Houston Independent School District (HISD) contracted with American Institutes for Research® (AIR®) to conduct a third-party, independent “Special Education Program Review.” AIR conducted this review over a 10-month period between May 2017 and February 2018. This report describes our assessment of HISD’s strengths and areas in need of improvement with respect to its special education program, and identifies recommendations for HISD to consider as it continues its efforts to improve services for students with disabilities in the district
We were interested to know what Houston ISD received in return for letting Dr. Grier out of his contract early -- after all, the district had to pay Ken Heuwitt extra to take over the job on an interim basis. Surely the trustees negotiated some valuable consideration for paying out his bonuses early and taking on the expense of interim leadership.
Turns out, in our quest to get answers, we are left with more questions. What is taking 16 hours of labor to find? What type of control does HISD have over travel expenses? What is someone trying to hide by making it expensive to find? And what exactly was Houston ISD staff doing at the Aria? In a world where the trustees want to roll the political dice with $30 million in classroom funds, that's all we really want to know.
