TEA Holds 4 Community Meetings Since HISD Acquisition Announcement

HOUSTON. On Tuesday, the Texas Education Agency will hold its first community meeting since the announcement of the Houston ISD takeover.

This will be one of four community meetings this month with representatives from their management and operations teams.

Meetings are scheduled for:

• March 21: Westbury High School
• March 22: Chavez High School.
• March 29: Hattie Mae White, center
• March 30: Kashmir High School.

All meetings will start at 18:30.

HOW 11 yours educational station and undertakes to broadcast all four meetings on our digital platforms KHOU.com, HOW channel 11 on YouTubeand beyond HOW 11+ on Roku and FireTV.

The head of the HISD teachers’ union said she and her colleagues plan to visit all of them.

“The parents I speak to, members of the community, are overwhelmed,” said Jackie Anderson, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers.

TEA commissioner Mike Morath said that as part of the takeover, he plans to appoint a nine-member management board to replace the current elected board and appoint a new superintendent by June.

Anderson hopes officials will explain during the TEA meetings what this appointed management board will do differently to achieve better results.

“I also want to know what the process is and why the community was not involved,” Anderson said.

Anderson also wants to know if this new board, which Commissioner Morath says will include members living within HISD’s boundaries, will include faculty.

“If it’s just business people, they won’t have a pulse on what should be happening in schools,” Anderson said.

Anderson believes HISD can handle schools on its own. She said the schools have been improving since the takeover process began in 2019, thanks to a new director and an almost entirely new board of directors.

“What’s the real problem here?” Anderson asked. “Because 154 counties in the state of Texas are lower ranked than HISD and are not on the list to be transferred, or rather removed from TEA.”

Morath told KHOU that under state law, when a school has failed accountability ratings for five years in a row, TEA is required to close that campus or appoint a board of managers to temporarily administer the school district.

TEA said it was receiving applications for board positions and “will have a solid number once the application window closes on April 6.”

The agency has stated that if you are physically unable to attend the meetings, a virtual webinar will be available.

Anderson said she plans to invite Commissioner Morath to meet with teachers and community members at future City Hall events.

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