Okay, good evening. This meeting is now conveyed at 05:06PM. I'd like everyone to please silence all cell phones. A quorum of the Board members is present in the Board Auditorium. We will now be joined by a member of the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corp to lead our, pledges. I would like to ask Board Vice President Angela Mon Flowers to introduce tonight's pledge leader. Thank you, President Campo. Cadet Major Maria Sanchez is a senior at Cashmere High School,
where she has been enrolled in the JROTC program since her freshman year. She is serving as the Army JROTC twelfth battalion mighty Rams, battalion commander for this school year. Cadet Sanchez is a member of the JROTC drill team and academic team, and captain of the archery team. Among her many achievements in the JROTC program, she has been awarded the Superior Cadet Award, Distinguished Cadet Award, Cadet of the Month, and numerous academic and achievement ribbons following her attendance as JROTC Cadet Leadership Camp as
a freshman. Cadet Sanchez currently holds a 3.8 grade point average. Upon graduation, she plans to attend the University of Houston and major in Computer Engineering. Cadet Sanchez. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Now for the Texas flag. Honor the Texas flag, I pledge allegiance to the Texas, one State under God,
one and indivisible. Thank you, Cadet Sanchez. Appreciate that. Before we begin some opening remarks, I would like to recognize, public officials that are here today. We have Trustee Savant Moore, Brasilia Gomez here as well, right? Okay. We also have City Council Member Mario Castillo. Great to have you here. Thank you. We also have Donnie Hernandez. There you go. Good to see you too. Did I miss anyone? Okay, great. Before we move into our meeting business tonight, I'd like to first congratulate our amazing campus principals and teachers for a successful start
to 2025 or twenty six-twenty twenty five-twenty six school year. This week marks the beginning of the third year of the transformation and your hard work is fueling our students gains. Thank you, we really appreciate your hard work. There is so much to be celebrated. A few highlights from the first week of school, we began this year with only two teacher vacancies on our first day of school. This is a huge feat for a system with over 10,500 teachers. On the first day of school, there were no power, water or HVAC outages at any of our schools, even with a one hundred year weather.
This is a Herculean feat given our aging building infrastructure. Thank you to our operations team for their work around the clock to ensure buildings are safe and comfortable for learning. Thank you. The district showed a significant increase in students using HISD bus transportation on the morning of the first day of our school year. HISD bus transportation on the morning of the first day of our school year compared to 2024. This means more families are choosing HISD transportation. Families, thank you for trusting HISD to transport your child. The Transportation Call Center continues to work with families to resolve issues and to make
sure students get routed properly. Board Member Arnold, you had the opportunity to visit some schools with, with, Mr. Miles, this week, on the first day. So would you like to share your experience? Thank you, President Campo. I did have the privilege of visiting, Nelm and Valley West Elementary School on the first day of school and Henderson Elementary School this morning. I would like to share how truly impressed I was, during my visits. Students were actively engaged, and teachers had such command of their classrooms.
Students were learning both on the first day of school and today on the third day of school. And I wanna sincerely express my gratitude for the teachers who welcomed me and others into their classrooms. It was such a a delight to be, in their presence today. I am humbled in their presence. I also got to cheer, at one of our student celebrations at Valley West Elementary School this week. I am so excited for the Valley West Manatees. I know we're gonna hear additional exciting news from that campus. They have had tremendous success and achievement in the past twelve months and I know
there is more good news to come, mister President. Thank you. Thanks for your update. In the past, we've done board member comments at the end and there's not very many people here so we decided that we move into the front of the meeting. So with that, I'm going to ask Board members for any comments. Warren, I think you have some to say. I do. Thank you, President Campo. Look at the risk of oversimplifying this. Our job as one team that's board, parents, teachers, advocates, faculty, staff is twofold. Right? Take care of students, take care of our tax dollars.
And, you know, we've seen the incredible results on the take care of students academic side. So I think we'll hear a lot hear a lot more about that, which is very exciting. And I saw something I wanted to highlight, on the finance side, which is really great, the the taking care of the the tax dollars. So I wanna congratulate the HISD team for saving the district a $150,000,000 in future interest payments by both paying off principal early and refinancing, other debts at lower rates. So this is, like, really incredible staying on top of the game, crossing the t's,
dotting the i's, blocking and tackling type of finance stuff. And we saved a $150,000,000 on interest payments and stuff, really good stuff. And not it's not just us recognizing this, the finance team has also been awarded the Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting from the Association of School Business Officials, ASBO. I don't know if that's actually how you say it, but ASBO. And the certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association. Really great, really great stuff. So congratulations to doctor Jim Terry and the entire financial team,
finance team. Your work ensures we remain strong, stewards of the public funds. So thank you very much. So no and I'll say, look, we got a lot of that's good. Look is good, but we we got a lot of work to do. No story is perfect. We're not there yet. We have to continue doing our job and getting to work and doing the basics well to make sure that we keep this district strong financially. So thank you and I think it's great. Thank you. We appreciate that. Other board members? Go ahead. I'll go ahead. My wife and I had the privilege and almost the I guess it was an honor last Wednesday to attend the convocation that was held at Del Mar Stadium just
nearby. And there were several thousand teachers there and principals. And it was one of the great pep rallies I've ever seen and hearing the teachers from across the district cheer and get excited, come with their signs and t shirts and everything, but also to listen to the various speakers, the skit they put on to kind of acknowledge the challenges that teachers and principals face every day in their teaching. They had a variety of different ideas on the stage speaking and then to hear
Superintendent Miles give his presentation on the success of the school year at 2024, 2025. I think the one thing we cannot give enough credit to while the kids have obviously done extraordinary work without question is their work that we are tracking. But that work doesn't come individually. That comes with extraordinary effort by the teachers and by the principals and, of course, by the administration above them. But the day to day work it takes to make this a successful project, I. E, a successful initiative and one of the great initiatives we have to do for the
city of Houston was really impressed. And that's the first time I had so many I never want to be around that many teachers, to be honest with you. I was always worried about that. But, that many teachers had had had so much enthusiasm. Congratulations. That's great. That's great. Yes. I'm gonna piggyback a little bit off of Marty talking about the success of the kids. And it is the kids that are taking the tests, that are learning, but, as well as the teachers and the principals. And like Michelle, I was able to visit some schools today. And, you know, we have a wonderful school, Mickey Leland School, who is named after a great man, that is an incredible school.
And the passion that the principal has for that school is just overwhelming. What he wants to do with that school, I think he's starting his second year there. And what he wants to do with that school is wonderful. I I also went to Henderson and the principal there, the passion and the pride they have for the achievement that they've made with the students. And then I was able to go to the Navarro celebration who's also named by someone that I called a friend and maybe more of a mentor and to know how well that school has done and what they've achieved. And the pride,
once again, of the principal to stand before his students and the teachers there to say, you all did this. It's not me. I may be your leader, but you're the ones making the difference. So, I was very appreciative and, look forward to some more visits tomorrow. Thank you. And I have the pleasure of attending our summer school graduation for our summer graduates for all of our high schoolers. And chief Massey gave a wonderful commencement address, and inspiring to our kids. It was just a wonderful celebration of our students' resilience, and the fact that they've got that can do spirit and that they are looking
to achieve and be successful. So it was a wonderful, wonderful celebration. And to add, after I went to that celebration, I went to Cafe Pique, my favorite little place, to get a snack, and I saw I recognized, five HISD employees from Bel Air High School, teachers and teacher leaders. One of their students had to bus tables and work that day, and they brought him his diploma. And literally, I was just there getting a snack and caught just our teachers and our teacher leaders caring about kids, going the extra mile, not because anyone knew about it,
but because they wanted to celebrate the success of their students. So I really appreciate, all of our students, and it was really wonderful, celebration with them. So thanks. There we go. I just wanna pile on a little more. Congratulations to you, Mr. Miles, and to your team, every single administrator and teacher in HISD But, no one I don't doubt Like, everyone's worked hard Every teacher, everyone has worked hard, has been working hard, and I appreciate all the efforts But what's different is you've created the conditions for
that hard work to pay off in dividends that we're seeing that are just accelerating and advancing in ways we never ever expected to see. So we've, you know, I I've been on this board expecting this. You know, this is this has been a a target, But the conditions that have been created to see the results that we are starting to see is just is is really impressive, really amazing. And so I'm so excited to be able to, watch our students and teachers, reap these benefits and I just can't wait to see more. So thank you.
Okay, great. Well, I appreciate that. Great updates. We're going to now move to the report of the superintendent. He's going to talk about the update on our twenty twenty four-twenty twenty five accountability report and then we're going to follow-up, he's going to follow-up then with special recognitions. I got it. We're good. The anticipation is building. I know. I would tell a story, but I should run-in the a team. I think they would have tested this. This this this should not be I know. So how did you meet Chris? How did you meet Chris? Alright. Sorry about those technical difficulties.
You probably have problems with this part of me. Anyway, let's get started. Board president Campo, members of the board, I wanna talk about our accountability scores and recognize a few schools. I know it's late in the evening, and we've had, a lot of other accountability scores. So I won't give you a lot of graphs, but I'll just give you the headlines. You have in your packets a lot more data and over the next, couple weeks, we'll give you even more, especially as the commissioner will announce final accountability ratings tomorrow.
So after that meeting, we'll give you if there's any differences, We don't expect, any of or many of any, tomorrow, but, we'll give you some more information then. So tonight, I'll go pretty fast. But the the biggest thing the biggest headline I wanna talk about is this. And geography no longer dictates destiny and HIC. If you are an educator, you know that this is something that we in the profession have dealt with for a long, long time, especially in large and medium sized urban districts.
If you go to any large district and look at a map of the city, and if you know the city, you actually can put dots where your, d and f campuses are or your struggling campuses. And you would put those dots in the areas where the students are challenged by poverty or language barriers. And that alignment of poor performing schools, struggling campuses, and poverty and language barriers is pretty tight in most large urban district and was the case in HISD in 2023.
Take a look at this map. The the red school the red dots are f rated schools. D dots are pink rated, pinks are d rated schools, and there were a 121 of them in 2023. And and, yes, we have a and b campuses. We had 93 a and b campuses, the green dots and the dark green dots. And you could do this. And those of us well, you I've I've only been here two years, but even I know some of the areas of town where, the the students and families are challenged by poverty or language barriers.
I also know that that area where there aren't any circles is our higher performing but higher resource families for the most part. That is ZIP code dictating destiny. This is what it is today. If you don't know Houston and you look at a map like this and we challenge you to look at the areas where the kids are poor performing or struggling or challenged by poverty, you wouldn't be able to tell tell this. For the first time ever, when we started school on Tuesday,
not one HIC student attended a failing campus. We went from we went from 56 f rated campuses two years ago to zero f campuses. And on the other side, we went from 93 a and b schools to a 197 a and b schools. Looking at that, we are giving opportunities. Yep. Because what this really means what this really means I give you numbers, but what it really means and I wish people could just honor our kids for
a moment and respect their success. But what this really means is that more kids are reading at grade level, doing math at grade level. More kids are attending a and b campuses. You know that we have 80,000 students more attending a and b schools this year than they were two years ago. 80,000 more attending a and b campuses. And so the the kids have done remarkably well, and, of course, they can't do it without teachers.
