Get ready, there’s no way this isn’t super messy.
Houston ISD’s state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles recommended Thursday that the district close 12 schools next fall, as it comes to terms with a decade-long enrollment decline and aging facilities.
While Miles promised in 2023 he wouldn’t close schools in his first two years, he told the board and the HISD community that the district could no longer delay the issue.
He proposed 12 school closures or consolidations, largely affecting elementary schools in his New Education System. The state-appointed Board of Managers is expected to vote on the proposal at its Feb. 26 meeting.
“I understand this news is difficult. Schools are more than buildings. They are places filled with history, relationships, and pride,” Miles said in a letter to the HISD community. “This decision was not made lightly, and our focus remains on ensuring every student has access to a strong, supportive, and opportunity-rich learning environment.”
[…]
This school year, HISD has lost 7,900 students — including nearly 4,000 immigrant students — compared to the previous academic year, according to data obtained by the Chronicle. State data shows that the rate of enrollment declines in HISD has accelerated in the first two years of the state takeover, particularly in schools under the New Education System that follow Miles’ targeted reforms.
Several Houston-area districts, including Aldine, Fort Bend and Spring ISDs, are considering — or have already approved — school closures or consolidations for the 2026-27 school year, as they deal with declining enrollment, lower birth rates, more competition from charters and other options and tight budgets.
At least three schools on Miles’ list have been previously slated for closure. Former HISD Superintendent Terry Grier proposed closing Port Houston and Nat Q. Henderson elementary schools and Fleming Middle in 2014. They were later removed from consideration due to community protest; the HISD board ultimately closed only one campus, Dodson Elementary.
In its November 2024 bond proposal, HISD proposed “co-locating” students at eight schools to seven existing campuses. But voters soundly rejected the $4.4 billion measure, which was largely seen as a referendum on Miles’ leadership.
In February 2025, Miles brought the issue back, saying school closures “must be considered” because HISD had lost 30,000 students in the past decade. But in November, HISD abruptly backed away from the idea, saying publicly that it would not close schools in the 2026-27 academic year, but that some future “consolidations” could be considered.
The district told school leaders in an internal email in November that it would “not bring a recommended consolidation list to the Board of Managers this academic year for closure in SY 26-27.”
On Thursday, Miles explained that his administration reversed course on closures due to structural issues, a “greater than expected” enrollment decrease, and a Facilities Condition Index ratio that changed dramatically over six months. FCI is a ratio used to evaluate a school’s need for repairs, maintenance, or replacement.
Miles said HISD “can’t fight time and facilities and aging and so what bothers me most now is that our schools that had the highest FCI, the poorest facilities are our underserved populations. That is fact … and that breaks my heart, because I think they should be community schools, but they’ve been losing enrollment for a long time, and the facility isn’t working.”
In Miles’ board presentation, HISD reported that 96 campuses have an FCI above 65% in 2026, which indicates “critical issues that would typically require a complete facility replacement.” He also reported that nearly 25% of campuses were operating below 50% of their total capacity this year.
That’s a lot to take in, and I’ll get back to it in a second. But first, if you’re thinking this is all happening quickly and without much public input, you’re not alone.
The timeline prompted some trustees to urge the district to slow down and collect community input before finalizing a list of closures.
HISD elected trustee Plácido Gómez said if the district needed to consolidate schools, it “should make the case to the community and ask for meaningful input before making final decisions.”
Gómez called the lack of community engagement by the appointed board “unacceptable.” His district includes several schools slated for closure or co-location, including Cage, Briscoe and Franklin elementary schools.
Trustee Dani Hernandez said she recognizes that enrollment has dropped and HISD needs to close schools to be fiscally responsible. But she said she does not think HISD is going about this in “the correct way.”
“The meetings that are happening are to give information, and all the decisions have already been made,” Hernandez said. “The decisions on which schools to close, and when, are not going to be changing.”
Trustee Savant Moore, who represents three schools slated for closure and another for co-location, said in a Friday statement that HISD should not “move forward without first exhausting every community-centered option.” He said HISD should present a bond so schools could remain open “instead of presenting closures as the primary solution.”
[…]
Currently, HISD is giving community members two weeks to attend meetings before the board vote.
Hernandez said there is research on how to best close schools, and she said the ideal timeline to meaningfully collect community input for closures would have been two years.
Even announcing the closures at the beginning of the 2025-26 school year would have been better, according to Trustee Patricia Allen.
Allen said the current two-week timeline was “disrespectful” to parents, even with HISD extending school choice applications by about a week to March 5 for families at affected schools. She said it did not leave a lot of time for families to weigh their options for next year.
This has been a topic for discussion for years, far predating the Mike Miles era, for a variety of reasons. Miles and his reforms have accelerated and worsened these conditions, but he didn’t create them. I’ve said before that having him take the political hit for actually going through this might be preferable, except that he’s burned so much trust that I’m not sure he can. The move to present a list first and then call for “public input” later, with a two-week timeframe before there’s a vote to make it happen, is typical Miles. Everything about this may be justifiable and supported by data, he just always finds the worst way to go about it. Whether there’s a school in your area that’s on the chopping block or not, you would be well served to let your Trustee know what you think about this.
HISD needs to present the data to shutdown the debate. Schools decreasing enrollment year over year, and the building is declining.