HISD teachers disappointed after 1st meeting with Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A dog and pony show. That’s what multiple teachers called their meeting with Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath on Tuesday.

It was the first time he had formally met with them since announcing in March that the agency would be taking over the Houston Independent School District.

Morath now has sole authority to appoint a superintendent and board of directors.

He has said he will have a new superintendent in place on or after June 1 but won’t reveal who that will be until then.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner has said he believes the new superintendent will be Mike Miles, the former superintendent of Dallas ISD, but the TEA has not confirmed that, and Miles has not returnedcalls.

“People were asking about charter schools. People were asking about teacher pay. People were asking about what interventions were going to take place from the state, and most of the questions weren’t answered,” Stephen Wright, a Lamar High School teacher, said. “It was going to be up to the board of managers.”

“We got the typical, ‘It’s up to the board of managers. It’s up to the superintendent.’ (When asked) Who is the superintendent? (Morath said) ‘I haven’t decided.’ I asked him, point blank, if it was Mike Miles because he’s been in HISD interviewing with the cabinet, and then they all leave after they talk to him,” the president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, Jackie Anderson, said. “He’s said that he would not confirm. The announcement would be made June 1.”

“My message to parents: Ask more. Demand more,” Daniel Santos, a Navarro Middle School teacher, said. “Let this not be a preview of the next two, three, four years.”