HTX-PLF: Impact 9/30/2025

Alvin ISD started as a two-story, white frame building located on House Street in Alvin, and graduated five students in its first year.

Then: While the district was officially formed in 1925 by the state legislature, AISD began in 1894 when Alvin High School opened.

The school graduated its first class in 1897, just three years before a hurricane in 1900 heavily damaged the campus. Over the next several years, the school was eventually rebuilt and would graduate its first class of students who completed a full four-year term in 1906.

Now: Over the past five years, AISD has added over 3,000 students, an increase of over 11% to the total student body, according to demographic firm Population and Survey Analysts. 

This growth has marked the district as the eighth-largest growing district in the Greater Houston area. Today, the district serves more than 30,000 students across nearly 40 campuses, with additional schools already in planning to keep pace with growth.

The Kahn Law Firm, PC, a Houston-based legal practice specializing in personal injury and criminal defense, relocated to Broadway Street in late September, partner Jennifer Kahn said.

What they offer: The firm helps with car accidents, personal injury, pedestrian accidents, dog bites and construction accidents, among other services, according to the firm's website. The firm has two attorneys—Jennifer Kahn and John Kahn, Jr., according to the firm's website.

📍 7930 Broadway St., Ste. 102, Pearland

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office has reduced the number of jail inmates housed outside of the county since June, a Sept. 18 quarterly jail data report shows. However, outsourcing inmates at other facilities was still a top expense in the fiscal year 2025-26 county general fund budget, approved Sept. 24.

What’s changed: HCSO oversees four different facilities in downtown Houston, with two jail facilities outsourced in Louisiana and Mississippi. As of Sept. 9, the Harris County jail was outsourcing about 16%—or 1,388 inmates—of 8,793 total inmates to facilities outside the county or state.

Cost to the county: Outsourcing inmates to jails outside of Harris County’s overcrowded jails is the single most expensive budgeted item taxpayers pay for. The county set aside $48 million in its FY 2025-26 budget for inmate outsourcing, about an 8% drop from the $52 million budgeted in FY 2024-25.
 

Base Power, an energy company founded in 2023 and headquartered in Austin, officially launched in Houston on Sept. 24, according to a news release. 

Community Impact previously reported that the energy company originally opened in the Cy-Fair, Spring, Cinco Ranch and Mission Bend communities following its launch in Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth.

What you need to know: Co-owned by Zach Dell, Base Power is the only Texas energy provider that comes with a home backup power, according to the news release. The energy company offers an all-in-one energy plan that includes an entire home backup battery. When the grid goes down, the battery automatically powers the home, according to the release. 

Quote of note: “Houston has long been the energy capital of Texas, yet it has also endured some of the nation’s most painful lessons about unreliable power,” dell Said.