Harris County Dept of Ed School District board meeting, date not confirmed yet

1 h 26 min

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What happened

What happened at this meeting

Harris County Department of Education board adopts 0.004797 property tax rate for 2026 12:30

  • The board then voted 6⁠-⁠0 to adopt the 0.004797 property tax rate to support the 2026⁠-⁠2027 budget. 13:57
  • The meeting also included recognitions for Principals Month, Head Start Awareness Month and the Employee of the Month, along with a therapy services division update. 13:59
Item by item (14)
  1. Opening and open forum 0:16
    • The board convened a regular board meeting at 1:01 PM on Wednesday, October 21st, 2026. 0:16
    • The meeting opened with an invocation and the pledges to the U.S. and Texas flags. ~2:23
    • No one came forward to speak during the open forum. 3:50
  2. Public hearing on proposed tax rate 3:50
    • The proposed tax rate was 0.004797 per $100 assessed property value for tax year 2026, and the no new revenue tax rate was calculated at 0.004805. 4:12
    • A district staff member said total property values were just shy of $695 billion and that the rate had decreased for 14 years in a row, an overall decrease of 27.5%. 6:56
    • The staff member said certified values increased 0.73 compared to 2025 and that the hearing notice was published in the Houston Chronicle on October 13th. 9:05
    • No member of the public spoke, and the hearing closed at 1:12 PM. 11:03
  3. Adoption of tax rate 12:04
    • A motion was made to adopt the property tax rate of 0.004797 for tax year 2026 to support the 2026⁠-⁠2027 budget, a rate that does not exceed the no new revenue tax rate. 12:30
    • The board adopted the tax rate 6⁠-⁠0. 13:59
  4. Principals, Head Start and employee recognitions 14:19
    • A staff member recognized four department principals for Principals Month and said they have combined experience of over 100 years. 14:19
    • For Head Start Awareness Month, a video described a partnership of over 15 years between HCDE Head Start and San Jacinto College. 30:03
    • The department recognized its Head Start Health and Family Services Manager as the October 2026 Employee of the Month. 39:54
  5. Superintendent's monthly report 47:33
    • The superintendent said board members will receive a board brief at every board meeting summarizing events of the month. 47:38
    • The superintendent said the weekly connector will start going out every other week. 48:58
  6. Maintenance and operations annual update 50:29
    • The maintenance and operations director described projects including an AC replacement at Humble Head Start, carpet replacement and transport of new computers. 50:51
    • The director said 12 techs completed approximately 3,000 work orders while maintaining 30 sites with almost 800,000 square feet. 56:12
  7. Therapy services annual update 58:38
    • The senior director for school-based therapy services reported a total of 174 therapists in the division's personnel breakdown. 59:03
    • The senior director said the division served 7,647 students and 5,672 educators in 34 school districts and charter schools across 594 campuses. 59:03
    • The senior director said recruitment continues to be difficult, while retention is not a problem. 59:03
  8. Monthly financial report 1:10:23
    • A staff member reported general fund revenues of just under $2 million for September, about 3% of budgeted revenues. 1:13:22
    • General fund expenditures for the first month were $4.8 million, about 9% of the budget, according to the staff member. 1:13:22
    • The staff member said the budget was based on $702 billion in values while certified values came in at $695 billion. 1:14:28
  9. Consent agenda 1:17:02
    • No trustee asked to pull an item from the consent agenda. 1:17:02
    • The consent agenda passed 6⁠-⁠0. 1:17:41
  10. Marketing services agreement 1:17:34
    • The board considered ratification of an agreement with Verse Creative Group LLC in an amount not to exceed $140,000 for marketing and promotion of the CES Hybrid Teacher Certification Program. 1:17:53
    • The motion passed 6⁠-⁠0. 1:18:28
  11. Adult education security services amendment 1:18:20
    • The board considered an amendment to increase the Blue Knight Security Services agreement to $155,000 for the period of 7/1/2026 through 6/30/2027. 1:18:20
    • A trustee asked why the amount increased by over 50%. 1:19:04
    • A staff member said the initial figure was an estimate and the amount was revised to the actuals needed to cover the grant period. 1:19:12
    • The motion passed 6⁠-⁠0. 1:20:07
  12. Adult education service agreement amendments 1:20:03
    • The board considered amendments to service agreements in the aggregate amount of $875,000 between Adult Education and several vendors. 1:20:03
    • A speaker asked why Premier Center was going from $99,000 to $477,000 and Integrated Health Solutions from $99,000 to $280,000. 1:20:40
    • The motion carried 6⁠-⁠0. 1:21:52
  13. Foundation agreement, contracts and incentives 1:21:45
    • The board considered a memorandum of understanding with the Education Foundation of Harris County and a job order contract with Atlas Universal Inc. 1:21:45
    • A staff member said a board resolution was required to add a new financial services team member to the local government investment pool accounts. 1:23:18
    • The board also considered a resolution regarding 2026⁠-⁠2027 employee retention incentives. 1:23:41
    • The chair announced that each motion passed 6⁠-⁠0. 1:21:52
  14. Executive session and pending litigation 1:24:16
    • The board entered executive session at 2:25 PM. 1:24:16
    • A motion was made to authorize the superintendent to take action on pending litigation involving Paradigm Construction and to negotiate, finalize and execute any related agreement. 1:25:06
    • The motion passed 6⁠-⁠0, and the meeting adjourned at 3:08 PM. 1:25:34

Written by software from the meeting's transcript and checked sentence by sentence against it.

Who spoke

Who spoke

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Video: posted by the district as “HCDE Board Meeting - October 21, 2026”