HISD aims to issue all students a laptop

COSTS: A bond vote to pay for the plan would face tall hurdles

Houston ISD officials hope to provide every student with a district-issued laptop in 2020-21 and beyond, an ambitious target that would deliver much-needed technology to children but require voters to approve a bond package in the next several months.

Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan said HISD officials are “working toward a goal” of buying computers throughout the upcoming school year for all 150,000-plus elementary and middle school students. HISD high school students already get computers under an initiative, known as PowerUp, started in 2014.

The laptops would assist families struggling with a lack of athome technology amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, which pushed most instruction online for the last 10 weeks of this school year and likely will cause some classes to remain virtual into 2020-21.

Once the pandemic subsides, the laptops also would help bridge the so-called “digital divide,” providing more opportunities for students from lower-income families to access the internet and other educational programs.

“The goal is, as soon as we get

them in is deploy them out,” Lathan said. “It will just take time to get the devices in. As we get them in, we’ll look to see if they’ll be given to middle school students first or elementary school students, or some at both levels.”

The initiative, however, would carry enormous costs that are not accounted for in HISD’s $2 billion spending plan for 2020-21.

District officials said they would have to spend $65 million on laptop hardware — not counting warranties, repairs, carts and replacement devices — to outfit HISD’s elementary and middle school students.

HISD leaders also would have to hire dozens or hundreds of staff members to maintain the laptops and eventually pay to replace older technology in the years to come.

District administrators still are calculating the price tag for supporting 150,000-plus additional students with laptops, but Chief Information Officer Scott Gilhousen told board members Thursday that early estimates put the bill at $90 million over five years for middle school students alone.

“The part we’re working on right now is the elementary schools and what it would take to outfit those students,” Gilhousen said.

In a statement Friday, HISD administrators acknowledged the district “would need to have a bond program” to pay for the laptops and recurring costs — a potentially tall task given multiple headwinds.

HISD officials were working earlier this year toward a possible $2 billion-plus November bond election, the district’s first in eight years.

That momentum stalled, however, when Lathan placed Chief Operating Officer Brian Busby — one of the top officials responsible for overseeing bonds — on home duty in February after federal agents searched district headquarters and his Cypress-area home. Busby, who remained on home duty as of last week, has not been charged with a crime.

Now, with the pandemic and lower oil prices ravaging Houston’s economy, voters could be even more skittish about approving a multibillion-dollar bond. HISD officials have not yet proposed a bond package, Busby predicted in February that the $2 billion-plus proposal would call for tax rates remaining flat or increasing by a maximum of 2 cents per $100 in taxable value.

HISD also remains under threat of Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath ousting the district’s elected trustees and replacing them with an appointed board, the result of chronically low performance at Wheatley High School and multiple findings of misconduct by trustees in recent years. A Travis County judge issued a temporary injunction in January halting the takeover, which state officials are appealing.

District officials could seek a smaller bond package targeted more toward technology in November or early 2021, though administrators have not outlined any such plans.

HISD Trustee Judith Cruz said providing technology to students is “definitely a priority,” but she called affordability “a huge concern.” She suggested the district evaluate multiple options for funding the initiative, such as seeking philanthropic dollars and investigating the availability of federal money.

“This could be over $100 million over time, and so I do think it warrants more discussion and a lot of forethought,” Cruz said.

HISD officials have credited the high school PowerUp program with helping students finish homework, perform research and complete college application forms, among numerous other tasks.

Now, with most instruction taking place online, computers serve as a lifeline for children of all ages.

Jamekia Ross, the mother of two eighth-graders at Williams Middle School and a second-grader at Osborne Elementary School, said new laptops would “take a big headache out of the equation” for her family. Her children are juggling three tablets and a cellphone for schoolwork — none of which have external keyboards — and sometimes struggle to access online programs used by the district.

“If it’s accessible and easy, the kids want to do their work alone,” Ross said. “If they don’t think it’s easy, they want me there. I’m not able to just give them homework and go to work myself.”

Hogg Middle School Principal Vanessa Saldaña, whose staff provided about 130 Chromebooks to students following the shutdown of schools in mid-March, said many families are sharing computers or relying on laptops that parents take to work. With buildings closed, about one-quarter of her students are not engaged in classwork on a daily basis.

“I really feel technology is not an extra,” Saldaña said. “It’s an essential, especially now.”

HISD officials already have bought about 35,000 laptops for students and secured 4,000 wireless internet hot spots since the shutdown, Gilhousen said. The district has distributed about 26,000 hot spots, which provide free internet within a limited space to a household, in recent years following donations from Sprint and T-Mobile.