HISD plan to shift many CTE programs to Barbara Jordan draws widespread opposition from students and parents
Get AI-powered insights, summaries, and transcripts
Subscribe
Summary
Houston ISD officials proposed centralizing many high-cost CTE programs at the Barbara Jordan Career Center; students, parents and teachers urged the board to keep magnet and CTE offerings on their home campuses, warning that busing and program removals would reduce access and destabilize schools.
Houston — Houston Independent School District officials on Dec. 11 defended a plan to centralize many career and technical education offerings at the Barbara Jordan Career Center, saying a hub model would expand access to equipment-heavy programs. The proposal drew sustained and sometimes emotional public comment from students, parents and educators who said moving programs off campus would harm learning and community stability.
Chief academic/presenting official Chief Holt told the board the Barbara Jordan site would offer 16 programs that all students from nine surrounding high schools could access, and cited a third-party labor-market analysis that recommended prioritizing programs that lead to living-wage jobs. "The data that led to these findings is shown in a couple of these charts," Holt said, adding that the labor-market analysis showed some programs — including graphic design — did not meet local living-wage thresholds or job-opening thresholds.
Parents and students pressed staff for details on logistics and impact. "Programs like web development, graphic design, culinary, and entrepreneurship gave students real skills, dual credit, and motivation to stay on track for college and careers," said Micah Gabbay, a student who testified during public comment. "Now instead of strengthening these pathways, they're being eliminated," she said.
Staff said transportation would not change for families: students continue to attend their zone school and the district would cover transportation to Barbara Jordan. Officials also said students typically would travel to the center two to three days a week for morning or afternoon sessions so they could remain enrolled in courses at their home campus. Holt emphasized that existing students in a program would not be forced out: "All of our ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth graders will be able to continue in their current program, and we phase out programs over the course of 3 to 4 years," Holt said.
Still, parents and community members raised a range of concerns: loss of instruction time when students lose a class period to travel; heavy turnover of teachers and the effect on school culture; the fiscal rationale for removing low start-up-cost programs at campuses that have invested local bond dollars in kitchens and labs; and the narrow timeline for engagement. "This is not increasing opportunity for kids. It's dismantling it," said Ruth Kravitz, a former Northside teacher and administrator, who urged the board not to remove on-site programs such as graphic design and culinary.
Multiple speakers also criticized the timing and process. Board staff said community meetings will be held the first week back from the holiday break and that the school-choice process will remain open through February so families can respond to final program decisions.
The board pulled the related agenda item (item 5) from the consent agenda earlier in the meeting; staff said they will return the item for discussion after community meetings.