HISD magnet schools get reprieve
HISD Superintendent Terry Grier has decided to give 20 struggling magnet programs another year before eliminating all their special funding, delaying the politically tough budget cuts.
Instead, the 20 programs will get half their funding next year, and the rest — a combined $2.3 million — will be drained for the 2015-16 school year.
“We want to be reasonable,” Grier said in an interview this week about his new plan. “We never had the intent to hurt or destroy magnets, and I think this is the right thing to do.”
Students who transfer into the schools, however, will not be guaranteed transportation next year unless their school principals find money in the budget.
Some school leaders are hoping to get off the district’s hit list entirely. They have filed appeals with the district and are expected to learn the final decision Monday.
The campuses that have appealed their loss of magnet status are Burbank, Elrod, Law, Pleasantville and Wesley elementary schools; Attucks, Holland, Henry and Jackson middle schools; and Madison, Worthing, Wheatley and Westbury high schools.
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Below is a list of the 20 schools being targeted for enrolling too few students from outside the neighborhood.