On June 25, Houston ISD’s board of managers unanimously approved the district’s fiscal year 2026-27 budget, which features an estimated $24.5 million shortfall.

At a glance: According to June 25 meeting documents, the approved FY 2026-27 general fund budget features:

• About $1.99 billion in total revenue
• About $2.015 billion in total expenditures
• An expected $24.5 million shortfall

A wine company known for infusing its wines with flavors will open a storefront this summer.

What’s special about it: Infuse Wine Bar lets customers add flavors to their wine. It starts with a bottle with wine options, such as Chardonnay, Sauvignon blanc, rosé or merlot.

Customers are then able to choose from some of the following flavors:

• Apple

• Orange

• Passionfruit

• Mint

• Thyme

• Lavender

• Honey

What else: Infuse will also offer food to pair with the wines, according to its website.

They also host events, wine parties where guests can create their own wine and flavors and will offer a wine club.

• 2103 Lyons Ave., Houston

Houston residents who are dealing with lead paint in their homes may be qualified for free lead paint abatement through the city.

How it works: The Houston Health Department’s Lead-Based Paint Hazard Control Program provides services that help low-income residents identify, remove or stabilize lead-based paint issues for free. To qualify for the program, residents must meet its qualifications:

• Live in a home built before 1978

• Be in an eligible, high-risk area

• Do not live in a flood zone

• Having a resident under 6 years old

• Meet the financial criteria of middle-to-low-income

If a resident qualifies, HHD and state-licensed contractors can assist in two ways: abatement or interim control.

Abatement is a permanent solution, said Muhammad Farhad, program manager for the lead-based program. Interim control is not a permanent solution, but it is a more common solution, he said. It is often used in areas that are not highly accessible, such as ceilings.

The goal is for interim control to be done in areas that children do not have access to, he said.

Among students learning English in Greater Houston area public school districts, Spanish, Vietnamese and Arabic were the most common home languages spoken in the 2025-26 school year, according to Texas Education Agency data.

The breakdown: Emergent Bilingual students are students “in the process of acquiring English and [who have] another language as the primary language,” as previously reported by Community Impact.

In regions 4 and 6—which comprise most of the public school districts in the Greater Houston area—the most common home language spoken by emergent bilingual students was Spanish, according to TEA data released April 27. However, the number of Spanish-speaking students decreased year over year in both regions.

• Vietnamese with 8,742 students across both regions
• Arabic with 5,777 students across both regions
• Urdu with 4,644 students across both regions
• Mandarin with 3,974 students across both regions

Want to learn more about what Community Impact covered last week? Take a look at these five trending stories from June 22-26.

1. Cy-Fair EMS sees 91% increase in calls from assisted living communities

2. New Japanese bookstore to open in Rice Village

3. 7 businesses now open in Sugar Land, Missouri City

4. Conroe ISD reviews impact of new cellphone policy

5. Houston Shock Volleyball relocates to Spring Cypress Road in Tomball

The State Board of Education is nearing the finish line in its massive rewrite of what Texas public school students will learn about world and state history.

The details: The curriculum overhaul would shift the focus in social studies classes to a Texas-centered approach, deemphasizing lessons about world cultures and injecting more content about Christianity’s role in the founding of the United States.

Some educators and students have expressed concerns that the proposal lacks significant teachings about civil rights history, Japanese internment in the 1940s and people of color’s contributions to the nation. Meanwhile, Republican board members have pushed back, saying that the rewrite is necessary to teach students about American exceptionalism and Texas heritage in an attempt to undo what they called “a watering-down of American history.”

What's happening: The board has spent the bulk of its meetings this week making amendments to a 143-page social studies proposal, which includes hundreds of standards that students would be expected to learn each year. If adopted June 26, the new requirements would take effect in 2030.