Residents blast state’s HISD takeover
As officials discuss possible changes, HISD hiring event attracts 200
Local education officials and concerned community members mulled the future of the Houston Independent School District under an impending Texas Education Agency takeover Saturday morning at East End Alliance, a progressive nonprofit, as the district itself sought to hire staff for next school year at a separate event.
HISD trustee Dani Hernandez, state Rep. Christina Morales, State Board of Education member Staci Childs and Houston Federation of Teachers President Jackie Anderson discussed what changes the district may see under the TEA takeover and what could be done to safeguard the future of students and teachers.
Community members and speakers said the TEA's decision to replace the board violated Houston residents' right to a representative government. Anderson called it “taxation without representation.”
“I believe our elected board members are the people that are in charge of our district,” Anderson said. “They are the ones who we see in the grocery stores, who we see at church, who we see in our communities, and who we can share our concerns with, and this is why we're advocating so very hard for us to maintain local control of our school district.”
Attendees also worried that a TEA-appointed board could put in place policies focused on hot-button “culture war” issues, such as limiting discussion of racial tensions or selecting textbooks that gloss over slavery and other dark facets of American history.
Childs told community members to attend protests against the TEA takeover and contact elected officials.
“Every day, there is some type of action going on,” Childs said.
A third TEA-hosted community forum planned for
“They are the ones who we see in the grocery stores, who we see at church, who we see in our communities, and who we can share our concerns with.”
Jackie Anderson, Houston Federation of Teachers president
6:30 p.m. Wednesday has been moved to Delmar Stadium. Another meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Kashmere High School, 6900 Wileyvale. A community march is planned Friday morning at Chavez High School.
Childs also encouraged people at the meeting to apply for the board of manager positions. Applications for the state-appointed board close April 6.“If we don’t get strong candidates that care about children that believe that they are capable of reaching their full potential, we will be back in the same place that we were in 2018,” Childs said.
U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and 26 other members of Congress have called on the federal government to intervene in the takeover, calling it a “violation of the civil rights of the students of HISD.”
A few miles away at Booker T. Washington High School, HISD held a hiring event to attract candidates to work as teachers, assistant principals, counselors and librarians.
HISD Senior Recruiter Adam Harrer said 200 candidates attended the job fair, some of whom were current HISD employees searching for new opportunities. Staff from about 90 HISD locations were present.
“It’s definitely one of the bigger events we’ve had this year,” Harrer said.
Asked whether the district anticipated the uncertainty of the TEA takeover could lead to increased resignations and greater need to attract staff for next year, Harrer said the district is treating this spring as “just like any other hiring season for (HISD).”
“We’re going to continue to host job hiring events and we’re going to continue to hire teachers and hopefully there will be teachers in our classrooms, as many as possible, on day one,” Harrer said.
Under Texas law, teachers have until 45 days before the start of the new school year to choose to resign. Teachers who quit less than 45 days before the start of a school year can have their teaching licenses revoked for a year.
Harrer said the district currently has a particular need for special education teachers science and math teachers. HISD is offering a recruitment bonus of $2,500 for classroom teachers who accept a position before June 30; teacher salaries start at $61,500.