They also can't do it without parents, and they can't do it without a supportive commute community. And everywhere I go, and I've been in several schools, I think six this week so far, The kids are just celebrating their success. They know what they may not know exactly what it means, but their parents do. Because if you can read at grade level, do math at grade level, do science at grade level, then that means your career in middle school and high school will be stronger. And life after high school, you'll be more competitive to try to get into college or a high wage high
skilled job. That is opportunities for kids. That's what the numbers mean. And the last thing I'll say about this, this destiny is not geography or geography is not destiny, is that when there's a need for a lot of change in desperate times, it starts with hope and a belief that it can be done. Two years ago, a lot of people did not believe this could be done, especially not in two years. And now more and more people believe that it can be done, and not just people in Houston. Outside of p of Houston,
people are watching, and they too are starting to believe that it might be done. That's what HISD students and teachers have done over the last several years. I'll skip these graph, and go to another big big data point that may be missed. Because we are a district with 82 to 85% free, reduced lunch eligible students. Majority of our students are challenged by poverty. The majority, overwhelming majority. And so also,
two years ago, we had a huge achievement gap in this district. And you can see the number in math for our white black achievement gap, it was 41 percentage points difference. Today, it's only 29. Now that's still too big. I get that, but it's a huge improvement since years before. And the white Hispanic gap is was 30 in 2023. 30 percentage points difference between his the average Hispanic student scores and our average white
student scores. Now it's 23. In reading, the gap is smaller, and still too large. 39 in, 2023 and 30 in 2025, and you can see the same thing for the white Hispanic gap. But we are closing the gap. The promise of America has been broken by most other districts, not here. The mission that we put before this board and before the community and before the staff in 2023 is two things, close the achievement gap and get kids ready for year 2020, 2035 world and workplace,
and we're doing both. Now we've got a lot of work to do, and nobody over there is gonna rest on the laurels. None of our principals will and none of our teachers will. Why? Because while we have a 197 a and b schools, a and b rated schools, we don't have 273 a and b rated schools. We still have a gap that's too large. We still have 18 d rated schools. That's a small percentage of two seventy three, but it's still schools that are d rated.
We have some low c rated schools that if we do not support, they may fall into d or f status. And all means all. And that means we have kids even in some of our a and b schools where the gap is too large, and that ain't right either. So we will do everything we can across the system to help all kids. Now this is a surprise to to staff probably, but I think it's possible I think it's possible to have only a and b rated campuses three years from now.
Only large district in America that 273 a and b rated campuses only. Is it possible that's the question. And because that question was asked two years ago, is it possible to get out intervention status in just a few years? And very few thought it was possible. We knew it was. I'm saying it is possible, and we're gonna shoot for that. Finally, there's always a question about NES and PUA. And the the the story here is you can see that NES campuses have grown incredibly.
Two years ago, they had 11 a and b schools NES campuses. Today, they have 94 a and b schools. But our but our, a and our PUA schools also had 82 a and b schools, and today they have a 103 a and b schools, a rise of 25%. So we didn't narrow the gap by bringing down the scores of our our stronger students. We narrow the gap by bringing the scores of our stronger students up,
and then our struggling campuses even further up. And that's how you close an achievement gap. So, again, I could go over way more data. You're gonna get some more on paper and happy to, answer any of those, the questions you have about that when we get to the session and the progress monitoring. But right now, Mr. President, if it's okay with you, I will move into We can open it up for questions for our members. Do you have any questions for the accountability? Anybody? I would just like Mike, would you go back a few slides,
if you don't mind? Go to the one with the circles on them. And I've only been in Houston twenty years, so I don't know all the details. But I'm looking at the right upper right hand Northeast quadrant of the city, okay? Virtually every school in 2023 was either D or F rated in that quadrant. I'm just picking on one slide, the Northeast quadrant of the city. Yep. And go one slide further. There isn't a d or f rated school in that quadrant any longer. There are a few c's, but all the all the rest of them are b's.
That is a remarkable story. How does that happen? Yes, sir. So just quickly Oh, that could be an hour. Yeah. It would take a long time, but this is this is very smart. This is a story that the North Forest community is very proud of. Prior to 2012, they were they had the same circles. And then in 2012, they were North Forest School, most of those are North Forest, was annexed by this district. And they continued to be stepchildren. And now as you can see, they're very proud of the fact of what that you just mentioned.
The short story is a lot of effective teaching and a lot of effective leadership and coaching from principals. That is the reason. That's what we said would be the reason. We train on it. We are rigorous in it. Everybody I mean, even today, I mean, the board members can see, that went to the schools. And by the way, thank you, board members, for, being in the schools. And the rest of you, I know, later this year will will also join us in in schools. But you can see firsthand then how the training goes.
Day one, effective teaching. Not everybody, yes. There were some progressing teachers day one. But day one, that's what it takes. That's what some people don't understand. That's the answer to your question in shorthand. Any other questions? Okay. Great. Mister president, if you if you don't mind, then I will move into school recognition. So for this, month's board spotlight, we are thrilled to honor three campuses that have shown extraordinary growth over the past year. These schools didn't just improve their academic scores. They are powerful examples of what's possible with dedicated leadership,
committed teachers, and resilient students. They are making sure that ZIP code no longer dictates destiny in HISD. We're excited to celebrate the district's three highest growth campuses for the 2025 school year. So many schools improved, but these three schools are truly standouts. So first, we recognize Valley West Elementary School. And you can see from the chart there that the school made incredible progress in just one year, leaping from an f to an a rating in 2025.
Several of us were at Valley West, and it was really a great celebration. And these results were a product of former principal Terry Hampton's dedicated leadership, and, principal Hampton has now moved into a new role, as a leader of Jane Long Middle School. And we warmly welcome Valley West's new principal, principal Tucker. Yeah. Both of you will stand up. And again, these these results are more than just a letter grade. Take it from a fifth grade science teacher who shared, Valley West is more than just a school. It's my home. Our dedicated teachers consistently collaborate and support one another to provide students with a truly
exceptional first class education. Valley West is the place to learn, grow, and work. Thank you again, principal Hampton, principal Tucker, and the Valley West teachers and staff. Next, we celebrate Browning Elementary School. And this school is led by principal, doctor Elena Silva Leo. And you can see they went from a c rating to an a rating, and this accomplishment reflects a culture of excellence built on high expectations, collaborative teaching, and a deep belief in every student's potential. Christina Rodriguez,
a reading teacher. Thank you. A reading teacher and proud parent shared, working at Browning has taught me to embrace challenges and recognize relationship building as a key component of success across the board. As a parent of a Browning student, I've witnessed remarkable growth in my son's learning and social experiences, and it makes me a proud Roadrunner mom. Could doctor Silva Leo and the Browning staff who are in attendance, can you please stand up and be recognized? Let's see. And finally,
Mill Elementary School. Same thing you can see there, a huge growth from an f rating to a b rating. I think they got an 88. They just missed the a. And they are led by, principal Chante Creeks. Chante where's Chante? Go ahead. And in their own words, this is a third grade student, we do fun activities that help us learn, like rip arounds and using whiteboards. I like pushing myself every day, and I feel proud when I make it to the team center. That is a third grader.
Look, I would just like to say, congratulations to all schools. You are the the best of the the brightest the best and the brightest of a a group of schools that had incredible growth this year. So just, know that we also understand what it really takes. I mean, it's easy to throw numbers up there. It's easy to get applause. But the real the real, plus for you all, I know, happens when nobody's watching in the quiet of the night or in between classes,
And when you have to do all the things that you have to do to make that school work, to motivate kids, to get them in the right going in the right direction all at the same time, support teachers, it's huge. And so, thank you for all that. I'm done. Superintendent Miles, I have one question about the previous A through A and B students. I saw a number that said 70,000 students, we have 70,000 students more in A and B schools today than we did in 2023, is that correct? That's right.
That's right. That's right. 70,000 more students. 70,000 today. Good. Great. Than before. And we we have, over 80,000 no. Over a 100 over a 130,000 in a and b schools. 130,000. So 70,000 more than we we had Not just yet. So let me say that again. Over a 130,000 Okay. So kids attending a and b school. Got it. And and a 70,000 increase from the beginning. A. Yes. Sorry. I can mix I just wanted to get those numbers right. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you, superintendent.
We are now going to hold a public hearing regarding compensatory education evaluation summary. So, thank you. All right. Superintendent Miles, you're going to take us through this public hearing? Justin, thank you. This is a two minute Okay. You're on. Good evening, board. Alright. I'm here just to talk about the state confensary education. We're gonna just quickly go through this. Next slide. Alright. So state comp ed, it is designated by Texas Education Code chapter 39, sub chapter b. And the it is designated to reduce the dropout rate and increase academic performance of
at risk students. So there are 14 at risk indicators, and this program is dedicated to help to make sure they stay in school and perform well. Next slide. Every year, based on law, we are obligated to put together a report that evaluates the effectiveness of State Comp Ed and the efforts that this district is making. The report is posted on our website and available for public view, as of today. And that's it. Thank you. So we're doing okay? Perfect. Thank you. Okay, that's the key. All right, so, Superintendent Miles, you're going to talk about Board monitoring,
the Board monitoring update on goal one progress measures one point measures 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and goal progress goal two, including the progress measures, right? Yes, sir. And, Chief Kristen Hall will present those progress monitoring metrics. So while we're waiting for this, I want to remind Board members how we're going to do this. So rather than waiting till the end and saying please go back to Slide five or Slide six or whatever, We're going to ask questions. If you have a question for administration on a slide, just raise your hand,
wave and we'll stop the discussion and you can ask your question on that slide rather than waiting and saving it for the end. Go ahead. Great. Good evening, board members. Today, we're going to do the progress monitoring update for the end of year results for our goal one, our goal two, and we'll also go over the end of year results for all of the associated GPMs. So we'll start with Goal one, which is, the percent of third grade students in Houston, earning meets grade level on the STAR reading test. And so if you go to the next slide, this is the executive summary of Goal one, which is great news. We have met the target for the goal as well as all of the great
news. We have met the target for the goal as well as all of the GPMs under that goal. So if you go to the next slide, this is the goal itself. So for this year, our target was 44 percentage of students meeting grade level, and we reached that target at 44 percentage, students meeting grade level. We also look at this broken out by student group. And you can see for many of the student groups, we have, improved and we have seen an increase in the number of students meeting grade level expectations, with the exception of students with disabilities and,
students with two plus races, which accounts for fourteen percent of the population for students with disabilities and two percent for, the two plus races. So we're gonna stay extremely focused on these student groups going into the next year. If you go to the next slide, we also Yeah. Go ahead. Yep. Yeah. This is this is the achievement gap. Right? At the end of the day, when you're looking at, the particularly the larger communities, which are the Black and Hispanics and the improvements we've had there. And as was expressed earlier, there's still some question about that gap, although there are improvements going on in the White and Asian communities.
That gap how do you see that gap closing over time? And how are you going to accomplish that? So in this particular slide, we do see that for Black and Hispanic groups, which are typically our largest percentage of our students, that's going up 62%. And so we we were excited to see positive results this year. But this goal is based on third grade. And so what we know is incredibly important to continue to improve this and to continue to close this achievement gap is actually the dedicated focus to pre K and
then kinder through second. Because that's when, really, kids are spending time, really learning how to read. They're, building their science of reading skills, learning letters, learning how to put letters together into words. And so we also have to stay incredibly focused on those grades to continue to see this achievement gap close. The we also look at this data Another question here. Go ahead. Can you drill down a little bit, on the students with disabilities? So that's one of the places where we need to, we need to make measured improvements. And can you talk about, what the plan is?
