Parents are wary of changes that could harm schools

As parents of school-age children living in an economically disadvantaged area, we have skin in the game when it comes to neighborhood schools — our children attended their zoned HISD elementary school. As are most schools in Houston’s East End, this school was more than 95 percent Hispanic ethnicity and over 80 percent qualified as low income. Our children were happy in their local school and made friends in the neighborhood. As parents, we were largely satisfied, as our children had several highly capable teachers and only a couple of subpar teachers. Overall enrichment opportunities were sorely lacking, and we invested time and energy into our neighborhood school as we formed a local chapter of the Texas Parent Teacher Association, a first for low-income schools within the Houston Independent School District . As we pushed for greater academic rigor, we began to meet resistance from all levels of HISD administration. Our school was a solid B, but with improvements and higher expectations, it could have easily been an A+ school. We felt that expectations were lowered because our children were brown and black.

When it came to options for middle school, there were very few in our neighborhood zone. Navarro MS (the former Jackson MS) functions well below other HISD schools and has a student population hovering around 800 with room for 2,000. Project Chrysalis functions well above other HISD schools, demonstrating what is truly possible for economically disadvantaged children but only has room for about 250 students with no plans for expansion or a designated building. In short, viable options for middle school were limited. Our children were sad to leave their neighborhood friends behind as they spread out over the city; in practical terms, they began as outsiders at their new schools and settled in over time.

Although imperfect, HISD’s School Choice magnet systems provide options for high-performing students to attend schools outside of zoned neighborhoods. However, the students that do not qualify for magnet programs — those that do not achieve a high enough HISD-determined matrix score — are stuck in lower performing neighborhood schools or leave for charter schools. Seizing on this, charter schools have gained a large foothold in the East End for middle and high school education, with around 25 pecent of HISD-eligible students in our neighborhood turning to charter schools outside of HISD’s grasp. Although providing bus service to magnet students is a costly challenge, it keeps them within HISD. Roughly 35,000 magnet students are transported each day by 1,400 designated employees in about 1,000 school buses from 1 of 4 transportation terminals. Magnet students face lengthy transportation times even for relatively nearby schools, and the system as a whole lacks efficiency, which is obvious to any parent whose child uses it.

As HISD parents, we are concerned about numerous changes designated for the 2018-2019 school year. After the HISD Board retreat held on Jan.20, 2018, there are murmurings of restricting access to magnets to the quadrant in which you live, which would enhance existing segregation within the nation’s most diverse city. We hope that low-performing schools will not be rebranded as neighborhood magnet schools without sufficient resources and proof of concept. Although we understand that the district has a $115 million shortfall, we think it will take time to better develop high quality neighborhood schools, especially middle and high schools and that access to highperforming HISD magnets must be assured. We ask that HISD hire a reputable, outside entity to conduct a research study around school choice among parents in Houston ISD. The district should seek community input and truly understand what parents want in schools and why they leave their neighborhood schools. For us, although we continually rang the bell for increased rigor, no one listened, and our children have suffered for it. There is no easy fix when expectations are lowered for brown and black children from an early age. Although we completely support the strengthening of neighborhood schools in the East End and other areas, drastic changes that immediately threaten our children’s future should not be made in haste.