To promote educational innovation and compete with neighboring charter schools, the district will expand specialized programs and pilot new experiential learning opportunities at the elementary level beginning in August, Chief Academic Administrator Adam Stephens said at the April 14 board meeting.
“No longer are we the only option in town,” he said. “We have to begin to think about what our competitors offer our students that we currently don't.”
What to expect
District officials are preparing options for elementary students that feed into middle and high school, Stephens said.
“All these programs would feed up into our middle schools level,” Stephens said. “Then ... it's about, how do we begin to build a pipeline for the things that we want to do differently in high school?”
In August, the district will pilot five new “premier opportunities” at select elementary campuses, Stephens said. The presentation didn’t specify which elementary schools would be selected.
Stephens said low-cost field trips, student-led projects and community partnerships will be embedded within the current curriculum around the following themes:
- Energy Explorers, where students investigate renewable energy sources and environmental science
- Gulf Guardians to explore biodiversity and ecosystems of the Gulf Coast
- Service Sentinels to foster leadership and community service
- Digital Defenders to promote digital media literacy and communication
- Transportation Trailblazers to examine innovation in transportation through time
- A language immersion program that promotes learning in both English and a target language
- A gifted and talented academy to meet advanced academic and creative needs
- A laboratory school where experienced teachers are paired with teachers in training
- An international school that uses a globally recognized curriculum
- For high school students, FBISD plans to expand career and technical education offerings and propose centralizing advanced programs at James Reese Career and Technical Center, such as cosmetology, cybersecurity and training to earn a drone pilot’s license, Stephens said.
With five charter schools operating within FBISD boundaries and new ones emerging, Stephens said the initiative seeks to offer opportunities to younger students as the district competes with charter schools’ tuition-free pre-K programs.
While the district has expanded its pre-K programs for ages 3-4 to new campuses for 2025-26 school year, enrollment is restricted to income-eligible students with tuition-based options for others.
“If we're going to begin to compete for our own students, we have to get them in the door younger,” Stephens said.
State data showed FBISD ranked third among Houston-area school districts for the highest number of students transferring out of the district in the 2024-25 school year, Community Impact reported.
That number could increase with the opening of new charter schools or state-funded vouchers to subsudize private school tuition, Stacey Tepera, president of Population and Survey Analysts, said at the February demographic workshop.
What they’re saying
Trustee Rick Garcia said he believes increasing program offerings may be the solution to undercapacity enrollment in the district, making use of existing resources amid budgetary constraints.
“We're putting ourselves in a situation where, if organized, we're [positioned] to be the best school district in the state of Texas,” he said. “[We’re] thinking outside the box and doing more with less.”
Trustee Sonya Jones said the district should consider K-12 fine arts programming, which Stephens said would be included in the final recommendation.
“We don't invest enough in this district for the kids who are really, really carrying the district on so many different levels,” Jones said.
Next steps
In May, FBISD administrators will present final recommendations and implementation details aligned with district budget priorities for board approval, Stephens said.
Full implementation for the premier opportunities is scheduled for August, with additional elementary schools able to join in future years, Stephens said. In the coming months, district officials will refine the curriculum for the program pilot and train participating campus staff.
