DALLAS — Halfway through morning classes, Dallas ISD seniors Dennis Dubon and Angie Paz migrate from their desks to a laundry machine-sized metal box, where they busily twist screws and secure wires.

With a jiggle of the lid and a last turn of the screwdriver, the pair step back to admire their work. They’ve successfully changed the fan motor on an air conditioning machine, a common repair in Texas homes and businesses during its sweltering summers.

“If you don’t know where the cables go, you’re going to ruin the unit. It’s going to short circuit,” Dubon says. “You’d pretty much have to replace this whole thing.”

Dubon and Paz study heating, ventilation and air conditioning — better known as HVAC — at Dallas’s recently opened Career Institute North and are two of roughly 6,000 students learning industry-oriented skills in the district’s new career program.

The Dallas initiative not only represents Texas’ most sweeping approach to career training — but also offers a look into what may soon be coming to Houston ISD. If HISD voters approve a historic $4.4 billion school bond next month, the district would use $425 million to build a career and technical education model that closely resembles Dallas’s. 

HISD Superintendent Mike Miles toured the Dallas career institutes in May and told the Houston Landing in September that they represent a close comparison to his vision, though his plans would differ slightly to align career pathways to the Houston economy, he said.

“When you go to Dallas, you see the dentistry equipment. You see these (medical) mannequins that can talk and express their symptoms. … That’s an upgrade to what we have,” Miles said. “We need an upgrade in many different things.”

The investment would involve $375 million to build three new career centers spread across HISD that take after Dallas’s facilities, as well as $50 million in upgrades to HISD’s existing Barbara Jordan Career Center in northeast Houston. All together, the spending would surpass the roughly $250 million Dallas is investing in its four centers.

Meanwhile, HISD’s bond has divided an already on-edge district, pitting a widely accepted need to invest in facility upgrades against community frustration with the state’s June 2023 takeover of the district and frayed trust in Miles, the appointed superintendent.

The proposed career and technical education spending received extra scrutiny in July, when a district-selected group of community members singled out the career center expansion in their bond feedback. The committee initially recommended putting off the career investments to a future bond, arguing the money could be better spent on other items, though it ultimately backtracked and supported the full package. 

Miles, who helped plan the early stages of Dallas’ career education expansion while superintendent of the district in 2015, has described the HISD investments as urgently needed. He has argued students who leave high school with employable skills have a better shot of getting good-paying jobs and breaking cycles of generational poverty. Historically, less than a third of HISD graduates earn associate or bachelor’s degrees within six years of graduation.

At the same time, the programs will be designed to leave the door open for students to pursue higher education, with early college credits available within many career pathways, Miles said.

“Students shouldn’t just be pushed toward auto shop,” Miles said. “Get ready for college, and if we can provide you with other skills, let’s do that, too.”

A sweeping career model

On a Friday in mid-September, hundreds of Dallas high schoolers filled Career Institute North, a spacious, industrial building decked out with wide, shiny windows. Students were training in 18 different fields of work, reading electrocardiograms on high-tech mannequins, feeding plywood through bandsaws and pressing buttons in the cockpit of a flight simulator.

The center is one of three hubs spread across Dallas, with a fourth planned for the coming years. Students from five nearby high schools take district buses to and from Career Institute North for a half day of classes on alternating days, allowing four groups of teens to fill the center each week.

While many Texas districts operate a single career center, Dallas leaders said spreading several hubs has reduced travel times and improved access to programs in a nearly 400-square-mile district.

“Other school districts in the suburban areas, they do have (career and technical education) buildings. There’s quite a few. We’re just doing it at scale,” Deputy Chief of Strategic Initiatives Oswaldo Alvarenga said. “I don’t think anyone is doing it as big as what we’re doing in Dallas.”

The programs in Dallas typically include classroom learning coupled with hands-on training sessions led by industry professionals. 

“(The teachers) are people that have worked at the company,” said Indrid Valdez Cruz, a senior in the construction program. “They have more knowledge about how everything works.”

Dallas’ programs have been popular with students. Over a third of freshmen and sophomores have opted to study at the Career Institute North since its 2023-24 opening, according to the district.

Students say the strategy is already opening doors. Dubon, the HVAC student, plans to pay his way through college by working part-time and later aspires to launch his own HVAC business. Students in the HVAC program can make annual salaries of $70,000 or more with the industry certifications they earn in high school, Dallas leaders said. 

That cash will be key for Dubon, whose family moved from Honduras to Dallas six years ago and has limited money to pay for higher education.

“It gives you a second option,” Dubon said, “like a backup plan.”

Unanswered questions 

If the HISD bond passes, the district will consult with community members, elected officials and local industry leaders to determine which career pathways it offers, Miles said. Though no final list of fields exists, he has indicated that some opportunities would likely involve Houston’s energy, space and medical industries.

Still, HISD faces a major question about its plans: Will enough students want to attend the centers to justify the nearly half-billion dollar price tag?

Miles’ administration projects one-third or more of students at neighborhood high schools would choose to participate in the offerings, as they do in Dallas. 

But last school year, 570 of the roughly 5,000 juniors and seniors from neighboring HISD high schools visited the Barbara Jordan center each week, district officials said. HISD only allows upperclassmen to attend Barbara Jordan, a rule Miles intends to change.

Miles acknowledged the concerns and said his administration would address the enrollment challenges through improved advertising and more school counselors advising eligible students to consider career training options.

In turn, he said the offerings could help reverse the district’s recent enrollment plunge — down from 216,000 students to 184,000 students over the past several years — by differentiating the district from nearby charter school networks.

“Charter schools can’t do what we can do. Nobody can build a career tech ed center (like we can),” Miles said. “If we do it the right way — high-wage, high-skill, state of the art, good community engagement — then you’re going to have more kids seeking out those experiences. So, I think it’ll be a draw.”

Asher Lehrer-Small covers Houston ISD for the Landing. Reach him at asher@houstonlanding.org.

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