HISD staff, alums spar over Student Congress
District looks to sever ties with group, citing improper influence
After a few years of instability, in-fighting and inattention from Houston ISD leaders left the district’s Student Congress on the brink of collapse, a new group of high schoolers wants to rebuild the organization’s voice in HISD.
Their effort, however, faces an immediate challenge: the HISD administration.
District officials are asking the board of trustees Thursday to sever ties with the 7-year-old Student Congress, arguing that adult alumni have seized control of the group and irreparably damaged its relationship with key administrators.
The squabble pits the administration of Texas’ largest school district against a small band of current students and several HISD graduates, who disagree over the
best route for giving teens a greater say in key district decisions after years of scant activism.
Rather than repairing its relationship with HISD Student Congress, district officials want trustees to support the creation of a new student advocacy organization. The group would meet at least four times per year with senior HISD leaders, receiving support from a district liaison.
In statements over the past week, HISD administrators said the alumni remain an intractable force in Student Congress, highlighted by efforts to banish current students from the body and a refusal to communicate with district leaders.
They also noted that Student Congress typically lacks representation from all high schools, including many campuses with higher percentages of lower-income, Black and Hispanic students.
“The district would like to ensure that students have a voice on issues that impact the educational experience and would like all voices from all of the district’s high schools represented,” HISD administrators said in a statement. “The Student Congress has not met these needs, so the district is taking action to ensure student voices are heard moving forward and in the long-term.
Student Congress advocates are fighting back against the moves, claiming the HISD leadership is misleading board members and attempting to quash students’ voice. HISD Student Congress has no formal authority to dictate policy, but the organization is designed to serve as a sounding board for students and administrators on important district issues.
“We really just want to build a community among students who are interested and invested in our future,” said Jazmin Alvarez, a junior at Eastwood Academy and Student Congress leadership team member. “At this point, student voice really is needed, especially in our administration.”
Limited district support
The Student Congress’ new leadership team boasts 12 members from seven of HISD’s nearly 50 schools serving high school-age students. Six of the seven campuses with representation traditionally rank among the highest-scoring in the district. The students are recruiting, hoping to attract a more diverse range of members.
The fractured relationship reflects the Student Congress’ inability to independently govern itself over the past few years, as well as the HISD administration’s lack of institutional support for the student-led body. Originally founded in 2014 as a grass-roots advocacy group, HISD Student Congress’ membership dwindled to a handful of students by 2020. The decline came as HISD leaders provided limited guidance and minimal financial resources to the organization, some former members said.
Tensions within Student Congress boiled over last year when current students tried to rebuild the body and impeach the organization’s speaker, arguing in part that she kowtowed to former Student Congress leaders. The kerfuffle ended with Zaakir Tameez, an original Student Congress founder who graduated from HISD in 2015, attempting to ban the reformminded teens from the group, three of the students said.
“The people who are the ones controlling the Congress are not the high school students. It’s controlled by college students,” said David Dzul, a junior at DeBakey High School for Health Professionals, who received a banishment notice.
Tameez declined to comment on whether he issued such an order, citing concerns related to an unspecified ongoing investigation.
Ultimately, Tameez and a few other alumni devoted to supporting HISD Student Congress tried in late 2020 to reconstitute the organization with a new group of high schoolers, who now meet roughly once a week to map out revitalization plans.
Still, the continued involvement of HISD alumni in Student Congress has rankled district administrators, who described the graduates’ actions as “alarming.”
“Based on some concerns over the past several years, it’s better to start anew,” HISD Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan told trustees last week.
‘Not authentic student voice’
Some Student Congress alumni and current HISD high schoolers, however, are skeptical of the administration’s intentions. They argue HISD’s lack of support for the organization in recent years bodes poorly for elevating the voices of the district’s nearly 200,000 students.
“Student Congress has been brushed aside, undermined, neglected,” Tameez said. “And then the moment Student Congress is gaining new momentum, the district is perhaps apprehensive about that new momentum and seeks to cut that relationship off with Student Congress and create something that is well within their administration.”
Athena Haq, a sophomore at the Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and Student Congress member, said she worries about HISD administrators influencing a district-organized student advisory board. HISD officials originally said their body would operate “under the direction of, and in conjunction with,” district administration, though they changed that language this week to “in collaboration with” administrators.
“It’s just not authentic student voice if it’s facilitated by non-students,” Haq said.
Some HISD trustees urged administrators and Student Congress leaders to hash out their differences ahead of Thursday’s scheduled vote, but an agreement appears unlikely.
Several students and alumni said neither side has contacted the other, while HISD administrators did not directly respond to a question about any attempts in recent days to communicate with Student Congress. HISD officials said Student Congress leaders have been unresponsive in the past to district outreach, a claim the alumni denied.
If trustees vote to break ties with Student Congress, the organization’s new student leadership still plans to keep the organization intact, even without a direct line to HISD leadership.
“Regardless of how the vote goes, Student Congress is going to continue working just as we are now and we hope to recruit more, as we’ve been doing over the past weeks,” Haq said. “I see really big potential for Student Congress.”