This Thursday, Houston ISD teacher Michelle Williams will once again go before the district’s state-appointed Board of Managers arguing that she shouldn’t be dismissed. This is a formality, she believes and has every expectation that she’s going to be fired.
It matters little that she has the backing of the independent hearing examiner who found the district hadn’t proved its case against her and, in fact, lauded her for her years of service. That examiner ruled she’d been wrongly terminated.
“In her recommendation she stated that I was a credible witness. HISD did not prove any of the things that they brought against me. She said the evidence showed that I had been a faithful teacher to Houston ISD to the benefit of the students and staff. Those were her words.”
But Williams is, if nothing else, a realist who expects that once again the nine-member board will vote to dismiss her. Any brief executive session conference in the back room will just be for show, she believes.
In legal documents, Houston ISD has stated it has “good cause” to fire Williams saying she refuses to follow their instructional model. That is the central part of their case: a teacher who refuses to do what she is told to do. In response, Williams’ attorney will have a chance to argue that Williams has done nothing wrong and that the district is retaliating against the outspoken Williams.
The first attempt to fire Williams occurred in 2024, when the district cited the veteran teacher saying she’d been filming videos when she should have been teaching. She explained that she filmed at a home studio set up to look like her classroom and scheduled the videos to go live later. The independent examiner found for Williams and she was reinstated.
Then the district cited her in 2025 for allegedly leaving her campus without notice and for not following orders about instruction methods. Williams maintains she did tell her principal about the grievance hearing she was going to beforehand and that she sent him an email saying she was going to need someone to cover for her
Where the district and Williams are at complete loggerheads is over how to teach special ed students and emerging bilingual students amid the restrictions of Superintendent Mike Miles’ New Education System with its constant timed testing.
Williams, who is also the union president of the Houston Education Association, maintains it’s absurd that students just beginning to learn to write, read and speak English should be handed long passages in English and be tested on them. She also believes HISD is breaking federal law regarding accommodations special education students should be given when being tested.
In response to a complaint she filed, the Texas Education Agency found that HISD violated federal regulations regarding developing Individualized Education Programs for all special ed students at Benbrook Elementary School.
Williams says she doesn’t understand why the independent hearing examiner’s ruling isn’t the final part of a teacher’s appeal process. Instead, the matter goes back to the local school board to make that employment determination. If the board rules against her again, she can appeal to Mike Morath, the Texas Commissioner of Education.
“I’ve been at home on leave since August 2025. August 27 was my last day.” She says she misses teaching, but has also been working as an advocate, most recently in Humble ISD which she says “has a lot of issues.”
She’s also spending time on her campaign to be elected the state rep for District 127. Williams is on the November ballot as a Democratic Party candidate for the district which ranges from Bush Intercontinental Airport going east to part of Huffman, Kingwood, Atascocita, North Humble and part of Spring. She is up against Republican incumbent Charles Cunningham in a district that skews red, although Williams says it’s not as red as people think. She is only the second Democrat to run there in 12 years, she says.
Her main mission if elected to the Texas House? Education. “I hope to help the Democrats flip the House because we need it. One of the things I do know about Texas is they support public education. “District 127 has four school districts. Aldine ISD, Spring ISD, Humble and Huffman.”
Asked what would happen if unexpectedly the Board of Managers reversed their decision and instead voted to retain her, Williams hesitates.
“We have such a long history. I have no faith in the Board of Managers or the Houston Independent School District under Mike Miles or the Texas Education Agency’s leadership.”
Thursday’s hearing, which is open to the public, begins at 5 p.m. Thursday, April 23.
