In responding to a Houston Press public information request made on March 26, the Houston ISD Public Information office today released the SB1882 contracts the district entered into on that date with four high schools and the Collaborative for Children for ages 3 to 6 that will be operating independently from HISD.
Reading through the language, it’s verified — as we noted in an earlier story — that these will become charter schools. Superintendent Mike Miles had earlier stated they were not. These charters expire on June 30, 2031 — unless something goes egregiously wrong and can’t be corrected before the five years is up.
The schools involved are Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Energy Institute High School, Challenge Early College High School and Houston Academy for International Studies.
The district does retain some oversight and monitoring responsibilities. However, surprise visits will not be allowed The district has to give notice that it plans to visit one of these independent schools at least by 5 p.m. of the day before. And the schools will have to submit a report at mid-year and end of yeear on how the school is doing financially as well as how its students are doing academically.
By contract, the independent schools agree that they won’t pay anyone compensation that exceeds 120 percent of the HISD is paying for a similar position.
The “OP” or “Oerating Partner” hadto agree that “the only position to be designated as Superintendent or Superintendent of Schools is the HISD Superintendent.”
Alas, what they didn’t include with the requested contracts were the appendix items which appear to set significant standards as to how these independent partnerships are going to operate. They are referred to several times in the contract language, but without explaining what is specifically meant. The details such as who is on the Board of Directors at a particular school remain a mystery.
XX. APPENDIX REFERENCE
Appendix 1: District 1882 Partnership Policy and Regulations
Appendix 2: Adopted School Policies
Appendix 3: Student Outcome and Financial Performance Goals
Appendix 4: OP Governing Board members
Appendix 5: OP Governing Board bylaws
Appendix 6: HISD Menu of Services
Appendix 7: First Year Budget for OP
Appendix 8: OP Local Campus Application
We immediately put in another public information request and will report back once we know what those appendices contain. In the meantime, here’s what we can see and what you are encouraged to read.
One more note: As we learned at the April 9 meeting, members of the Board of Managers who voted to approve these contracts, never looked at the original applications these schools made to be allowed to participate in the program. We don’t know if they looked at those appendices either.
