HOUSTON – Shortly after learning the historic $4.4 Billion bond proposal to help improve Houston Independent School District’s campuses was rejected by the community, KPRC 2 spoke with superintendent Mike Miles about what’s next for the district.
The bond was the largest proposal in Texas education history. The money would have funded upgrades to heating, air conditioning, and security systems, and expanded education programs.
“When you think about what the bond was supposed to do, and when you think about who won last night, I don’t know if the opposition is going to claim victory. And if they do, I hope they do their victory lap around Bonham Elementary School and all the trailers and the poor air conditioning units and Benavidez Elementary School and the bathrooms and the trailers there. This is not a victory for anybody. It’s a loss for our kids. We did not put kids first on this bond,” Miles said during an exclusive interview with KPRC 2 Wednesday.
Miles criticized those who opposed the bond, accusing them of prioritizing political and other agendas over student needs. He said HISD already spends money on capital improvements, including air conditioning repairs and increased campus security, but it still falls short of addressing the district’s full infrastructure needs. He explained that HISD had not passed a similar bond in over a decade, and he defended the current administration’s decision to bring it forward, saying that it had nothing to do with state intervention or politics but solely to benefit the students.
“My team and I, we’re going to continue to fight for them. We’re going to challenge the opposition to fight for our kids, too,” Miles said.
Miles also recognized that some voters’ mistrust stemmed from the state’s implementation of the New Education System.
“They can trust that we are doing everything to help our kids. They can trust that we made great success. If they don’t want to trust those facts. I don’t know if we can help that group,” Miles said. “There are a whole bunch of people who need information and we will continue to give them the information. But there are some people who had the information. The union had the information. I don’t trust them to do anything. They don’t have any solutions and they just put misinformation out there. So do we want to trust that group? No, They have the information. They don’t want to put kids first. They want to put adult issues first.”
So what’s next? Miles said to continue to focus on educating kids.
“We’re going to have just as good a year educationally as we did last year. We’re going to fight the air conditioning wars. We’re going to try to put more money into them. We’re going to try to get more money from the state, from grants to try to help our schools. At the end of the day, at some point, the majority of people will see that kids really do need to come first,” Miles said.
When asked if the bond could be reintroduced, Miles responded that it was too early to know.
“We’ll figure it out. In the meantime, we’re going to put our effort into helping our kids get a better education. We had the largest improvement in the history of the district in achievement, and we need to celebrate that. We’re going to keep doing that,” Miles said.
In response to concerns raised in a bond campaign ad about unsafe lead levels in school water, Miles confirmed HISD’s ongoing efforts to mitigate these risks, including using filters and turning off water where necessary. He said that the bond would have provided funds to remove aging lead pipes from schools.
While HISD will seek grants to address infrastructure needs, Miles said grant funding alone would not be sufficient to cover the estimated $10 billion in required repairs after years of neglect.
“Our kids deserve better facilities,” Miles said.
Mike Miles’ full statement on bond failure:
“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” ―Nelson Mandela
Dear HISD Community:
As you know, HISD voters did not vote to approve the bond proposal.
As the results came in on Tuesday, I kept thinking about a conversation I had with the Principal at Bonham Elementary School last week. She relayed how hopeful her community was – parents and staff – that the bond would pass. Their crumbling temporary buildings would finally be replaced with a safer, more appropriate facility. Bonham serves some of the highest need students in our community. They’re doing the hard work to improve instruction, and we as a community let them down.
For other families with students in crumbling buildings, I don’t need to tell you how badly we needed this bond. These investments should have been made years ago. In fact, we had not planned to advance a bond at all, but once we saw for ourselves the unspeakable conditions at many schools, it became obvious we could not fully transform this District without addressing our failing facilities.
In this instance, the politics of adults beat out the needs of our children. It’s unfortunate and wrong, but I want to assure you that it will not limit our ability to do the things that our students need. I know our most effective principals and teachers can reach students even in the worst of facilities, because they’ve been doing so for more than a year. Teaching and learning will continue, and we will continue to transform this District for all students.
I cannot promise our aging facilities and systems will never be a barrier to student learning. We will do our best to keep long expired heating and cooling systems running, but on very hot or very cold days, we are likely going to have to close campuses to keep students safe. More frequently, students are going to be forced to learn in conditions that are not ideal, in classrooms that are either too hot or too cold to learn comfortably.
Keeping schools safe will remain our top priority. The HISD Police Department and our Facilities and Maintenance Operations team is constantly searching for grant money, and we will be looking to the State of Texas to provide additional resources for school security. We will make these investments as soon as funds become available.
I will acknowledge, I was very optimistic about this bond proposal. There was a window of time before the board vote when we could have done what prior elected boards and administrations have done – which is to avoid hard choices and hope the future would take care of itself. We chose to go forward, because the conditions in our schools made it obvious – our kids cannot wait.
I believed this bond was a unique opportunity for this community to come together on behalf of its children. I’m sure many of you felt the same and are very disappointed in the result. I share your disappointment, but I also hope you will remain optimistic. Our accomplishments far outweigh our setbacks, and most importantly, we have and will continue to put the needs of our students first.
HISD’s proposal: