The overview
More than 200 community members signed up to speak during the public comments portion of the meeting, with the majority voicing their support for the teachers and principals who were asked to either resign or face termination.
At the May 23 meeting, board managers voted to either terminate or not renew contracts for an undisclosed number of teachers and principals throughout the district.
HISD Superintendent Mike Miles, who was appointed along with the board of managers by the Texas Education Agency last June, addressed the terminations at the meeting.
“We're well aware that those cuts are not just numbers—they're real people,” Miles said. “The central office and leadership in all departments was very empathetic and sympathetic to the people that we cut. We get that this is real, and I'm sorry that we had to make these cuts, but they were necessary.”
As of press time, HISD officials have not responded to multiple efforts by Community Impact to confirm the identity or number of employees who will not be returning to the district next year.
How we got here
Since May 16, several protests held in response to the layoffs have been held outside campuses throughout the district, including Crockett and Herod elementary schools as well as Meyerland Performing and Visual Arts Middle School.
On May 25, more than 600 community members gathered outside Houston City Hall to voice their concerns over the firings, calling on Miles and the board of managers to resign.
While the district did not provide any specific reasons for the principals’ terminations, officials said individual campus ratings created by the district were used to make personnel decisions.
“In most cases, if a school has an A or B rating, that is a strong indication that the principal is creating the kind of learning environment students need,” officials said in a statement. “When a school is rated C or lower, it often means the school is not serving students well on a consistent basis.”
A closer look
Herod Elementary School Principal Jessica Berry said she was given a letter requesting she resign from her position May 8.
In a written response sent to the district on May 14, Berry told HISD officials she would not resign, stating she was considering taking legal action against the district because she received the request while she was on intermittent family leave.
Additionally, Berry said the request for her resignation was made after she told her direct supervisor the district hadn’t posted its special education operating procedures to the state’s legal framework website, which is legally required by the TEA.
“I pointed out where we were in violation of state and federal laws, and then they came back and wrote me up, and a week and a half later asked me to resign,” Berry said. “It says, ‘You expressed your concerns,’ in my write up.”
While Berry said she still has not received a response from the district regarding her employment status or her decision to decline the resignation request, she said she was locked out of all of her HISD accounts on May 25. On May 28, she said she was told she would be working from home for the remainder of the school year.
Berry said she will wait for a response from the district before deciding whether she will take legal action against HISD.
Community Impact reached out to HISD to confirm when it most recently posted special education operating procedures and if Berry's concerns were included in any documented write-ups. HISD has not responded as of publication of this article.
Neff Elementary School Principal Amanda Wingard, who was named HISD’s elementary teacher of the year in 2023, was among the more than 200 who signed up to speak at the May 23 meeting.
“I was asked to resign because [of] the administration’s definition of leadership,” Wingard said. “I ask questions respectfully in the best interest of students. For that, I am proud. We work in fear—fear of asking the wrong questions, fear of not meeting unknown expectations, fear of subjective failure.”
What’s next
HISD’s teacher and principal layoffs are coming as district officials explore options for a bond election that could total as much as $5 billion to pay for improvements to the district’s aging infrastructure.
For the last several months, many community members speaking at the district’s board meetings have ended their comments with the phrase, “No trust, no bond.”
If approved, voters within HISD’s boundaries would consider approving the bond in the Nov. 5 election.
