Superintendent Mike Miles listens as Houston ISD's appointed school board held its monthly work session meeting at HISD Central Office on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023 in Houston. (Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle via AP)
As he had done in Dallas, Miles immediately began making aggressive and controversial reforms, reorganizing the district's structures, laying off hundreds of district staff members, and making other dramatic changes. One of the most significant was implementing the New Education System (NES), a complete overhaul of the lowest-performing schools in HISD that transformed staffing, salary structures, instructional models and curriculum, while extending school hours. Other changes included new teacher and principal evaluations, and accountability measures that included timed lessons and daily tests.
Hundreds of teachers and principals resigned, most of them in the NES schools. More and more community protests occurred, and former principals and others spoke out, claiming their forced resignations were unwarranted, with many calling for Miles to be fired or resign. Others have been critical of Miles for his gruff demeanor—such as when he made the decision to close schools in January because of a winter ice storm, but later said in a meeting that he regretted the decision and shouldn't have listened to “whining” from those “exaggerating” any dangers.
Miles and the board were determined to stay the course, however, and with 2023-2024 state assessments released in the summer showing significant academic gains being made in just one year, particularly in the overhauled NES schools, Miles went public making his argument that all the controversies and resistance were worth it, and that the gains gave him a mandate to continue making big changes.
“No trust, no bond”
On November 5, Houston voters rejected a proposed $4.4 billion bond that would pay for critical school construction, renovation and infrastructure projects, as well as safety and security improvements, by a wide margin, 58% to 42%. It appears most of those voting against the measure did so not in opposition to the bond itself, but out of deep distrust for Miles and the district's leaders. For weeks the rallying cry repeated publicly by opponents, including the Texas Federation of Teachers, was simply “no trust, no bond.”
Lack of “advocacy and engagement”
The HISD School Board all but admitted these shortcomings when it released its annual self-evaluation in November rating itself a 1 out of 10 for “advocacy and engagement,” despite the “Community Engagement Action Plan” adopted in May 2024. The board gave itself a score of 53 out of 100 overall. “It is an acknowledgement that we need to do better,” board member Cassandra Auzenne Bandy said to Houston Landing.
Miles has been defiant since the bond failed. “The politics of adults beat out the needs of our children. It's unfortunate and wrong,” Miles said in a statement released on X immediately after the defeat, while going on to publicly refute the idea that the vote was a referendum on his leadership. But many community speakers at a November 14 board meeting disagreed. “There's a good reason Houston parents said no to your bond,” said one parent. “We don't trust you. You don't listen to us.”
The HISD board is considering selling 19 properties to pay for the needed improvements, examining legal options, or putting together a new bond measure for another vote in the spring, but some wonder if Miles and the board should take a hard look at themselves before exploring other options. As one speaker said at the November 14 board meeting discussing what to do now, “It is time to understand the lack of trust that led to the failed bond proposal.”
