HISD among 15 districts where students return to class Monday

HOUSTON – The Houston Independent School District is among 15 districts where students will return to class Monday.

With about 214,000 students, HISD is the largest school district in Texas.

This will be the first year that schools in the district have standardized start times. Last year, the district had 67 different start times. This year, elementary schools and K-8 campuses start at 7:30 a.m. Middle school, high school and grade 6-12 campuses start at 8:30 a.m.

This is also the first day of a new bus system for magnet schools, which employs a park-and-ride type model. Depending on the magnet school, there will be a single point where students are picked up and dropped off.

For some students, it will be the first time they have been back in their school since Hurricane Harvey, which delayed the start of the last school year and left several schools with severe damage. 

Hilliard Elementary is one of a dozen new or newly renovated campuses opening Monday. It includes a new outdoor classroom, which was built by volunteers. The library is all new, and there is new furniture if the classrooms. The gym has been renovated.

There are still four Harvey-damaged campuses that need to be rebuilt. Students at Scarborough, Kolter and Mitchell elementary schools will start their year at temporary campuses.

HISD will also start the year with an interim superintendent at the helm. Grenita Lathan took over for former Superintendent Richard Carranza, who left to head New York City schools. Before that, Lathan had served as chief academic officer for the district.

Other districts welcoming students back to class Monday include: Cy-Fair, Lamar Consolidated, Galveston, Goose Creek, Cleveland, Huffman, Waller, Navasota, Hempstead, High Island, Sealy, Royal, Needville and East Chambers.