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Morath and Miles keep claiming HISD made the “biggest academic gains,” at this scale, in U.S. history. Teachers and parents know better. Here’s the correction: these so-called gains are the biggest manipulation of ratings, at this scale, at the expense of real learning, ever.

Mike Miles seems to think teachers, students, and parents are simply pawns on his chessboard. Just yesterday, he removed the entire 8th-grade math team at Patrick Henry. Now, students are stuck learning over Zoom from another campus. Will Miles only be satisfied when every kid is Zooming into school? Did COVID teach us nothing about how harmful that is?

This comes after Miles purged highly regarded Durham and Benbrook teachers for putting kids first. That’s not leadership. It’s sabotage.

📢 Speak up!
➡️ HISD Board Meeting: Thursday, 5 PM [Sign-up link—closes Wednesday at noon] Or come after the parent night Miles purposefully scheduled at the same time, just like last month’s Open House. [Instructions here]
➡️ Commission on the Takeover: Wednesday, 6 PM at Trinity Gardens Church of Christ, 7725 Sandra

What’s striking about the agenda [LINK] is what’s missing. Other Texas districts facing budget challenges invite community input and review systems for possible closures. From Miles, all we got was: closures are coming.

Agenda item 1  (p. 8-42) – MAP and STAAR data.
MAP was re-normed in Aug. 2025, making this year’s scores artificially higher and comparisons to last year meaningless. Furthermore, calling more SPOT observations a “strategy” is insulting to parents and teachers who know they harm learning. 

Agenda item 10 (p. 188) – Certification waivers for teachers, counselors, and APs.
HISD has lost 8,000 teachers in 2 years — double the state turnover rate. This waiver is about de-skilling the teacher base instead of fixing conditions that drive educators away.

Agenda item 12 (p. 201) – 400 routes had to be added only after parents raised hell. Outsourcing led to unsafe stops (even in the middle of Beltway 8) and some special-needs kids were left at home.

Agenda item 14 (p. 208) – Elimination of annual employee criminal history checks.
This is basic student safety. Why make it easier to miss red flags?

Agenda item 16 (p. 209) – Allows HISD to set any process it wants for employee termination hearings.

Agenda item 20-21 (pp. 238) – Teacher and Administrator appraisals.
Teachers no longer have a primary appraiser, so anyone, regardless of experience or familiarity, can evaluate them, making appraisals harder to contest. School leader appraisers don’t need training, and missed deadlines do not invalidate evaluations.

Agenda item 26 (p. 259) – Public participation at board meetings.
“Hearing of the Community” is gone. It appears that parents and their children can now speak together. The policy also states that public comment will now be at the beginning of the meeting, a potential improvement over long delays in the past. 

Agenda item 27 (pp. 274–279) – Annual Operating Budget.
Budgets shall now align with Miles’ priorities only. Fewer hearings, less transparency, and no community budget committees. 

Agenda item 30 (p. 290) – Nonrenewal of contracts.
Eliminates explicit anti-discrimination protections in contract non renewals.