Houston ISD unanimously authorised a plan to formally remove the graphic design and digital communications magnet packages at 10 excessive faculties. College students, who at the moment are within the eighth grade, could be redirected to the Barbara Jordan Profession Middle (BJCC), the place they’ll entry 16 packages of examine resulting in “high-wage” and “high-demand” jobs, per HISD.
College officers additionally reassured the board and the neighborhood that no present college students might be impacted, college students can select whether or not to enroll in these packages, and not one of the faculties will lose their magnet standing.
HISD coverage requires the board to vote on modifications to magnets, which additionally function CTE tracks. A vote isn’t required for non-magnet CTE modifications. Due to this fact, the board solely voted on magnet college modifications at 4 faculties: Heights, Kashmere, Northside, and Waltrip.
Superintendent Mike Miles mentioned the modifications are part of “HISD 2026,” aimed toward getting ready college students to be “college-ready.” He added that college sizes decide the variety of packages college students have entry to. For this reason faculties like Wheatley, Kashmere, and North Forest have fewer packages than Lamar Excessive College.
“We’re doing it in a manner that is sensible, and that can assist us turn out to be far more environment friendly, similar to each different trade and enterprise within the nation.”
HISD Superintendent Mike Miles
“We’re doing it in a manner that is sensible, and that can assist us turn out to be far more environment friendly, similar to each different trade and enterprise within the nation,” Miles mentioned. “Wheatley youngsters ought to have entry to 16 packages, a minimum of 12.”
HISD expects its enrollment on the BJCC to develop from its 906 college students to just about 4,000 within the 2028-29 college 12 months. The middle will function in shifts with 900 to 1,000 college students on campus at a time.
What’s the proposal?
The proposal follows a fall 2025 labor-market examine that analyzed Houston-area employment information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. District officers concluded that careers tied to the humanities, audio-visual, and communications cluster, together with graphic design and digital media, didn’t meet HISD’s thresholds for wages and employer demand.
Consequently, HISD advisable that these packages be phased out. Below the plan, the packages will shut one grade degree at a time starting in 2026-27, permitting present magnet college students to finish their tracks, with the ultimate class graduating in 2029-30.
Historic context
Houston’s magnet highschool system traces its origins to the mid-Seventies, when HISD started opening magnet faculties as a part of a voluntary strategy to desegregation after many years of segregated education. HISD’s first magnet faculties opened in 1975, providing themed tutorial packages to college students from throughout the district.
Proposed modifications to those packages, together with the relocation or phasing out of sure tracks, have drawn sturdy responses from households and neighborhood members.
What dad and mom mentioned
Whereas Miles defended the measure, dad and mom and neighborhood members argued towards it.
Mother and father argued that HISD didn’t have interaction the neighborhood in its decision-making course of and expressed issues about transporting their kids to and from their campuses to BJCC. They mentioned the logistics could value college students their classroom and lunch time.
Anthony Collier, a speaker, opposed the CTE overhaul plan and HISD’s plan to develop its amenities with a brand new heart on the southside, utilizing $180 million in lease-revenue bonds. This financing mechanism doesn’t require voter approval.
“It [CTE changes] will pressure college students to spend as much as an hour on buses two to a few occasions every week to entry lessons which are typically already accessible on campus,” Collier mentioned, including the district ought to use the cash to repair HVAC points as a substitute.
Whereas acknowledging that offering extra alternatives for college kids by way of BJCC “is a good thought,” dad and mom mentioned it mustn’t require decreasing present pathways at native faculties.
“Engagement begins earlier than choices are made, informing communities early and bringing collectively a consultant group of fogeys and lecturers to satisfy periodically to debate choices, collect enter, and form a plan that matches their college, working collectively in direction of profitable implementation,” mentioned Kim Hoyle, a dad or mum.
HISD disagreed.
Gillian Quinn, HISD’s govt director of CTE, mentioned the district accommodated in depth neighborhood suggestions, together with 300+ enterprise companions, 560 dad or mum surveys, management from the ten faculties, and neighborhood conferences.
What is going to change
At Furr HS, graphic design and digital communications could be phased out, whereas diagnostics and therapeutics will shift to BJCC.
North Forest HS will lose animal science and transfer automotive, HVAC, and networking to BJCC, sustaining its entrepreneurship, fireplace science, and JROTC packages.
Booker T. Washington HS is phasing out plant science and upgrading to animal science, whereas sending networking to BJCC. It’ll preserve its engineering and JROTC packages.
At Northside HS, graphic design is being eradicated, whereas entrepreneurship, digital communications, and JROTC stay.
Heights HS will preserve its JROTC, enterprise administration, digital communications, and internet programming, however is shedding its graphic design observe and entrepreneurship.
At Kashmere Excessive College, advertising and marketing and gross sales will stay, however graphic design and entrepreneurship might be phased out, with networking transferring to BJCC.
Wheatley HS will lose its graphic design program, whereas networking and automotive packages are moved off campus.
Waltrip HS will section out each graphic design and digital communications, at the same time as engineering, diagnostics and therapeutics, and entrepreneurship are expanded and shift to dual-credit. Networking and automotive will transfer to the BJCC.
Mickey Leland School Preparatory Academy for Younger Males will develop its CTE choices by providing 16 packages at BJCC.
Houston MSTC will section out cosmetology and digital communications by 2026-27 and transition plumbing, automotive, well being informatics, diagnostics, and therapeutics to BJCC.
