Teacher compensation to be raised to $96K at 29 Houston ISD schools, new superintendent says

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Two days on the job, and the new superintendent of the Houston Independent School District is already making big changes.

Employees from more than two dozen schools just learned they will have to re-apply for their jobs.

New Superintendent Mike Miles is calling his plan the "New Education System."

SEE PREVIOUS STORY: TEA names new HISD superintendent on first day of state takeover

According to Miles, he's starting with 29 schools, and undertaking what he calls "wholescale, systemic reform."

He's asking every employee - from principals to maintenance workers - of the Wheatley, Kashmere, and North Forest feeder systems to reapply for their jobs this summer.

The Texas Education Agency has consistently ranked those three schools as the worst in the district.

"No organization can maximize its effectiveness if how it compensates people is not aligned to what it values," Miles said.

He's raising teacher compensation at those 29 schools to a record $96,000 a year.

Employees who aren't re-hired will go to other HISD schools, and soon, he says, all district employee pay will be tied to student performance.

Miles has promised not to close any schools in his first year but said closures are likely after that.

"There's going to be some anxiety most of the summer, probably," Miles said. "But we will keep putting information out there, so that we can we can turn that anxiety and fear into best hopes."

The state takeover has been marked by a lack of communication since it was announced in March.

TEA Commissioner Mike Morath never attended scheduled community meetings in Houston, and even the district's new nine-member board of managers found out just last Friday they had been appointed.

These new managers have a wide range of professional experience, but only one has ever taught HISD students.

Another appointed manager lost in the last school board election.

And at least one of them, Rolando Martinez, has previously spoken publicly against the TEA takeover.

"I felt like I had a moral obligation to participate in this process and to make sure that the community had somebody to represent them," Martinez said.

"Parents in the district should determine what they think about us after we've taken some actions," Board Manager Audrey Momanaee said.

"There is an achievement gap between our Black and brown students and our other students to the extent of 50% right here in HISD," Manager Angela Lemond Flowers said. "That's criminal. As adults and as a community, we have to care about changing that, or we're saying that's OK with us."

"It's something important to focus on, not so much the division, whether you support it or you don't," manager Ric Campo said. "Because I think all of us support the fact that kids need better than we're giving them today at HISD."

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