Setting aside the recommendations of an independent hearing examiner that the district hadn’t proved its case, the Houston ISD Board of Managers voted to fire union leader and teacher Michelle Williams Thursday night.
Williams, who had predicted she would not be reinstated, remained upbeat after the decision. At issue was her continued insistence that rigorously following Superintendent Mike Miles’ New Education System of timed instruction and constant testing was illegal when it came to special education students and students just learning to speak English.
“It’s over. On to the next phase,” Williams said after the board decision.
The HISD position, argued by outside attorney Ellen Spalding, was that a teacher working for the district has to follow the instruction of the principal and superintendent. And that Williams had made it clear in emails and oral statements that she would not.
In making its decision, announced after 12 minutes of deliberations in closed session, the board indicated it did not agree with the hearing examiner’s recommendation that Williams be reinstated and that remediation would work. The vote was 6-0 with board members Angela Flowers, Janette Garza Lindner and Marty Goosen absent, although all three showed up for the budget workshop that followed.
Before the two attorneys argued the merits of the case and Williams had a chance to address the board, a few Williams supporters spoke to the board saying that the veteran teacher of 26 years knew that it was only reasonable that certain types of students needed special accommodations.
They also questioned whether the board’s continued attempts — this was the second time — to fire Williams were influenced at least in part by retaliation for Williams filing a complaint with the Texas Education Agency about how HISD’ s special education program. The TEA then did, in fact, find HISD was not performing Individual Education Programs as required by federal regulation.
Community member Ann Eagleton focused on the financial side as well “How much money are we spending on retaliation against a teacher? We need to be focused on what really matters. “
The district first tried to fire Williams in 2024 alleging she filmed videos in her classroom when she should have been teaching. Actually, Williams said she had a home studio set up to look like her classroom and she scheduled her videos to go up at different times. In that case the district did not reject the hearing examiner’s finding that Williams should be reinstated.
That was not the case this time. Williams has sat home since August 27 waiting for the determination of her second case. The president of the Houston Education Association union says she misses teaching but is now a Democratic candidate for the District 127 state representative position. If elected, she hopes to focus on education in the state.
Williams, a frequent critic of the Miles administration at school board meetings, said she still plans to attend those meetings and make her feelings known.
