the State has done is teacher incentive allotment.

That was mirrored a little bit on the Dallas Pay for Performance System.

Now you have enhanced TIA, which is also mirrored in Dallas.

I'm getting to the answer to your question.

Um the other thing that we did in Dallas was ACE, accelerating campus excellence.

It's now a statewide program, also very successful, where we put our highest performing teachers in our lowest performing schools.

And that worked out really well, and that is now known as the ACE program statewide, and it gets funding.

But what I learned in in Dallas is that transformation has to be much more systemic.

It has to be many far-reaching things done all at one time.

Otherwise, you don't move as fast.

You can't get the achievement as fast.

And I also learned that time is of the essence.

Our kids, you know, um people approach this like the kids have a whole bunch of time for the adults to get it right.

They don't.

Hence the urgency.

Hence the the amount of time, the pace of change has got to be fast.

I learned that you can't go slow to go fast.

Go slow to go slow is what actually happens.

You say you have to go fast in a way that makes sense in a way that will get outcomes.

That's what I learned.

Councilmember Km and we're back to you.

Thank you.

And going back just to pay incentives, um, I do believe there was an injunct partial injunction issued today uh finding that there could be violations of state law, and you talk about um incentive pay, right, but we still have to follow state regulations.

And there's, I'm sure we can agree on certain things we wish were different in the system that pertain to state law.

Um, as it relates to enrollment, enrollment was down last year, 4.3 percent, this year down even more.

I am being told 6.6 percent.

That's based on September numbers.

I know official numbers come out in October.

Um, I believe that's over 11,700 down from last year.

You talked about deportations.

One uh it is my understanding that private schools in the City of Houston are seeing unprecedented applications for enrollment.

So that they are those that can afford to are trying to leave the school system.

At the same time, right, that creates a wider gap between haves and have nots, which is concerning.

But you reference deportations.

And if that is the case, I would like to know how many students within HISD have not come back to school because of deportations, and what is HISD doing to protect children and their families through this extremely trying time, through no fault of the kids themselves, right?

If they are not coming to school because of fear, if they are being harassed outside of school because of fear.

So I don't know if you have those numbers, Superintendent, but since you brought that issue up, I would very much like to know uh about the circumstances related to deportation.

Uh when it comes to, and I'm just, if you don't mind, Superintendent, going to list off some questions because we'll submit them.

I really want to hear from the public, and I hope you'll be able to listen to them as well.

Um we talk about non-certified teachers under state law, and you and I may not agree that that's this should be the case, but state law requires that only certified teachers are able to assign students grades.

So, how are you working within that system if there is an increase in non-certified or be in the process of becoming certified?

Uh if you have any response to that.

So on the deportations, I said that we will find more information in October once the PEMS data comes out, and we'll do an analysis and we can provide you with that analysis.

Um, you know, I I can do a lot of things with regard to education.

There are some things that are not in my bailiwick that's not in my job description.

And there are people sitting here who have more power and influence than me with regard to deportations.

Uh so there's not there's not much I can do except to say this.

Um the school is the safest place for our kids.

Um we follow the law, and we're going to continue to follow the law.

Um, but anybody who comes to the school, we protect their FERPA rights, their privacy data.

And uh if there's a warrant or something like that, that's what's required for someone to walk in our our building.

So that's uh that's what's required.

Um part from that, there's there's uh there's other uh people and policymakers who uh you you should turn that question to.

Absolutely, and I appreciate you saying that there may there will not be somebody permitted onto HIST property without a warrant.

Is that correct?

Well, they they can come to the front office, they won't be able to go into the school.

Okay, great.

And then um I'd also like to know how many teachers were either fired or resigned last year.

Uh we'll submit that question because again, you talk about great teachers and great teachers who want to stay.

Well, my cousin was one of those public school teachers for over a decade who ended up leaving voluntarily and is now an A-leaf, and they are very lucky to have her.

But I would say um we we can look at retention rates, and that's important, but it's not as important as having effective teachers get results.

I told you that the I understand, but you're talking about my cousin who was also an effective teacher.

Okay, I uh I don't know anything about your cousin, so I I won't comment.

But what I'm saying is this the staff that we have did the did the kids uh uh solid, meaning those teachers that were here last year got the biggest results.

Move from 93 or uh uh A-rated schools in two years to 197.

Make sure that we had no F-rated campuses.

Let's applaud that.

We have no trouble getting vacancies.

Why is that?

Or having having uh getting teachers?

Right.

So why is that?

So even if you had uh a higher than normal um mobility rate for teachers, the the what you should be concerned about, and what I'm concerned about is two things.

Are the teachers who are staying the the most effective?

And they are being retained at higher rates, between 85 and 90 percent are proficient to in hire teachers.

That's a fact.

Um are we able to attract teachers so that we don't have any vacancies at the beginning of the year?

We had two vacancies.

Really, we had some what we call excess teachers, they didn't fit the exact position description, so we kept them on our roles anyway.

Um but positions that weren't filled because of qualifications or whatever, uh we had two.

In a district of 10,500 teachers, I would say that's phenomenal.

Um we will continue to have effective teachers in HISD.

Okay, and I want to thank you, Madam Chair.

I have one final question.

I do want to thank you for being here, Superintendent.

It is not easy to take our questions and to listen to the public, but I think the public is what matters right now, and our kids are what mattered.

Lastly, I would like to know, and we'll submit the question how many libraries have been removed or converted to other uses, because I've been told, for example, in NANES schools, let's say in English, kids are getting a printed packet of reading excerpts.

They're not necessarily getting that book to read.

So our kids in NES schools, and if there's misinformation, please correct it, right?

That's why you're here.

It is so important to pick up a book and read the book.

So is that happening in all of our HISD schools, or is it printed packets in some?

That's happening in all of our schools.

Look, reading a novel or book is happening in all of our schools, third grade through tenth grade for sure.

Libraries are in every school.

We may not have librarians.

Libraries are there.

Here's what you need to do.

And because there's only one way to combat information.

You guys know, being in the positions you are, that we have become more divisive and tribal.

That the people who show up to these things are the people who are the most uh extreme or disgruntled.

I'm going to push back on that, sir, because no, with all due respect, hang on with all due respect.

Councilmember Cayman, let's go ahead and say that the question is.

Absolutely.

I'm saying submit the rest of those questions because we do have some more council members in queue.

And I want to get to the public comments.

At a minimum, we can say that you if you think this is professional behavior behind me, then you're wrong.

It's not.

It's not professional behavior.

So that is the group of people that we are dealing with, and you should know that often you're getting comments from that part of the group.

Here's what I would say to you.

And here's what I do on a daily basis or almost daily.

Go to the schools.

When you go to 100 schools, and you go into the schools and you see what's actually happening.

You look at the curriculum because it's outlined, it's laid out for you.

Do that.

Talk to those kids.

I've been in this year so far, about 30 schools.

Last year I was in 130.

The year before, 150.

I'm going to be above 150 this year.

When you are in that many classrooms, multiply each of those by five or six.

Hundreds of classrooms.

Every team center I go to, I talk to a couple kids.

When you talk to that many kids, when you go on HISD now, when you see the videos of kids and families that we run every day, by the way.

When you go to that many schools, and I challenge you to just go to handful.

And by the way, some of you have, so thank you.

Thank you.

When you just go to a handful, you're going to see what's really happening.

Don't believe what's on social media.

Don't believe the loudest voices.

Go into the schools and see.

Because that's what I see.

That's what my team is doing.

And we do a disservice to teachers and kids.

When you hear the nonsense, it's a disservice.

When there's a lack of professionalism and poo-pooing the results of teachers who work really hard, and the kids who do.

If nothing else, I would listen more if you just celebrated our kids.

So, Superintendent.

And good job.

We do have a couple of more questions.

I know that we're getting a message from your team that you have a hard stop.

Council members, if you want to be quick with your with your questions so we can get to the public.

Councilmember Pollard.

For sake of time, I'll pass.

Councilmember Ramirez.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

And again, Superintendent, thank you for being here and taking questions.

So I have I have a question.

You mentioned just a few minutes ago, we don't have much time for the adults to get it right.

And I I completely agree.

And I'm thinking about the physical needs of the district, the buildings that are crumbling, the HVAC systems that don't work, our security needs.

We had a bond issue that failed last year.

But still our current and future students deserve to have better physical facilities.

So if we are to have a bond issue in the near term, focused on things like HVAC and crumbling schools and security that is successful, what is that going to look like?

The last time the city passed a bond for elementary and middle school was 2007.

