On Feb. 26, Houston ISD’s board of managers unanimously voted to close 12 schools in June—a choice district leaders said will save HISD $14.6 million to $20 million.

What’s happening: Seven of the schools will be closed permanently, while the remaining schools will be co-located at a separate campus.

During the Feb. 26 special meeting, Superintendent Mike Miles said maintenance costs and declining enrollment fueled the decision to close schools. From the 2022-23 to the 2023-24 school year, the district lost roughly 13,200 students, or about 7% of its total population.

What parents need to know: For two school years, 2026-28, shuttles will be available multiple times per morning and afternoon to take students from their former campus to their new campus. Specific route details for the shuttles will be available in early August.

A cafe shop that specializes in matcha will open inside the Pineapple Autospa in Montrose this spring. According to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, the two properties will share the same space.

What’s on the menu: The coffee shop will specialize in specialty matcha drinks, such as:

• Strawberry Matcha
• Vanilla Fig Matcha
• Spanish Matcha
• Tiramisu Matcha

• 3603 S. Shepherd Dr., Houston

Officials with the FIFA World Cup 2026 Houston Host Committee announced in a news conference Feb. 27 a new initiative called Freekicks Soccer.

The program—in collaboration with the Houston Host Committee, the city of Houston, Harris County Precincts 1-4 and the youth soccer community—is designed to address the limited access to organized soccer for youth in underserved communities across Harris County.

What you need to know: The initiative will construct and refurbish 23 soccer pitches, or fields, across six parks in the county, including:

• Blue Ridge Park: 13845 Blue Ridge Road, Houston
• George Bush Park: 16756 Westheimer Parkway, Houston
• Moody Park: 3725 Fulton St., Houston
• Alabonson Park: 9652 N. Houston Rosslyn Road, Houston
• Baytown Soccer Complex: 9600 N. Main St., Baytown
• Keith-Wiess Park: 12300 Aldine Westfield Road, Houston

Harris County officials on Feb. 26 moved forward with the second round of Harris Health bond funding from a $2.5 billion referendum that voters approved in 2023.

The big picture: The bond will fund a range of capital improvement projects within the Harris Health system, including expansion of the Lyndon B. Johnson and Ben Taub hospitals, the latter of which has received backlash from some county residents in the last several months.

Harris Health received the first installment of bond funding totaling $850 million in May 2025. Chief Operating Officer Louis Smith told commissioners the system has spent approximately $667 million of that funding as of December.

Latest update: During their Feb. 26 meeting, Harris County commissioners authorized a go-forward order to issue a second $850 million installment. Chief Financial Officer Victoria Nikitin said Harris Health is expecting to receive the funding by June.

More details: In addition to the ongoing LBJ expansion and the pending Ben Taub expansion, the bond will fund the construction of new community clinics across Harris County. 

Dozens of Texans shared their feedback Feb. 25 on the current phase of a lengthy revision of the state’s social studies curriculum standards. Parents, educators and students urged the State Board of Education to slow the revision process down and give those drafting the new curriculum more time to work.

The overview: The state is currently overhauling the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for social studies, which are the standards dictating what public school students should learn at each grade level. The board is expected to adopt the new standards this summer before they are rolled out to classrooms in 2030.

“We have one opportunity to get this right for an entire generation of students,” said Meghan Dougherty, an Austin-area social studies specialist involved in the revision process.

Zooming in: Several educators involved in drafting the new curriculum plan said current proposals included "too much content" with a heavy emphasis on Texas history, while some appointed content advisers and SBOE members argued schools should teach lessons focused on "American exceptionalism [and] Texan exceptionalism."

• The Woodlands to negotiate with Early Bird for new short-course public golf complex
• Waymo begins rolling out autonomous ride-hailing services in Houston
• Select international airlines transition to IAH's newly expanded Terminal E
• Here’s how Bryan ISD is allocating surplus funds from 2020 bond
• Houston officially purchases location for new homeless hub