Tuesday was Day One of the 2025-26 Houston ISD school year and as is customary, the superintendent Mike Miles called an afternoon press conference to let the media know how everything was going.
Although in this case, the numbers he presented had nothing to do with AC lapses or missed routes or bus breakdowns as in past years and everything to do with the preliminary school ratings the district has calculated — grades it expects to see replicated when the Texas Education Agency releases its official numbers this Friday.
No schools rated F and a reassurance to parents that “74 percent of our kids attend an A or B school,” Miles said. This was not new news — HISD released the results on August 5 and will probably present them again at Thursday night’s board meeting.
But clearly the opportunity was too good to pass up another victory lap. Miles set the stage at Valley West Elementary School, the school that rocketed from the state’s F rating in 2023-24 to a preliminary HISD rating (based on the state’s methodology) of an A for 2024-25. Even better for the superintendent, Valley West made this massive improvement during the year it adopted Miles’ New Education System which focuses on timed, daily tests.
Two years ago there were 93 A and B schools, Miles said ,and now there are 197 out of 273 schools total. “Geography no longer dictates destiny in HISD,” Miles proclaimed.
In the Q and A session that followed Miles’ brief remarks, the superintendent was asked about Union Pacific resuming its full schedule of freight trains through the area by Milby High School. In 2024 15-year-old Sergio Rodriguez was killed by a slow-moving train there and Union Pacific had cut back on the number of trains running through there daily.
Subsequent to the outcry that followed the boy’s death, the City of Houston secured $10 million in funding to build a pedestrian bridge near Milby, but that is still in the planning stages. While Miles didn’t have many details in response to questions about the trains during the press conference, the district issued a statement later Tuesday saying:
Union Pacific resumed normal operations this summer after putting up fencing and finishing the sidewalk near the Broadway Street intersection and the train tracks near Milby High School.
Union Pacific maintains strong visibility on that intersection and will keep trains moving unless there is an emergency.
Union Pacific was at Milby High School the morning and afternoon of August 12, on the first day of school, distributing rail safety information. They will be there before and after school on Wednesday and Thursday as well.
HISD, HISD PD, and Union Pacific remain in contact, and all questions about Union Pacific protocols should be directed to Union Pacific.
Asked also about whether there had been any bus or AC problems, Miles responded: “I haven’t heard of a bus breaking down and I haven’t heard of major AC issues. Keep in mind, I’ve said this before and I’ll continue to say it, every spring, every fall, at this time of year, August, September, we are fighting the air conditioning wars. So we probably have temporary coolers going on in several different buildings.
“As far as I know every school was operational,” Miles said. He was echoed in this by HISD Chief of Public Affairs and Communications Alex Elizondo who said that every school was able to work with its facilities team to trouble shoot any issues and no emergency communications had to be sent out to parents on the first day.
Media was assured more details would be forthcoming after a later-in-the day meeting Miles had scheduled with staff. but as of press time, that hadn’t happened.
Miles did say that because of a huge increase in demand for bus rides, plans to diminish the number of routes took an abrupt turn and even more routes have been added on. “We actually increased the number of routes from 450 to over 500.” Of course, he noted, just because someone signs up doesn’t mean they’ll actually ride the bus.
“We have overhauled the transportation system. As a result we have more students on buses. People who signed up, we had over 20,000. Last year we transported 9,000. That’s a lot more.”
When students return from the Labor Day break on September 3, they’ll find the Ten Commandments posted in every classroom, as the Texas Legislature has decreed. Asked about that at the press conference, Miles said “We follow the law.” Two groups of parents of different religious beliefs and no religious affiliations have filed suit in federal court to stop this from happening.
HISD planned to expand its number of pre-K seats by 800 this school year. Asked how many of those seats had been filled, Miles said HISD would get the media that number.
