Houston NewsMakers Sept. 18: HISD superintendent; Houston Symphony

New superintendent optimistic about HISD

HOUSTON – New Houston Independent School District Superintendent Richard Carranza has been on the job only a few weeks but says when looking for a great district, Houston is a great place to be. “Houston’s been on my radar for quite a while,” he said. “It’s an innovative school system, I’ve had the opportunity to work with many HISD employees on a national basis and I’ve always been impressed by the innovation and intuitiveness of the district.”

Carranza is a guest on this week’s Houston Newsmakers with Khambrel Marshall, and acknowledges many school boards eventually have adversarial relationships with their superintendents but he doesn’t see that as a problem in Houston.  “As I met with the board of trustees, there’s not one member of the board of trustees that doesn’t have the same vision,” he said. “They want students to be successful, they want all students to be successful. Where the differences come in is how we get there. I can work with that.”

Also discussed: Among many other topics, his analysis of  Special Education challenges and the challenge of getting voters to understand why the district is being asked to send hundreds of millions of HISD money to the state of Texas and what they will need to know and do to stop that from happening.

Also this week:

The Houston Symphony kicks off the season this weekend, and the Symphony is in its 103rd year of existence. Aurelie Desmarais is the senior artistic adviser for the symphony and says the performances have never been better and the community outreach is a part of their success. “We have these community-imbedded musicians who are teaching artists,” she said. "They’re going out into the schools with partnerships and bringing kids into rehearsals and interacting with musicians. It’s really great to get them from an early age and really inspire people.” Desmarais says there are 18 weekends of Classical music this season with Pops, Family and much more.

Contact information for this week’s guests: