When Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles arrived, he brought with him what many saw as a very attractive plan especially for teachers in his new system. They would be relieved of grading papers at home each night, they could come to school just minutes before classes started and leave moments after. They wouldn’t have to worry about lesson plans and copying papers. Work-life balance would be regained and they would be treated as the valued professionals they are.
Now in a new statement of policy that went out this week, Miles says teachers as exempt employees shouldn’t expect to be held to 7.5 hours a day, that as professionals they should work whatever the job calls for without overtime pay and that includes teacher meetings after school and anything else HISD and its administrators call on them to do. And that if they are getting any information otherwise from local teacher unions, it is wrong. And it doesn’t matter if they signed their contracts before this change was instituted, that’s the deal. According to critics what he is asking for amounts to an extra seven hours of unpaid work a week.
In a wide-ranging and lengthy meeting that also unveiled the new special education plan, a status report on how many kids were called in for disciplinary actions in the first five weeks of school, and the mention of an undisclosed wish list of $50 million in additional projects not already in the budget, it was once again clear that there remains something of a gulf between how Miles and Co. see how things are going and the people who attend board meetings and take to email and online to express their concerns and criticisms.
In a draft of the Special Education Action Plan, HISD pledges to get all kids (100 percent!) evaluated on time for special ed services and to improve the timing on when they get their ARD (Admission, Review and Dismissal) meeting to determine if they even need special ed, followed by their IED (Individual Education Program) plans — all of which HISD has mishandled for years and drawn the attention of the state and federal government.
In order to better achieve that, all staff members will have to complete the Texas Education Agency’s Child Find program to better detect kids who might need special ed help. Equally importantly, HISD pledges to improve the quality of instruction for special ed students.
Unfortunately this contrasted with the acknowledgement that at 37 HISD schools there are still no speech therapists to help students in need of those special ed services. Deputy Chief of Special Education Stacy Venson said there is a shortage of those people across the country and especially in Houston with more higher paying jobs readily available in the Houston Med Center.
Several parents and teachers have complained that holding special ed students to a time schedule at the New Education System and NES-Aligned Schools is not only too fast for them, but a violation of federal law that requires special accommodations be made in terms of extra time or how the test is delivered to these students. Former teacher and board member Angela Lemond Flowers questioned Miles on this saying these concerns had been voiced to her, but he continued to insist that all necessary accommodations are being made.
Parent Veronica Cohetero, the mother of three children in special ed programs in HISD, addressed the board saying her 3-year-old special ed son was left to wander the halls at Benavidez Elementary in the second week of school.
“In the second week they sent him off to his class all by himself. Mind you, he is 3-years-old and in special ed. My son crossed the whole campus to get to his classroom and in between his class there are doors that lead to the street. Since there is never any security on campus, anyone can just walk in and ask my son passing by to open the door. My son could have been abducted or lost in the street.”
Acknowledging the years of problems noted in HISD’s special ed programs, Miles said “There’s no magic pill. It’s going to take more than a year to turn this around.” Several public speakers questioned then why special ed is not part of the principal’s evaluation after year one if it is so important. Miles said there would be a reappraisal and if it needed to be added back in for year two,. it would be.
South Division Superintendent Imelda de la Guardia presented statistics on the number of teachers in the past who’ve charted 20 days or more of absences from their classes, as Miles continued to make his case that teachers have more than enough time off already and that to take 20 or more days off, other than for something like pregnancy, are abusing the system and not taking care of their students.
“You have to come to school. You have to come to work,” Miles said.
Dr. Laura Stout, the South Division Superintendent, reported significant drops mostly across the board in the number of disciplinary problems there have been in the first five weeks of this year as compared to last.
NES and NESA schools led the way in this, after contributing the most to the numbers in the last year, her power point showed.
“Kids are thriving. They like the fact that it’s safe and orderly,” Miles said. The three main rules of the new disciplinary policy at those 85 schools are: no disrespect to any adults, can’t disrupt the learning environment and no bullying, he said, adding that he believes kids are so busy with the new curriculum, it leaves them little time to get in trouble.
While nearly all of his focus has been on the NES and NESA campuses since the start of the school year, Miles told the board he plans to begin dropping in on other schools throughout the district in November.
On the matter of the $50 million in possible additional projects, James Terry, HISD’s chief of Finance and Business Services, assured the board members that just because they solicit bids on the projects with RFPs (Requests For Proposal) doesn’t mean that these projects can be undertaken. Miles can authorize up to $1 million on a singe expense without going for board approval (courtesy of the board which voted him that ability) but anything higher than that has to go back to the board.
Despite the observation of one community member to another (“We’re all going to jail because we sat here and let [Miles] do it.”) the superintendent said any additions will be balanced out with further cost efficiencies.
The next HISD board meeting is scheduled
led for October 12 at 5 p.m.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
