Tag Archives: HISD

Endorsement watch: Houston GLBT Political Caucus 2015

Posted on August 9, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Congrats to all the endorsees. A raucous municipal endorsement meeting brought mayoral candidate Sylvester Turner the coveted backing of the Houston GLBT Political Caucus on Saturday, positioning the 26-year state representative to broaden his coalition to include the city’s progressive … Continue reading →

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HISD and HCC finance reports

Posted on August 2, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s what we know, though it’s incomplete. Fundraising among most HISD board members was slow during the first half of 2015. Board president Rhonda Skillern-Jones, who plans to seek re-election to her District 2 seat this November, raised the most … Continue reading →

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Interview with Karla Cisneros

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

We continue with candidates in District H, where incumbent Council Member Ed Gonzalez is term limited. Today’s interview is with another Heights neighbor of mine, Karla Cisneros. Cisneros is a longtime educator and education activist, having served six years on … Continue reading →

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The debate over changing Confederate-named schools in HISD

Posted on July 8, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Predictably, not everybody likes the idea of rechristening HISD schools that were named for Confederate generals. Houston ISD board president Rhonda Skillern-Jones has said she wants her fellow trustees to consider renaming six campuses, following the June shooting deaths of … Continue reading →

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Supreme Court to hear school finance appeal in September

Posted on July 5, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Mark your calendars. The Texas Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Sept. 1 in the long-running case challenging the state’s school-finance system. “We are very pleased that the court is moving so expeditiously,” attorney David Thompson, representing the Houston Independent … Continue reading →

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HISD Board President backs changing Confederate school names

Posted on June 28, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Fine by me. Amid a growing move to shed symbols of the old, slave-owning South, the Houston school board president said Thursday that she supports renaming six campuses named after Confederate loyalists. Rhonda Skillern-Jones said she plans to discuss the … Continue reading →

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HISD’s test scores

Posted on June 8, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Not so good. Needs to be better. Houston ISD high school students continue to struggle with reading and writing, passing state exams at significantly lower rates than the state average, new results show. The district’s scores in algebra, biology and … Continue reading →

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What now for Terry Grier?

Posted on June 3, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

The HISD Superintendent is in the last year of his contract, and it’s not clear whether it will get extended or not. Kashmere has made limited strides as one of the schools in Superintendent Terry Grier’s signature reform effort, called … Continue reading →

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Where the education reform bills stand

Posted on May 21, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

As we know, the attempt to take a first stab at school finance reform did not make it to the House floor. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t some action on school-related issues. This Chron story from the weekend recapped a … Continue reading →

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HISD mostly declines to rezone its schools

Posted on May 17, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Lots of noise, not nearly as much action. A divided Houston school board on Thursday rejected most of the rezoning proposals designed to reduce class sizes after dozens of parents expressed concerns about families having to send their children to … Continue reading →

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HISD postpones redrawing school boundaries

Posted on March 16, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

This stuff is hard, y’all. The school board [had planned] to vote Thursday on the district’s biggest rezoning plan in recent years, involving more than two dozen campuses. The proposal mostly would redraw attendance boundaries to shift homes from more … Continue reading →

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We need to know how body cameras are going to be used

Posted on February 25, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Having the body cameras is great, but it’s how we use them that really matters. Harris County’s two largest police agencies are testing body cameras on officers but refuse to release their policies detailing when the cameras should be turned … Continue reading →

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A slowdown in construction would be good for school districts

Posted on February 12, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

One potential upside to a weakening real estate market. Since the Houston Independent School District passed a historic $1.9 billion bond issue in 2012, the construction market has boomed, driving up costs and drying up labor. But now, with the … Continue reading →

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HISD considers a different kind of redistricting

Posted on January 28, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

It would likely be just as contentious as the usual kind. Houston school officials may rezone students from roughly two dozen elementary schools over the next few years in an effort to meet the state’s class size limits. District officials … Continue reading →

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January campaign finance reports – HISD trustees

Posted on January 26, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Four HISD Trustees are up for re-election this year. There are nine Trustees in all, and they serve four-year terms, so in a normal year either four or five are up for re-election. As things stand right now, all four … Continue reading →

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HISD Student Congress

Posted on January 10, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Kids today, with their “getting involved” and their “having their voices heard”, I tell you. The high school students gave up their Saturday afternoon, meeting at the downtown library with laptops and legal pads to brainstorm ideas for improving the … Continue reading →

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HSPVA groundbreaking

Posted on December 17, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out. A slab of cracked cement painted over with yellow parking lines sits at the corner of Rusk and Austin – with downtown skyscrapers looming overhead. Come Tuesday, the cement will be ripped … Continue reading →

