In October 2016 the Houston Board of Education voted to accept, without negotiation, a contract to change the name of HSPVA to Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, for $7.5 million, to cover a 5% budget gap in the construction of the new school.  Kinder Foundation pressured the board to a vote in six days with contract terms it said would "expire."  Kinder Foundation is the private charity of the Chairman of the pipeline company Kinder Morgan, Inc. 

If your first reaction to the name change was, “NO!”, you were not wrong. 

Forcing the school district to give Kinder the maximum recognition for the minimum contribution and allowing only six days for the public to respond, demanding a quick vote with a take-it-or-leave-it offer, is not the right template for this unprecedented transaction.  HISD has never sold naming rights before.  Don't the Kinders want to show how to do it right?

The name change does not take effect until January 2019.  It overwrites important cultural history.  What is more basic to a city than the identity of its public schools?  Should billionaires be able to buy 45- -year-old historic school names for the minimum cover charge mentioned in a badly written never-used policy?  Do we let them do that without even a murmur? 

We appeal to the Kinders to amend the contract and give the school name back and accept a theater name instead. 

Find out more about the appeal at our website http://www.kindergiveitback.org 

Let’s put on some pressure!  

PLEASE USE THE COMMENT SECTION OF THE PETITION TO TELL US YOUR AFFILIATION WITH THE SCHOOL AND WITH HISD, INCLUDING CLASS YEAR IF YOU ARE A STUDENT, PARENT OR ALUMNUS.  YOU CAN ALSO SAY HOUSTON CITIZEN, TEXAS CITIZEN, ETC.  WITH COMMENTS WE CAN TELL THE KINDERS HOW MANY SIGNATURES WERE FROM HOUSTON OR THE COMMUNITY AT LARGE.  ELECT TO RECEIVE UPDATES ON THE PETITION WHEN YOU SIGN.

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