Nineteen Houston ISD schools voluntarily applied for 14 slots in the New Education System for the 2024-25 school year and as it turned out, Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles couldn’t say no to any of them.
So it’ll be 19 on top of the 26 F and low-D rated schools Miles selected two weeks ago for next year on top of the 57 who volunteered for the first year on top of the original 28.
So 130 total and as he acknowledged in a Friday afternoon press conference, Miles is ahead of where he thought he’d be on his march to have 150 of HISD schools enrolled in the NES, centralized curriculum.
“If you don’t count the speciality schools, that’s half the district. So half the district will be NES schools,” M<iles said.
In response to questions, Miles acknowledged that this will mean another $6 million in unanticipated costs to the district, but repeated his pledge that when he presents next year’s budget, it will be a balanced one at $850 million total.
“Over the last couple of days I’ve been talking to the CFO, Chief Financial Officer, Jim Terry, I’ve been looking at the budget myself and we believe that we can find the funds to do all 19 schools. Part of that is when you have people willing to do the hard work. What we call ‘the coalition of the willing, it’s hard to say ‘Never mind. Thanks for thinking really hard about it even though we warned them that would be that possibility.”
Only five of the 24 schools eligible to be added to the NES roster opted not to apply to be considered for NES status. Of course, just because they didn’t sign up this year, doesn’t mean they won’t be included in the 2025-26 cadre whether they volunteer or not. It will all depend on how they do in test scores and other measurements, Miles said.
Campuses who volunteered to join NES 2024-25 are:
Austin High School
Bell Elementary School
Deady Middle School
Foerster Elementary School
Frost Elementary School
Gross Elementary School
Jefferson Elementary School
Ketelsen Elementary School
Marshall Middle School
Montgomery Elementary School
Navarro Middle School
Neff Elementary School
Petersen Elementary School
Reynolds Elementary School
Ross Elementary School
Sanchez Elementary School
Southmayd Elementary School
Tinsley Elementary School
Valley West Elementary School
The five schools that didn’t opt into applying for the program are: Rayburn Elementary, Emerson Elementary, Hines Caldwell Elementary, Love Elementary and Shearn Elementary.
While saying that he required all principals to get input from their staff and parents, he repeated that in the end it was the decision of the principal. And while he endorsed the process as proof that most people welcomed the decision to sign up, some campuses have reported that a) surveys did not reach many parents and b) in some cases the vote was against joining NES but the principal wanted to anyway.
NES teachers and principals are on average paid significantly more than teachers and administrators at other schools.
While teachers and other administrators at this latest batch of NES -designees to not have to reapply for their positions, they do have to sign a document saying they are willing to work for an NES school and undergo an evaluation to see if they’re a good fit for the NES program.
“There will be what we call a proficiency screening,” Miles said. He explained this as a combination of spot observations and looking at their achievement data, teamwork and professionalism.
“There’s no repercussions for opting in or opting out of NES,” Miles said.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
