Superintendent Mike Miles reverses HISD's new policy on principal evaluations

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The Houston Independent School District superintendent is now saying administrators will not be fired next year based on the district's new rating system.

It's a stunning reversal of a policy that has sparked multiple protests.

Protestors marched in the pouring rain Thursday afternoon.

SEE MORE: 'School feels like jail': State of the District draws protestors as HISD addresses school budgets

At Thursday evening's board meeting, Houstonians took the mic for more than four hours.

After a four-hour-long closed session, superintendent Mike Miles finally came out well after 2 a.m. on Friday, announcing he's canceling his plan.

"While it took a while to listen to all the concerns, there were a number of new voices in the room, and just like always, we take every comment seriously. We're listening," Miles said.

Before spring break, HISD notified 117 principals they needed to improve their rankings.

RELATED: HISD superintendent says jobs of 117 principals were never threatened for low-performance scores

Many principals notified are popular and come from high-achieving schools.

Miles said HISD principals will still be evaluated through the same system HISD has previously used, not the new system, which would have automatically fired the bottom approximately 10% of principals.

"There are four big categories: student achievement, quality of instruction, action plan, and this year, special education compliance and special education instruction," Miles said.

Parents still want more assurances.

RELATED: HISD plans to fund 130 NES schools this year, but district struggling financially

"We thought that based on achievement at our schools, our principals would be safe," Tish Ochoa, whose child's principal was notified about the evaluation, said.

This comes at the same time Miles is proposing a new budget that will cut funding from schools with falling enrollment.

"We were very concerned there were principals who were going to be let go very quickly. That felt more like a heart attack, and the budget felt more like, you know, a slow-growing cancer at the moment," HISD parent Heather Golden, whose child's principal was also notified, said. "Now we can hopefully look at the budget a little more closely."

"We need community support for a bond," Ochoa said. "I want to know what Mike Miles is going to do to build trust with our communities so we can support that."

For more on this story, follow Pooja Lodhia on Facebook,X and Instagram.