HOUSTON – After a heated board meeting Thursday night, Houston Independent School District Superintendent Mike Miles joined KPRC 2+ to discuss principal changes, academic improvements, and community concerns.
The board meeting marked the first time since the staff reorganization at Harvard Elementary School —and no one held their tongue.
MORE: ‘Upheaval and unrest:’ Parents, students speak to HISD board after Harvard Elementary staff shakeup
KPRC’s Haley Hernandez brought your questions and concerns straight to Superintendent Miles, live on KPRC 2+ at 9 a.m.
Friday morning’s visit was Miles' second time joining KPRC 2 live in the studio after the district’s historic $4.4 billion bond was rejected by voters in early November.
Haley Hernandez: So joining me live to respond is HISD Superintendent Mike Miles. Thank you so much for coming in to the studio to talk to me about this.
Mike Miles: Well, thanks for inviting me.
Haley Hernandez: So I know you were at the board meeting last night, but we just recapped it a little bit there. What were your thoughts when hearing that? How do you feel last night’s meeting went?
Mike Miles: So last night we focused on the NWEA map assessments and student scores. And we’re at a much higher starting point academically than we were last year. And so that was my report to the board. That was the main part of the meeting for us. We heard the public comments. It’s understandable that when we can’t talk about why a principple leaves that we’ll have some concerns or they’re confused. You can understand that we cannot reveal personnel matters in public. The principals, the outgoing principal also has rights for privacy. And so that’s what we do.
Haley Hernandez: Can you give any more details just about why you can’t discuss it? Because people feel like that’s a lack of transparency.
Mike Miles: Yes, so we have 274 principals, by the way. We also have 645 assistant principals. So when we move 1 or 2, that’s that’s not, you know, a revolving door. A lot of principals are moving in the district. At the same time, when there is a personnel action and this is not a surprise. The principal has been on administrative leave for over a month. We cannot discuss that because the person has rights to appeal, but they have a right to go to TEA, Texas Education Agency for an appeal. So until that gets to go through the legal process, we try to be very careful about revealing any of the information.
Haley Hernandez: And then Pe Bonito comes in and doesn’t even start the job, saying that she’s been bullied online. So now they’re on their third principal. I know this is happening at other schools, too. There’s been shakeups at other schools.
Mike Miles: She didn’t even start. I’m not sure you can say they’re on the third principal, but that the kids don’t know her, that she didn’t even show up with kids there.
Haley Hernandez: So would you think, though, that she wasn’t even able to start?
Mike Miles: I know people have to make some decisions of the right fit for them. And she felt like she was bullied and she didn’t think that was going to change. And so I get that, it’s a tough job being a principal. And when you also have to fight social media battles. For some, it’s it’s overwhelming and so very sympathetic to that. But we have a principal there, Spencer, who’s going to do a great job. She had good meetings with the community already. We heard last night even that they think that’s a step in the right direction. So we feel pretty good about that.
Haley Hernandez: There’s another parent that wanted to voice some concerns, Jordan Chismar. This is your question for you, Mr. Miles.
“'Why? Why do you think that you know better than parents know for their kids and teachers who have worked in the school district for years? How can you say that you know better than them without giving them the chance?‘"
Mike Miles: So one of the primary jobs that the administration, not just me, but the senior executive directors, the executive directors, is to put principals in place. I actually don’t choose the principals, but they do. We base the selection of principals on a number of criteria, how strong their instructional leadership is, how well they can motivate a staff, how well they can work with the community, several different things. The primary one is can they support kids in raising the academic performance of the entire school?
Haley Hernandez: I think what we’re hearing from educators is that they feel that teachers and administration are a little bit at odds. They feel a lot of pressure coming down from the administration. Do you do you see it that way?
Mike Miles I don’t see it that way. I mean, it’s, you know, 10,640 teachers. And, of course, throughout 274 schools, there’s differences in leadership, principals and teachers. But what I see right now and I’ve been in, you know, 40 some schools this year, 130 last year. I see teachers working with the principals. I see the relationship between principals and teachers, very professional and very supportive. There are exceptions. But overall, the teachers are getting on board. We could not have gotten the achievement results last year if the teachers were not on board with their principals and the principals on board with the direction of the district.
Haley Hernandez: Well, where you saw achievements was with the model. And we actually did get one viewer who wrote in to us.
Mike Miles: We also got achievement on the other end. We went from 93 and B rated campuses to 170. That’s not just NES.
Haley Hernandez: Good point. Good point. There is somebody who is in favor of NES as though asking if you would ever consider making the NES model like a magnet style school choice style school where they would have the opportunity to opt into an NES model.
Mike Miles: I haven’t thought about making it a school choice, Moderate magnet models. You do know that most of the schools that are in NES, opted into NES. So the first year we had 28 NES schools, 57 schools opted in. And so that’s how we got 85 last year.
Haley Hernandez: Do they get better funding than the non-NES schools?
Mike Miles: Yes and by that, I mean the salaries are higher for teachers. Then there are teacher apprentices and learning coaches, so more staff is where the most of the funding -- extra funding is.
Haley Hernandez: Why do they need the extra funding at NES model schools?
Mike Miles: So most of the NES schools were the struggling campuses. I don’t know if you may remember -- most of them were D or F-rated schools a year ago. And so those campuses with struggling populations where the kids are behind in their proficiency, need more science of reading teachers, interventionists, teacher apprentices to help in the classroom. And that’s where the extra funding comes.
Haley Hernandez: All right. Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles, we do appreciate your time this morning. Thank you for coming in and answering our questions and answering questions of our viewers. We appreciate it.
What happened?
Last week, KPRC 2 reported several staff members, including the principal, were removed from their positions. Fast forward to Thursday, the school is now on its third principal this school year.
Shelby Calabrese, the principal at Harvard Elementary in Houston Heights, was put on leave in October. The week before, she was recommended for termination.
Her replacement was announced to be Sharon Pe Benito, who quit before even starting the new role, citing bullying from parents.
RELATED: New principal at Harvard Elementary quits before first day after ‘extensive bullying’
On Thursday evening, those parents and teachers who had their first opportunity to speak their mind to Superintendent Miles and the HISD school board at a regularly scheduled meeting.
“Instability,” said Alma Alling, a parent of a Harvard Elementary student. “Just seems like a revolving door.”
“Just upheaval and unrest and just lots of questions and just lots of uncertainty,” added another Harvard Elementary parent, Christine Gonzalez.
“It’s really disappointing, honestly,” said Jordan Chismar, who also has a child in Harvard Elementary.
Their words carry power and emotion, but just scratch the surface from the 139 speakers who signed up to have their one minute in front of Miles and his school board.
“I wish we could keep the people who understand us and want to make our school better. Please don’t take any more of our people away,” said Lucas, a student at Harvard Elementary.