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Re-redistricting HISD

Posted on December 3, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Well, this would be different. The Houston school board would grow from nine elected trustees to 17 under a bill filed by state Rep. Senfronia Thompson, who said she wants to give residents of the former North Forest school district … Continue reading →

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HISD Board approves one cent tax rate increase

Posted on October 14, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Still a low tax rate, just slightly higher now. As architects prepare designs for dozens of new campuses, the Houston school board on Thursday approved a 1-cent tax rate increase to help pay down debt from the largest school district … Continue reading →

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HISD should not be on the hook for North Forest’s liabilities

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Come on! Fourteen months after the Texas Education Agency ordered Houston ISD to take over the long-troubled North Forest school district, some unexpected disputes over funding have surfaced. The Houston school board has authorized its attorneys to challenge a Texas … Continue reading →

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HISD approves its redistricting plan

Posted on September 16, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

As we know, HISD now includes all of the former North Forest ISD, and with that new territory came the need to reapportion its Trustee districts. They completed that task last week with a minimum of fuss. The Houston school … Continue reading →

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HISD’s volunteer reading army

Posted on September 13, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

HISD’s number one priority is, or at least needs to be, improving reading performance. I really hope this will help. Leaders of the Houston Independent School District turned to the community on Thursday, launching the district’s largest volunteer recruitment effort … Continue reading →

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Teachers are doing it for themselves

Posted on August 28, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

I know this is intended to be an upbeat story, but I can’t help but find it a little depressing. Some tech-savvy teachers turned to the Web this summer to try to offset the nearly $500 typically spent to ready … Continue reading →

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HISD redistricting underway

Posted on July 2, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

As we know, the Houston Independent School District now includes all of the former North Forest ISD. The addition of all that new territory, and especially all those new voters, means that the existing HISD Trustee districts will have to … Continue reading →

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HISD passes its budget

Posted on June 21, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

They restored a lot of funding, but it’s the changes to magnet school funding that everyone is talking about. Bouncing back from recent cash-strapped years, the Houston school board Thursday approved a bigger budget that gives raises to all employees, … Continue reading →

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Reading and writing and operating systems

Posted on June 21, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Religion, politics, and operating systems – three things sure to start a spirited discussion. By January 2016, when the Houston Independent School District’s latest tech initiative hits full stride, the district will issue laptops to every high school student and … Continue reading →

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HISD prepares its budget

Posted on June 19, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Teacher pay raises and magnet school funding changes are the main points of interest. Thanks to rising property values, all Houston ISD employees would receive raises and schools would get more money for supplies, field trips or tutors next year … Continue reading →

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HISD hires its defenders for the teacher evaluation lawsuit

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

I have to say, I’m a bit uncomfortable with this. Earlier this year, seven teachers sued the Houston Independent School District in federal court over their evaluation system. That system uses a statistical formula and student test scores to grade … Continue reading →

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Digital textbooks are on their way

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

HISD is on the leading edge. HISD is the first of Texas’ large districts – and among the first large districts in the nation – to radically rethink the way it buys new high school instructional materials, shifting from printed … Continue reading →

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HISD magnet funding vote delayed till next week

Posted on June 11, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

You still have time to talk to your trustee about this. Superintendent Terry Grier’s administration has proposed standardizing how the programs are funded – a plan that would result in some schools losing tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars … Continue reading →

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What is the deal with Vanguard funding?

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

It started with an urgent action email sent to Travis Elementary School parents: As you may have heard, the Houston ISD Board’s proposed budget for the 2014-15 school year would eliminate HISD Vanguard Magnet funding. These drastic cuts would threaten … Continue reading →

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Meet T-TESS

Posted on May 15, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Texas has a new teacher evaluation system on the way. It won’t come without a fight. Texas’ more than 380,000 public school teachers are girding for a tumultuous few years as a new method of grading their performance is expected … Continue reading →

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HISD does have a role to play in the Bush Foundation literacy effort

Posted on May 5, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

I learned this from a Terry Grier op-ed in the Chron. That’s why last week’s release of the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation’s “Houston’s Literacy Crisis: A Blueprint for Community Action,” was such a welcome event. The foundation’s plan to … Continue reading →

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Lawsuit filed over teacher evaluation system

Posted on May 2, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

A new front is opened in the war on standardized testing. Seven HISD teachers and their union are suing the school district to try to end job evaluations tied to students’ test scores, arguing the method is arbitrary, unfair and … Continue reading →

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