Are Cage Elementary and Chrysalis Middle on the chopping block in HISD? Talking to some parents and teachers, absolutely. But HISD categorically denies that.
By Tuesday night, alarms went off among some of the employees at the school after Superintendent Mike Miles made an early morning visit to the shared campus. While the HISD press office stated that Miles was there to express concern and “check for any reported damage” about the A/C knocked out from the previous day’s storm, others saw this as a sign that their days were numbered.
Messages have gone out saying Cage students will be merged with DeZavala Elementary and Chrysalis absorbed into the student population of Navarro Middle.
Asked about the messages, HISD responded:
“There is no truth to any of the rumors about changes at Cage Elementary or Project Chrysalis Middle School. Certain individuals are intentionally spreading lies on social media to scare families and divide the HISD community. This shameful behavior needs to stop. It is only hurting students and families.”
Miles had said at the start of his tenure that he had no plans to shut down any schools during the first year he is here. His priorities, he said, were to install his New Education System at the 28 schools he designated as the most in need and to assess needs all over the district.
The parents and teacher we spoke with Tuesday morning are convinced otherwise. One teacher, who did not want to be identified, rested part of her conviction on reported statements involving whether the custodians at Chrysalis were told not to clean the school anymore. The rest, she said was due to constant discussions among school employees since the end of school last year that the two schools didn’t have enough students to continue as they are.
Cage and Chrysalis have been in an uproar since two teachers received termination notices after they asked questions about the NES-Aligned program — both were volunteered into the program by the former principal who was over both schools.
Chrysalis in particular which draws its students from several elementary schools has a low enrollment that has gotten even lower with the start of this year. Its student test scores are generally very high, although they reportedly dropped somewhat when they were tested online instead of by paper last year for the first time.
Teachers and other employees have been resigning from the school still in its first months of classes, the teacher said. How much of this is frustration with the new system and what they say is a lack of direction and how much is due to people — mistakenly or not — reading the tea leaves may become evident in coming months.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
