Superintendent Mike Miles says closing 12 campuses is a difficult but necessary step as the district faces declining enrollment and rising facility costs.
“These are hard decisions all the time,” Miles said.
Miles said shrinking student enrollment and the high cost of maintaining older buildings are driving the proposal.
“When students are spread across underutilized buildings in need of significant repair, it limits the resources and opportunities we can provide,” Miles said. “Decisions like these are difficult but necessary to ensure we are using our resources responsibly and focusing on what matters most, which is our students.”
Schools slated for closure
The 12 schools proposed for closure are:
- Alcott Elementary School
- Briscoe Elementary School
- Burrus Elementary School
- Cage Elementary School
- Fleming Middle School
- Franklin Elementary School
- Hobby Elementary School
- McReynolds Middle School
- Middle College High School at HCC Gulfton
- Nathaniel Q. Henderson Elementary School
- Port Houston Elementary School
- Ross Elementary School
Miles said the district has been studying potential closures for years.
“We’ve been working on this for some time. In fact, we started work on which schools should be closed two years ago. And the board before this board also worked on that,” he said.
Still, the move represents a shift from November, when district officials said they would not recommend a campus consolidation list for the 2026–2027 school year.
When KPRC 2’s Rilwan Balogun asked what changed in the past four months, Miles pointed to worsening conditions.
“A larger than expected decline in enrollment for various reasons and a couple of structural problems that came up during the last six months and again the rate at which some of our facilities are declining,” he said.
He added that repair costs at some campuses are rising faster than the cost to replace them.
“When that ratio becomes too high, that’s untenable for our school,” Miles said. “I wish we didn’t have to, but now’s the time. I can’t delay it any longer.”
Miles emphasized the closures are not based on student performance.
“Well, yeah, [facilities] was the number one criteria,” he said. “It’s not because achievement is down. I mean, we’ve raised achievement everywhere. So, it’s a combination of facilities and whether or not we can move kids into a better facility.”
He also said students impacted by the closures will not be reassigned to campuses rated D or F.
“No child is going to a D- or F-school in this,” Miles said.
Could the failed bond have changed things?
Two years ago, voters rejected a $4.4 billion bond package that would have funded school replacements and upgrades.
When Balogun asked whether its passage could have prevented the closures, Miles said it would have helped but may not have eliminated the need to close some small campuses.
“Any bond would help a school district,” he said. “Some of the schools would still be small and we still would have to be closed… The reason for passing the bond is to replace facilities that are falling down.”
The proposal must still be approved by the board before any closures take effect.
Miles said meetings will be held at impacted campuses for families with questions and concerns, including at campuses that will receive new students.
Families can find more information and updates at HoustonISD.org/Closure-Resources.
“We’re doing this in a way that makes sense. We have delayed this for three years,” Miles said.
For many families, the coming weeks will determine how those changes reshape their school communities.