Like, it's the beginning of the year, so we we see this here. So what what's different for this group of kids? Or or how are we iterating on dealing with this issue? Yes. I think one of the things that we stay incredibly focused on, in, instruction and in curriculum is really thinking about how we can build in scaffolds and supports for these students. And so embedding, tools in the curriculum to help them, better, maintain their ability to think about and perform at grade level in the classroom. And so we've done a lot of work even this year to improve curriculum enhancements to support these students.
We also have a dedicated, time in every single principal's meeting planned this year specifically for how to support our students in special education. Yeah. Go ahead. Hi. Thank you. There are some scores like DIBELS and other things that can give us an early indication of of what future years will look like. How do you incorporate some of those early indicator tests into this strategy going forward to to do exactly what some of my colleagues said and accelerate closing this gap? It's a great question, and we'll talk about this as one of our strategies. But we have launched a new kinder through second grade accelerated course,
specifically focused on those students who are showing, that they are not meeting, the grade level expectations from tests like DIBELS, in their beginning, middle, and end of year scores. So we actually have a targeted course where those students get additional instruction, in the science of reading to specifically address that. Alright. We also look at this, by NES and PUA campuses. And, again, in both of these situations, we see, an improvement in third grade reading scores, for both types of schools. Quick question. You know, we see this great growth in the NAS side of the equation.
How are we going to continue to push the growth in the, PUA campuses? We want to, again, continue to focus on high quality instruction in all schools and continue to ensure that, those schools have access to grade level content, instruction, and then coaching for teachers. And so, it's it's the same focus in both, and we're gonna, maintain that in the PUA as well. You do see that, it increased. They had a dip last year, but they were able to increase this year, which I think is a testament to that focus. GPM 1.1, this is the GPM that specifically, looks at the math test.
And we look at the third grade students who are projected to meet grade level on STAAR. And so this particular metric is correlated with the STAAR assessment. Last year when we ran this, there was only six percent of kids that this, particular metric underprojected. So it's a really good indication that if they meet, projection on math, they will also meet on STAAR. Our target, for this particular metric was 49% of students, and we reached that at 50% of students this year. If you go to the next slide, we also, again, break it out by student group.
For this particular, metric, almost all student groups increased, again, with the exception of two plus races. So we also stay focused on that group. And then if you, go to the next GPM, the next GPM is this same metric, again, looking at the students who are projected to meet on STAR. However, this metric is focused just on NES. So it's the same metric, but for our NES schools specifically, our target was 42, and we hit that target at 42 for this year. If you go to the next slide, again, we look at this by student group. Whenever we're looking at just RNES schools,
again, by most all student groups increase, which is incredible. However, we are paying close attention to For Asian student population where we did see a decrease this past year. And then finally, GPM 1.3 focuses specifically on second grade. So, I think this addresses even making sure we're paying attention to second grade. So what this GPM looks at is the students who are moving up a level of proficiency in second grade and or, meeting or continuing to meet that level of, proficiency in that. And so what we see here is our target was 45,
and we reached that target at 48. But this helps us stay really focused on our second grade students as a progress measure for third grade. Can I ask a question, please? And it has to do with, are these tests that are being administered to all of our second graders and third graders, or are these what's the sample size is really what I'm getting at here? Yes. If you go back, yes. So for for second grade math for reading, yes. We are really looking at all of our second graders. So we are testing all of our second graders and all of our third graders
on the the map test? Mhmm. Yes, sir. We have an exception process for students with disabilities, where if it's in their IEP, then we address that accordingly, but that's really it. Okay. So looking at the overall strategies, the previous strategies, I would say, we are continuing to focus on. So fidelity of implementation of our science of reading curriculum, staying focused on quality of instruction, and staying focused on increasing access to pre k. Those strategies will continue. However, this year, going into next year, we've highlighted a couple of additional ones. At first, we are continuing to,
monitor high quality tier one instruction again. We'll always name that. But we also have expanded the planning tools, and content internalization for teachers and leaders. And so we've built out for every single course resources that support teachers in planning for those lessons. Some examples are, every lesson has a video, two to three minute video that highlights the most important point of the lesson as well as a common misconception that a that a teacher might experience with students in that day. So those types of resources will really support, teachers in internalizing and planning for their lesson.
I actually already referenced strategy three, which is the K2 literacy plan supporting students where we have that targeted course, in kindergarten through second grade focused on accelerated literacy, and then finally continuing pre k expansion throughout the district. Alright. That is the end of goal one. Go ahead, Suzanne. Two things. We talk about, science of reading, but most people don't know what that means. And I don't mean like, so can you just give us a little bit of what that means or why we're doing it or why it makes a difference? And then the same thing you said, there's gonna be a literacy plan.
Like, what can you just kind of describe a little bit what you mean by those two things? Yes, ma'am. When we say science of reading, that term is generally used to describe what does research say about how a kid learns to read, and what's the brain science that must be true for a student to learn to read. So for example, we know that students can naturally learn to speak, but you actually have to teach a kid a code to read. They have to know their letters. They have to know the sounds those letters make. And they have to know that when those letters and with particular sounds come together,
that that makes a word. You have to teach a kid the code for reading. And the science of reading research really is research that shows what that code is and what you need to do for to help a kid crack that code. So that's really what we mean when we refer to the science of reading curriculum, just really making sure the way in which we teach reading supports what the research says about how the brain helps the student learn to read. And who are those teachers teaching that? In in our early grades, we we actually have a course for reading and writing,
and we also have another course for science of reading. So we have multiple teachers, you know, our our reading and language arts teachers are really teaching that course. That's what I mean. They're reading language arts teachers that are teaching science of reading. Okay. Thank you. Chief Ol, I have just a quick question. This you're all over this. This is amazing. Thank you for laying this out. I have more of a of a, of a question about the momentum of students who stay in our district for multiple years. Do we see, like, learning momentum occurring, you know, and this is compared against a student who maybe parachutes in for their first year,
as evidence that this is working. And the longer you stay in the system, the more momentum you will have and the more gains you will have. So can you speak on that, like, conceptually, how you think about it? Yes. And, mister Miles' terms the flywheel effect sometimes. But, yes, I do believe the hope is as you get more students to learn and to grow in a particular grade, that will benefit that next grade's learning. You'll have more students again who are able to meet grade level. And to reach mister Miles' goal of, you know, a and b campuses in three years,
really, that means we have to get more students on grade level and staying on grade level for a in a in a particular course. And, and so that's actually the focus. It's and that's why we report on grade level and above all of the time because that is actually how you achieve all a and b schools. And if you're picking and supporting kids in in kinder first and second, and third, in reading, it's really, really critical. Because as you move forward into the grades, our standards don't actually focus on as much on teaching how to read.
It expects that you know how to read, and you actually just now have to comprehend. So, again, that that's another reason why we expect this to improve over time. If we get better in these early grades, in future grades, those kids will do better. Same for math. Math concepts build on each other often vertically from one grade to another. And so if you if you do really well in one grade, the chances you do better in a future grade are incredibly high. Few of us are new to the board, and I remember hearing you present in connection with the bond proposal about plans for
expanding pre K. Can you talk about what is happening now without the bond? Yes. One of the really hard things there's a couple things. One of the really hard things about pre k is we don't have a way to reach families to let them know we have high quality pre k without really significant on the ground work. Because we don't have contact with those families, we don't have their email addresses, we don't have any way to tell them unless we invest in, marketing and really going door to door in some ways to let people know that
we have a service. And for many families, that that service is free. And so you can have a a family with a three year old or a four year old, where in order to reach that family, they have to know. So, the bond would have really helped us, I think, get the word out there to those families, for one. But the other problem with pre K is that, across the district, in some zones, in some campuses, we have open seats. And and, you know, those seats are where we can expand because there's space at the campus. But in some places, and in some,
zones, that campus is fully maxed out. We're at capacity. And in some in some instances, that those zones have a lot of demand, and we just can't meet that demand without some sort of infrastructure change. And we can't afford that infrastructure change if we don't have the funding to do that. So I would say it's it's most it was most important for those, places where we know that there's really high demand for pre K, but we don't actually have the building space at those schools to support it. And as I look at kind of the statistics, the lowest percentages of meet or exceeds grade level,
emergent bilingual jumps out at you. It looks like immigrant population, is that where efforts are centered, is where there's a higher percentage of emergent bilingual students? I can look at that specifically, but for pre k, we know our biggest struggle is in the West. In the West, we have a lot of evidence that there are campuses with incredibly high wait lists for pre k where we just don't have the space. And we do know that we do have a lot of newcomer students in that area as well. So Can you get a little more specific than the West? Because I know, like, the district goes all the way out to West Side.
Yeah. Is that what you're talking about or or more like the Gulfton area or The I was referring to the West Division. Okay. So we actually can get you a list of campuses where, hey, this campus, we there's there's demand. We see it on the wait list, but we're full. And that's true for a lot of zones. It's not just in the West, but it usually is, it's definitely a trend in the West. Okay, great. Go ahead. Thank you, Chief Ho. I'd like to expand on, Mr. Gore's excellent question around momentum. Since it's the beginning of the school year and I know MAP testing begins next
week, I'm wondering if you anticipate any shifts around momentum with respect to reading and summer learning loss. And if so, are there any strategies to target that, acutely and long term with respect to learning loss? I mean, one of the things that the research says with learning loss is that the shorter the summer, the less the learning loss. And so one thing the district did do that the research supports is right off the bat moving to that one hundred and eighty day calendar. And that's moving from, I think, a hundred and seventy two or three,
if I remember. So that is actually there's a lot of evidence across, just The US that that can significantly help with learning loss. But I think the other thing that is a really strong focus and, testament to all of our divisions is from the day one from the day one we start, kids are learning in the classroom. And so all of the classrooms I've walked through classrooms myself. You've heard our folks talk about it. They are learning from day one, and that is the best thing I think we can do to make sure that if there is learning loss, that it's addressed right away. Thank you.
On the on the strategy slide here that we're looking at, may I get your help to to understand the distinction between the strategy two on the left, which is a stronger implementation of high quality instruction versus this I'm assuming strategy one is an extension of that or or furthering that strategy. I just wanna make sure I understand that. And maybe if you could help just understand what give me an example of what that means. Yes. I think as a district, we continue to refine the support for high quality instruction. And so even Mr.
Miles, I don't wanna speak on his behalf, but he has a new, we have the we had the grade eight last year, which is eight things that principals can focus on and teachers can focus on to improve the quality instruction. We added another eight to that this year so we can continue to support that refinement. And so I'll let him speak to that too. Yes. And also, when you look at the entire class period, high quality instruction should be everywhere, yes. But because we differentiate the last thirty minutes, we also want the instruction of we call it tier one, the students who are still needing to learn the objective or need more practice with
it, for that instruction to also be really high quality. That it's not an intervention time per se. It's a, stronger, practice with a teacher. To make sure I'm understanding that, it sounds like it's continuation of that strategy and focus on the Tier one students? Yes. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. I think we can move on to the next goal. Okay. Goal two is third graders who are meeting expectations but for math. And the executive summary level here, which is also great news, goal two was met and then all of the GPMs,
within goal two were also met. So if we go to the next slide, our target for this was 41%, and we exceeded this target at 46, which is great news for third grade math students. If you go to the next slide, you see this again broken down by student group. And for this particular slide, every single student group went up, which is just really, really incredible for our students. And then finally, if you look at NES versus our PUA campus, again, you see an increase increase for both school types. If you look at 2.1
specifically, this is, again, this is back to MAP, and it's MAP's ability to project the, percentage of students who are who will meet expectations on STAR. Our goal was 46% as a target, and we exceeded that at 49%, so we met that target. Again, if you look down here by student group, every single student group, ex improved proficiency in this particular metric. And then if you also look, sorry. That's that's right. The next, 2.2 is the same metric again, but it's focused specifically on NES. And so we look, here our target was 40,
and we exceeded that at 42. And then again, when you look at student groups by NES, we have, all student groups improving in proficiency except our Asian population, which again is a population we will stay focused on this year, given that it was the similar, story in reading. So, we're gonna pay a lot of attention to that. And then 2.3 is, again, it's back to second grade. So we really look at the percent of students who are improving a proficiency level and or staying at meets. And here, our target was 40%, and we exceeded that at 44%.
