The Houston Independent School District Board of Education on Thursday voted unanimously to approve revisions to the policy on academic achievement regarding graduation requirements. Listen
“The purpose of this policy revision is to align our HISD graduation programs with the TEA graduation programs,” explained Dr. Alicia Thomas, the district’s chief academic officer. “In particular, so that the minimum program is 22 credits instead of the current requirement for 24 credits.”
“In this proposal we are still going to require a half unit of health education at the ninth grade level, which is consistent with our current policy,” noted Superintendent of Schools Dr. Terry Grier.
It was the final board meeting for Thomas, who recently announced her retirement after one year on the job.
“She is someone that all of us have come to know and admire and respect,” Grier said. “She has brought so much to us in such a short amount of time.”
The school board voted 5-0-1, with Juliet Stipeche abstaining to a revision in the daily duty schedules permitting the superintendent’s ability to make changes. Listen
“It reads as though the superintendent has the authority to change the length and duty of the work day or also change the work schedule in relation to summers,” Stipeche said.
It was explained that the item was included only to address the policy of four day work weeks, with Fridays off, during the summer months, but Stipeche said she would prefer the language to specify the “Friday off” policy.
Four items were withdrawn from the agenda and were not acted on by the school board.
- Approval of partnership agreements between The Peking University Elementary School and The Mandarin Chinese Language Immersion Magnet;
- Approval of partnership agreements with the Xi'an Municipal Bureau Of Education;
- Authority to establish a budget for the implementation of a formative assessment system and universal screener to provide predictive and diagnostic assessments and to negotiate and execute contracts with Public Consulting Group, Inc. and Imagination Station, Inc.; and
- Consideration and approval of multi-year administrator performance contracts for principals.
All other agenda items were approved unanimously. Agenda