This November, Houston ISD voters will have a crucial decision: a $4.4 billion bond measure that will improve school safety and health, rebuild and renovate over 40 schools, and ensure that students are prepared for postsecondary success.
Houston ISD parent Eillen Hairel, parent advocate and governance coach Janice Thomas, and former Houston ISD board trustee Judith Cruz joined Houstonians for Great Public Schools during a live webinar Wednesday to discuss the profound impact this investment would have on Houston students. Each of the speakers currently serve on the Houston ISD Bond Community Advisory Committee.
Most of the bond ($3,960,000,000) will focus on Proposition A which provides funding for health, safety, and security upgrades and construction in our schools. This includes restoring more than 40 of the district’s urgent-need schools and providing funding to every HISD campus forcleaner water, dependable HVAC units, and compliance with the state mandated requirement of single-point-of entry for safety. It also will fund forward-thinking initiatives, ensuring our children – and Houston – are prepared for the future with investments in career-and-technical education programs, student-centered technology, and pre-kindergarten programs.The rest ($440,000,000) will be used towards Proposition B which provides funding for technology equipment, systems, and infrastructure to make sure our kids have updated resources to for their modern learning needs.
“This is a transformative opportunity voters have to address critical needs and make lasting improvements that will impact Houston for many years to come,” Houstonians for Great Public Schools Executive Director Veronica Garcia said before Wednesday’s event.
The webinar speakers answered questions, which mostly focused on restoring school campuses, safety and health concerns, the importance of prioritizing career and technical education, and the widespread of misinformation and disinformation.
“With the 2012 bond, the last project was finished in 2023 so it was over a decade of implementation and during that decade we had four superintendents and myriad board elections,” she said. “…This is something that is long overdue and continuing the process of deferral and not maintaining our infrastructure is what’s gotten us here and is the literal destruction of our district.” Hairel said during the webinar.
Watch the full webinar in the recording below.