And so, again, incredible news. So, previous strategies have been the use of high quality instructional materials and digital resources, and and strong implementation of those materials. And then going forward, again, we're gonna continue that monitoring of high quality tier one instruction, again, focused on those critical, areas of focus that mister Miles has highlighted before. We have expanded planning tools for content internalization for teachers and leaders. Similar story to RLA. Here in math, teachers have additional resources that they've never had before to support planning.
They have videos that support them in internalizing that lesson, with a couple critical slides that help them anticipate the misconceptions of students and plan for that. And then finally, increased math language and conceptual understanding in curriculum. This is, again, that continued focus to help a student understand the why behind the math as opposed to just the procedure behind the math, which is really important, especially, to your question earlier around future grades. So, if they don't if you aren't also building that conceptual understanding as math gets more
difficult in future grades, they could struggle. So again, we have to focus on both here. I have a question. Sorry. For non NES so so for non NES schools for schools not using HISD curriculum, the strategies would it for a school like that, would the strategy just it would be the principal's choice of strategy of how to how to implement on their campus? Because I some of the the strategies talk about the curriculum, but if they're using something different, like, who's in charge of making sure all these things are happening? So for in in the PUA schools,
we gave PUAs multiple options of curriculum to select that we would fund centrally. So for math and reading, we gave them three options, and our curriculum team did vet those options. So even prior to, the start of this administration, some of the campuses were using Eureka and Carnegie. Those are vetted and approved resources by the state. They do follow the the thinking behind what makes, you know, strong math instruction and a strong math curriculum. So, for example, they will also focus on building conceptual understanding and procedural understanding.
I think what we've just tried to do with HIC curriculum is make it, really easy for teachers to use. And so that's been our focus, but there are other options for them that are still, deemed by the state of Texas as high quality resources. Thank you. Okay. Okay. The last one to report on for today is constraint one, which is no grow, not allowing the number of multi year DRF campuses with a prior unacceptable rating to grow. Mr. Miles spoke on this a little bit today, but a year ago, we had 41 D and F campuses, and today we have only 18 with zero of those being F.
But this metric specifically looks at the multi year D and F campuses. And so a year ago, we had 30, and we have gotten that down to four. But I think, again, with this long term vision of, definitely no DNFs, but even more AMVs, we will remain incredibly focused on this particular constraint. And that's it. Any other questions? Thank you all. Thank you. Great news. Okay, so, now we're going to move to, speakers to the agenda items and hearing from the community. So we'll hear from our registered speakers. We'll begin with public officials followed by student speakers both in person and on Zoom.
I think our Zoom is fixed now, isn't it, hopefully? We will then hear from in person speakers to both the agenda and hearing community followed by all remaining Zoom speakers. Please note that Spanish live captioning is available for those viewing the meeting via live stream and live Spanish interpretation is also available in person in the auditorium. We have 80 registered speakers tonight who will be limited to one minute each per Board policy as we have more than 30 people signed up to address the Board tonight. We ask that you stay on topic and refrain from naming individuals especially students as
their identity is protected under the law, but you may name your own child. I ask that you please respect our procedures and the other speakers and in your comments promptly when your time has expired and the timer rings. So we'll start with public officials. City Council Member Mario Castillo, you're up first. Thank you for being here tonight. Good evening, board and superintendent. Try this one. Yeah. There we go. Okay. Thank you. You're good. Go ahead. Board and superintendent. My name is Mario Castillo, city council member District H. I wanna start by wishing all the students and parents a safe and productive school
year, and I'm here tonight to support the parents of Durham Elementary, school in my district. This is a title one IB dual language school. I'm sure y'all are familiar with Durham. It's gone through some significant changes that have raised concerns, changes to the curriculum right before the school year started. So their concerns are my concerns, and this is, something that I would like to meet with leadership on to get more information, to better understand why the changes happened, what caused them to happen so close to the start of the school year,
and what HISD is going to do to support Durham through the rest of the school year. I support making changes to increase student performance and test scores. I think we all do. Thank you. Next up, we have Trustee, Samant Moore. Good evening. Once I leave, my daughter's in the hospital, been told for this week, so excuse me afterwards. But it's so important. I'm very focused on hyperlocal issues, and at the root cause most times is public education. We have to be focused on reading intervention.
So I challenge every community leader, every community member, sign up for VIPs. It will be public record what schools are C, D, be at those schools. For my, city members that don't look like me, go to a school that looks like me so that we can work together. The division between all of us, it has to stop. We see that in state politics. We see it on a local level. We gotta help these kids. Just yesterday, I was fighting for a kid's life in the courthouse. It started with the school.
So us in these rooms, we can prevent all the issues that we face in our community if we show up. Thank you and good luck with your daughter. Up next is Trustee Gomez, go ahead. Thank you, I'm Fassito Gomez from District eight. I wanna talk about when NES students take Algebra one and Biology one. And I completely understand that for students who are far behind academically, it's probably best if they take these courses later. But for students who are ready for Algebra one in eighth grade or even seventh grade, it is a huge disservice to make them wait because it limits their access to
advanced level courses in high school. I went to a rough high school, with a lot of issues, but we had a fantastic math teacher who let me take algebra two as a freshman and pre cal as a sophomore so that I could take AP calculus and be ready for Rice University and later Harvard where I knew I could compete with any student in math because I had a great teacher who pushed me in high school. Now in HISD, wealthy students or students from wealthy communities have access to advanced level courses and that's great. I obviously want that to continue. But as an elected representative with both high and low income communities in my district,
I demand the same level of access for each and every one Thank you. Josie Hernandez? Good evening, board of managers and superintendent Miles, and happy first week of school to all of our students, teachers, and staff. And let me celebrate with you that there are no students attending our schools in HISD. HISD. On Tuesday evening, the elected board discussed student outcomes in HISD. We discussed questions that we had over the progress monitoring report that will be that was already presented today. The elected board does not have authority over the district business,
but we want to ensure that there is a focus on student outcomes by the community, by the board of managers, by the administration, and by ourselves. Effective governance, according to Lone Star governance, is that the board spends at least 50% of their meeting time on student monitoring. The August meeting sorry. The June meeting had seven minutes of progress monitoring. Today's meeting, twenty five minutes. You could do the math there. Effective governance You should have the list of questions in your desk. We also email it to you. Thank you.
And thank you for your service. We really appreciate that. Next, we'll hear from speakers who have identified themselves as students when they checked in this evening. Speakers, please state your name and the topic, when you step up to the microphone. The Smith, you can call up the students, please. I'd like to ask all students to come to the front row, please. We'll start with Simon Contreras followed by Micah Gebay. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Simon Contreras, and I'm 11 years old. I go to Lanier Middle School in H ISD, and I'm here to talk about something really important to me,
school lunches. I know you care about kids in Houston. That's why I'm asking for your help to make school lunches better. Let me explain. Every day, thousands of thousands of kids in HISD schools are ready for a delicious and nutritious meal. I knew I knew to the district last year, and I was instantly disappointed by the low quality meals offered. The food provided with HISD by HISD Nutrition Services focused on cheap, ultra processed ingredients, which can cause health issues. At almost every lunch,
I'd rather go hungry than eat the food, and that's not okay. Let me tell you about one of my experiences involving the steamed carrots. Everyone knows that vegetables have a great nutritional value, especially when they're steamed. But one day when I was getting my steamed carrots, I sat down to to see a mucus like like substance out on the Please put his mic back on. I was on the HIC nutrition services page reading about the, the frequently asked questions section, and I found several bits of false advertising. Firstly, there were there are numerous photos displaying vibrant fresh fruits like blueberries,
avocado, kiwi, and grapefruit. None of those are ever offered at school at school. Additionally, one image contained perfectly arranged fresh carrot and zucchini sticks, while another showed a yummy salmon fillet. These images are very misleading. Also, here's a direct quote from the website. Menus are planned by a registered dietitian using recipes created by HSE professional chefs. In my experience, that couldn't be further away from the truth. Just admit it. Literally, everything they serve is processed, premade, and of low nutritional value.
We need food that's fresh and healthy, but also tastes good and fills us up. Kids can't learn on empty stomachs, and we and we can't go grow strong if we don't eat well. Even small changes can make a big difference, like having more fruits and vegetables that don't come from a can or letting us have a save of what's on the menu. I'm not here to complain. I'm here because I can believe we can fix it fix this. Thank you for listening to me. I hope you will make HISD's school lunches something we can all be proud of. And I'm representing all,
all of the kids in HISD in America, and I hope this message will make future generation generations healthier. Thank you. Thank you. Micah Gobeys, followed by Alyanna Gottlieb. Good evening. Is it on? It should be on. Good evening. I'm Micah Gobeys. And today, I wanna speak on everything, that's happened at my school since the takeover, including the the discontinuation of the wraparound, specialist. I walked in I walked into school for the first day on Tuesday, and almost all the teachers are new. The faces we trusted are gone. You brag about you brag about growth,
but let me tell you what's really happening in our schools. The administrator the administration doesn't just ignore teachers. It pushes them out. Last year, I watched three of my most favorite educators disappear. One of them was fired for sitting at their desk during independent work, and another was disciplined in front of his students. That isn't teaching students healthy work environment, is it? These were teachers who stayed late, believed in us, now replaced by substitutes or revolve or a revolving door of new faces. Every time we fall every time
Mic should be on. Go ahead. What's left is what's left is a select few. Take that away, and students lose hope. We get bored, frustrated, and then punished for it. Even the wraparound services are broken. I came to school soaked one day looking for help. No one was there. I sat in wet clothes all day. That's not an accident. That's a policy. This isn't a reform. It's sa it's sabotage. They call it accountability, but who's holding them accountable? We are. Thank you. Thank you. We need our next speaker up. We need our next speaker up. Please, can you, Eliana Gottlieb. Be respectful to the next speaker. Thank you.
Eliana Gottlieb followed by Mark Edmond Felice. Good evening. My name is Eliana Gottlieb. I'm a ninth grader at HSPVA, and I'm excited to start another year at HISD. As many of our parents told us this week when we left for school, make good choices and remember who you are. I would like to encourage the Board of Managers to follow this parental advice this year. First, make good choices. Ask yourself, does the choice I'm making benefit the students and teachers of HISD? Is the choice I'm making fair and equitable? And is the choice I'm making transparent?