The last time the city passed a bond for elementary and middle schools was 2007.

The last time for high schools was 2012.

What the community and city needs to do, in my mind, is bring a bond to us.

Bring a bond.

You say we want better schools.

We want better security.

We want.

We will tell you what amount of money to spend.

We will tell you that it's security first.

And then we'll see if that bond passes.

Thank you.

Councilmember Davis.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim.

Thank you, Superintendent Miles, for being here to bring information concerning the status of HID.

We listen to it, we hear it from different people.

One of my important ask of is a couple of things.

Number one, in meeting you several years back with the fake groups who work with HISD with our concerns about HISD and the furthering for kids as well as their parents' concern, which is as well an equal priority for all of us.

The Minister Advisory Board we have here as part of the, it's called the Minister Advisory Board to the Mayor.

And we meet once a month, and of course, our last meeting, the subject come up to where we would like to invite you to address the group in concern with concerns of two things.

One, the conditions, because in educating our kids, rightfully, every parent would be concerned as well as yourself, the conditions by which they are educated under.

Now we we want the grades, absolutely, but the conditions subsequently goes along with that same process.

Secondly, is the crime.

Decrease or increase, because I've seen the numbers.

I know what the numbers were a year ago.

The rate of crime?

Yes.

Yeah, uh I don't have that information.

But we'll try to work with the city to get that.

Okay.

Good.

That's it.

Councilmember Martinez.

We'll wait for it.

Thank you, my program.

Uh and Superintendent, you you mentioned that cuts would come.

I just want to raise a red flag.

Um when you cut teachers and schools get shut down, and a perfect example of what happens when you close a school in Clinton Park, the elementary, uh, we started seeing uh a lot of folks uh move out, dilapidated neighborhoods.

Um as much as you know you you might feel that HIZ is not responsible for what Houston looks like, your schools, those schools that are in in Houston are important to how our communities thrive.

And so just uh again, I just want to make sure that these cuts don't also come with closures of schools and communities where we've seen uh historically create a a neighborhood that no one wants to live in anymore.

Thank you for your comments.

Oh, did you want to respond to that?

Sure.

When I got here two years ago, I was asked if we were going to close schools, even though the board before me, the elected board had a list of schools to be closed.

They punted, and by the way, not just that elected board, the board for it punted, saying, you know, well, let the takeover board of managers close schools if we need to.

The district has lost 30,000 kids since 2017.

30,000.

So we have a lot of failing schools, and and and at the same time hasn't passed the bond since 2007 for elementary middle.

Yes, we have failing infrastructure.

And we we have an FMO facilities and maintenance group that is doing everything they can, and not one school has had to close because of air conditioning, and hopefully none for heat uh so far this year.

And that's a tarot feat.

They they found extra duct tape and they've gone around duct taping.

I'm kidding, it's not just about duct tape, but you know what I'm saying is that that's how bad some of our systems are.

And you cannot run a school that's built for 800 kids with 150 kids.

It's not cost effective, and it's not good for those kids anyway.

So I promised not to close schools the first year or the second year.

And I made a promise that we wouldn't close it this third year.

Why?

Because I believe what you just said, that community schools are the best ones for underserved areas.

It is the hub.

It is the life.

At the same time, I didn't promise that we'd never close schools because you cannot run these schools economically.

I mean, I I don't need to explain that.

So uh not making any predictions right now, but I have said uh in public, we will bring a list of schools to the Board of Managers sometime this year foreclosure the following year.

Superintendent, I know that um last time you were here, we submitted some questions to your office, and we got those responses back.

And for the benefit of the public, all of those questions have been posted on our economic development uh committee webpage.

Uh I know that council members, if you have some additional questions, if you'll submit those to our office, we'll also shoot those over um to the superintendent's office for responses, and when we get those responses, we will publish those on the committee's website.

Uh one other speaker um from uh HISD, the president of the board was uh scheduled to speak.

Mr.

Rick Campbell, did you still want to make comments today?

Okay.

We'd be ready for you now.

Thank you, uh Superintendent for being here.

I appreciate you.

Thank you.

Um, I'm Rick Campo.

I'm the president of the uh Board of Managers of HSD.

Um but more importantly, I'm a business leader in Houston, and uh I just celebrated my 49th year in Houston in June of this year.

I moved here right out of college, didn't have a job, and Houston was a land of opportunity for me.

And I've raised a family.

I have three kids, eight grandkids, some HISD grandkids, and uh and and I've been involved in economic development, so I've spoken to this committee many, many times over the years.

And uh I just want to talk a little bit about economic development.

I'm I'm also the chair of the Port of Houston, as most of you know, and thank you for uh reappointing me in uh in January, but um I just came from the port actually because I had a uh Port Commission community advisory meeting there this morning, bringing community together, talking about community issues and and and what have you.

And we talked about about the port and how the port is an economic development engine.

Today the port is 1.5 billion dollars of of economic activity for our region, and it's when you think about the container aspects of Port of Houston, just to give you a sense, that that that that is that port uh container operation is 270 billion dollars of economic activity for our region, 700,000 jobs in the region.

Okay.

In the last 10 years, we have doubled the size of the port.

In the next eight years, we're gonna double it again, which means they're gonna create 270 million dollars of additional economic uh activity and 700,000 more jobs.

And the challenge we have today are filling those jobs, if you can imagine that, with people that have the right skills.

And one of the reasons that I took on this this uh community service of being on the HISD board was to get involved in the in the workforce development aspect of economic development.

We need kids to be able to go out and get jobs and get a living wage.

I just recently saw that there that Houston made the dubious distinction of having this incredibly high um poverty rate.

And part of it is is that is that people aren't aren't trained to a point where they can get a living wage, and a living wage is 20 bucks an hour, 42,000 a year.

And so we need to continue to invest in our in our workforce development infrastructure in HIS HISD is doing that.

And the from my uh view of HISD and the organization that Mr.

Miles and his team has put together.

Uh they are trying to create an organization that's sustainable for the long term to improve the outcomes of students, period industry.

That's all they care about.

That's all they're doing.

From the way I see it, and having gone through two budget cycles and having gone to the legislature and talked to the legislature about everything is trying to get more funds and all that, uh, they were doing a reasonable job doing that today.

And so um one thing that I I get a lot of emails uh and and questions from the community, but I got one yesterday they want to read to you because there are folks out there that that do in fact think that that that things are going are well there.

Now they're not perfect, and they got a long, long way to go.

There's no question about that, but I want to read this email and then I'll finish.

Uh, I'm a parent of four and live in West Houston ISD.

HSD and TA have made many changes to standardize instructional content, standard life standardize the duration of instructional days and clarify and notify 504 parents of their due process rights under IDEA, among other things.

Most people wouldn't understand the gravity of these changes, but I try to tell them I deeply appreciate all the work on the school board, or your work on the school board.

Um you're making a difference.

Thank you for helping our children.

So my point simply is this we need our next generation of kids to be able to go out and get reasonable jobs at a living wage.

And if we don't have that workforce, the jobs will go somewhere else because they need to be filled by someone, and and that's uh that's gonna be a really important part.

And I think that the work at HIC is HISD goes, the city of Houston goes.

And to your point that you made at the beginning of the of the uh of this meeting, without a world class city, you can't have world-class city without a world class education system, and we're making the changes today.

There are gonna be being long-term changes that create long-term value for our kids and create that pathway to being able to do what kids should be able to do, which is get a job, raise a family, and have a great life.

Thank you.

One second, Councilmember Kamen, did you have a question?

Rick, it's so good to see you.

I just want to thank you, and I'm appreciative.

I appreciate that you even brought up your leadership on the port, right?

And that you are making that connection between our workforce, our economy, our success, and our families and our kids.

Um so again, thank you for everything that you do, and I just wanted to make sure you knew our appreciation because your time commitment throughout all of this is a big sacrifice uh to our city.

So thank you for that.

Um I would just ask, uh, I know our superintendent had to leave, but as we talk about um the engagement with the community, and you do a great job with this.

The tensions are so high.

How do we get to a place where families are feeling heard?

And we're not just talking about one group over another.

I'm talking about the everyday parents that are reaching out to our office that I do meet when I am going into schools.

It's not just a small group, and how do we get there so that they feel engaged and hurt as well?

So that's my ask and from especially the takeaway today is how can we help get there?

But asking because of your expertise and your leadership for your help as well in that.

Sure, thank you for the question.

Um, change is hard.

And when you when you change things, people don't like change generally, and that and change is hard.

