'Is this for real?': HISD uses prerecorded video announcing special education teachers' job cuts
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Angela Furnari has dedicated herself to giving an underserved population of students her all.
"I established a food pantry with food toiletries and clothing drives at Benavides and had a toy drive," Furnari said.
But now, she's worried the important resources she's helped provide to students at Benavides Elementary will be in jeopardy with HISD chopping nearly two dozen contracted special education teachers.
"Hopefully, that program finds adequate ways to meet their needs, but a lot of us, based on what we've seen, are skeptical of that," Furnari said.
Eyewitness News asked HISD about the cuts. In a statement, the district said it has adequate staff, resulting in 21 independently contracted teachers being terminated. The district added that it will continue to use independently contracted providers for speech and psychology to meet students' needs.
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"At first, I was honestly in shock," Furnari said.
Furnari said the termination also wasn't handled well. She logged onto the meeting and was greeted with a 10-minute-long prerecorded meeting.
The video shows Norma Castillo, an HISD employee, speaking to a larger group of people, explaining their positions had been terminated.
"Is this for real? Is this a video?" Furnari asked.
She feels blindsided and disrespected through a process she believes will hurt students.
"Human resource managers make the commitment to deal with employees in an ethical manner, and to treat employees with dignity and respect - all of those kinds of things. When I'm asking for answers on, 'Why was it held this way? Can we hold it again in a live format? Can we hold it the proper way?' I'm not getting responses other than, 'We already held your conference for the record,'" Furnari said.
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