The Houston Independent School District has announced the launch of Let’s Stay Connected, a mental health hotline for students and parents to provide emotional, social, and psychological support to students and parents who feel the need for assistance.
Students and parents may call the Let’s Stay Connected Hotline at 713-556-1340 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Continue reading
HISD families may be eligible to receive Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT), a one-time benefit of up to $285 to be issued on an EBT card to assist families during the district’s closure.
The $1 billion benefit program was approved by the United States Department of Agriculture to help eligible families buy food during the COVID-19 pandemic. The EBT card can be used like a debit card to buy food from any retailer that accepts the Texas Lone Star Card.
Children up to 21 years old who are certified for free or reduced-price meals at school in Texas during the 2019-2020 school year and all children who attend a school that offers meals at no charge through the Community Eligibility Provision — as HISD does — are eligible to receive P-EBT benefits.
Continue readingHouston Independent School District Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan will surprise 10 high school seniors with 2019-2020 HISD Superintendent Scholars Awards during surprise visits to their homes.
This is the third year the scholarships will be awarded to graduating seniors who have exemplified great character and resilience in the face of adversity.
Moved by their tenacity and inspiring journeys, Lathan personally selected the 10 students she will surprise from among 45 HISD seniors who were nominated by their principals or leadership teams.
Continue reading
Staying connected is important now more than ever, and HISD Abroad is answering the call with next week’s Virtual Global Issues Summit hosted by HISD students.
Student hosts Van Nguyen and Boris Mejia, seniors from HISD’s Houston Academy of International Studies, will go live on Zoom at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, May 27 to discuss the impact of global issues on high school students. They will be joined by guest speakers John Moravec, founder of Education Futures, and Carrie Olson, President of the Denver Public Schools Board of Education.
Continue readingThree weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, an early morning fire swept through the home of an HISD family, causing them to lose everything.
The early April blaze not only destroyed the Jackson family’s home and the entirety of its contents, but it also left Destiny Jackson, whose five children attend HISD schools, with severe burns over a large percentage of her body after she ran into the burning home to carry her youngest son, Malik, to safety.
“My family and I are still dealing with a lot of emotion from that night,” Marcus Jackson said. “It is very hard for me talk about it, but what I can tell you is that my wife is the bravest person I know.”
Continue readingAs the school year comes to a close, the Houston Independent School District is transitioning from its community food distribution efforts to a curbside summer meals program for students.
Beginning June 1, families will be able to pick up boxed student meals twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays at one of 68 designated schools across the district. Boxes may be picked up by students, parents, or other adult family members.
Each box will contain a day’s worth of meals, including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack. Families will receive several days’ worth of food — three boxes on Mondays and four on Thursdays — per child at each pickup.
Continue readingWestbury High School graduating seniors learned during a video call with Michelle Obama that they are one of only 20 campuses in the nation and the only one in Texas to be named winners in a voter registration challenge co-chaired by the former first lady.
The competition was held by MTV and the national nonpartisan group When We All Vote (WWAV), which was launched in 2018 by Obama along with celebrities like actor Tom Hanks, pro basketball player Chris Paul and country music stars Faith Hill and Tim McGraw.
“It is extremely impressive that our Westbury students had an opportunity to be on a call with Mrs. Obama,” HISD Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan said. “It is equally impressive that they put in the work and carried out a pledge to educate and register their peers to vote.”
Continue readingFour Houston Independent School District graduating seniors have received $2,500 each from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, which selected them from a pool of more than 15,000 outstanding students nationwide.
One of the HISD students attends Bellaire High School, two attend Carnegie Vanguard High School and one attends Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.
Continue readingDue to the threat of inclement weather, the Houston Independent School District and Houston Food Bank are rescheduling the mass community food distribution planned for Saturday, May 16 at NRG to ensure the safety of families, staff, and volunteers.
The rescheduled mass community food distribution will be held on Monday, May 18, from 2 – 7 p.m. in the NRG Yellow Lot. It will be operated by the Houston Food Bank.
Families also can continue to visit HISD’s regular, weekday food distribution sites next week. Each site can distribute up to 500 bags — or 15,000 pounds of food — per day.
Continue readingEditor’s Note: The HISD Board of Education is hosting a public hearing at 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 28 to gather feedback on beginning the process of becoming a District of Innovation, as designated by the TEA. More information can be found here.
The Houston Independent School District Board of Education at its virtual meeting on Thursday voted 7-2 in favor of a resolution to initiate the process of designating HISD as a District of Innovation.
By adopting District of Innovation status, HISD could exercise greater local control over decisions impacting positive educational outcomes for students. The resolution approved by the Board of Education outlines specific exemptions from state law that the district would seek, including:
Continue reading