But to that point, we do need to communicate better.

We've added uh communication staff, we've added H HISD now, we have community outreach that we that we do a lot, and and I think ultimately the proof in communication are the results, right?

Because you can say, I've done great, I've done great, but show me, show me the data, show me the information that says kids are learning better now.

And we have the data that shows that.

And this is out of 170,000 kids and put out by the TEA, and we can all talk about about the conspiracy theories that the data has somehow been and you know that's not correct.

But but when you start comparing school to school and district to district and district to district, it's all in the same database, it's all TEA data.

And so to me, yes, we have to be better communicators, we have to listen more.

We have to make sure that we do understand that that in fact people have a different opinion than we do, and we have to try to convince them, but we have to do it in an agreeable, reasonable way.

I think the discourse we have politically today and in our society is it needs to we need to tamp down that and just be more reasonable to each other.

And I said this at our last uh board of managers meeting before we had public comment.

I said, look, you know, we we can agree to disagree, but we don't have to be disagreeable, and we want to listen to what everybody has to say, and then if you have an opinion, that's great.

Back it up with data, and then let's review the data and agree with the data.

But I agree with you totally.

We need to we need to be more communicative.

We're trying to do that, and we'll continue to do that.

It's clearly a work in progress.

Yeah.

Please count on us to help with that.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Uh Councilmember Fleckinger.

I'll be real quick.

I mean, uh, obviously the presentation showed a lot of great improvement with the scores.

We're also getting a lot of feedback saying, oh no, no, this isn't real, this isn't real.

Your opinion is highly respected.

So, two very quick questions.

Is Houston ISD improving?

And is Houston ISD better today than it was three years ago?

It is absolutely improving.

I believe the data that I see, and I dig into it and ask lots and lots of lots of questions about it, and it's definitely improving.

It's better today than it was when we got there.

Thank you.

Uh, Mr.

Campo, thank you for being here.

I don't know if what your schedule um dictates, but I'd love for you to also be able to stay and hear some of the comments from uh the residents if you're available.

Absolutely, thank you.

We're gonna move into public comments.

Again, council members, if you have additional questions, you can submit those to us and we'll submit those to the superintendent and his team.

Uh, the first person uh that is uh signed up to speak will start with uh state representative Lauren Ashley Simmons.

Thank you so much, Mayor Prosham.

Uh good afternoon, council members.

First, I want to say thank you to each and every one of you.

Um we really appreciate, and I say this as a community member first.

Really appreciate you um taking the charge.

We have lost our elected school board, and so it is incumbent upon our city council, state representatives, our state board of education to kind of step into the role and fill in that gaps.

Um and I want to kind of be clear and been very clear and say we're not just discordant for no reason, right?

I don't think that any parent, any community member enjoys making the trek downtown and sitting here and signing in and just to fuss.

Um I'm a product of HISD.

I did all my schooling in third board, and when I came home from UT after raising a baby in Austin for five years, the first thing I did was bring my baby home where I knew he was gonna get a quality education right in third board.

I chose those schools with intention, and that's what I wanted for him.

And I knew that came at a cost.

Our schools were not perfect, and I was one of those parents that was working very hard to fix it.

So some of us have been around and some of us have been fighting for a long time.

The problem, what we're looking at right now is we knew a statewide takeover of our schools was probably not gonna be the best option because we've seen it before.

I talk about Marlin ISD a lot because that has happened there.

I talk about North Forest ISD because we remember North Forest ISD, it doesn't exist anymore.

Those were statewide takeovers of school districts that did not have any improvement.

And we can talk about HISD and we can talk about perception being reality, but you're gonna hear from community members today that are not just perceiving things, they're feeling and they're witnessing in real time.

I appreciate all of the questions that were asked, and I represent constituents who are HISD parents and students.

Please hear them, do your due diligence, and we need to work together because again, we're really the only line of defense.

I want to be clear.

I do not want Mike Miles to fail.

I'm not he he is my best friend, like I've said before.

But if he fails, that means our children fail.

But what we want is accountability.

What we want is to be able to have a conversation around accountability.

What we would like is to be able to collaborate with our superintendent.

He is still a public school superintendent.

HISD is still a public school district.

We want our district to thrive.

We want our city to reap the benefits of a well-educated populace and the benefits and the opportunities that come with having a strong public education system.

I have sat down with Mike Morrath in Austin in my office, and I have submitted the poorly done lesson plans that are done by AI that um have passages, reading passages where the questions don't line up.

He's not even able to justify and give me answers to what's going on in HISD.

So to tell us that we're just being naysayers because that's what I was called by Mike Miles on a meeting of elected officials because my constituents had concerns, it's unfair, it's silly, it's petty.

I think right now we have an opportunity to kind of fix what's going on as far in terms of communication, but I do think it's gonna take not just us tampering down our concerns.

It's gonna take HISD, the elect the excuse me, the administration HISD taking a look at not just their communication, but the way that they are presenting this information and really saying, okay, look, there is a huge disconnect here.

Our community does not trust this, and they showed us in a number of ways from the way they show up in meetings, but also the last time that they had a choice to vote on something that we presented with them a bond that overwhelmingly failed.

We need to sit down and figure this out.

So I appreciate y'all being here today.

Please take into account what the community members are saying.

Tensions are high, people are going to be emotional.

I'm gonna ask that my friends back here do their best to kind of you know be patient because you know, this is this is not this is not new for them, or it's not new for us, but this may be some new information for our council members here.

But again, I thank y'all for listening and hearing us out today.

I look forward to working with y'all and collaborating.

Thank you, Sarah.

Our next speaker is Neely Stewart.

Neely Stewart, to be followed by Jessica Yannis.

Hi, good afternoon.

I'm Neely Stewart.

I am a seventh generation Texan, a small business owner, a wife, a mother, a proud graduate of HISD, and Texas AM University.

Today I'm here as a Durham Elementary School parent.

Let's be clear.

Parents are not opposed to change.

What we are opposed to is the manner in which change is being implemented.

Abrupt, poorly planned, and without the resources or communication necessary to support our staff and students.

At Durham this year, we have witnessed our school being named a full school at focus, which the district has never shown us the growth metro mix required to have this status removed.

Two teachers, one librarian reassigned to other campuses after the school year had already begun, leaving substitutes in those classrooms.

An assistant principal who resigned before the school year even started, a kindergarten teacher who quit weeks ago and has yet to be replaced, and a respected fourth grade teacher who recently resigned but was told not to return the next day.

The result, instead of receiving consistent instruction, many of our kids are spending their school day on Chromebooks with subs.

This sends a damaging message that stability and quality teaching are secondary to rushed personnel decisions.

Meanwhile, our library was dismantled and repurposed into a team center, despite the fact that there are two empty classrooms on our campus equipped with desks.

When asked who would staff these centers, parents have not received any answers.

This is change for the sake of change, not say not for the sake of students.

We are also seeing more troubling practices that undermine learning and morale, error-ridden worksheets, replacing books with textbooks, students being denied bathroom breaks and leading to accidents, reports of silent lunches, shortened lunch periods, and recesses being taken away, teachers being reprimanded in front of students, and enrichment offerings being eliminated.

These practices do not reflect high quality education.

They reflect disruption, disorganization, a lack of respect for both educators and students.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

And we gave his comments to the superintendent for his records as well.

Our next speaker, Jessica Yannis.

Jessica Yannis, to be followed by Clinton Johns.

Thank you.

Hello, Miss Yanis.

Hi, good afternoon.

Thank you for having me.

Um I'm another parent from Durham.

But a year ago, I could tell you I was a parent at Love Elementary where my daughter had been for four years, and we left Love after I had been effectively dismantled by the district.

Lots of teachers left, lots of families left.

We went to Durham hoping for a better experience, and I think now you know what's happening at Durham.

So it's hard to escape.

Unfortunately, we have an ineffective leader in charge of our system, our public school system.

He's been in the position for over two years, and he still doesn't have the trust of our community.

We just heard repetitive bluster and restated talking points about high quality instruction and raising school ratings, but we all know this doesn't tell the full story.

Like Mr.

Marles said, go to the schools.

Please go to the schools.

Please take a look for yourself.

He only goes with a dog and pony show.

So of course, he's gonna see exactly what he wants to see.

The schools have to throw everything together exactly how he wants to see it.

But if you just show up on a random day, I think you would see what's happening at our schools.

So I invite you to do that.

Um he's proclaimed that the vast majority of people are happy with these changes.

Let's tick through it together.

Are student are HISD students happy?

