This blog originally appeared at THE TEXAS TRIBUNE.
The announcement comes almost four years after the agency first moved to take over the district.
Millard House II, superintendent of the Houston Independent School District, delivers the HISD State of the Schools Address in Houston on March 3, 2023. The Texas Education Agency will replace House and the district’s school board as part of a state takeover. Credit: Joseph Bui for The Texas Tribune.
Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
After a prolonged legal battle and weeks of speculation, the Texas Education Agency on Wednesday confirmed it’s removing Houston Independent School District’s democratically elected school board and superintendent, effectively putting the state in charge of its largest school district.
Houston ISD, with 276 schools and an enrollment of nearly 200,000 students, will now be the largest district the agency has taken over since 2000, when it first intervened in a struggling school district.
Superintendent Millard House II and the current school board will finish out the school year, but the TEA will replace them after June 1 with “a board of managers.”
The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. Become one.
The TEA commissioner decides how long the board is in place. Usually, this sort of takeover has lasted two to six years.
The agency will host community meetings in the coming weeks to explain how the takeover will take place.
The move is in response to years of poor academic outcomes at a single campus in the district, Phillis Wheatley High School, and allegations of misconduct from school board members. TEA Commissioner Mike Morath said state law requires his agency to either close that campus or appoint a new board to oversee the district.
Texas passed a law in 2015 mandating a state takeover if a school district or one of its campuses receives failing grades from the TEA for five consecutive years. Phillis Wheatley reached that threshold in 2019.
Catch up on education news with our weekly newsletter
Catch up on education news with our weekly newsletter
Browse all newsletters at texastribune.org/newsletters.
Morath and the agency moved to force out the district’s school board that same year. The district pushed back and sued, but the Texas Supreme Court ruled in January that the agency could move forward with its plan to take over the district.
“Even with a delay of three full years caused by legal proceedings, systemic problems in Houston ISD continue to impact students most in need of our collective support,” Morath wrote in a letter to district leaders Wednesday.
Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/15/texas-education-houston-isd-takeover/
fleeredstates.blog 
Leave a comment