HISD reported an average of 530 open records requests in the four academic years before the Texas Education Agency's intervention into the state's largest district. The number of submitted annual records requests spiked to 1,174 during the 2023-24 school year, according to a Chronicle analysis.
The increase comes after the TEA replaced HISD's superintendent and school board with appointees in June 2023. Superintendent Mike Miles has sparked vocal pushback among several HISD parents, teachers, and community members after introducing the New Education System — a systemic reform program — at 85 campuses during his first year.
Ann Eagleton, a member of Community Voices for Public Education, said she "sporadically" made open requests to HISD before the takeover, but since June 2023, she's submitted about a dozen requests to the district, including for HISD's 2020 and 2023 Facilities Assessment.
Eagleton said the growing number of requests "speaks volumes about how secretive" HISD has become, and it reflects lack of data transparency. She said she and other HISD community members are submitting more requests now because they feel like they don't have enough information about what's happening in their local schools.
"There is so much going on, and so much of it is chaos," Eagleton said. "People are trying to understand why this is happening and what the motivation is behind it. There's just so many things that just don't make sense to people, and they're trying to really understand what Mike Miles and his administration is about."
HISD did not respond to a request for comment on the increase in open records requests, including information on the type of the records people are requesting or who is requesting the records.
Jessi Heiner, a community organizer and member of Wainwright Elementary's PTO board, said she's filed at least 20 requests to HISD in the past year, including for records of monthly districtwide principal rosters and staff turnover at Wainwright.
Heiner said she began requesting records after feeling like there was not enough transparency around the growing "staff turnover and instability" in HISD. More than 4,700 of HISD's roughly 11,000 teachers and approximately 150 principals leading the district's 274 campuses have left the district between June 2023 and 2024, according to the Chronicle's analysis of employee records.
"I felt like I used to be able to ask questions and get answers," Heiner said. "Even if I didn't like them or even if they were hard answers. I was able to get them. ... I felt like there was a lot more communication with the community, whereas now this feels like the only way to get accurate information is to go through the official public records request."
Eagleton said she believes HISD should publish more data publicly to reduce the number of requests, such as the Membership Summary dashboard for the 2024-25 year. The district previously published an interactive dashboard showing how many students had attended each campus every day, but it took it down after the first week of school.
"One thing I think would be really, really helpful is if they did put that enrollment dashboard back up," Heiner said. "I thought was really well done. It was really, really easy to use and user-friendly. I think it gave a really good picture of what was happening in the district overall."
HISD parents, employees or other members of the public can submit requests for public records by email, fax, physical mail or an in-person request. Public agencies must respond to open records requests within 10 business days, although they can delay the release of documents or refer the request to the Texas Attorney General.
The Chronicle has made more than 175 open records requests during the 2023-24 academic year, including for records of library book checkout rates, principal and teacher turnover, Miles' weekly calendar, student test scores, the number of uncertified teachers and the results of campus-level lead water testing.
HISD's Public Information Office often provides records for free, but it may charge requestors for information if the response to their request exceeds 50 pages. Under the Texas Public Information Act, charges can include $15 an hour for labor and an additional overhead charge of 20 percent for direct and indirect costs.
The district reported that the annual payroll costs for the Public Information Office increased by about 60 percent after the state takeover. The district paid about $353,000 for "payroll costs" during the 2024 fiscal year, up from an average of about $216,000 during the previous four years.
However, the amount spent on additional items, including professional and contracted services, supplies and materials, and other operating costs, declined by about 40 percent. The district spent about $2,600 on miscellaneous costs for the Public Information Office last year, down from an average of $4,700 in the previous four years.
Although documents can come at a cost, Eagleton said she encourages HISD parents to still ask for records about the changes happening at their campus, which can include requests for budget information, emails between employees, or student membership numbers.
"If parents are feeling like something doesn't add up, if they're confused or if they're frustrated, it's one avenue that they can get more clear information to say, 'OK, am I seeing this clearly or is there maybe something else going on?' and that can help either confirm or help ease their concerns," Heiner said. "Either way, it's empowering."
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