Houston ISD will be under state control for at least two more years, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) announced Monday.
TEA Commissioner Mike Morath wrote in anews releasethat “local feedback” and a “comprehensive evaluation” of the district led him to the decision. He also is replacing four of the nine HISD board members he installed in 2023.
“Ultimately, two years has not been enough time to fix district systems that were broken for decades,” Morath said. “The extension of this intervention will allow the district to build on its progress and achieve lasting success for students once the board transitions back to elected leadership.”
The district’s board of managers, who have voting and decision-making power instead of HISD's elected trustees, will be in authority until at least June 1, 2027. The statetook over the districtin 2023 after Wheatley High School received a string of failing grades, triggering a state law requiring the TEA to close the campus or replace elected trustees with appointed leadership.
Morath visited several HISD campuses last month and gave the districta glowing reviewof its second year under state control, with Mike Miles serving as superintendent.
"The amount of improvement in academic potential and lifetime potential for kids is pretty spectacular," Morath said at the time. He also called it "the largest academic improvement that has happened at this scale in the United States."
Dani Hernandez, an elected trustee who served as board president before the state takeover, said she isn’t surprised by the extension. But, citing HISD's progress during the last two years as noted by Morath, she said it is “not necessarily in line with what they are stating about what’s happening in HISD.”
“What they’re saying is not matching what they’re doing,” she added.
Several Democratic state lawmakers from Houston in a joint statement said they're "angered and disappointed" by the extension.
"For the last two years, HISD has been hemorrhaging students, teachers, and principals with no clear end in sight," they wrote. "Our constituents have made it clear that they have lost confidence in the direction of the district under Mike Miles. They continue to feel shut out of key decisions and are deeply concerned about the ongoing mismanagement.”
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Morath also announced that four appointed managers on the school board — vice president Audrey Momanaee, Cassandra Auzenne Bandy, Rolando Martinez and Adam Rivon — are transitioning off the board in favor of four new members.
"I have nothing but praise to offer to these amazing individuals, and I want to extend my sincerest appreciation for their dedicated service to Houston ISD," Morath wrotein a Friday letter to the board. "I am extremely grateful for the exemplary servant leadership displayed by these departing board members over the grueling first two years of this intervention."
Some accused Morath of removing members who were the most critical of the superintendent. A year ago, when the board of managers narrowly passed a $2.1 billion operating budget for HISD, Auzenne Bandy, Martinez and Rivon, along with Michelle Cruz Arnold, voted against it.
“Those four board members were the ones who were asking more questions about what's going on in HISD,” Hernandez said. “And so it’s concerning that they’re being replaced.”
Elected trustee Placido Gomez echoed that sentiment.
When asked for a response to claims that Morath replaced board managers who were the most outspoken against Miles and his administration, a TEA spokesperson referred to its news release — which did not specify why those managers were replaced. The statement, however, referred to all board members as "true exemplars of public service."
"I'm left to wonder what TEA believes is the purpose of having an appointed board — is it to represent the vision and values of the community, or those of the commissioner?" Gomez said. "If he wants a fresh perspective on the board, he should start with people the community elected."
The four new managers joining the nine-member school board are Edgar Colón, Lauren Gore, Marty Goossen and Marcos Rosales.
Colón has a legal practice specializing in public finance, commercial transactions and corporate law. He's also a lecturer of political science at the University of Houston-Downtown.
Gore is a member of the Texas Southern University Board of Regents and a partner at LDR Growth Partners in Houston.
Goosen serves on several boards across Houston: the Asia Society Texas, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the United Way of Greater Houston. He also serves on the advisory boards for Rice University's Jones School of Business and Teach for America Houston. Goosen is also the former vice chairman of J.P. Morgan Private Bank.
Rosales is a trial lawyer and partner at Beck Redden LLP. He's also general counsel for a commercial construction company and previously served on HISD's Community Advisory Committee.
Hernandez, an elected trustee without decision-making power, said she has one main ask of the new board members: listen to the community.
"The biggest thing is to reach out to the community, because we've seen very little of that from the appointed board," she said. "And we know that there is no community buy-in to what is happening in HISD right now."
HISD trustee Savant Moore recognized that Morath's decision to extend the takeover goes against what some in the community were hoping for.
"To our community: do not be discouraged," Moore said in a statement. "This extension does not mark defeat — it is simply a reminder that the work of improving public education is ongoing."
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