Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles plans in the coming months to propose closing an undisclosed number of schools in the summer of 2026, as the district faces a tight budget and enrollment losses.

Budget plans published by the district ahead of a board workshop Thursday detailed the timeline for considering closures, though they didn’t identify a number of campuses that will be targeted or the amount of money Miles hopes to save. HISD won’t close any of its 270 schools ahead of the 2025-26 school year, the documents show. 

The plans come after HISD has lost over 30,000 students over the last five years, meaning “school closures must be considered,” district administrators wrote. HISD leaders are projecting another 8,000-student decline next school year, which would leave the district with about 170,000 students.

“We have not closed schools in quite a while in this district,” Miles said. “Any school that has fewer than 300 students, we are subsidizing. … You can’t run that school and break even. We’re losing money.”

HISD’s state-appointed school board must approve any campus closures for the changes to take effect.

A combination of factors have triggered the enrollment losses, including thousands of students leaving for charter schools and declining birth rates. Frustration with Miles’ overhaul also has driven some families to leave HISD, though the number who have left for that reason remains unclear. Schools in Miles’ transformation model lost students at a faster pace than other campuses this year.

The enrollment losses have left HISD with dozens of schools operating at a below-average “building capacity,” which describes the number of children enrolled relative to the maximum number of students that the campus can hold.

In 2023-24, the most recent year with available district data, HISD had 36 schools operating below 50 percent capacity. Another 46 campuses were at 50 percent to 67 percent capacity.

Several large Texas school districts, including Aldine, Austin and San Antonio ISDs, have closed schools in the past few years due to enrollment losses that left many buildings partially empty.

District leaders are preliminarily budgeting a $30 million deficit in 2025-26, a sharp decline from the estimated $250 million deficit HISD projects to run on its $2.2 billion budget this fiscal year.

Miles estimated that each campus closure would save HISD roughly $2 million per year, though the district wouldn’t see any savings until 2026-27.

Small schools, big changes?  

The prospect of school closures has loomed over HISD for several years. Before Miles’ June 2023 appointment amid a state takeover of HISD, the district’s two previous superintendents — Grenita Lathan and Millard House — both said HISD needs to seriously consider closing schools. 

Yet the district’s elected board, which Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath replaced in 2023 as part of state sanctions against HISD, never seriously considered such plans. 

School closures are often deeply unpopular, particularly among families at affected campuses. In HISD, prior discussions about potentially shuttering schools have sparked complaints that district leaders unfairly target schools in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods.

Now, with a state-appointed HISD board, Miles would likely face a smoother path to approval of shuttering schools than his predecessors.

Three of HISD’s elected trustees, who have no voting power, were split Thursday on the idea of possible closures. 

Trustee Savant Moore, who represents much of HISD’s north and northeast sides, said his part of town already “has endured enough closures.”

“I will work with the district and my constituents to do our part in preventing more,” Moore said in a statement.

Meanwhile, trustees Dani Hernandez and Sue Deigaard, who represent the district’s southeast and southwest sides, respectively, said closures may be necessary. Hernandez said shuttering schools may be “inevitable” given HISD’s enrollment losses and recommended the district proceed carefully.

“There are proven ways to go about school closure that involve the community, parents, teachers and students,” Hernandez said in a statement. “HISD must take into account the community and do a deep dive into enrollment patterns in the district before closing any schools.”

The financial outlook

HISD administrators broached the topic of school closures while providing an early outline of their plans for fiscal 2025-26.

District leaders said a combination of increased state revenue and spending cuts will help trim this year’s sizable budget shortfall. HISD did not detail specific cuts or changes to programs it will make to reduce the deficit.

District leaders estimate HISD will receive only a modest boost in state funding next year — totaling roughly $120 million more, or about 5 percent of the district’s budget — as legislators in Austin debate increasing per-student funding for schools, voucher proposals and more. 

The administration estimates the projected deficit spending in 2025-26 will not meaningfully impact HISD’s level of rainy day funds, because it estimates it will have about $30 million more left over this year than originally projected.

The plans from Miles’ administration also say HISD will add no more than five schools to Miles’ campus overhaul model, which involves providing higher levels of staffing and teacher compensation. HISD added 85 schools to the model in 2023-24 and 45 in 2024-25. Only schools that receive an F-rating might be required to join the system, HISD said.

District administrators also said they’re budgeting $100 million on updates to buildings and infrastructure over the next two years, including $40 million in 2025-26, after voters shot down HISD’s proposed $4.4 billion school bond in November.

HISD plans to invest $5 million more in pre-kindergarten programs and $30 million more for increases to teacher pay, the budget plans show.

Asher Lehrer-Small covers Houston ISD for the Landing. Find him @by_ash_ls on Instagram and @small_asher on X, or reach him directly at asher@houstonlanding.org.

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