Creative instructions disrupted by near constant changes happening across campuses day after day of substitute teachers after long-term teachers are have resigned or are forced to quit.

Libraries dismantled mid year, constant district visits in the middle of class, bus routes running late, kids shuffling from one school to another to enroll away from the NES system and the Boleyn district curriculum.

Are HISD teachers and principals happy?

We talked about the the turnover, the abysmal turnover rate that we're that we're seeing right now.

Um are HISD parents happy.

We talked about enrollment numbers, how that's falling.

Is the broader Houston community happy?

We talked about the failing bond measure last year.

So what does all of that tell you?

We're the Houstonians are not happy and we deserve better.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Clinton Johns, Clinton Johns, Clinton Johns.

If you are online, push star six, Paula Cabina to be followed by Trey Comstock.

Okay.

To the City of Houston Council Committee on Economic Development.

I am Paula A.

Cobina, an educator and North Forest Independent School District and Houston Independent School District alumni.

In the past, I questioned the appointed Houston Independent School District Board of Managers, and now I question you.

How can a Board of Education or Economic Development Committee come continually endorse and give opportunity to a head of education who closes school libraries, replacing them with rooms full of empty chairs and desks, and continues to only reveal the data which will make certain the head of the system is overpaid and underqualified and the qualified are overlooked and overtly taken advantage of.

After 35 years of destroying accountability in our Texas education system with TOSS tax and with House Bill 8 rebranding state mandated testing, one good thing F.

Mike Miles did was initiate DIED as a way to return electives and vocational education to HISD schools.

However, in just two years, approved vendors who have the expertise and credentials to continue student enrichment have not been able to renew their contracts with HISD as of this school term's beginning.

Additionally, there are also dye ad contractors who are not working.

And as early as the second week of school, the students are being tested in lockdown mode as a way to gauge what they can or cannot recall after a two-month summer vacation.

As a result, the equipment purchased for DIAD classes are now in stored classrooms as dormant as the desk, chairs, and books in closed school libraries across the district.

As a native Houstonian, educated in North Forest, HISD, I'm uh willing and available to work as an approved vendor.

Thank you.

Trey Comstock, Trey Comstock, Trey Comstock, Kylie Marvis, Kylie Marvis, Kylie Marvis, Ruth Kravitz, Ruth Kravitz, to be followed by Case Mundy.

Hello, Miss Kravitz.

I'm so happy to be here.

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Ruth Kravitz.

I was a AP math, chemistry and calculus teacher at Jeff Davis High School, now North Northside High School for many, many years.

And I like Mike Miles, believe and celebrate students and their right to have a powerful and meaningful education, and what he's doing right now is not doing that.

So I want to thank you for waiting.

I think if we had a superintendent who was honest with the public and shared facts and truth with us, we would work hand in hand to do everything that he and Rick Compo are talking about, but he's not doing that.

When it comes to the student, the student survey in which he said parents are uniformly and universally happy with this takeover.

We got, he did not release this data, we had a PIR it, we looked at it yesterday, and in fact, not 70% of T of parents are happy, but a plurality of parents are unhappy.

When he said last February that 95% of teachers are happy in HISD and are planning to stay, the reality is that 40% left the first year of the takeover and 40% left the second year of the takeover.

When he says, I mean, all reminds me of a story about a retired state rep who says he lowered crime stat in his district by redrawing district lines.

The numbers certainly did change, but nothing improved for people's lives.

Miles is doing just that, and that's wrong for our kids.

He's raised star scores and TA ratings by changing who gets tested, what classes kids can take, and turning core subjects into non-stop test prep.

Um, and his tactics harm kids.

What he needs to learn is that something helps the accountability rating, but harms the kid, we do not do that thing.

So in year one, when he restricted biology to only honors kids in NES schools in black and brown neighborhoods in this city, when statewide, 95% of ninth graders take biology, but in HISD, less than 20% did in the NES schools.

When you only test the honors kids, of course, scores go up, but kids lose access to AP pathways, and that's happening all over this district.

In closing, I should not have to, as a citizen, a former teacher, go to a school and beg them to let students into the classes, the most rigorous classes for which they qualify, and then get turned down because Miles has a list that says only these students can take the classes.

And when he, and when he sees that public input seems to be against what he's thinking, like in in algebra, when the public is saying you're cutting the number of kids who can take algebra in eighth grade to get them college ready.

This year, what he did is he sent lists to every single middle and high school and commanded the teachers and the counselors to put kids with single-digit map scores in honors classes.

So in fact, this the number of kids taking the classes will increase, but their readiness and their capacity to be successful will go down.

So I want a superintendent who has an interest in students, a commitment to learning, recognizes that ratings can be manipulated, but student learning cannot, and I want him focused not on billboards and propaganda, but on our children, and I appreciate y'all's interest in this work, and I am eager if any of you want to hear about any of these details to talk with you, because together we can recover our school district, and as Ricampo said, this is the one thing that changes our city.

How our children go is how our city goes.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms.

Cradlock.

Case Mundy.

To be followed by Jesse Dugan.

Good afternoon.

Hello.

I'm Case Mundy.

I'm a owner of a sound services company here in Houston as well as a Durham parent.

Um I have two kids in elementary school with an HISD.

Um I've always been deeply involved in their education.

I uh was one of the founding members of the PTA at our zoned elementary school.

Um I'm intimately familiar with the workings of the school.

Um Mr.

Miles likes to present the TEA ratings jump as some sort of miracle, but in the business world, we regard miracle data not so much with Marvel, but with skepticism.

Our zoned school was one of these F to A miracle schools.

So it made me start to do some digging because I knew that school was not an A school.

So most people they think of the TEA ratings, they think that's the star scores, right?

It's not.

The TEA rating is actually a complex formula that can disregard the average store average star score entirely.

It's made of three domains.

One of the domains can be discarded.

91% of HISD schools discarded the average star score in their TEA rating.

100% of NES schools discarded the star score in their TEA rating.

This explains how Clifton Middle School was a B school, and they had a 58 on their star score.

When you discard only objective scores, you're left with the two other domains that are calculated by a complex rubric where points are earned based on progress and growth.

You can fail across the board.

But as long as everybody fails, goes from failing miserably to failing just pretty bad, that's an A-rated campus.

Growth component is even more complex.

The growth growth component differs school to school based on socioeconomics, underserved populations and other factors.

The weights and biases are recalculated roughly every every five years.

And wouldn't you know it?

The last time it was refreshed was 2023, the first year that Mr.

Miles had an important score incoming.

TA appointed Miles.

They rewrote the rules by which he's evaluated, and they directly benefit when he is shown to be successful on paper.

This would be the business equivalent of a hiring manager writing the performance evaluation for their hiree, modifying the evaluation the year after the hiring with full knowledge of their performance metrics, and then receiving a bonus based on the review.

Conflict of interest does not begin to describe the nature of this relationship.

Mr.

Mr.

Mundy, I'm gonna ask you to wrap it up.

Okay, I'm almost there.

Three minutes, right?

Two.

Oh, they told me three minutes in the email.

I'm sorry.

I made a three minute speech.

Sorry.

So if we have to view the TEA daily with skepticism, what do we trust?

The stakeholders, the teachers, the students.

They see the experience, see and experience the Miles system every day and vote with their continued presence.

You can fool people to come to A and B rated schools.

You cannot fool them to come back.

HISD teacher turnover was 32.2% last year.

It was 18.8% statewide.

Student enrollment statewide is increasing in public schools.

Dallas ISD showed the first enrollment increase since the pandemic this last year.

HISD was down four percent.

NES schools were down 12%.

Preliminary data, as you heard earlier for this year, says that we're down 6%.

So when you see these billboards touting the doubling of A and B schools across HISD, remember the true numbers.

Minus 32, minus 4, minus 6 and growing.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Jesse Dugan.

Jesse Dugan to be followed by Jackie Anderson.

Which one is it?

Oh, in the middle.

All right.

Thank you, City Council members.

I'm Jesse Dugan, HIC parent, and uh to an autistic kindergartner.

And now, according to Mike Miles, apparently an extremist and conspiracy theorist, because I had the courage to speak out about cuts to uh cuts to services for autistic children.

I have already told you all my story before, so today I'm going to read you a letter from a teacher.

I'm a proud educator in the Houston Independent School District.

I write to you not as a political expert, but as someone who stands on the front lines of our public schools every day.

I ask you to hear not just my words, but the voices of countless educators, students, and families impacted by the policies currently reshaping our district.

