After 2-year lag, HISD sees enrollment bump

After back-to-back years of declining enrollment, Houston ISD has added about 400 children to its classrooms for the 2018-19 school year, a positive development for the district amid ongoing leadership turbulence.

As of late October, when districts across the state take a stateordered snapshot of their student bodies, HISD reported an enrollment of 210,053 children, up 0.1 percent from the prior year. Enrollment in the state’s largest district had dipped by about 6,300 students, or 4 percent, over the prior two years, which education leaders largely attributed to displacement from Hurricane Harvey, growing competition from charter schools, and declining trust in the administration and school board.

HISD Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan said she believes the quality of education in HISD, which outscored many area districts under the state’s academic accountability system in 2018-19, has helped stop the two-year

trend.

“We have a variety of options that meet the needs of students and their parents, and I believe people are choosing HISD despite some of the challenges we’ve had over the past several years,” Lathan said Tuesday.

The enrollment totals bode well for HISD’s 20192020 financial outlook, as district officials initially budgeted for losing 1,500 students and the state funding that comes with their attendance. HISD typically would have cut spending or dipped into its “rainy day” fund for 2019-2020 to accommodate those projected losses, but the district increased spending by more than $100 million this school year after state legislators infused billions of dollars into public education.

Lathan said it is too early to predict the impact of the enrollment increase on district finances, largely because the ultimate effect of school finance reforms passed this spring remains uncertain.

At the campus level, HISD’s largest enrollment increase came from the district-contracted, online charter school Texas Connections Academy at Houston, which jumped from 5,700 to 6,300 students. The virtual campus, operated by a nonprofit with ties to the education conglomerate Pearson, enrolls students from across the state.

Several of the district’s smallest elementary schools also saw enrollments increase by more than 10 percent, including Davila, Kashmere Gardens, Mitchell, Wesley and Young.

Still, the district continues to operate 20 elementary campuses with fewer than 400 students, many of which have the capacity to enroll hundreds more. A report released in mid-November by the Texas Legislative Budget Board suggested HISD could save $14.5 million by closing nearly 30 low-enrollment elementary schools, an option that has not been under serious public consideration.

HISD officials and researchers from the University of Houston and Rice University are conducting a study to analyze reasons for HISD’s recent enrollment declines. Results from the study are expected to be released in the coming months.

Four of the region’s biggest districts responded to requests Monday from the Houston Chronicle for their 2019-2020 enrollment snapshot totals, which have not been published for all Texas districts.

Cy-Fair ISD, the area’s second-largest district, reported enrolling 117,504 students this year, up 0.8 percent. Constantly-growing Conroe ISD counted 63,981 students, a 1.8 percent increase. Enrollment marginally fell in Aldine ISD (66,242 students, down 0.9 percent) and Alief ISD (45,307 students, down 0.2 percent).