Making choices. Second, remember who you are. The TEA says your mission is to improve outcomes for HISD students by representing the vision and values of the community and by following oversight to ensure that the vision and values are being honored. Remember, you are serving a community. Remember, you remember to listen to that community. Remember to honor that community. Remember who you are. Good choices or remember your mission. It's a new year and a new start. I hope you will take this advice. Thank you.
Hi. My name is Mark Edmond, and then I'm in third grade at Durham Elementary. I wanna talk to you, mister Miles, about my second grade math and science teachers. They taught me a lot. They're the best because they helped me learn and made it fun. My grades were very high, and I scored over 200 on my math test, science, math, and reading. My science teachers got switched, and it's no fair for the students. I feel like they will have a good as good experience as me. My old teachers were really good at teaching, and my son, the day before school,
they were very sad about switching subjects. I was worried their new students won't get as good of a grade. My teachers are really, really good at teaching the subjects. They like, why did you change your jobs right before school started, mister Miles? That's not really fair to my teachers or friends in second grade. Thank you. Thank you. Good job. Lady Piper. Are there any other students? We're gonna move to Zoom. Okay. For a student speaker. Adidas Sage Bittner. Is Zoom working now? We're waiting for them to turn on their video.
Okay. You may begin. Hi. My name is Adida Sage Bittner, and I'm a sixth grader at Young Women's College Preparatory Academy. My new school isn't NES, but it kinda feels like it. On day one, we went straight into lessons. No time to connect with classmates or teachers. I like learning, but I need to feel safe and valued first. One teacher even said she had to start teaching right away because Mike Miles said so. I'm more than a brain to fill with facts. I'm a kid with dreams, strengths, insecurities, and feelings. I need to know I can ask a question without being laughed at and make
a mistake without being embarrassed. Test scores don't show who I am or what I can become. Please help make school a place where kids like me feel safe to take risks. Be ourselves and grow into citizens ready to solve the big problems of the future. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we'll call in person speakers to the microphone in groups beginning with speaker numbers one through 10. We have seats in the front row reserved for the next group of speakers so please occupy those seats. If you're up next, please come to the microphone in the numbered order and say your name.
Ms. Smith, will you call people? Thank you. We begin with speaker one. Hello. How are you? How are you doing? I'm here. My name is Daryl Prince. I stand in Northwood Manor area. They took all the buses out in Northwood Manor. All the buses from the elementary to the high school. So now my my son has to walk down the back street. It's suburban. There's no sidewalks on either side of the street. If I stand in the ditch, you can't see me in the ditch. So then you have to cross the main street, which that'll be East Mount Houston,
to get to the bus stop. So the bus stop is in front of a trailer park. Nobody knows who stays back there. I've I've been in North America since I was a kid. I grew up there. I never knew that trailer park was back there. And one side is full of woods, dumpsters, and everything. And that's a thirty minute walk from my house for him to get to a bus stop. So I remember it's raining, all the flood. He had to get out and walk thirty minutes through the water to get either home or to the bus stop. So thank you. Thank you. Hi. My name is Takiyah McClendon. This is my son,
Zayon. Mister Gore has spoke about, families working together with principals and teachers and putting the kids first. I am not from Texas. Him going to school is brand new to me. I reached out to the school since 2023, and no one has helped me at that school. He was supposed to start school on Tuesday. He has autism. He has special needs. Nobody has helped me with anything. He could not start school. They're telling me that he has to stay home until they figure it out. I have to work. I am a a trauma therapist. So I'm sitting there talking to people about trauma, and my son is coming into the room.
Not only that, I'm getting a runaround from everyone. I put in complaints. I'm going back and forth with people, and they told me not to even come here because y'all not even gonna care anyway. So now I'm standing here asking somebody to help me get my child in school so he can get the services that he deserves. Thank you. Alright. Good evening. Charles Collins, former math teacher at Challenger College High School, and I thank the board for voting to overturn my nonrenewal back in December 2024. However, I was not offered a contract, and my employment was not reinstated by the board. I was instead threatened with termination,
harassed, and intimidated by central division leadership. I was falsely accused of sexual harassment for which HISD and my former principal did nothing but retaliate. I recently filed an ethics complaint with TEA. I also filed complaints with the state auditor and the Office for Civil Rights because of fraud and computer temporary to cover my nonrenewal and contract expiration. HISD continues to inflict harm on me. I am asking the board to investigate this unlawful conduct and to take corrective action.
Thank you. Jesse Dugan, HIC parent. Mister Rosales, as a newly appointed board member, you said in interviews, you hope in a year that parents will wake up and see the gains of HISD. Well, you just got appointed to this puppet board, because if I remember correctly, no one here voted for you, right? Nope? I think that you need to wake up. Wake up to the fact that parents have rejected Mike Miles year after year. Just look at the enrollment numbers, numbers they did not show you tonight. Wake up to the fact that Mike Miles is holding black and brown kids back
to make his numbers look better while the true outcomes get worse. Wake up to the fact that special education is getting gutted when it is supposed to be a priority to end this takeover. My kid is in special ed. What's the plan for him when you turn all these schools to charter? You guys know that autistic kids do not get a place in charter schools. Not private Thank you. My name is Catherine Estes. I'm the parent of two HISD students. High performing teacher attrition should be a red flag for this board. I will now read a letter on behalf of one former high one former high
performing HISD teacher. The twenty twenty four-twenty five school year marks my final year as an HISD educator. I left the district not because I was ineffective, but because I could no longer trust the system. I have been teaching for sixteen years and consistently received spot scores between eleven and fourteen. But the feedback I received was inconsistent. It was not meaningful. It certainly did not help me grow as an educator. It felt more like my score was being kept high enough to keep me content, but low enough to justify a lower wage. It's a game I could not win, so I chose not to play.
Like most teachers, I welcome real feedback. I am here to support the children. But the pressure administrators are under creates a stressful and demoralizing environment. When leadership is driven by fear and metrics, both teachers and students become nothing more than numbers. It will continue with the Thank you. Hi. Hi. My name is Kate Anderson. I'm an HID parent. And just to continue her letter, I had students crying at the end of the year because they did not meet their goal, and others crying because they thought that HID would say that I was not a good teacher. I told them, I do not need a score to know that you have grown,
and I do not base my worth off of one test. You should not either. The message being sent to children, their families, and to educators is clear. Experience is not valued. Teachers are treated as if we are easily replaceable, and that is simply not true. Years of experience matter. We do not just manage classrooms, we build relationships, adapt instruction, and help kids thrive. HISD is not losing veteran teachers because they cannot teach. It is losing them because they are not respected. You cannot build a strong district by devaluing the very people holding it together.
Last year, HISD lost 3,500 veteran teachers from our schools. This trend is unsustainable. Please listen Thank you. Speaker number seven. Good evening. My name is Anne Eagleton. And, I sort of feel like I made the mistake of taking a look at the Lone Star governance framework yourself appraisal. It's disappointing that so much time is spent on what really is kind of just bureaucratic crap. But one thing that concerns me is there is going to be a discussion this year about closing 10 schools and you have taken community engagement off of your jobs
or anything you're gonna be rated on. What is the plan? Are you planning on figuring out the closures in closed session or are you engaging the community? I will tell you because I've been in this district long enough to know, all hell will break loose if you do not engage the community and have a real meaningful discussion. The other point I wanna make is, according to the Texas Education Code, Mr. Miles and his administration should have a financial performance goal and I have not ever seen it printed. Thank you.
Okay. I'm reading a speech by the student who had to leave because y'all wasted our time in the beginning. My name is Lainie. Before the takeover of HISD, my elementary school was a thriving and happy place where kids had fun learning from experienced teachers. Since then, all the fun was taken away and all we did were boring worksheets all day. The only thing we were learning to do all year was how to pass the star test. Most of our experienced teachers left and the ones who stayed were constantly stressed out by visitors, which was a lot. I'm just a kid and even I know that that is a toxic work environment.
The school I went to in kindergarten and third grade is not the same school that I went to in fourth and fifth. My experiences I had in second grade would not be the same as the ones my sister would have had this year. My little sister and many of our friends and family have left for other districts or non NES schools. So sure, NES is working at increasing star scores, but at what cost to our school communities? And then in my own words, I will stay mad at you for the tears my children Thank you. Thank you. Your time is up. Thank you. Speaker number nine. Speakers 10 through 20 please move to the front row.
I'm Adele Daniel, Love Elementary parent. This is an example of HISD's poor communication. On July 22, parents were informed that our principal was leaving. HISD sent out a survey about the principal search on July 24 stating it would close on July 30. During a 4PM meeting with HISD administrators on July 30, two PTO members were told there was a good candidate for the new principal. Shortly after 5PM, HISD announced this person as the new principal with a flyer to meet her at
the wrong address in less than seventy two hours. The PTO requested a longer meeting and or later time. The flyer was corrected to the right address but an even shorter meeting. Many people didn't even fill out the survey since the new principal had already been picked with very little input from the parents. I don't know if this was caused by hubris and aptitude or apathy, but this is not the way to rebuild trust. Thank you. Hi. My name is John Garza, and I'm here tonight, as a Durham Elementary parent and a very active member of our school community.
I also carry the voices of more than 70 families who wrote to HISD leadership this last week. Two days before our school year started, the stability of our school was shaken. This is a story that you're gonna hear tonight. On Thursday, August 7, the Durham, school hosted meet the teacher, and all of our students were excited to meet their teachers, explore their classrooms, and see the routines that would set the stage for the entire school year. Parents were reassured that months of careful planning had prepared teachers and students alike for a smooth start. But the very next day, Friday, August 8,
everything changed. This is gonna be continued. We are not opposed to necessary changes, but we are opposed to poorly planned disruption without proper support and resources. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Natalie Karamush, and I'm here as well to support Durham Elementary School. The day after Meet the Teacher, on Friday, August 8, with only one professional development day left, third grade teachers were reassigned to entirely new subjects. Third grade teachers were told of major changes to classrooms, and teaching subjects with almost no time to prepare. As if that were not enough, third grade teachers were also told they could no longer use Eureka,
which is something that we heard differently tonight, but without we had to start using a different curricula, HISD curricula. That's a huge change. And in some cases, the subject in a different language. Let me remind you, third grade is a critical year for STAAR testing. These sudden shifts left teachers scrambling to prepare, risking student success before school even began. To be continued, we're not opposed to necessary changes, we are opposed to poorly planned disruption without proper support and resources. Thank you. My name is Angelique Vargas, and I am here tonight as a Durham Elementary parent to continue the story of
changes at our school days before students arrived. As previously mentioned, on Thursday, August 7, students met their teachers. And then on Friday, August 8, third grade was informed of new subjects, new teaching content, and new curriculum. On Monday, August 11, the last teacher work day and less than twenty four hours before students would grace the halls, the second grade teachers received the same news, new subjects, new curriculum, and sometimes new languages. Imagine spending an entire summer preparing, dedicating a professional development week, planning, and being told hours before school starts that everything must change to reflect new subjects,
including the educational references on your walls. This story will be continued. We are not opposed to necessary changes. We are opposed to poorly planned disruption without proper support and resources. Thank you. Michelle Witkowski, and I'm here tonight also as a Durham Elementary parent. To be clear, this is not about resisting change. We welcome improvements that enhance our students' learning, but this is about rejecting change that comes without enough time and resources to implement it successfully. These last minute adjustments do far more than shuffle names on a roster.
