Houston City Council approved the appointment of four individuals to serve on the board of directors for the newly created Lake Houston Dredging and Management District in June.

The big picture: Following a pair of failed attempts in 2021 and 2023, the 89th Texas Legislature approved House Bill 1532—authored by state Rep. Charles Cunningham, R-Humble—in May 2025, resulting in the creation of the district, which will be charged with overseeing ongoing dredging operations in Lake Houston.

Over the course of two Houston City Council meetings—held June 2 and June 9—council members approved the following individuals to serve on the board:

• Position 1: Kathleen M. Jordan
• Position 2: Derek St. John
• Position 3: Sarah Berkey
• Position 5: William Simpson (board chair)

Humble ISD trustees received an overview of the district’s open enrollment program for students living outside HISD’s boundaries during the June 9 board meeting.

The details: HISD Director of Public Communications Jonathan Frey said the program, which was rolled out by the district in April 2024, allows students living outside of HISD’s boundaries to apply to attend select campuses throughout the district.

Frey said the program was created to combat enrollment loss, which he said can largely be attributed to declining birthrates and expanded access to private and charter schools.

A closer look: During the 2025-26 school year, Frey said the district welcomed 2,718 kindergartners while sending off 3,460 graduating seniors.

“As our seniors graduate, we don’t have as many kindergartners replacing them,” Frey said. “That’s why we must be proactive in maintaining student enrollment to protect the funding that supports everything our schools offer.”

Frey added the district has made the enrollment process easier this year by removing an application fee and opening more campuses to open enrollment.

The Transportation Advocacy Group of the Houston Region, or TAG Houston, held a webinar on the future of advanced air mobility June 3.

What’s happening: Sergio Roman, Texas Department of Transportation's director of emerging aviation technology under the aviation division, led a “pragmatic discussion” on the future of advanced air mobility. This includes unmanned drones and electric vertical takeoff and landing—or eVTOL—aircraft, to transport people and materials.

“We've all seen all the marketing sketches and autonomous passengers, drones zipping over gridlocked highways and completely untethered from the realities of public policy, physical concrete or power grids,” Roman said.

Explained: In March, the Federal Aviation Administration bestowed TxDOT with Project Nexus under the integration pilot program, or eIPP.

While Project Nexus encompasses Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and the Choctaw Nation, Roman said Houston will make its role vital in this undertaking as an immense industrial coastal corridor.

On the horizon: “In a perfect world,” Roman believes Phase 3 would begin in August or September of 2028.

Need to catch up on Community Impact’s coverage from this week? Check out five trending stories in the Greater Houston area from June 8-12.

1. Vegetarian restaurant Simply South to open in Katy
2. EVO Entertainment is coming to Fulshear next year
3. New and upcoming stores in The Woodlands Mall
4. Doctors on inaugural year of Houston Methodist Willowbrook’s new OB-GYN residency
5. Katy ISD will use two stadiums for future graduations

As the 2026-27 school year nears, the number of people selected to participate in Texas’ education savings account program has topped 100,000.

The overview: To date, just over 102,000 students have been accepted into the Texas Education Freedom Accounts program, which gives families state funds to send their children to private schools or homeschool them.

However, being awarded funds does not mean a student is guaranteed to be able to use that money at a participating private school this fall.

Zooming in: Over 2,600 private schools have been approved to accept TEFA funding, per the state comptroller's office. State law does not require schools participating in the program to accept all interested families.

Next steps: Families accepted into the program have until July 15 to do one of the following:

• Confirm enrollment at a private school involved in the program
• Notify the state of their homeschooling plans
• Opt out of the program