Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles had a very good, perhaps excellent, night Thursday at the school board meeting. He brought out the 3rd through 8th state test scores that showed impressive gains, his contract was extended for five years and his proposed $2.1 billion budget was passed by an 8-0 vote.
As usual, it didn’t matter that public speakers asked the board to hit pause on the budget vote or that a united effort was made to reverse the firing of Dahnya Garcia Giampietro, the librarian at Harvard Elementary, or that some questioned the numbers Miles was reporting about the STAAR test results at the high school as well as the lower grades level.
It also didn’t matter that the people making the decision about the budget and his contract didn’t include former Vice President Audrey Momanaee, Cassandra Auzenne Bandy, Rolando Martinez and Adam Rivon who were told 10 days ago by Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath that their services were no longer needed.
It didn’t matter that Morath’s picks for their replacements — Edgar Colón, Marty Goossen, Lauren Gore and Marcos Rosales — had only 10 days to study the budget. Although we were assured that the “crash course” they were given as well as the ability to watch some video of the five previous workshops on the subject brought them up to speed.
The new guys joined the leftovers — Board President Ric Campo, Secretary Angela Lemond Flowers, Janette Garza Lindner and Paula Mendoza — to approve the 2025-26 budget in an 8-0 vote. Michelle Cruz Arnold was notably absent.
In fact the switch was so sudden that the new Student Code of Conduct book the board approved Thursday night still carried the photos of the former board members.
“Postpone your vote,” elected board member Savant Moore told the new appointed board members. “You just got here.” He also asked them not to approve the $2.25 million contract that the board was considering and later approved to pay Groundwork DFW, a Dallas group, to figure out a way to increase the enrollment in HISD which has continued to decline.
Placido Gomez, another elected board member, welcomed the new board members but went to to say that the four board members replaced “just so happened to be the four board members who had the most questions, who had the most pushback. Intentionally or not, TEA sent a message to the community that they don’t see any value whatsoever in collaborating with us or communicating with us or listening to us.”
Those and other pleas did nothing to change the board from marching forward. It appears the passage of a contract extension for Miles was a foregone conclusion. The meeting adjourned at 10:15 p.m. and by 10:30 p.m. the HISD press office released this statement from Campo::
“Today, the HISD Board of Managers approved a new contract for Superintendent Mike Miles. With the recent release of STAAR exam results, it is clear that under his leadership, our schools and students are making extraordinary academic progress. The five-year term of the contract ensures that Houston ISD can continue its transformation for the duration of the state intervention, while allowing for continuity and a smooth transition when the District returns to local control. The new contract also maintains rigorous evaluation criteria and compensation that aligns the HISD superintendent position with comparable school districts in Texas.
“The HISD Board is proud of the incredible success of HISD students, and with Superintendent Miles’ ongoing leadership, we look forward to continued progress.”
Details of the new contract for Miles will be released by 5 p.m. Friday, according to the HISD press office.
The overwhelming majority of the public speakers (and there were 127 signed up) asked for the board to reverse the firing of Garcia a school librarian who was terminated for taking too many sick days. She was the 2023 teacher of the year at her school, Harvard Elementary. She couldn’t be there Thursday night because she was a chaperone on a four-day field trip to Boston with HISD students, done on her own time.
Most of the speakers asking that Garcia be reinstated were children. Campo complimented them on having the courage to stand up and address the board before a room full of onlookers. Although it’s extremely doubtful that anything will change in Garcia’s case.
Among the other results on STAAR, HISD not only saw vast improvements, but did better than the state. In a snapshot comparison:
Algebra I: HISD grew 17 points; state grew 2
Biology: HISD grew 23 points; state grew 5
Reading (Grades 3–8): HISD outpaced the state in every grade level
Many speakers Thursday night continued to question whether the STAAR scores weren’t presented in the best possible lights that wouldn’t bear up under closer examination, particularly in biology.
Asked about this by the Houston Press earlier this week HISD responded: “All students enrolled in Biology—honors or regular—are required to take the STAAR Biology EOC. The test is tied to course enrollment regardless of course level or grade level. Data confirmed by TEA shows that 99% of HISD students enrolled in Biology sat for the exam this year.”
Still at issue: students who weren’t permitted to take the STAAR test in biology until after they had taken two years of science which puts them in the 10th grade rather than the 9th when they take the test. Supporters of this point out that particularly for students who are limited English speakers, the extra year means they’ll be better able to understand the material.
Terming it “The Houston Comeback,” Miles presented these results to the public Thursday night:
The next school board meeting will be August 14, giving the new board members even more time to catch up as the new school year begins.