Since Superintendent Mike Miles assumed leadership of HISD, we have heard repeated promises of efficiency, accountability, and performance.

But those of us inside the classrooms are experiencing a different reality.

We are seeing highly effective teachers being pushed out or fired without due process.

Classrooms stripped of creativity and flexibility, replaced by rigid top-down mandates, a culture of fear and surveillance rather than one of collaboration and trust, dismissal of input from teachers, parents, and students alike, and harmful narrowing of education to test prep and compliance rather than deep learning and growth.

This is not education reform.

It is a dismantling of what makes public education valuable and equitable.

The new education system model being implemented by Mr.

Miles may appear innovative on paper, but in practice it feels more like a corporate experiment pose on our schools.

The backing of a political and economic interest behind these changes raises a serious question.

Who do these reforms truly serve?

I urge this committee to listen to those of us doing the actual work.

Please include teacher voices in your decision making.

Please understand the long-term harm these cause these policies are causing.

And please consider the kind of educational system you would want for your own children, and whether HISD under this administration reflects that vision.

Education is not just a policy, it is a promise.

And right now that promise is being broken.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Jackie Anderson to be followed by Jackie Carter Mansore.

Good afternoon.

How are you?

Council members.

Jackie Anderson, President of the Houston Federation of Teachers.

I come before you today to share serious concerns about the impact Superintendent Mike Miles and the new NES system is having on the long-term economic development of Houston, supported by recent data.

Public education is central to our city's economy, our workforce pipeline, investor attractiveness, property values, and tax base all depend on strong, stable schools.

Unfortunately, the current trajectory of NES shows alarming student and teacher loss.

Houston ISD nearly lost 7,400 students in 2425, and a decline of about 4% in just one year.

Meanwhile, teacher turnover for 2425 hit 32.2%, nearly double the state rate of 18.2%.

Since June 2023, over 10,000 employees have left the district.

Among them, roughly 4,700 teachers departed in the 23-24 school year alone.

What does this mean for Houston's economic health?

Losing students means less funding, state dollars, federal grants, ties and enrollment, triggering budget shortfalls and program cuts.

Losing teachers, especially experienced ones, undermines instructional quality, increases cost of recruiting and training replacements, and destabilizes classrooms continuity.

Over time, these losses erode trusts, families may lose, choose to leave our district or city, businesses may avoid investing here in our long-term workforce readiness suffers.

Houston, we have a problem.

Strong stable schools or economic infrastructure.

I urge the council to support policy changes that reverse this decline, incentive incentives for teacher retention, greater autonomy for campuses, careful evaluation of NES policies, unintended consequences, and transparent accountability for student outcomes.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Jackie Carter Mansore.

To be followed by Eduardo Brito.

Good afternoon, Council members.

Good afternoon.

Jackie Carter Manzare, I am a parent of HISD student.

I did not plan on talking.

I just want you guys to know that my son is not happy in school.

When it was time for him to go to kindergarten, I honestly thought between St.

Mary, Imani or Durham.

I really wanted him to go to Durham.

He really liked Durham.

The PTA at Durham is amazing.

They raise a lot of money.

I am a teacher, parent, parent classroom teacher mom or whatever.

But ever since this year has started, his teacher was fired the day that Miles came to visit the school.

She had been a, I'm sure you guys heard of her, Miss Kelly.

She had been with HISD for 11 years at Durham.

I was so happy he was going to be in Miss Kelly's class.

And then she was fired, and then they put a teacher in who this is literally her second year of teaching.

Every day I ask him, how is school?

He doesn't like it.

We do his homework.

Every not everything, but every time we do his homework, there is something wrong on the worksheet.

Just doesn't add up.

I'm sitting there looking at it.

I'm like, these don't match up.

He knows that he says, Mom, it's HID.

What do you expect?

Literally.

So I don't want to take my son out of HISD, but I have to pray for a private school.

I will.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Eduardo Brito to be followed by Christine Hurley.

Hi, thank you for having me here today.

Um I'd like to say, I'd like to ask how many TEA violations are at A-rated schools amongst the others.

I'm sure there would be more, but the process is not simple.

There are many violations for my child at an A-rated campus.

I am here for those who fall through the cracks, not an extremist.

I'm verified.

I verified my son's complaint that their quiz didn't grade correctly.

Five out of five questions only graded as an 88%.

Is that possible data manipulation?

With futures and billions on the line, the data should be investigated.

Mike Miles earns a large bonus, and kids don't have enough laptop chargers at my other kids' school.

Voters have already shown we will not let Mike Miles manage billions of dollars in bonds, which already impacted Houston.

These children are the future workforce.

Any AI curriculum will handicap Houston in the long run.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Christine Hurley online.

Christine Hurley, if you're online, star six.

Ruth Hoffman Lock.

Ruth Hoffman Locke.

To be followed by Melissa Yarbrough.

Good afternoon.

I'm Dr.

Ruth Hoffman Lack.

I'm a school psychologist.

Because we're discussing economic development, I want to talk to you about graduation rates.

Students who do not graduate from high school are not going to be able to earn a living wage.

That's generally awful for the whole city.

Here is Mr.

Miles's track record in Dallas.

With Miles at the helm in Dallas, starting in 12 to in the 2012-2013 year, middle school dropout rates skyrocketed from 0.6% to 1.1%, while the state and the region were steady at 0.3 and 0.4.

What's worse, and this truly made me sick when I got this data.

The numbers continued to climb even after he left because the students that were were impacted by having the horrible instruction when they were in lower grades, were dropping out as they got to middle school.

So in 2223, 2.3% of middle schoolers in Dallas dropped out.

The high school rates are worse.

The four-year high dropout high school dropout rate went from 2.3 when he got there to 3.8 in 2223.

Meanwhile, the region went from 2.1 to 2.5, and the state went from 2.2 to 2.0.

So now we have the high school dropout rate here in Houston.

We just just got the numbers.

The high school dropout rate went from 3.8 in 2023 to 4.2 in 2024 when he got here.

The region went down from 2.3 to 1.9, and the state went down from 2 to 1.9.

You can talk about whatever star scores and whatever.

Kids hate coming to NES, and at this point, the non-NES schools who are forced to do NES curriculum.

And if we are not working to address dropout rates, if they are going up, then it doesn't matter what your scores are, because you know what?

They don't include the kids who were struggling who have dropped out and are not in your test score base.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

We have uh Kylie Marvus online.

If you'll push star six, Kylie Marvus.

Kylie Marvus, star six.

Melissa Yarbrough.

Hello.

Hello.

Yes, Kylie.

Oh, thank you.

Um, good morning.

I'm here today because I believe in the potential of every student in this district.

My work is teaching students the vital skills of public speaking and group networking skills that they aren't being taught in HISD.

And in speaking with these students, I've heard their frustrations.

I met a freshman at Yates, a bright kid who dreamed of being an engineer.

I used past tense because he no longer thinks he can do it.

Because he said he's bad at physics.

He says he's struggling with the equations that he's presented.

However, he's never even taken algebra one.

Of course, he's struggling.

He lacks the foundation, and the new curriculum that is sent from the district to put freshmen in physics one is setting him up to fail.

He's not losing confidence in himself.

He's losing confidence in a system that didn't prepare him.

At Northside, I met a high performing student who was recommended by her own teachers for an advanced math course to move from algebra two to algebra 2 pre AP.

But because of one test score from the TSI, where she scored proficient in all subjects except basic and algebraic reasoning, she was pulled from her algebra 2 course and placed in a remedial TSI course.

She has now lost her chances of taking pre-cal and though, and she has excelled in math her entire high school career.

Her opportunity was taken away by the district and was instructed by her counselor that this was a district management.

These aren't isolated incidents, these are just the incidents that we are being told.

We are not closing achievement gaps, we are creating them.

These students are being placed in classes that they are either not prepared for or they are over prepared for.

Thank you for your comments.

Melissa Yarbrough.

Melissa Yarbrough.

Michelle Blackwell.

To be followed by Case Mundy.

Oh, Case Mundy spoke already.

He's only a twice.

To be followed by Brooke Longoria.

Hello, Ms.

Yarbrough.

Oh, are you Michelle Blackwell?

I'm sorry, Ms.

Blackwell.

Yes, okay.

My name is Miss Blackwell, and I live in their north side area.

Um the schools I have noticed, they have gone from ratings of F, they went to C, they went to ratings of B, they even went to an A, and that's like that's excellent.

But the one thing I am noticing, I'm noticing a sharp decline in student enrollment.

