HOUSTON – Houston Independent School District is hosting several community meetings trying to garner support for the largest bond proposal in Texas history.
HISD, the largest school district in the state, wants voters to approve a $4.4 billion bond proposal. But some parents say while they support most of the proposal, they’ll vote against it.
“This bond is like our only opportunity to vote on anything close to the district,” Jane Lesnick said, whose son attends Herod Elementary School. “So, it’s like how do you express what you think about what job someone is doing? You usually can vote them out or vote for their opponent. We can’t do that now. They won’t even listen to people. This is our only opportunity to say, ‘Give them a grade, on how we think they’re doing.’”
Sitting next to Lesnick at the Fioza coffee shop on Chimney Rock is Andrea Randisi, who agrees.
“So many people just want to be heard and have input,” Randisi said. “We haven’t had that opportunity yet. I do believe that this very well could be used that way by parents.”
The pair combed through available paperwork on the proposal with KPRC 2′s Rilwan Balogun.
The district called it “Renew HISD” with half of the funds $2.05B, if approved by voters, for rebuilding or renovating existing elementary and middle schools.
About $1.3 billion would go towards “investing in every school,” such as updating HVAC systems, which has been an issue that forced the closure of several schools in May following severe thunderstorms.
Another billion dollars would be set for career and technical education, including expanding the district’s early childhood Pre-K program.
As the three were reading the district’s booklet on the proposal, Lesnick and Randisi said they had more questions.
“In principle, those things are nice, but we’re not getting the details that anybody would ask for if they were wanting to vote,” Lesnick said.
Both say they’re hesitant to approve money for Superintendent Mike Miles as the Texas Education Agency investigates allegations Miles’ diverted Texas school money to his charter schools in Colorado.
These are allegations that Miles say are “irresponsibly inaccurate.”
Miles said the report intentionally misrepresents the financial practices of Third Future Schools, which he has not worked at for more than a year.
“I would like to be able to trust that the people making those decisions have our children in mind and the right values in mind. I think a lot of parents aren’t feeling that in this moment,” Randisi said.
KPRC 2 reached out to HISD leaders Tuesday morning, but the district was unable to make someone available to discuss the bond proposal.
However, the final community meeting is set for Monday, June 10th at Forest Brook Middle School from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.