What happened:  The MISD board adopted major policy reforms to ensure every student is at an A- or B-rated campus.

Why it matters: Just 7 of Midland ISD’s 38 campuses met that mark in the 2023 TEA Accountability Ratings. Board member Dr. Matt Friez told KWEL that new action plans, campus-level autonomy, and a return to academic rigor are central to the district’s turnaround strategy.

Go deeper: Over the past six months, the board rewrote more than 100 pages of outdated policy to modernize the district’s code and reorient it around student performance. Campuses rated C, D, or F must now submit action plans to the board, with principals responsible for designing and implementing tailored solutions. Friez compared these expectations to the high standards the community places on athletics.

“We are asking the entire community to get behind this effort,” Friez said. “Education is not where it needs to be as a priority among the Midland community.”

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The board also approved changes to the junior high math curriculum, expanding instruction time for struggling students from 45 to 90 minutes. Friez said this move will help raise achievement levels and improve foundational math skills.

Friez also spoke about broader cultural concerns, rejecting critical race theory, pronoun accommodations, and what he called “victim ideology.” He defended the board’s adoption of policies based on biological sex for bathrooms and sports participation.

“We’re here to educate, not to enable delusions,” he said.