There are 15 such cases over three decades, according to state records. No one is likely to offer a case study comparable to a takeover of HISD, the largest school district in the state and the eighth largest in the nation. Still, some have compared the potential takeover of various HISDs to that of the other school systems, all of which served predominantly black and Hispanic student groups or children from families considered to be “economically disadvantaged.
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“I’ve gotten a lot of calls from HISD teachers asking me for advice,” said Jennifer Jermany, a former North Forest ISD teacher who was laid off when the district was absorbed into HISD. “Our cases are similar but not exact. My heart really goes out to these teachers because we really don’t know what’s going to happen.”
HISD’s threat of state takeover
Mayor Sylvester Turner said Wednesday he heard from sources that a takeover of the district was imminent. That same day, the Supreme Court issued a mandate to allow the state takeover if Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath deems it appropriate.
Superintendent Millard House II said Thursday that administrators had not received any official notification of a takeover from TEA.
As of Friday, Morath had not confirmed the rumors or provided a timeline for a potential takeover.
The battle for control between the state and HISD began in 2019, when Wheatley High School’s failure to meet accountability standards for seven consecutive years triggered a possible takeover. The campus has since earned a passing score.
The school’s failing ratings also prompted a TEA investigation, which found several HISD trustees misled investigators, violated the Texas Open Meetings Act and improperly interfered with vendor contracts. Most of the district’s board members from that time period have since been replaced by new trustees.
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Of the 15 previous state takeovers, four — Kendleton, Wilmer-Hutchins, North Forest and La Marque ISDs — closed entirely after regaining local control. El Paso, Beaumont, Edgewood and Southside ISDs remain open after local control was restored.
Progreso, Pearsall, Hearn, Harlandale and Snyder ISDs each reached a settlement or did not move forward with a board.
Two districts — Marlin ISD and Shepherd ISD — still have a state-appointed board in place.
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Seven of these districts were predominantly black, including several districts with schools important to Texas’ African American history. Another seven of the districts taught mostly Spanish student bodies. Only one district—Shepherd ISD—was predominantly white. Around 66 per cent of the students in that district are financially disadvantaged.
Of HISD’s 187,000 students, 62 percent are Hispanic and 22 percent are black. Almost 80 percent of the students are financially disadvantaged.
A HISD state takeover would be unique
None of the districts previously taken over by TEA come close to comparing in size to HISD. The smallest of these districts, Kendleton ISD, had less than 100 students and the largest, Beaumont ISD, currently has about 17,000.
In the previous takeovers, TEA gave reasons such as financial problems, administrators breaking the law, fraudulent test score data, the inability of school boards to govern, loss of accreditation status and poor academic ratings, among other reasons.
Lessons in North Forest ISD
The TEA cited “systemic and pervasive weaknesses” in financial, accounting and data reporting, a lack of internal controls and an $11 million deficit for the intervention in North Forest ISD in July 2008, prompting the state to appoint a board.
The state put Adrian Johnson at the helm of the district and Johnson appointed a board.
Danielle Houston, who began working in community relations at the district in 2009 after Johnson took the reins, said the district began to improve in test scores and academic performance despite having few resources.
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“We tried everything to get the district back to where it should have been,” she said. “The takeover was not a bad thing in my eyes. For me, it was an opportunity to show the district a different way. (The state) had every intention of giving the district back to board members.”
When the North Forest board regained control in 2011 because of a Texas law that only allows a state-appointed board to hold control for two years, it voted to remove Johnson and some administrative staff hired during his tenure, including Wade .
The TEA later ordered that North Forest ISD close and be annexed into HISD. During that time, Jermany said the uncertainty of what would happen was “frustrating and very hurtful” for staff.
“There were a lot of questions we couldn’t get answers to,” she said. “We were trying to keep some sense of normalcy for the students, but we didn’t even know how we were going to get paid.”
The annexation led to all the principals being replaced, with some merging in the new school system. Only 25 of the approximately 350 teachers in North Forest were hired by HISD. Jermany said on the last day of the semester she and hundreds of her colleagues were told they no longer had jobs, with no prior indication that would be the case.
“We were open to the change,” she said. “We didn’t expect to not get back to our kids.”
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The teacher said she and many other North Forest teachers graduated from the district and continued to work there because of their passion for the community.
Critics say the impact of test scores is unfair
The ordeal left Jermany and other teachers feeling as though they were to blame for the low test scores that partially led to the takeover.
Then-HISD Superintendent Terry Grier said at the time of the annexation that “the quality of the teacher is going to be much, much different.”
“There is so much more to consider than test scores,” he said. “It is unfair to crucify teachers and individual schools before (government leaders) have really walked in our shoes. Get off your high horse and come sit down and have a class for a day and see what we go through.”
Houston said the district was mostly made up of economically disadvantaged and at-risk kids. Many had to stay at home to raise siblings, were raised by young parents, were homeless, experienced abuse or dropped out because they became pregnant, Jermany said. The teacher added that there were many days she brought extra food with her lunch to give to hungry students.
“It is unfair to rank schools with severe proportions of economically disadvantaged children as any other school,” Jermany said. “There are so many social problems we need to address and provide more help. There are children who don’t care about a test because they don’t know where to sleep and when to eat.”
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Loss of community identity
The merger left many students and community members mourning what they felt was a loss of identity.
“I was used to seeing teachers who looked like me,” said Vanesa Wade, who graduated from North Forest’s Smiley High School in 1999. “I loved it. I had teachers who cared about me and my well-being. I think I had a different experience than all the negative things that were reported (about the district.)”
Kibunda Taylor, a 1989 Smiley High School graduate, said the “devastation” of the district is still painful for her community.
“It hurt my heart to hear the news when they closed Smiley,” she said. “Everything was so quiet and calm and unaddressed.”
Now that HISD, the district that annexed North Forest, may also be facing a state takeover, Wade said she feels “deja vu.”
“It doesn’t make sense to me,” she said. “What happens when improvements are made and it’s still not good enough? I wonder what the motive is. Is it giving (school) vouchers? Or to teach what (the state) wants to teach?”