I'm noticing a sharp decline with the teachers employed at the HISD schools.

I have faith.

I I love the HISD schools.

That's still a place to get great education, great teachers.

I don't want anybody to lose faith in the public school systems.

So I feel like when the TEA took over, you know, the HISD schools, what they need to work on, they need to work on getting the enrollment back up of the students, trying to encourage teachers to come and work for the public school systems.

Because we know this is an economic development meeting, and I felt like if Houston is gonna thrive, it should also include the school system, especially public schools.

We want to see if Houston is thriving, should be everywhere across the board.

And that's all I have to say.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Brooke Longoria, Brooklyn Goria, Lizette Prestowich, to be followed by Madeline DeVitt.

Thank you for letting us offer a different perspective.

I hope that you critically consider the HISD update.

Teachers choosing to leave HISD are on an upward trend and are they're being replaced with uncertified teachers.

This should be a red flag and should have a deeper review.

Almost a third of teachers have left HISD, a leap from the previous year.

That's about 3,427 teachers that have left.

We need to fully understand what has led to the significant increase and address those issues.

News reports have noted teachers leaving because of the rigid new education system, NES, that is focused on test scores instead of students.

The system's lack of teacher autonomy might be one of the reasons, which is alluded to by the performance culture and operational excellence school.

This is how we do it here, which gives me tones of because I told you so.

We need to listen to our teachers and support a curriculum that meets students where they are.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Madeline DeVett, to be followed by Charles Collins.

Good afternoon.

I'm an HISD graduate, raised by a single mother who is a current HISD teacher.

The superintendent today indicated that he's disinterested in public comments in what I consider to be a gross display of elitism and a lack of accountability.

I want to thank you for listening, and I do want to thank Mr.

Campo for staying.

I'm gonna read just a couple of statements by some teachers because we don't have enough time to go through them all.

But I will say that Mr.

Bates says teachers are meant to inspire, guide, and equip students with the skills to exceed, to succeed.

Instead, the NES model has reduced them to script readers of AI-generated slides riddled with errors.

Lessons are locked into rigid 45-minute blocks that leave little time for comprehension or engagement.

Students with disabilities are denied individual individualized support that is required by law.

English language learners are not receiving the accommodations that they are legally guaranteed, placing them at risk of severe failure.

Equally troubling is the atmosphere of retaliation and fear.

Educators who speak up face retaliation and threats, driving mass resignations and stripping our schools of experienced professionals.

Morale is collapsing, and students are left to pay the price.

Houston's children deserve more.

I will also read a little bit from Mr.

Bell, who says, I am writing to express my deep concern about the direction HISD is headed.

Our schools are not failing because teachers are not working hard enough.

The NES model may simplify lesson delivery, but it makes every other aspect of teaching harder.

The results are clear.

We are graduating students who can barely read or write.

Our kids are future doctors, lawyers, artists, engineers, and educators.

But right now we are failing them, and teacher voices are excluded from the conversations directly impacting our students.

I assure you that my mother would be here if she was not in a school teaching.

So I second what everyone else has said in terms of y'all going out to those schools on your own, not with their script and seeing what's actually going on.

Thank you.

Charles Collins, Charles Collins, to be followed by Felicity Perin.

Perinra.

Felicity P.

Yes, sir, Mr.

Collins, go ahead.

So good afternoon, Council.

I want to give you thank you for giving me the opportunity to uh get on the record and just kind of tell you a little bit about my story.

Um I'm a former teacher of uh Challenge Early College High School.

Uh my last year was a 23-24 school year, and prior to that school year, I was at challenge, I believe seven years.

So I did a total of eight years at the school and challenged just to give you some information about challenge.

Challenge is one of those highly rated schools, it's early college uh program, and students are able to get college credit while they pursue getting a high school diploma.

Challenge was also one of the uh highly rated schools in the district in the state, and also one of the highly rated uh schools in the nation.

Uh we sent a number of students to either these schools.

Um I taught math at the challenge, AP stats, uh, college algebra, pre-cal geometry, yeah.

Taught a number of students over the years.

I have several students as as engineers now, you know.

So we we really had really highly rated uh program at the challenge.

Now, during my last year challenge, uh, I just want to kind of follow up on the NES system that the superintendent promoted here before you guys.

But what he didn't tell you about NES systems that several other principals adopted the NES system, even though the school was not listed as NES school.

So my last year at Challenge, we were forced to go through the NES program, and that resulted, especially for myself, in me losing my job.

So I got not renewed or terminated on a system that I wasn't even mandated to follow.

Another thing that I found out when I challenged, you know, the NES model was that if you were a school that adopted the NES model, alternative program, teachers were supposed to have been paid 10,000 each.

Five in the fall, five thousand in the spring.

Our administrators didn't even tell us about that.

Alright.

And I'm gonna kind of be stop here because I did file a complaint in federal court against HISD to try to bring attention to the situation.

But I request that the city council look into HISD because you're not being told the full picture.

Thank you.

And Mr.

Collins, we did receive your email and we shared that with the superintendent's team.

I appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Felicity P.

To be followed by Nzinga Jones.

How do you pronounce your last name?

Pereira.

Gotcha.

It's okay.

You can just go by felicity.

Uh good afternoon, I buenastades.

Uh my name is Felicity Pereira.

I'm actually the incoming HIC trustee for District One, uh, which is a district that comprises the Heights, Garden Oaks, Oak Forest, and the North Side where I live.

Uh I'm also an HISD alum, a very proud product of HISD schools, uh, but I'm a parent of a future uh Jefferson elementary student.

Jefferson Elementary is an NES school.

Uh but I'm also a data scientist, and I've spent nearly 20 years studying the science of community engagement, especially in underserved communities.

The research is clear.

School ratings mostly reflect, and I know that you'll know this, mostly reflect rates of poverty and other socioeconomic factors in the school's community.

The evidence-based method for improving outcomes for kids in these underserved communities is to address those factors through wraparound services and a community schools model.

But Superintendent Miles dismantled the wraparound services department, removing an evidence-based mechanism designed to meet the unmet needs of students in a district where 80% of students are considered to be economically disadvantaged.

Meanwhile, Texas Monthly, the Chronicle, uh have reported that the recent test score gains are largely due to blocking students, as we've heard today, students specifically in underserved communities from accessing more advanced coursework, uh, courses like biology and algebra.

That will absolutely inflate scores.

But it's also going to block access to a comprehensive holistic public education where students are allowed to be curious about something other than test scores.

It's also going to delay opportunity for students in these underserved communities.

So when you hear about A B schools or no failing schools, we need to ask is HISD actually interested in fixing problems, or are we just hiding them?

Shutting down the wraparound services department and blocking access for students in underserved communities is setting students back.

It's actively harming students, but it's also undermining Houston's long-term human capital.

From an economic development perspective, we all know that this matters.

Workforce and competitiveness depend on kids graduating, ready for college, technical training and jobs, not just able to pass a standardized test.

If underserved students are held back now, our city is going to pay the price later in lost talent and weaker growth.

I urge this committee to continue scrutinizing the claims coming from HISD and to demand transparency, particularly in helping pressure HISD to publicly release data so that the community can try and replicate some of these claims being made for our kids' sake and for Houston's future economy.

We need the full picture, not just the parts that look good.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

And Zynga Jones online, you can push star six.

We're ready to hear from you.

And Zinga Jones.

Good afternoon, everyone.

A lot of what I originally planned on speaking of has been addressed by my fellow radicals and whatnot in the room.

However, I want to point out that in every professional in every profession.

Certification is not something that we just kind of slide over and smooth over and pretend like it doesn't matter.

And we just witnessed our uncertified school superintendent who has gotten waivers from his higher-ups to not be certified.

Say that teacher certification isn't necessary.

And my three children, I trust them to license certified whatever professionals.

And for us to continue to pretend that this NES system is beneficial to our children when the leadership is telling us that they don't even care about qualifications of the people administering it.

They just need a warm body in the system.

We can't there's no way we can believe that this is beneficial for our children and will produce productive citizens in the future.

We just can't.

And so again, with everyone else, I urge you guys to look deeper into what is being presented, look deeper into the data, and really press our district because we have we have we we have no remedy.

We can't vote him out, we can't pressure him out.

We have no remedy.

So we are seeking someone to help us figure out how to get some effective change in this, not just sit here and wait him out.

Thanks.

Thank you for your comments.

Uh Diane Almost Guzman to be followed by Jessica Compos and Amy Erickson.

Is Jessica Compos here?

