Civic leaders explore partnership with HISD
Talks underway to create a nonprofit to take control of struggling schools
Local civic leaders are considering whether to form a nonprofit that could take control of several longstruggling Houston ISD schools in 2019-20, a potential bid to improve academic outcomes at those campuses and stave off a state takeover of the district’s locally elected governing board.
Members of Mayor Sylvester Turner’s administration, education leaders and prominent philanthropic and business organizations have convened periodically over the past few months to research and sketch out frameworks for a nonprofit capable of governing some HISD campuses. The discussions remain preliminary — no plans or proposals have been formulated — but local leaders say their efforts will become more urgent and public in the coming months.
The nonprofit would partner with HISD through a recently passed state law
commonly known as SB 1882. Under the law, school districts can temporarily surrender control of campuses to an outside organization — including a nonprofit — in exchange for a two-year reprieve from state sanctions tied to low academic performance, an extra $1,200 in per-student funding and some regulatory breaks. If HISD does not engage in an outside partnership this academic year at four chronically low-performing schools this year, the district risks state sanctions in 2019 if any of the campuses fail to meet state academic standards.
Juliet Stipeche, the director of education in Turner’s administration, said a nonprofit “seems like the wisest catalyst” for a potential private partnership with HISD. Stipeche, an HISD trustee from 2010 to 2015, is among the lead organizers of early talks about a nonprofit.
“Our office is trying to bring together a very diverse group of people to find a new way of partnering with the school district,” Stipeche said. “There’s a clear, obvious sense of urgency given the situation that we have, but there’s also an understanding that this needs to be a long-term project.”
District and civic leaders are exploring partnerships in light of another state law, known as HB 1842, that requires the state to close campuses or take over the governing board in any district with a school that receives five straight “improvement required” ratings for poor academic performance. HISD narrowly avoided those sanctions this year after four long-struggling campuses all met state academic standards. Those results were announced Aug. 15.
However, four other campuses still could trigger penalties if one gets an “improvement required” rating in 2019. They are Kashmere High School (eight consecutive “improvement required” ratings), Wheatley High School (six), Highland Heights Elementary School (five) and Henry Middle School (four).
Getting it right
Many local leaders, including Turner and HISD Board President Rhonda Skillern-Jones, have been adamant about keeping local control over the district’s school board. Some HISD officials, including Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan, have said they are open to potential private partnerships in 201920.
Houston-area leaders involved in talks about forming a nonprofit for an HISD partnership said many questions remain unanswered: Who would serve on the nonprofit’s governing board? How would board members be chosen? How would community members engage in the nonprofit’s formation? Who would manage day-to-day campus operations? Which schools would fall under the nonprofit’s purview?
To gain support for a private partnership, local leaders will have to clear several hurdles. They likely will have three to six months to craft governance plans and an academic framework for campuses, a relatively short time frame. They will have to get buy-in from several constituencies that often clash politically, including HISD trustees, school district administrators, teachers’ union leaders and residents in neighborhoods with schools facing takeover. The TEA also would have to approve any proposals.
“We need to be taking advantage of the next year,” said Bob Harvey, president and CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership, the region’s largest business advocacy nonprofit. “We need to work very aggressively. It will take time to put something like this together.”
Already, one previous partnership recommendation — handing over control of 10 schools to the local charter network Energized For STEM Academy Inc. — precipitated community backlash that culminated with a raucous school board meeting in April. Trustees never voted on the proposal, which many described as hastily and haphazardly crafted.
Leaders involved in the potential nonprofit proposal hope to create a more thorough plan that could win broad community and trustee support.
As a guide, they have investigated the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, a nonprofit that operates 18 campuses in the nation’s second-largest school district. The organization has significant governance power over the campuses — selecting principals and teachers, setting curricula, dictating professional development plans — through a “memorandum of understanding” with the Los Angeles Unified School District. The two sides collaborate and negotiate on key decisions, though the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools largely maintains final authority.
Several Houston-area leaders, including Stipeche, Vice Mayor Pro-Tem Jerry Davis and HISD Trustees Holly Maria Flynn Vilaseca and Sergio Lira, traveled in June to Los Angeles for a crash course about the partnership and its ties to other area education institutions. Leaders from the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools also visited Houston in early August.
“They’re ahead of the curve there in terms of partnering with the universities and the business community when it comes to addressing the needs of their struggling schools,” Lira said. “Sometimes we have to make the tough call in forming some collaborative alliances — as long as it’s helping to improve student outcomes.”
Tangible benefits
A Los Angeles-style partnership would offer several benefits to HISD.
A regional nonprofit could attract more donor investment than HISD, which often is perceived as overly bureaucratic and poorly governed. The Partnership for Los Angeles Schools received an initial 10-year, $50 million investment from philanthropists Melanie and Richard Lundquist, and the couple this year pledged an additional $35 million. By contrast, the HISD Foundation, one of the district’s main fundraising arms, receives slightly more than $1 million per year in donations, on average. “We understand there are a number of conversations happening, and we are interested to see what plans may emerge to better support Houston-area schools,” Ann Stern, president and CEO of the Houston Endowment, said in a statement. The nonprofit approved nearly $80 million in grants and charitable donations in 2017.
A private partnership also allows for greater opportunities for innovation, particularly in delivering social services to students. Local leaders often lament a disconnect between the district and service providers who could aid the city’s most disadvantaged youth.
“It’s amazing that so many (community organizations) exist in this space, yet there isn’t strong coordination among the various institutions,” Stipeche said.
The Partnership for Los Angeles Schools took several years to find its footing and show strong academic results — and some of its schools still struggle. HISD has a relatively short runway for turning around schools: the TEA must close campuses or replace HISD’s school board if any of the district’s four longest-struggling campuses do not meet standard at least once in the next three years.
HISD administrators, including Lathan, are apprised of the nonprofit discussions but not intimately involved in talks to date, Stipeche said.
District administrators did not respond to interview requests about the ongoing nonprofit discussions. In early August, Lathan said district leaders were waiting for the 2018 accountability results and more direction from HISD trustees before beginning more consideration of partnerships. An ideal partner, Lathan said, “works with us to close the gap on not only the resources that schools need, but also as it relates to connecting parents to their children’s education.”