Here is a roundup of May public education stories you may have missed from southeast Houston.
Alvin ISD
Positions 1, 2 and 3 on the board of trustees were all up for re-election May 1. Albert "AJ" Johnson III won the Position 1 seat; Cory Scott won the Position 2 seat; and incumbent Cheryl B. Harris narrowly won the majority vote for Position 3. Click here for detailed election results.
Krystal Hawks, a University of Houston-Clear Lake alumna, received the Region IV Elementary School Principal of the Year for Alvin ISD award. She is the principal at AISD’s Shirley Dill Brothers Elementary, according to a UHCL press release. Click here to read more.
Pearland ISD
Incumbents Crystal Carbone and Sean Murphy held their seats on the Pearland ISD board of trustees after the May 1 election. Click here for detailed election results.
Ahead of Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order prohibiting school districts in Texas from enforcing mask mandates after June 4, PISD made masks optional outdoors May 17. Click here to read more.
The district will award its staffers a 2% pay increase for the 2021-22 school year—half as much of a raise as they were given the year prior. Click here to read what trustees had to say about approving a $3.06 million compensation package May 18.
Friendswood ISD
Former Friendswood ISD board member Mike Shaw died May 1, and a service was held May 8 at Harbor Church. Click here to read what Superintendent Thad Roher had to say about Shaw.
Weeks before the end of the school year, two classrooms of students at Bales Intermediate School pivoted to virtual learning after more than 10% of the people in those classrooms tested positive for COVID-19. Click here to read more about the outbreak.
The board of trustees voted unanimously at its May 10 meeting to eliminate its virtual schooling option for the 2021-22 school year, as well as making face coverings optional starting June 1. This decision came about a week ahead of Abbott’s executive order. Click here to read about other major protocol changes, including the loosening of requirements around contact tracing and quarantines to account for rising vaccination rates.
FISD is preparing to enter 2021-22 with several new full-time instructors and about 30 fewer students in its classrooms as compared to this spring, according to student enrollment projection data. Click here for more data breakdowns, and click here for more details regarding some of the new instructors.
Clear Creek ISD
A general election was held May 1 for the Clear Creek ISD board of trustees positions representing districts 4 and 5, as well as for at-large Position A. Jeffrey Larson won against incumbent Page Rander for the District 4 position, and Jonathan Cottrell won the at-large position. Click here for detailed election results.
A recount was held in mid-May for the District 5 race, which did not change the race’s results. District taxpayers will pay a total of $2,690 for machine technicians involved in the recount. Click here to read more about recount results.
CCISD is looking to the next academic year with a blank-slate approach, Superintendent Eric Williams said May 24. Click here to read more about how district leaders envision next school year will look.
Haley Morrison and Jake Magee contributed to this report.