Can you go ahead and come down front so we can go ahead and try to get us out as soon as possible?

Uh is Amy Erickson here?

Okay.

Let's we're ready to hear from you, Miss Guzma.

Yes, hi.

Thank you for having me.

And um, I'm glad that Mike Miles mentioned a culture of high performance because we have none in the Latino community.

And let me introduce myself.

I'm Diane Almos Guzman.

I'm president of council 22503.

It's the East End Lulet Council.

And there's, I'm just one of the councils here in Houston.

And what I wanted to speak about is the fact that yeah, the high quality structure that was talked about here is non-existent because it doesn't provide the English language learners of our community, the quality of education, and the expectations that are needed for these children to succeed.

First of all, the commitment to equity is state mandated.

The legislation guarantees fair and equitable evaluation for students of special needs, various culture backgrounds, economically disadvantaged circumstances and disabilities.

It establishes a flexible set of program options to support ongoing learning while targeting the strengths, the requirements, and the interests of students throughout HISD.

On August 15, 2025, the HISD Board of Managers officially approved and adopted Texas legislation outlining the criteria for gifted and talented special programs for HISD, HISD students in all schools.

The program structure and accountability must ensure that all state funding designated for these special programs is dedicated solely to the delivery and enhancement of services.

We the people must have transparency and accountability of the special program funds for every school and HISD.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Jessica Compos.

Hello.

Sorry.

My name is Jessica Campos.

I'm a mother of three girls spread across the HISD district because the schools in my neighborhood are all NES schools.

I spend five hours of my day driving my kids to and from school every day to ensure that they get an equitable education.

I'm a mom who had to quit her job to help Spanish speaking families in HISD who are scared, ignored, and who think that because they are here illegally, their children aren't entitled to an education.

And think and think that their children that what their children are experiencing in the schools is normal and it's okay.

And that they have nothing to that they can do about that.

Let me be real.

HISD is failing our kids, and it's not just a few bad campuses.

It's systematic.

Biolingual kids aren't getting the services they're legally entitled to, and parents are being recommended to waive ESL services before their children are even ready to exit the programs.

Gifted and talented kids are being shoved into general education classes just to manipulate the star scores while PTOs are picking up the tab for GT and Vanguard programs.

If this is happening, where are the GT funds being used if we're having to pick up the tab?

Um and don't even get me started with SPED.

Parents are being told just wait and see while their kids are falling behind every day.

Schools that used to be thriving, like Pew Elementary got stripped, the staff, the resources, the heart of the school, gone.

Now we're be now we're being told to fundraise for basic stuff.

Fundraise schools that the state broke.

Make it make sense.

Meanwhile, Spanish-speaking immigrant families are left in the dark.

They're not they are not silent because they're okay.

They're silent because they're scared.

They don't know their rights, and when they try to speak up, they get brushed off or punished.

So yeah, they come to me.

I'm sorry.

So yeah, they come to me to people like me because I speak their language and because they trust me.

But this is something that I shouldn't be having to do.

I quit my job to do this to help the parents in our community because the school isn't helping them, and because they don't know what their rights are.

They don't know how to advocate for their kids.

Like I'm spending my days helping these people.

Why?

You know, I have a family to take care of too.

But I I'll be damned if I'm gonna sit here and watch the district do this to our Spanish speaking community.

I am done with this.

What's happening with our children?

They're being left with no education.

They're falling behind every day.

I'm helping parents write grievances, do things simple things like writing an email to their principal just to help.

Because they don't know what to do.

And half of the district is Spanish speaking.

We are being left in the dark.

We are the ones that are not saying anything because we can't.

But let me tell you, our kids are failing at this.

I had to pull my own child out of the NES system, and I had to do it however I had to do it.

I asked help from the district to help me move my kid out because she was suffering from anxiety, depression.

She wasn't learning, she has dyslexia.

She was supposed to be receiving accommodations, and she was not.

And this is just my child.

I moved her out of there.

She's at another school.

Miss Ms.

Campos, we do have some more speakers that we need to get to, but we appreciate your passion and the great work that you're doing.

Please listen to our Spanish speaking community.

I wish that you guys would come out to the community and talk to our Spanish speaking community.

Encourage them to tell what's going on in school.

That's all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Amy Erickson.

Good afternoon, Mayor Pro Tem and Council members.

Quickly, I'd like to share a personal story as an HISD parent.

My son, a ninth grader at a magnet program, he takes advanced classes like geometry and biology.

And our zoned NES schools, he would not have been um he would be would have been denied these opportunities to AP pathways.

Forcing gifted students into remedial courses inflates test scores while damaging futures.

These manufactured gains come at the expense of real children's potential.

Real leadership is holding the ladder up.

Instead, we see this administration pushing it out from under our kids.

Switching topics, I came today with serious concerns about Houston First Convention District Transformation Project.

Before any abandonment vote has reached this body, streets are barricaded, and a 40 million dollar garage is underway on Bell Street.

The plan demolishes the fully functional Avenue to South Garage in May 2026, months before the new garage opens.

That gap leaves leaves Houston short on parking during FIFA.

This is poor planning, poor sequencing, and poor stewardship of public dollars.

Sound development requires transparency.

Where is the updated convention district transformation master plan?

The only one available from 2011, preserved Polk Street.

If our neighborhood parks benefit from master plans, surely a multi-billion dollar expansion does as well.

Proceeding without one is negligent.

Please demand to see it.

Hotel occupancy tax dollars are a public asset.

Will you allow Houston First?

30 years of exclusive control to that revenue stream while other city needs go unmet.

Equally troubling, no vetted project budget exists.

Yet 108 million dollars have already been spent.

Houston First Own Finance Committee reports that 1.1 billion dollars that's with a B is needed today, ballooning to 2.9 billion in debt service over the next 30 years.

That debt must be issued by the city.

That puts us taxpayers at risk.

The city and finance the city finance and controller's offices must be at that table.

Please defer any street abandonment until a transparent, equitable, and fiscally responsible plans exist.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

We do have a speaker online, Christine Hurley.

If you'll push Star 6, Christine Hurley.

Christine Hurley.

Yeah, okay.

Hi, I'm Christine Hurley, mother of two HISB elementary students and former AfUPTO board member for four years.

I am not an Afier, a conspiracy theory, an average person who is just objective, the most extreme or just knowing.

I don't hate change.

I'm actually the first person to install the latest windows update or enroll in beta testing, and I've been on numerous back being trials because I know nothing can improve if nothing changes.

However, I'm not arrogant or delusional enough to think that only my way is the best way.

That if over 8,000 out of 10,500 teachers leave, it's because they're all the worst, not me.

Or if an elementary campus with a 20-year history of enrollment ranging from 820 to 940 students, averaging 875 students a year, drop catastrophically over 14% after just one year once it becomes NEF?

No, that's not my fault.

We actually transferred our children out of their elementary school after we tried NEF for a year.

There was something so precious and special and beautiful about our campus community that was completely unnecessarily destroyed by this harmful takeover.

My children loved going to school every day.

My children's entire class was crying on the last day of school when she was in first grade because no one wanted to leave.

The teachers had made it that special of a place.

So once the takeover happened, the teachers and staff were incredibly stressed, but they still did a great job of keeping that from the kids.

But then the following year, when Asky became NES, my kids started to hate school.

My son would cry asking me to pick them up early, asking me to sit there.

The curriculum really is horrible.

The curriculum department is literally making it on a day-to-day basis, leaving teachers hardly any time to correct it, much less internalize it.

I have so many friends who are former teachers and HASB former because they have they have to leave for their own mental health.

And they would tell me about how many hours each night they would spend correcting the terrible curriculum.

And they would say it's not the price that star squares are going up to the city.

Okay.

Just one last comment.

I do find it really weird that Rick Campo and Mike Miles, I'm sure they're not really dumb people, but to walk into schools and think that everyone is happy is wild to me because I would also smile while eating poo-poo and saying it tastes good if my livelihood depended on it.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you for your comments.

Uh, we have about six more speakers.

Um, next in line is Dr.

Coretta Fontana to be followed by Carmen Nuncia.

Carmen.

Uh Anna Gordon.

Robert Gallegos.

Councilmember Gallegos, are you speaking?

Yes.

You're next.

Army's here to Carmen's here.

Oh, okay.

Uh we'll we'll go right after Councilmember Gaygos.

We'll bring you up, Miss Carmen.

Ms.

Carmen, I apologize.

Good afternoon.

