Two Years Later, HISD Has No Money from the Kinders

To all of you who signed our petition to get the name of our wonderful HSPVA returned from Nancy and Richard Kinder, here’s an update.

The “crisis” in funding two years ago—that the school must sell its name to get the Kinders to donate funds to outfit the new building properly—appears to have been manufactured, or at least, exaggerated.  KUHF reports as of December 2018, HISD has never received one penny from the Kinders.  Yet two years after selling the name, the school is open for Spring 2019 and all the upgrades and extras specified under the Kinder contract are installed.  Many of them were placed months ago, as the school principal’s Twitter feed shows off. 

The Kinder name is on the building and HISD now refers to the school as Kinder HSPVA. 

Taxpayers ended up funding all the state-of-the-art equipment.  Where is the $7.5 million the Kinders were supposed to pay for the name?  As reported by KUHF, HSPVA Friends, who arranged the sale and set itself up as a financial middleman, has the money.  We hope HISD will be able to collect it eventually, but the proof is in the completed building—HISD did not need the “donation.”  But HSPVA Friends and the Kinders rushed the approval of their non-negotiable contract through the HISD board six days after publicly announcing their plan.  In fact, the Kinders told HISD it was a take it or leave it proposal, saying the offer would “expire” if the board did not vote immediately.

If you are wondering how you can support HSPVA directly, you can give to the HSPVA Parent Teacher Organization. They recently began outreach to alumni families, and now you can give to the HSPVA PTO online.

We have more information about how this deal came about and we’ll send another update soon.  Join the “HSPVA Alumni” Facebook group for more discussion.