Under the leadership of superintendent Mike Miles, change seems to be the only constant.
Less than a week after 600 jobs were eliminated from HISD’s central office in his new bid to revamp the school system, Miles reassigned the principals of three schools this week.
Dan De Leon of Sharpstown, Everett Hare of Worthing and Tiffany Guillory of Yates were reassigned. Miles added that there would be no other staff reassignments in these schools. The new principals will have the ability to fill existing vacancies, said Miles.
Where have we heard this before?
To the community, this should not come as a surprise.
HISD’s previous Board of Trustees had been planning on removing Yates’ Guillory for six months now. Upon overwhelming support from community members and parents, the board decided against booting her.
Miles has since released a statement that states, “My leadership team and I reviewed existing plans for the future of these schools and determined that new leadership was necessary to drive the kind of improvement these high schools need to start preparing their students and graduates well for the workplace and world that waits for them after high school.”
He added that he informed the principals “directly” and also intimated the school communities.
What do these three schools have in common?
The three schools had one thing in common – they are all located in low-income neighborhoods with a majority of the residents being of color.
Sharpstown has a majority of Hispanic students, with 83.4% of the student population being economically disadvantaged, and received a rating of “C” from the TEA in 2021.
Worthing has a 99% minority enrollment and a Black student population of 71.1%, with 96.5% of the students coming from an economically disadvantaged background. This school also received a rating of “C” in 2021.
Yates received a “Not Rated: Senate Bill 1365” label in 2021. This, too, has a 99% minority enrollment with 87.6% of the students belonging to the Black community. Moreover, 96.4% of its students are economically disadvantaged.
Two of the three schools are a part of Miles’ New Education System (NES) program, which encapsulates his vision of lesson plans for teachers, supervision of students via Zoom and a reliance on tests to evaluate students.
Earlier in July, Miles extended an opportunity to those who had enrolled in his New Education System to reconsider their decision and for new schools to voluntarily sign up for the program as NES Aligned schools, during a meeting.
Since then, 57 more schools have signed up to join the NES Aligned program, including Worthing and Yates. These campuses that opted into this program will remain part of the cohort for the 2023-2024 school year, Miles.