Just hours before buses were supposed to roll out of Milby High School with about a dozen cosmetology students headed to the SkillsUSA state championship in Corpus Christi, Houston ISD abruptly canceled the four-day trip, leaving families and teens stunned and stuck at home. The students had spent months preparing their projects, and the competition is also a way to log hours toward cosmetology licensing. Several parents say they had already shelled out hundreds of dollars for hotel rooms and rearranged work schedules so they could chaperone. Afterward, the district chalked the last-minute call up to a procedural mix-up.
District Cites ‘Internal Procedural Issue’
In a statement to the Houston Chronicle, Houston ISD said the superintendent had not given final authorization for the trip and that the approval process "did not unfold as it should have," describing the situation as an "internal procedural issue." The district noted that it signs off on hundreds of field trips each year and said it is trying to "ensure that future requests follow a timely approval process." According to the Chronicle, school buses were already idling outside Milby early Wednesday while roughly a dozen students finished getting ready to head to the contest.
What SkillsUSA Offers Milby’s Cosmetology Students
The SkillsUSA Texas State Leadership and Skills Conference, set for April 8–11 in Corpus Christi, gathers students who have already won at the district level so they can compete in a range of trade and technical categories. According to SkillsUSA Texas, the state event features championship contests, leadership programming and employer engagement that can open doors to scholarships and job contacts. For many Milby cosmetology students, the trip is not just a competition, it is also a key step toward industry certification and future work in salons.
Families Say They Lost Time And Money
Milby cosmetology graduate Alexa Aguirre told the Houston Chronicle that her mother paid $700 for a four-day hotel stay and took several days off work to travel with a competing student. "That's time outside of school, money and even during school hours that they're working on these projects," Aguirre said, describing months of preparation upended in a single morning. She added that the program already leans on families to cover supplies and other expenses that the district does not fund, which made the canceled trip feel even more frustrating.
Cancellation Lands In A District Under State Control
The timing of the cancellation lands in the middle of a broader shakeup across Houston ISD. The Texas Education Agency installed a state-appointed board and superintendent in June 2023 and centralized many district operations, changing how campus-level decisions get approved. The state takeover and the district’s effort to standardize processes, including approvals that used to be handled at individual campuses, have been widely documented, The Texas Tribune notes. Families and teachers say that kind of centralization can leave campus programs and career and technical education pathways more vulnerable when administrative reviews shift from school offices to district headquarters.
Milby students and their families say they want clear answers about whether the team will get another chance to compete or make up for the lost opportunity. For now, they are waiting to hear how Houston ISD plans to prevent this kind of last-minute cancellation from derailing future trips.