They leave no time to adjust, put student academic outcomes at risk, undermine teacher morale, and jeopardize the trust between HISD and the families it serves. To be continued, we are not opposed to necessary changes. We are opposed to to poorly planned disruption without proper support and resources. Thank you. Hi. My name is Sarah Maller, and I'm here tonight as a Durham Elementary parent to continue the story of changes at our school days before students arrive. So why did these sudden, sweeping changes happen last minute at Durham? We were told it was because our school was a newly designated school of focus
due to testing scores on August 1. During the August 12 press conference, when an audience member asked superintendent Mike Mike Miles about the last minute changes at Durham, he suggested we were a D or D minus school, and therefore a school of focus. This was news to Durham parents, and it was not accurate. To be continued, we are not opposed to change. We are opposed to poorly planned disruptions without proper support and resources. Thank you. My name is Davie Garza, and I'm here tonight as a Durham Elementary parent to continue the story of changes
at our school days before students arrived. As mentioned at the HIIC press conference on Wednesday, superintendent Mike Miles suggested that we were likely a d or d minus school considering the changes described. Durham is actually a c school this year. Yes. Our scores dropped from 81 to 75, a six point decline. On August 12, the same day as the press conference, we were told that this six point drop, regardless of letter grade, triggered Durham School of Focus designation. When we asked district officials if superintendent Miles' statement was incorrect, we were told it was not incorrect,
but incomplete. The reality is that a school can be labeled a school of focus even without a d rating if schools if scores are subjectively deemed to have decreased too much. To be continued, we are not opposed to necessary changes. We are opposed to poorly planned disruption without proper support and resources. Thank you. My name is Courtney Brown, and I'm here tonight as a Durham Elementary parent to continue the story of changes at our school days before students arrived. On July 31, Durham Elementary was assigned a brand new principal. The very next day,
August 1, we were informed that our campus had been designated a school of focus. For any school, either of these changes on its own would require time, planning, and strong support. Having them back to back meant our campus was navigating a great deal in a very short window. Given the scope of these changes, it would have been helpful to have dedicated guidance and resources in place immediately to support our staff and new leadership team. That level of support did not begin until August 8, just days before the start of school.
When many of our major when many of the major announcements and adjustments began. This meant our new principal, only two days into the role, was tasked with Thank you. Thank you. My name is Abby Stargell, and I'm here tonight as a Durham Elementary parent to continue the story of changes at our school days before the students arrived. Our new principal faced a significant challenge stepping into the role so close to the start of school. Support from the district before August 8 would have greatly helped to ensure a smoother
transition. When teachers responsible for implementing so many changes receive the information only days before school starts, it causes a critical disruption. In some cases, hours before students arrived, teachers were working hard to prepare for them to come. We know that when a school's rating drops, adjustments are necessary. But the point we're making today is how those changes are made matters. It's just as important as the changes themselves about how they're rolled out and implemented
so that everyone can be successful. Thank you. Hello. My name is Christina Garcia and I'm here tonight as a Durham Elementary parent to continue the story of changes at our school days before students arrived. Enforcing last minute reassignments that are required to meet district policy and the inflexible HISD curriculum has consequences. Last year's third grade class, using Eureka math, scored 10 points higher on the math star than the district average. In contrast, our fourth and fifth grade students who were already using the HISD math curriculum, scored at or below the district average. Last year's second and third grade students thrived by receiving a carefully planned curriculum,
and their scores support this. This year's students and teachers are being forced into a system that has not produced the same level of success and with almost no time for teachers to adjust. This story is to be continued. We are not opposed to necessary changes. We are opposed to poorly planned disruption without proper support and resources. Thank you. Hello. My name is Lori Niemeyer. I'm also a Durham Elementary parent. Unfortunately, the story doesn't end there. Even after the first day of school, after students had settled into their classrooms, teachers were informed of yet another last minute change. Despite having miss Balderas and other district leadership on-site,
during much of their professional development time on campus, teachers were required to rearrange their classrooms, desks during the first day of school. Some were rearranged in the middle of the day, while others were at least given the opportunity to rearrange their desks after school. The next day, children walked into their second day of school, found classrooms with unfamiliar layouts, their routines were disrupted, their sense of stability shaken, their ability to focus were affected before the day even began. For young children, classroom and environment is foundational. And for teachers, it meant another day of scrambling to adapt. If classroom layouts, were unacceptable,
there was ample opportunity to provide their feedback prior to students writing on campus. Mister Mallett, board your comments today earlier conveyed to me respect and reverence for teachers. This is not that. It's disrespect Thank you. Speakers, 21 through 30, please move to the front row. Should I wait? No. Go ahead. Okay. Nicole Felice, another Durham parent. Thank you. The pattern of last minute high impact changes highlights exactly what we've been trying to communicate. It's not the change itself that's the problem. Durham Elementary welcomes thoughtful adjustments that improve student learning outcomes.
The problem is when changes are made suddenly, without time to prepare, adapt, or communicate. It undermines the very goals these changes were meant to support. This brings us to a larger point. Not every campus is the same, just like not every student is the same. Durham Elementary has unique strengths, challenges, and programs, from dual language classrooms to IB instruction. A cookie cutter approach does not fit. One size does not fit all. We're not to be continued, we are not opposed to necessary change. We are opposed to poorly planned disruption without proper support and resources.
Thank you. Thank you. My name is Kyle Tucker and I'm here tonight as a Durham Elementary parent to continue this story. We understand that sometimes changes must be made. You believe our six point drop to a TEA rating of a mid c made adjustments necessary, but the way changes are implemented matters. Just as much as the changes themselves, decisions made overnight without time to plan or adapt or coordinate with teachers and families risk undoing the very progress the change is meant to support. The lack of understanding of what is working well on our campus versus making blanket disruptions across the board in in all classrooms shows that HISD leadership is disconnected from
our schools and ill equipped to make decisions on behalf of our students and our communities. We're not a number. Creative campus specific solutions are possible. They allow us to maintain quality instruction, respect the exercise of our teachers, and support our students' learning outcomes while still meeting district requirements. The story of Durham shows that sudden uniform mandates can disrupt student learning, undermine teacher morale, and fracture trust between schools and family. Thank you. Hi. My name is Erin Simpson. I'm here to continue talking about Durham Elementary. As others before me have said, change if change is justified,
if change is needed, change is okay. Change that cannot be properly communicated, consistently communicated, mister Miles, by your leadership team. We heard from district leadership this week that as a PUA campus, we have no choice. We heard differently tonight from miss Hull when she said a PUA campus is able to choose curriculums. Inconsistent messaging from leadership be able to Them having no time, the teachers having no time to prepare for this constant level of change is disrespectful to our staff. We are not,
going through this for the first time as Durham parents. Our campus has experienced constant change. Thank you. Dana Ladner, fifth year Durham Elementary parent, here to continue the story. I the main point I hope you took from our story is that parents are deeply concerned about the timing of these changes. I still do not feel that we have received a clear explanation from anyone about the gap between Durham's designation as a school of focus and the communication of these changes to teachers on August 8 and August 11. I would encourage each of you to look into the reasons for the communication delay,
because it's unacceptable. Even sharing this information at the first professional development day one week before it started, rather than the last, could have led to more support for our teachers. The root cause must be identified. Teacher retention is a cornerstone of a good school, and the actions that was taken at Durham over the past two weeks have sacrificed our trust in HISD and will cause teachers to leave our school. And that is not setting up anyone for success, and that is against the mandate of our education system. And this
Thank you. Thank you. You can start you need to start your English translation now and stop because you're a minute tonight and do your English translation. You know the rules. It's a one minute. It's not two minutes of Spanish. I'm giving you a warning now. You understand the rules. Correct? I'm giving you a warning now. You need to stop. Your time is up. I've given you another warning, and you're gonna be removed from the room. Your your second warning has happened. Please remove her from the room. 11/19/1863, of the people, by the people, for the people,
Lincoln, a society's conscience is eliminated not only by its law and customs, but by the daily decision it makes for its youngest members. Their well-being, safety, and growth are woven into the very fabric of its moral identity. When a community places compassion and justice at the center of its efforts to nurture the next generation, it reveals a spirit both resilient and generous. The brightest hopes of tomorrow are shaped in the tenderness we show today, reminding us that the true treasure of humanity lies in the care and dignity we afford to every child. We ask that you break the cycle of poverty by saving the children's libraries.
06/01/2023, of miles, by miles, for miles, b o m. That's their motto. Miles, do you recall when you quoted the late former South African president, Vandella? There can be no keener revelation of society's soul that the way in which it treats its children? Is this another oops error? Mike, how about breaking the cycle of deceit? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. My child started her third year with fewer returning classmates and on her third principal. Last year's principal exited alongside her uncertified teacher, a fitting result to the school's first year on the new miseducation system.
Having an uncertified teacher is like having surgery performed by somebody who didn't go to med school. Our schools are made better with certified teachers whose competence is verified before they step into the classroom. Teaching is a profession. This democracy depends on the highest standard of teachers. We cannot have a sustaining democracy with an ignorant citizenry. It will not work. It will not last. When you demean teachers, you kill America. We deserve teachers and principals who strive for longevity, adding to the communities they serve,
and who are dedicated to their profession. Teachers who are respected and given creative freedom to shape the minds of future leaders. You're smoke and mirrors to hide the failures of the new miseducation system by manipulating Thank you. Thank you. My name is Felicity Pereda. I'm an HIC alum. I live on the North Side. And my kid is a future student at Jefferson Elementary, which is an NES school. I'm a data scientist. I've got over twenty years of experience studying the science of community engagement in marginalized communities. And I got into this work because I was raised by a single mom who
struggled to keep the lights on. I know what it's like to do homework by candlelight. But I also know what it's like to escape to a different world, where my teachers were allowed to go off script and support me in the ways that my mom couldn't. What are you teaching our kids when you take away their libraries? When you shut down the wraparound services that actually help kids do better in school? And when you tell them they're not allowed to take biology, just so you can manipulate some test scores. Because NES schools, mostly in underserved communities, they're not getting innovative education. It's educational malpractice. You're telling our most vulnerable kids that they're not allowed to be curious.
Thank you. Thank you. Michelle Williams, President of Houston Education Association, teacher at Benbrook Elementary, blindsided by this administration. Speaking on behalf of the teachers, parents, and community that this administration did not tell that miss Darden was being removed. This administration does not care about HISD teachers, parents, or students. Bembroke was a thriving school until mister Miles was appointed superintendent. Under his leadership, his cabinet has caused the decline of Bembroke Elementary and Burberry Middle School,
just to name a few. Now they've implemented, NES model at Brembrook, which forces teachers to violate the code of conduct I mean the code of ethics and our teaching standards and to commit educational malpractice by denying emergent bilinguals, especially as students, extra time and the opportunity to learn how to read in English. To the board of managers, stamp this. That's one of the useless strategies. We don't want your thank you. Thank you. Speakers 30 through 40, please move to the front row. Hi. My name is Madeline Davay, and I was raised by a single mother who is a teacher at Houston ISD.
I also attended Houston Public Schools throughout my childhood. This summer, I graduated with my master's from Princeton University, and I credit my education to the teachers who raised me. Those are the same teachers which this board seeks to silence. Mister Miles, you came here today and you spoke about accountability. Agenda item 35 would remove the superintendent's obligation to meet with the teachers union on a quarterly basis. Where is the accountability in that? Teachers deserve a say in reforming our district more so than an unelected board of
yes men and women. We all heard from a student today about the loss of her treasured teachers. If you do not give teachers a seat at the table, they will make their voices heard in other ways, including leading a district which systematically sidelines them. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Well, I wanna tell you something, Durham parents. You are in good you are in the company of someone who has been booed and dissed at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church. Couldn't even give out school backpacks. And you think you they're listening now?
