If the Houston ISD Board of Managers goes along with Superintendent Mike Miles' recommendation, there will be no  pre-K English-only class added at the district's Helms and Wharton schools next year.

Miles said Monday he is going to recommend to the board that that the Helms and Wharton schools known for their dual language classes do not add English-only pre-K to their comprehensive Spanish-English program and that instead the two schools receive a special designation to maintain their current makeup.

The action comes after last Thursday's board workshop during which most of the 31 public speakers voiced opposition to the pre-K English-only proposal, saying it would destroy the special culture at their schools.

"We want a school that matches our bi-literate, bi-cultural family and Helms exceeds our expectations, " said parent Amanda DeLeon, at last week's meeting. She said HISD did not follow its own policies regarding timelines and communications with families and instead characterized it as a sudden decision.

She also questioned why this was being done, given that according to her there are hundreds of children on a waiting list to get into Helms.

At that same meeting, parent Ellen Walter said: "Besides my family only speaking English at home, I was thrilled when my child magnet-transferred into the school. The ability to learn Spanish while surrounded by other children who already speak the language was beyond helpful."

She also asked the board "to allow community involvement before a major change to a magnet school."

And parent Melissa Lichlyter asked the board: "Have you looked at our kindergarten waitlist for Helms and Wharton? It reflects what the community wants."

"To hear the public comments just reinforced what we already knew in some ways," Miles said. "So the recommendation I am making to the board is to keep Helms and Wharton largely the same. both programmatically, culturally . . .  that means not adding an English only pre-K class."

"In order to keep Helms and Wharton the same, we would have to make them separate and unique schools. That's a specific title and that's a board decision."

He said his administration is prepared to help pre-K students who had wanted an English-only class at Wharton or Helms to find another nearby HISD school. They'll also be working on providing more options for other kids who live in the neighborhood.

Asked how the whole thing became an issue to begin with, Miles says the administration and board has been examining how to best balance "competing interests." The competing interests are, of course, serving the students in a neighborhood versus students coming in seeking a special magnet program like dual language.  This came into play as they seek to significantly the number of pre-K seats in the district.

On March 27, parents at Wharton and Helms received a letter signed by the "HISD School Choice Team," saying that there would be no changes to the dual language programs for the 2024-25 school year for grades K-12.

However, that letter also notified them that for the first time there would a Pre-K English only class at the two schools. The letter justified this as a way to "ensure zoned students can access a high-quality general education."

The letter writers conceded that "We realize that our interest in opening new Pre-K options should have been communicated more effectively."

Parents were not happy and showed up at the April 4 meeting to say so — clearly seeing this as a slippery slope to diluting the special situation they have with Spanish and English dual classes. Because, after all, if you add pre-K English only one year, don't you have to add an English-only kindergarten class the next?

Several Helms parents pointed to the high ratings for their schools as well as the expanded opportunities for people who can speak more than one language.

Both schools have received A ratings from the Texas Education Agency in the past, something which several parents mentioned.

Former HISD board member Judith Cruz pointed to test score at the two schools that matched or exceeded the district average. "It's important to note that of the current 468 applicants, one, just one, requested English-only."

Expanding pre-K and maintaining a quality and rigorous dual language program does not have to be mutually exclusive, she said to the board.

The Board of Managers meets again this Thursday, April 11, at 5 p.m.

Asked about something of a reputation he has for being opposed to dual language, Miles says he's not. "I'm the one who's pushing dual language. The confusion might be that I said we're going to do dual language in the NES [New Education Schools) schools instead of bilingual education. Two different things. Both supporting of language acquisition in two languages.

"It's not I'm against bilingual. I prefer and I think the research prefers dual language as a way for kids to acquire both languages.

"I've spent a lot of time of my life learning a couple languages. I speak Russian. I used to speak it fluently but I'm a little rusty. And I used to speak Polish."