As the greater Katy area continues to grow, area educational institutions are continuing to evolve to meet new demand – and to create innovative new programs for the needs of the workforce in the not-so-distant future, local education leaders told members of the Katy Area Economic Development council on April 22. The panel of local leaders provided an update on the area’s growing need for higher education at the KAEDC general assembly breakfast meeting at Embassy Suites by Hilton, 16435 Katy Freeway in Houston.

Janet Theiss, development director Katy ISD Education Foundation, provided information about the foundation and the grants it issues to district educators each year. She introduced Frederick Black, principal at Morton Ranch Junior High, who, along with two teachers from the campus, described two of the programs created at the school through foundation grants. One is for special education (SPED Nation and Zen Island) and the other is for science.

KISD Superintendent Ken Gregorski noted that Katy ISD, which has been honored by NICHE magazine for four consecutive years, is the fastest growing district in Texas, with a current enrollment of over 96,000 students, and projected to top out at over 116,000. The district is opening two new elementary schools in the fall of 2025. Gregorski gave a brief overview of current bills in Texas state legislature which will impact public schools, including HB 2 which will create funding for public schools, and SB 2 – still awaiting passage – which will create “education savings accounts,” more popularly known as vouchers. Gregorski noted that it costs more to educate some kids more than others, and school districts need financial help from the state to help with those challenges. Current initiatives in KISD include curriculum advancements, such as a literacy curriculum now in its second year, and evaluation of potential new programs for math. Gregorski also mentioned the district’s partnerships with Houston Community College involving a dual credit program, and with UH, Texas A&M and the Katy Area Chamber of Commerce, as well as the EDC.

Other innovations at the district include “Katy ISD TEACH,” an alternative certification program through which the district can grow its own teachers, and new certifications through the career and technology education department (CTE) which will now offer programs in water management and real estate, as well as a commercial drivers license (CDL) apprentice program in cooperation with HCC. The Robert Shaw STEAM center, along with Miller Career Center, will be expanded and more robotics programs will be featured. Other plans include more virtual learning options and a digital resource center for parents. Regarding vouchers and school choice, Gregorski said that “if you want to school choice, come to Katy,” touting the district’s strong programs as well as FFA, fine arts, athletics and extracurricular activities.

Zachary R. Hodges, president of Houston Community College Northwest and its three campuses, spoke about what he termed “the new Texas pipeline,” noting that the Houston area’s attention has shifted from oil and gas to development of human capital. “We have to have a twenty-first century workforce,” he said. Through partnerships with KISD and UH, students have a K-16 pipeline and can “start in Katy,

finish in Katy.” Katy’s HCC campus, now three years old, stands at an enrollment of 4900, and a second building is needed, he said. Hodges also described HCC’s cooperative programs with Sam Houston State University, creating the Houston area’s only urban agriculture program, and with Texas A&M University, which has an engineering academy at HCC’s Spring Branch campus where students are jointly enrolled in the two institutions. He also said that the West Houston Institute, which is the “innovation space” for HCC, is poised to serve the semiconductor industry through a new partnership with the Semiconductor Education Alliance. The semiconductor industry is returning to this country, Hodges said, and “microchip and semiconductor initiatives are huge,” with an impact here in Katy as well. “We have the next frontier for microchips here in Houston, and it will probably be west Houston,” he said. The dual enrollment program with KISD continues to grow, he said, starting with fewer than 900 students in fall 2019 and mushrooming to more than 2400 students in the fall of 2024. HCC also has a large global online college as well, he said.

Lone Star College/CyFair President Valerie Jones said that more than 3500 Katy-area community members taking LSC classes, including the campus at N. Fry and Clay Road in Katy, and that more than 300 of their graduates this year are from Katy. The Katy campus at 19710 Clay in Katy called LSC Cypress Center, offers programs in industrial technology and serves transfer students and will soon be housing an extension of the college’s bachelors degree in applied science program and programs in energy and trades management. LSC is targeting Texans with “some college but no degree” who lack specific credentials needed for advancement, Jones said. She also described the college’s Falcon internship program, which helps students transition from classroom to career through paid internships that provide hands-on experience in their chosen field. The program has already placed 21 interns in its first year, she said.

Representing the University of Houston system, Jay Neal, associate vice president of academic affairs and COO of the University of Houston and Sugar Land and UH Katy, said that UH had been in Katy since 2019 and has about 200 students in its nursing program. Programs in data analytics, engineering and construction engineering are growing right now and the college exploring “other programs that make sense,” including more programs in education such as psychological counseling and principal preparation. The Katy campus has 40 new courses coming online in the fall, he said, which has resulted in enrollment being up 30 per cent for fall. The system is working on its “legislative ask,” because “to really grow, we are going to need some seed money,” Neal, to recruit and hire new faculty and launch new programs. Once tuition gets started, the new programs will be self-sustaining, he said, but the plans are contingent on the system receiving $20 million. The. Katy campus needs another building, he said.

The next meeting of the KAEDC will be the annual Economic Summit, set for June 27 at the Merrell Center, and featuring speakers Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale of Gallery Furniture, Eric Carrero of the Greater Houston Port Authority and potentially two additional speakers from the realm of politics. The next general assembly meeting will be September 16.