Some HISD students at NES schools to get free trip to Japan under $4.5 million program

Rovena O’Neil listened to her son’s teacher at Fleming Middle School talk about their upcoming school trip with a mixture of fear and elation. Most school field trips take kids to museums or the zoo — exciting but familiar destinations. The one happening this spring is different. When her son Isaiah goes to Japan with his eighth-grade classmates, he will be about as far away from Houston as physically possible. 

O’Neil was one of a few dozen eighth-grade parents and students who gathered last Thursday in Fleming’s repurposed library for an information session regarding the upcoming trip to Tokyo. In late May or early June, Isaiah will be one of more than 300 eighth-graders in HISD’s “New Education System” who will make the journey across the Pacific for five days, with all expenses paid by the district. 

“As a parent, I’m scared but I’m happy for him,” O’Neil said. “I’m nervous because he is my cub, but at the same time, I’m excited and I hope he has a good experience.”

The meeting itself was a microcosm of appointed Superintendent Mike Miles’ controversial reforms. The library it was held in, like at other NES schools, has been converted to a “Team Center” used partially for discipline. The repurposed libraries have become a flash point for Miles’ critics, who accuse him of imposing draconian policies on long-struggling Black and brown schools.

Miles has argued that the 28 schools in his New Education System, and the 57 more that opted into the program as “NES-aligned” schools, are simply receiving “more resources,” which are necessary to close the achievement gap that sees students of color in HISD perform at lower rates than their white peers. He has touted the trip overseas as just one example —  hundreds of students from some of Houston’s poorest neighborhoods will now be afforded the same opportunity that some students from wealthier families may have already enjoyed. 

At Fleming last Thursday, an eighth-grade English teacher who will be chaperoning the trip walked parents through the trip’s itinerary, enrollment process and preparation checklist, promoting the program as a way to broaden kids’ horizons. 

“(Travel) makes them more confident, independent, outgoing and expands students’ knowledge of the world around them, it changes their perspective,” said the teacher, James Shropshire. “I know a lot of students haven’t had the opportunity to travel outside of their community, so this is a great opportunity for them to do so.”

That exposure comes with a catch, he cautioned. Sushi, tempura and sashimi might shock their adolescent American sensibilities. 

“They may not be eating chicken nuggets,” Shropshire said, drawing laughs from the parents. 

About 345 eighth-graders at the six NES middle schools had signed up for the program by last Friday’s deadline, according to Ena Meyers, HISD’s interim deputy chief of strategic initiatives. About 1,000 more seventh- and eighth-graders signed up for three-day trips to Washington, D.C., which are offered to eligible NES seventh-graders and eighth-graders who may not be able to secure a passport for the trip to Japan. 

The total cost of both trips will come out to about $4.5 million, Meyer said, with the district covering travel, hotel accommodations, daily meals and scheduled excursions. The Houston ISD Foundation, a nonprofit that operates independently of the district, is raising funds for the trip and has already paid $46,000 to help cover eighth graders’ passports, Meyers said. 

The Japan trip is organized in partnership with EF Educational Tours, and includes a tour of Tokyo, visits to cultural landmarks like the Meiji Shrine and outings around the Harajuku shopping district and Akihabara Electric Town. 

A planned stop at the Pokemon Center particularly appeals to Isaiah O’Neil, an anime aficionado.

“He always wanted to go to Japan even before we came to this school, because he’s into that animation ‘Karma Riders’ stuff,” his mother, Rovena O’Neil said. “I just call it ‘Power Rangers.’”

“It’s ‘Kamen Rider,’ Isaiah corrected, before launching into a brief history of the Japanese superhero franchise. ‘It basically debuted in 1971, made by the original person who made ‘Power Rangers,’ Shotaro Ishinomori.” 

There are conditions to the Japan trip, however. Students must maintain a 90% attendance rate and cannot have received an out-of-school suspension this year, according to Meyers.

That presents a problem to Fleming parents like Donnessia Stewart, whose son was suspended at the beginning of the school year for getting into a fight, which she said was a matter of self-defense. The farthest he’s been from home is Louisiana, she said, and this would be a chance to expose him to something new.

“Maybe other schools may do it, but I’ve never seen that type of opportunity around here,” Stewart said.  

Meyers said that schools will likely be unable to make individual exceptions because the district has to “put safety first,” and making accommodations on a case-by-case basis could get “really messy.” 

Trips will be managed by teachers and administrators, with a ratio of 1 chaperone for every 8 students in Japan, along with central office “group leaders” who will join, Meyers said. They are scheduled to take place between May 25 and June 15, to minimize disruptions to instructional time, summer school and family travel.