With a projected budget shortfall of $27 million, Clear Creek ISD is weighing multiple solutions to close the gap ahead of fiscal year 2026-27. 

Among the solutions under consideration are a potential voter-approval tax rate election, or VATRE, school consolidation, staff reductions and boundary changes. 

The details: At its Dec. 16 work session, trustees said no single approach would close the anticipated shortfall. 

“Nothing's off the table, and nothing fixes the problem. There's not one solution,” trustee Jamieson MacKay said at the work session. 

Zooming in: The shortfall reflects a combination of declining enrollment, stagnant state funding and rising operating costs, district officials said. 

“Our state funding is tied to our student attendance, which … [leads] to really tough choices that school districts have to deal with locally, even with state surpluses,” CCISD’s Chief Financial Officer Alice Benzaia said. 
 

League City City Council unanimously voted to deny at its Dec. 16 meeting an attempt by the Texas-New Mexico Power Company to increase the city’s utility rates by 6%.

What happened: The Texas-New Mexico Power Company proposed to raise the city’s utility rates by $34 million, or 6%.

Why it matters: The company will now be required to reimburse the city as far back as Nov. 14, the date the increase was filed, according to city documents.

What’s next?: The Public Utility Commission of Texas will now decide on whether to approve or deny the rate increase, said Sarah Osborne, League City’s director of communications and community engagement.

Houston City College officials announced a $2 million investment from Google to expand its artificial intelligence and robotics programs. The grant funding is expected to support new AI faculty and technicians and reach thousands of local high school and college students.

The impact: With the grant, HCC officials said they will establish a variety of initiatives, including:

• Hire at least 10+ full-time faculty and technicians specializing in AI
• Develop a new curriculum
• Enhance lab facilities
• Train 40 college and 40 high school instructors who could reach an estimated 3,200 high school and 4,800 HCC students
• Establish a regional coalition of 20 institutions and partners to meet the needs of the local economy

At the Houston campus, Conroe ISD high school junior Ezra Dakatubia and HCC classmate Ahad Maredia presented their robotics and software program project. The robot was programmed to recognize hand pattern movements that propel the robot's direction—a capability that could be utilized as safety products within the industrial industry, they said.