Couldn't even get couldn't buy it. So since you have enough to write in the newspapers are filled, 2,300 teachers walked out in just June. You have a drop in attendance, and you're talking about the 70,000. And in the Northeast area where I pay taxes and live. And every year, North Forest had an SAT National Merit School winner out of both high schools. You go ahead and try and and and insult another group of black people.
But, of course, you weren't elected, and I don't think you get to vote. Okay, baby? The people at the at the convocation at our Thank you. Thank you. Your time is up. No. You're not. Your time is up. You're disrespecting the rest of the speakers. Ma'am, you need to leave the podium. It's your first warning. It's your first warning. Do you wanna go home? Ma'am, this is your second warning. Would you please escort her out of the building, please? Thank you. Thank you. Go ahead. My name is Mackenzie Boyer, and I'm addressing the teacher evaluation policy changes.
I taught for HISD last year and decided not to return. I'm still deeply invested in Houston schools and feel it's important to voice my thoughts regarding your harmful evaluation system. I've experienced firsthand the micromanagement of teachers, which inevitably has a negative effect on the students. Lessons are overly rigid, while surprise administrative visits serve to check boxes rather than provide quality classroom support. This system has caused enough stress for teachers that doctors are even advising their resignation for the good of their health. Evaluations serve no one when policies are constantly shifting.
The moving targets set teachers up to fail and undervalues their work by using subjective criteria to base their pay. The Chronicle has confirmed that teacher retention is an issue. Before you approve any changes, please ask, is this actually high quality instruction, or will the system keep driving good teachers away and replacing them with uncertified staff? Teachers and students deserve better than this. Thank you. Board weakness in financial oversight began with quadrupling Miles' spending authority to $1,000,000 directly leading to the embarrassment of the board later having to
retroactively approve almost a billion dollars in contracts. Miles gets preapproval of his schemes through policy changes. He balanced last year's budget with $80,000,000 in property sales with no details provided. So later, no individual sales could be vetoed. Miles now deletes the minimum dollars in the naming rights policy, giving him complete discretion. In 2016, HISD sold naming rights to a high school with a for the policy minimum at that time of $7,500,000 but they received only $5,500,000
with the rest going to the fundraiser that brokered the deal. The new building at Lamar bears the name of an alumnus who pledged a million dollars to another fundraiser that had no right to sell Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Michael McDonough. I spent thirty one years in HISD as a math teacher, soccer coach, and middle school and high school principal. My wife worked in the district for seventeen years, and our two daughters are HISD grads. This current vision version of HISD is no longer recognizable. A mentor of mine said about school leadership that you are either running it or
running around in it. Right now, as a result of sloppy leadership at the highest district levels, our hardworking teachers and campus leaders feel like they are running around in it. A prime example of this is the three different versions of the spot form that have been distributed over the last ten days. Instead of our teachers and principals focusing on launching the school year, they are trying to pacify a long list of supervisors who are scared of the superintendent. Chaos from the Third Floor of Hattie Mae White leads to chaos throughout the feeder patterns, and that chaos then seeps into classrooms. It's not good for our schools. It's not supportive of our teachers,
and it's simply not fair to our kids. I implore the board of managers to change course and lead through a sense of community, not chaos. Thank you. Hi. I'm Mindon Tran. I'm a HIIC teacher speaking on teacher stuff. In the first year of the takeover, HIIC bled away over 40% of its 10,000 teachers. This past year, Miles' favorite publication, The Chronicle, reported a loss of more than 30% of teachers and staff. I bet this number would have been higher if the compensation manual had been released with enough time before the deadline for teachers to resign without penalty. Now teachers are trapped in this dictatorship because we weren't given enough time to find
new positions in districts that actually value our profession. If this board truly believed in professional teachers, it wouldn't celebrate the closure of teaching positions. It wouldn't celebrate the positions filled with inexperienced teachers instead of with veterans who fled the district. The board would not try to remove consultation with the unions. If the board truly believed in certification, Miles would get his. We know what teachers need, and we'll keep fighting for our members. Thank you. Thank you. Kids, grandchildren, thank you. So Miles believes children who can't read can't enjoy libraries, which shows how little he knows about reading or children. With Miles at the helm in Dallas,
middle school drop out rates, middle school, skyrocketed from point six to one point one percent, while the state and the region were steady at point 3.4. What's worse, those numbers continue to climb as all the children who were subjected to his horrible curriculum in the early grades moved up. And 2022, twenty three, two point three percent of middle schoolers dropped out in Dallas. He claims to be an expert on high quality instruction. Listen, you can call it spaghetti, We all know what it is. It's mind numbingly boring, repetitive test prep that is not preparing kids for anything but failure.
Now listen, I don't blame the rabbit dog for biting. Rabbit dogs bite. It's what they do. I blame the people who let them out of the yard. That's you. Thank you. I'm Christie Michelle Brewster, your retired school nurse with thirty five years of service. Houston ISD is officially open, at least by TEA guidelines. We still have a unique ID number, but we're officially closed, technically. Closed to real progress. We use my miles Math by Miles, the scoreboard. Ain't that right, Orlando? And we got manipulated test scores. Only certain children get to take certain tests at certain times.
We're still pushing the NES curriculum. You know, that not educating students where we have a 100% test prep. We close to respectfulness. Teachers are not being just tall in their ears. They got slides saying, go fast, increase the pace. What happened to the IEP and the five zero four guidelines for the children who need it? We're close to care. Have y'all seen the properties? The campuses look like reform schools, foreclosed schools. This free bus business on Metro. People getting mugged right now. You gonna put my children on the bus for free?
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. I'm sister Mama Sajid, an alumnus of HASD. These are your 10 commandments. Thou shall not give a bonus and raise to the superintendent who has a failing job review score of 65. Two, thou shall not close library and deprive our students of the love of reading. Number three, thou shall not dismantle the wraparound services and deprive students of needed services. Number four, thou shall not fire custodians and hire them back at a lower salary with no benefits. Five, thou shall not refuse to be certified,
Mike Miles, yet fire teachers who are uncertified. Six, thou shall not disrespect teachers, scholars, administrators, and any employee of HISD. Seven, thou shall not manipulate data to show that test scores have improved when we know they haven't. Eight, thou shall not be Trumpsters. Follow Donald Trump and do, insert, project twenty twenty five. You know, color middle school. Number nine, thou shall not spend and spend and spend and spend and spend and spend and spend what they can. Thank you. I'm Ellen Walter.
In first grade, much out is learning about the parts of a book. Knowing how to find the setting, characters, and being able to process the correct flow of a story is something they will be tested and graded on for the first school period. Imagine my surprise when I found out that teachers aren't allowed to read books to the kids. In first grade, they are learning about books through short passages. Add to that, we don't have a working library. Once you are out of kindergarten, we have zero access to full books. Tell me how HISD plans on raising kids who love reading without actual reading.
The upcoming self checkout system that you are implementing won't work with young kids. We need teachers and librarians who are allowed to read full books. Thank you. Speakers 40 through 50, please move to the front row. Speakers 40 through 50. Hi. My name is Kristen. I am not a parent, and I do not I am not located in HISD. But I'm here because I am tired of watching this ward and this school district be taken over by the state of Texas. I have worked in oil and gas,
not in education, but I have the most passionate for our children. When was the last time you took a test? And you want your third graders who were in the pandemic to pass a test? Really? And then no double standards. I know each of you are required to take training. I'll watch for it. And please get your certification. It's been since 2018. You've tried this top down approach for twenty years, and you've been criticized the entire time. And the teacher turnover has been there the whole time. I grew up in Katy ISD, and the best part about it were my teachers. And it wasn't what I was taught,
it was how I felt when I walked into a classroom. Thank you. Good evening. Welcome back. Kelly Blickery, HISD parent. I was disheartened to read in the Houston Chronicle that the four members removed from this board were also the ones who made most of the formal information request. Superintendent Miles, who's not here, was it because of these questions? If it wasn't because of these questions, why were they removed? I'm asking because I can't understand without all the information. When my son hears something he wants to believe, I tell him,
don't stop there. Keep digging. Get more information. That's how we get to the truth. Better decisions start with brave questions. To the Board, please ask those brave questions. Listen to the people living the impact of your decisions. Act only when you've done the work to know. Thank you. Shay Nagel, parent of a ninth grader at Westside High School, which is not officially an NES school. Every ninth grader at Westside has been placed in both a reading and an English class. The school says this is due to a directive from HISD. I want to be very clear,
I am not complaining about Westside High School, its administrators, or its teachers. My questions and concerns are for HISD. First, why? Not all HISD high schools have this requirement. Number two, when students chose their classes, they were not told of this extra reading class, therefore some of them are not in their chosen elective classes. Held a master's in English education. I am not opposed to first year students having extra time in English language class, provided the time is used for instruction actually helps our students, like reading complete works of literature. However, the first few days of school have confirmed my worst fears.
Our ninth graders apparently now have not one, but two entire class periods. Ninety minutes every day. Two slogs through Mike Miles' test prep packets. I found five errors in the first one. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. I'm a proud GIPS parent approved parent volunteer for over nineteen years and counting. I would like to ask the new board of managers to take a tour of Novarro Middle School, what Yolanda Black Novarro Middle School. Again, for the third time, I've been asking for you guys to take a tour of the pool. New board of managers do not know, a due diligence that Rick Comp already knows,
the pool is an asset because you are a real estate, invest you are the owner of a real estate. Right, Camden? So a pool is an asset, needs to be utilized as a diet program that Mr. Miles implemented. So that our scholars can improve on their grades and their mental health. To reach the desired careers such as our next generations of Olympic swimmers, navy coast guards, oceanographers, and lifeguards. Will you dream will you be dream makers or dream takers? This is the third time. I hope next time or I hope that this year, or if not next year,
that you guys open Navarro Middle School School. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. My name is Audrey Nath and I'm the parent of two students in HISD schools, and I'm also a pediatric neurologist. In the agenda on page 25, it says the commissioner may authorize a special investigation when excessive numbers of students in special education programs are assessed through modified assessment instruments. And it then says that, the results of the special investigation can lower a campus' performance rating.
So I'm concerned that this implies that special education students getting modified assessments that are appropriate to their learning level can result in a campus' performance rating being lowered. My own son has dyslexia, he's got an IEP, he has some modifications, and we need to stop weaponizing our special education students. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, I'm Melissa Yarbrough, a former HISD teacher four months into when that guy left,
Sorry. When that guy started. But anyways, I agree. Students with the the scores that are dropping for students with disabilities may be due to Miles' rigid classroom practices that violate federal and state education laws. Ask yourselves, can you be held responsible for approving these practices? His system assigns uncertified general education teachers to deliver IEP services, violating the personnel qualification rules of IDEA. If you don't know what that is, please do your research. It uses an AI generated, unvalidated curriculum that is neither research based nor peer reviewed,
which goes against IDEA's peer review requirement. It eliminates resource rooms, co teaching, and small group support, forcing students with disabilities into whole group settings and denying ideas, FAPE, and LRE requirements. Students exhibiting disability related behaviors are removed from Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Brooke Longoria, and I'm a former HISD parent. Twenty years ago, HISD leaders claimed unprecedented academic gains. Scholarly reviews showed those gains were achieved through test score manipulation, not sustained student learning.
