Why T.H. Rogers Matters

During the 25 years Dave Muzyka was an administrator at T. H. Rogers — the first 15 as an assistant principal, the last 10 as principal — he gave hundreds of tours of his school and says visitors always left amazed by what was being accomplished in this unique school.

Its vision of putting three completely diverse student populations — the hearing-impaired, the special ed and the gifted and talented — into one school for the benefit of all with specially trained teachers and facilities crafted to meet their needs attracted national attention and more than a good share of education awards.

But, as the Houston Press has already reported this week, Houston ISD is dismantling that vision piece by piece in a move to make T.H. Rogers a campus for Gifted and Talented students only. Last year, the district moved hearing-impaired students from T.H. Rogers to other schools.

Now the district is planning on reassigning what it calls “Preparing Students for Independence” (PSI) students — there are 32 special ed students left now — to their home schools.

“The three populations just made it so unique, so special,” said Muzyka who left in 2019. “You’ve got three populations with a wide, a very wide array of kids intellectually and ability wise. But they all brought riches to the mix. Whether it was the compassion, how everyone could learn from each other, kids volunteering to help in activities with impaired kids and various activities with the GT kids and the deaf kids.”

When HISD was asked by the Houston Press about why it was making this change, the HISD press office released the statement that the district was doing it “to ensure the least restrictive environment” for the 32 students now in the program — an explanation that doesn’t set too well with Muzyka.

“It’s always a question for me when people flash the old ‘least restrictive environment’ card,” said Muzyka. “Tell me what the least restrictive environment is. Define that for me. Is it a situation where you check the box that the student took the STAAR [State Assessments of Academic Readiness] Alt even though they might have a cognitive ability of 24 months but they’re listed in 10th grade and they’re taking the STAAR algebra test and based on their eye gazing we’re arriving at the correct answer? I always had a disconnect with that.

“It always seemed to me that the least restrictive environment is some place where there’s a large community they can identify with and in that community they can feel welcomed and embraced,” he said. “And that’s all three populations, That’s not just PSI, that’s not just the deaf and it’s not just the GT.”

Is putting two students in a classroom with a teacher and an aide, a classroom isolated from the rest of the school, is that really a least restrictive environment? he asked.

Several years ago, former T.H. Rogers teacher Samantha Smyth jumped at the chance when an opening for a special education teacher came up at T.H. Rogers, she said.

“I quickly realized how lucky I was, at the time there were 10 PSI teachers together. Most campuses had one,” she said. “There’s a lot of PSI teachers around Houston who are just by themselves. I quickly realized how special it was to be with a group of 10 and it was comforting. Our students are medically fragile. We had nurses that would come down to classroom. I had nine other teachers to go to to ask ‘How would you do this?'”

When T.H. Rogers was booming, there were 20 special education classes, Smyth said. “When I started in 2015, there were 10. So it already had been decreasing.” T.H. Rogers used to have kids from the age of 3 to 22 but that changed over time, she said, and they were no longer getting the 3-year-olds.

More of their population were kids whose parents didn’t want them to go to a regular high school, or they’d had a problem at their home school, she said. “We almost functioned as a fixer school for a while,” stressing that this didn’t mean the kids were problems but that often their home schools weren’t providing the services they needed or T.H. Rogers had better services.

Smyth said she understood the good intent of the No Child Left Behind law and that children should be mainstreamed as much as possible with peers of their age. The problem is, she said, that while a T.H. Rogers special ed student might be 18 years old in terms of his body, his intellectual level was something much lower.

Years ago, Erika Jones and her husband fought to get their daughter into Rogers for the special ed services it offered. “We knew that there was no other school in HISD like it. My daughter was in a school that didn’t have the equipment, nurses, teachers, care, compassion, or experience that was afforded to her at Rogers. If it was not for my daughter being able to attend T.H. Rogers, my daughter would not have successfully thrived in the public school environment.”

Jones, who urges present Rogers parents to fight the plan to move all special education students to their home schools is also upset that the hearing impaired students and their teachers were moved out last year.

“The special needs and the hearing impaired program is what has made T.H. Rogers a unique and APPROPRIATE program for our children,” she wrote in an email to the Houston Press. “I hope that the parents fight like hell, and take their advocates and attorneys with them to the meeting on Friday. Do not let them tell you that your kids don’t belong there or need to be relocated. There is absolutely NO SCHOOL in that district where they can send your kids to receive the same quality of specialized care and inclusive services that are already offered at T.H. Rogers.”

But it’s not just the parents of special ed students who are upset by the district’s decision.

Angela Esparza, the parent of a Vanguard student at T.H. Rogers and a volunteer there wants to make clear that she is happy with the school, but not with what the district is doing. “No place will have the resources this school has for them,” said the nurse who has a brother with developmental disabilities.

“The parents have to trust the caregivers and these parents already have so much on their plate. They are making an effort to drive to this school and give them the resources and services they so desperately need. Please, please make them respond. As parents our voices have been stolen for the almighty dollar. School should be a place that children learn about life, friendships and compassion for others. Not a white washed version of the world,” she said. ” I am terribly heartbroken for these families because I know how hard it is for them to have the world value their child.”

Before coming to Rogers, Muzyka was a high school magnet coordinator at the High School For Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, and he would visit the campus to try to recruit eighth graders into their program. But until he came to work there he had no idea of the complexity of the world that was T.H. Rogers, he said. He relied heavily on the experienced staff for the answers he was seeking — a staff that in the same two areas as the reassigned students is being disbursed.

HISD has scheduled a 9 a.m. Friday meeting at the school to explain the change and will send out a link for a 10:30 virtual meeting for those who can’t make it. Several parents have already written letters and called HISD to protest the change and plan to be at that meeting.

If those parents are unsuccessful in changing the administration’s plans, Muzyka sends his best wishes to the students being moved out.

“My greatest hope if this [the move to home schools] does happen is that the schools that are privileged with those students who are being disbursed is that they will be embraced and feted like they were at Rogers.

“It was such a privilege for all those years to be a part of T.H. Rogers. It was very hard work all the way around the table. Kids, staff, parents, everybody,” he said. “It was a privilege to be part of that for 25 years and I’m glad I had that opportunity.”