As a former council member representing downtown for 10 years, I'm concerned that Houston First is preparing to spend billions of dollars from a new revenue source to expand the GRB and eventually build a new 800-plus room hotel.

Their jurisdiction their justification, other Texas cities, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, and San Antonio are doing it, so we must follow suit to stay competitive.

That closing Polk Street and expanding the GRB will somehow make us competitive.

But let's pause and ask.

Competitive for whom?

And at what cost?

The city is broke.

This the mayor has said it repeatedly.

So why aren't we thinking outside the box?

The funding mechanism for this mega project is the hotel occupancy tax collected from a three-mile radius around the GRB that includes downtown hotels, East A Bs, short-term rentals.

This tax will generate revenue for the next 30 years, a rare and valuable funding stream.

And instead of investing in the downtown infrastructure, the cultural infrastructure assets that make Houston livable, we're going to funnel it into a single high-risk bet on convention tourism.

This new hot tax revenue could construct the crumbling streets around the GRB with brand new concrete streets, not the patchwork asphalt overlays we've seen on projects like Texas Avenue.

It could fund downtown drainage improvements, pedestrian safety, fund a heritage society that maintains the city historic structures at Sam Houston Park.

Invest and increase the funding for public performing arts venues and community arts groups, tourism transits, such as extending the light rail to hobby and BRT to the book to the Bush Intercontinental Continental Airport.

Funding for the for the proposed Latino Cultural Arts and History Museum.

All this could transform the East End and downtown into a vibrant, walkable, welcoming district for residents and repeated visitors to our city.

Why not renovate the existing GRB footprint?

Houston first doesn't need to play catch-up with other cities.

We need to lead with vision with equity and with commitment to building a city that works for everyone instead of chasing convention center square footage.

Why not re reimagine the existing GRB footprint?

A thoughtful renovation could make the space more welcoming, more functional, more beautiful at a fraction of the cost.

Why not invest in the streets and neighborhoods that surround it so that conventiers can actually want to come back to Houston on their personal time with their families?

This isn't just about fiscal responsibility, it's about vision.

It's about choosing to build a city that works for the people who live here, not just those who want to visit for a weekend.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

We appreciate your comments.

Carmen Nuncio.

Good afternoon.

My name is Carmen Nuncio.

I've been a volunteer parent with HIC for 51 years.

I have met with every superintendent that we have had since I've been a volunteer.

This superintendent, the first time I met him, I told him we would like to work with you, not against you.

He has never given us the opportunity.

He came in, I was under the impression he was going to help us, but he came in and dismantled our schools, fired our principals, fired our teachers, and I don't understand how he can get away with stuff like spending money with things that have nothing to do with education.

We have to fight to make sure that we get a print a superintendent that cares about our kids.

We have to continue to fight because our kids' education is at stake.

And he paid millions of dollars to a consultant to help him pass the bond.

We didn't pay nobody.

We worked very hard to make sure that the bond didn't pass.

Thank you for all your years of uh volunteerism as well, Miss Nuncia.

Michelle Williams to be followed by Kyle Tucker.

Come on, Miss Williams, you waited a long time.

Hello.

I know you all the time.

My name is Michelle Williams.

I'm actually a teacher in HISD, and I'm glad that you all respect Mr.

Campbell.

Could you please get him to respond to his employees, the people that work in HISD emails?

Because I've sent him several, and he never responds.

But anyway, um, I want to talk about who I am.

I've been teaching for 26 years, and you've probably seen articles about me in the chronicle.

Um Mr.

Miles, I don't generally don't even listen to much that he says in the press, but he says something today.

Instruction is not autonomous.

You know what?

He's correct.

However, instruction is supposed to follow the students' data.

That's not what's happening.

My assistant principal, they were trying to force me to give students that cannot read in English passages.

And when I addressed it, Mr.

Campo, they said there's not any time to teach the kids how to read.

My members, they're being forced to take special education kids that are not audited into their advanced classes, which is a violation of span law, Mr.

Campo.

Also, I filed a complaint with TEA.

You cannot trust TEA.

TA is the equivalent of the Fox guarding the hen house.

So when we talk about data, look at Mr.

Miles' relationship with the commissioner of education.

There's a systematic approach to dismantling public education.

Your children, your grandchildren, your nieces, your nephews, the kids are not born, they're all in danger of not being educated.

Please, you all need to pay attention to HISD.

Because the money, ask Mr.

Campo, how much money that HISD gets from the state?

90% of HISD's revenue comes from you, the taxpayers.

The city owns Houston ISD.

Houston ISD belongs to the taxpayers.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Kyle Tucker.

Kyle Tucker is our last scheduled speaker.

Is there anyone else in the audience that wanted to speak?

Okay.

Howdy.

Start off with something really nice, I think.

Mayor Pro Temp when we first got here, got here a little early.

One of the community members mistook a bottle of water placed here for one of the distinguished speakers for her own and went back and was admonished for trying to take that bottle of water back to get something to drink.

And what I watched was I watched you react with humanity and quickness and urgency.

And you came around and on top of all the things you have to do today, you handed that young lady a bottle of water.

And it struck me.

I don't know if it struck anybody else, but I thought it was a perfect example of the execution of the offices that you've been placed in by the people, by the voters.

And I thought that was really cool.

So I wanted to take a minute recognize that.

I had no intention to speak, but that was powerful for me.

Um I also want to quickly uh just roll through bona fites real quick because what really compelled me to speak is when Mr.

Miles called me a parent.

How many other parents do we have here?

I I suspect that many of y'all are parents as well.

I'm a parent of a second grader.

I'm a husband of a business owner.

I'm a husband of a business owner.

I'm a voter and I'm a taxpayer, and I pay attention.

Um, and what I've noticed is what you've heard loudly today from the community.

Um liars figure leak figures lie.

Liars figure figures lie is one of the things I was told in the business world where I where I worked for 23 years before um starting my own business and successfully running it since.

And what I've heard from Mr.

Miles now many times, too many times, is we are the great unwashed, we're the uninformed, we're the we just don't understand.

We wouldn't, we shouldn't be expected to be able to fully suss out the data through which he runs our district.

It's absurd.

And I think y'all know that.

And I saw the reaction I'm in your faces when he said it.

Um, we are not just loud uh wackos.

I have a job, we all have jobs, we all have families.

Many of us are right now trying to coordinate with other members of our PTA to pick up our kids from school because we chose to be here in defense of them and their education.

So I just wanted to share those things.

We are not extremists, we're business owners and voters and taxpayers and humans and reasonable people who have seen this thing spend way too far to control, and y'all had to spend your day today when you should have been, and we should have been really focused on the work of economic development to hear about HISD.

And it's not because we're wackos.

I just wanted y'all to know that.

And I wanted to say thank you, Mayor Pro Temp, for being a human in that moment because it inspired me.

Well, I'm glad it did.

Um Ed Melton.

Is there anyone else that would like to speak?

Mr.

Melton is the last on our list.

All right.

Hello, Mr.

Melton.

Hello, maybe for him.

Uh council members, thank you.

My issue is not about what we've been discussing.

Just want to let you know that.

Okay.

I'm here to ask about a particular property that I'm very interested in transforming in the Texas Southern area in a neighborhood.

And it has been uh been an abandoned property, and it's been it's been an eye sore for years since I moved here in 2013.

I didn't know much about it, didn't know I was gonna be uh entrepreneur at that time.

I moved it with a job, and because of the things that happened, I end up having to go out and make my own way, and this place is by my church, and I'm looking to purchase it.

And I've been just the gentleman I've been working with, I understand is his name Vim P.

Um, it's the property on Rosewood, I believe.

I think that might be your district, ma'am.

Um, council member.

So I'm interested in figuring out how I can move that process along as quick as possible so I can start training people on cybersecurity and bringing jobs to the area.

Thank you.

Uh I would suggest to contact uh councilmember Carolyn Evans Shabazz's office and she can help guide you through that process since the property is in in her uh district.

Um, and she's also a real estate guru that can guide you there.

Um to uh the council members and all of the um Houstonians that have joined us today.

If there are no other comments or questions, I do want to thank everyone for joining us today and for your comments.

And if you have questions that you would like for us to submit to HISD, please send those to us at district K at Houston TX.gov, and we will submit those to the district and put the responses again on our committee's uh website.

And before we adjourn, I'd like to let everyone know that our next economic development committee meeting is Wednesday, October the 15th at 2 p.m.

If you're interested in receiving uh further information on our committee meetings, you can contact the district K office.

The time is 5 12 p.m.

and this meeting is adjourned.