Today, Miles claims HISD's historic gains are the biggest in US history. Sadly, this is all a blueprint for manipulating ratings, and many scholars assert that STAR testing doesn't even adequately assess student achievement. Miles has not improved education in HISD. Instead, he's raised STAR scores by changing who gets tested and what classes kids can take. Miles' tactics include pulling top students out of advanced classes, holding low scoring students back from testing grades, turning core subjects into nonstop test prep, and tragically replacing thousands of experienced teachers with people who read from AI generated scripts
all day. My friend Ruth will share examples of this unconscionable manipulation, and this is the main reason why I Thank you. Good evening. My name is Ruth Kravitz. In year one, Miles only let NES pre AP students take biology, pushing the rest into non tested remedial science. Sure, scores got up went up, but our kids lost AP pathways. In year two, he put top ninth graders in physics before they'd even taken algebra. Kids who dreamed of becoming doctors started doubting themselves. In many NES schools, eighth grade algebra has been gutted.
All schools have bright stars who've proven they're ready. HISD forced them into easier math, delaying algebra until ninth grade just to boost ratings. Even Good Reason Houston says algebra by eighth grade improves college graduation rates. Finally, NES English one star testers dropped 27% but enrollment fell only 12%. Kids are vanishing. They're being pushed out between October enrollment snapshot day and spring testing. Thank you, HISD teachers and students and y'all for working so hard in impossible conditions. Your efforts are real.
The historic Thank you. I am Lizette Preswich. This is about agenda item 26, the Challenge Committee for Challenges to Remove Books from Libraries. Considering books will be taken off the shelf as soon as the challenge is received and for two years if approved, the committee that reviews and makes the final decision to take knowledge from our kids is critical and should include parents. I ask that you preemptively use the requirements from Texas Senate Bill 13 for school library advisory councils, which goes into effect September 1.
It requires that councils be appointed by the board of trustees, and a majority of the voting members must be parents of students in the district who are not district employees. Currently, the superintendent appoints the committee and the parents may or may not be included. When you take away our libraries, a petition by 50 parents will require the school board create this kind of council, but it is only by your goodwill that it will be done timely and efficiently. My name is Camille Breaux. Over a year ago, I sat through executive directors pitching benefits of NES before we transitioned.
More staffing, free aftercare with homework help, and the same kind of fun activities that make school exciting and let kids simply be kids. But that promise rings hollow in the reality after our first year of NES. The afternoons resembled Lord of the Flies. We faced uncertified teachers who were eventually pushed out and seasoned teachers burnt out from constant changes, walk throughs, evaluations, and time correcting worksheets from Central. No one dared take a sick day spelling only more work for already stretched coworkers because NES schools don't allow substitutes.
Celebrations were banned in classrooms until the very last day because instruction had to continue, no exceptions. Our kids' anxiety over STAR scores was rampant, told repeatedly that failure meant not moving on to the next grade. That trickle down fear is toxic and our schools are tainted. And all the Thank you. Thank you. Your time is up. Diana Candida, parent of a third grader. Per the Lone Star governance framework, the board exists to represent the community's vision and values and has promised to improve student outcomes. So far,
the board has failed. Students and teachers are suffering. Early in the takeover, Mike Miles was given the power to spend up to $1,000,000 without board approval. Since then, he's funneled money into vendors of his choice and has unproven NES system, ballooned high salary admin roles from approximately 60 to over 200, and replaced 250 campus based wraparound specialists conveniently located for families in need with 48 specialists in eight Sunrise Centers. Libraries, mostly in low income neighborhoods, have been closed, deepening inequity. Meanwhile,
Miles manipulates test participation to inflate results, misleading the public while harming students' educational and financial futures. The alarming teacher turnover and the decrease in enrollment, particularly at NES schools, shows Mike Miles is bad for Houston. Don't be complicit in the dismantling of HISD. Fire. Thank you. Could the remaining speakers move to the front row, please? My name is Laura Henry. I'm a parent and a former teacher who now teaches English in another district. Today, I had a fur transfer thank me because they learn things which didn't happen for them in HISD.
As an English teacher, I see on level, not advanced, but on level, underserved first generation students get admitted to colleges across the country. When a student gets to Boston College and hasn't read more than a handful of books or doesn't know how to get past the Google search page when they research because those skills aren't on the star, that student comes home. When HISD leaves non tested TEKS out of the curriculum, you aren't following the law even if you get higher test scores. When you force ninth graders to take double block star prep classes at the expense of other courses, they aren't competitive with their peers.
I don't like talking about numbers because there are too many variables for validity, but a student who made a master's in 2024 scored in the 80 percentile on the EOC one. That same student had to score in the ninety third percentile to show growth in 2025. We're getting kids in the eighty fourth percent Thank you. Thank you. I'm Becky Smith, HISD parent of a fifth grader. In 2020, the Greater Houston Partnership published a report titled Middle Skills Matter to Greater Houston, which identified the skills critical to meet the demand in Houston's labor market.
The lowest level requiring only some high school education and accounting for 24% of the employment share included one, strong literacy and numeracy, two, time management, and three, communications. Non stop test prep with timers going off every four minutes, no projects, no full novels, no student presentations is not a curriculum that teaches even these lowest level skills. Any kid who attends a test prep course for the SAT or the STAR will show improvement on that test. If you really believe that excelling at multiple choice tests predicts college or career success,
well just bless your hearts. And that's my dear departed long time teacher mother's gentle way of saying you're wrong. Thank you. Hello. I'm going to look this way because Marty, Lauren, and Marcus, thank you so much for actually listening. That's something that your colleagues don't do, and so I just wanted to get your shout out for that. So I wanted to Marty, you asked, Miles earlier, how does a school go from an f to an a? Like, that's pretty miraculous. Right? So I wanted to share my experience, at Wainwright Elementary. I've been a volunteer there for ten years. Last our first year of the the miraculous NES program,
we went from an f to an a as well. I'm here to tell you that it's a scam. What happened in reality was that our students, our most vulnerable students got pushed out. So we went from having sixty, sixty eight unhoused children to down to three. K? So that's that's one way that you can go from an F to an A. Another thing that also, Lauren, I saw you got really excited when Miles talked about the the achievement gap between Thank you. Your your time is up. We have to be respectful of everyone in this room. And a minute's a minute.
You're done now. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Sarah Rivlin. Hi, I'm Sarah Rivlin. I'm a former HISD teacher. Did you know that a number of NES high schools are not giving their students one to one laptops this year? Our power up IT guy was laid off when we went NES and now no one is maintaining the laptops that we did have and they are not being replaced. There are other basic services that NES high schoolers are not receiving that they were receiving before the takeover.
One, help with college and financial aid applications. Two, a consistent sports schedule because stadiums receive needed repairs. Three, experience reading Romeo and Juliet and other literary classics in their entirety. Four, teachers who know them all four years. HISD has become a district unable to provide its students with the most basic of services. What an embarrassment. Thank you. Now we're moving to speakers on Zoom. Jessica Catrat. You may begin. Jessica Catrat, HIV parent. But it's fair that this message is based on added cherry text mode of narrative,
not to tell the full story. And so I asked, why is this where our resources are going? At a time when public schools are facing are losing funding, you are spending money on deceptive self congratulatory marketing. That isn't progress. It's misdirection. This kind of waste is exactly why I voted against the bond. Not because I don't care about investing in our schools, because I don't trust you to be a responsible steward for our resources. We are not fooled by billboards. We see what's happening in our classrooms. We see where the money isn't going.
We deserve leadership that puts students first, not self promotion. Unfortunately, in this instance, the politics of adults have beat out the needs of our children. Thank you. Hello? Doctor Pamela Bovlin. Go ahead. Okay. I'm doctor Pamela Bovlin, and I am here to, recite the 10 commandments that you should do if you wanna stay on this board. Thou shall not ask hard questions about the data. Y'all came pretty close tonight. Thou shall smile and nod yes to eliminating staff and benefits. Thou shall not question how the state legislature awards a base pay increase that is
not given to certified teachers based on their experience. Thou shall not listen to or speak to questions from the community. Thou shall not read or discuss questions about Third Futures Network. Thou shall not ask about a number of certified teachers versus noncertified teachers. Thou shall not speak of an audit of the diet programs. Thou shall never ever mention spin bikes. Thank you. Doctor Maria Benzon, you may begin. Hi. My name is doctor Maria Benzon, former HISD teacher,
current HISD parent, speaking on item 33, changing the policy on compensation and benefits. Removing paid leave for professional business consultation and employment dispute resolution is more than a small policy tweet. It's a statement about how we value employees. Good leaders know that when staff take part in professional consultations or resolve workplace disputes, they are contributing to a stronger, more transparent, and more effective school system. That time isn't, quote, time off. It's an investment in professional growth,
problem solving, and collaboration, things every high functioning organization needs. By striking these items, you create a culture where employees feel discouraged from engaging in processes that can improve the district. Don't punish staff for doing the right thing. Value their time. Value their voice. They are the foundation of our schools. Thank you. Thank you. There are no more speakers in Zoom. Emily, is that it? All the Zoom is done? Okay, great. Okay, that concludes our hearing of speakers. So we'll move on to discussion
of the Board monitoring goal progress measure one, the progress measures and the goal two. Do I have a motion to accept those Board monitoring updates of goal one, progress measures 1.1, one point two and one point three and goal progress measures, goal two and progress measures 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3. Yeah. Hit my computer, your computer back. You may have to log in too. Some people have to log in like I do. The password is in the, on your keyboard. Okay. So, we have a motion and a second. Any questions or comments?
Okay. All in favor, please vote. Okay, we have, the motion passes, nine in favor. Next, we'll consider the action items on the agenda. Board policy requires Board members to abstain from all discussions and votes pertaining to contracts that might involve a conflict of interest. Board policy BBFA local defines conflict of interest of any circumstance that could cast out on the Board member's ability to act with total objectivity with regard to this district's interest. Do we have a motion to approve the Consent Agenda Items?
There's a motion and a second. Okay. Please vote. Voting is closed. The motion passes nine-zero. We are now going to at this time, the Board will recess to closed session under Chapter five fifty one of Texas Government Code of Means Act Section 05/2004 through 05/1089. Should Board final action, vote or decision on any matter considered in the closed session be required, such final action, vote or decision shall be taken in an open meeting covered by this notice upon reconvening the public meeting or at a subsequent public meeting of the Board upon notice
thereof. The Board has recessed to closed session at 07:50PM, 08/14/2025. 07:50PM, okay. Okay, good evening. This meeting is reconvened at 09:04PM on, 08/14/2025. We're ready to consider items discussed in the closed session. Oh, we don't have our, okay. So we're gonna have a motion soon. Make sure your computers are on board members. Okay. Is there a motion coming out of closed session? Board member for us? Yes. Oh, just a moment. Yeah. We're streaming. We should be good.
Right? Okay. Go ahead. Thank you. Yes. I have, one motion, mister president. I move that the board terminates the performance contract of Keith Garcia, former Pew Elementary School principal, and authorizes the superintendent to give notice of same on the terms discussed in closed session. Is there a second? Okay. We have a motion and a second. Please vote. Okay. The motion passes nine-zero. Okay. The next regular Board meeting will be held on 09/11/2025. There being no further business, this meeting is officially adjourned at 09:06PM.
Thank you.