Houston ISD announced Monday that nearly 450 employees were cut or reassigned this month amid enrollment declines.
A spokesperson said performance and certification were prioritized when the district cut 160 uncertified teachers and 54 staff members and reassigned an additional 232 teachers as part of a budgeting process that reconciles staffing and enrollment levels. Houston ISD has projected a 6,500-student decline this year, or a nearly 4% enrollment loss. Official enrollment numbers for this school year will not be released until October.
HISD did not answer questions last week about the number of people cut; changes in enrollment expectations between the summer hiring season and September; or whether certain teachers were prioritized for reassignment or cuts. A district spokesperson wrote that “more information from the annual leveling process” would be available at the end of last week. HISD did not respond to multiple calls or emails, but did release the overall numbers on its promotional show.
Corina Ortiz, the Houston Federation of Teachers’ chief of staff, said Friday that 28 union members were terminated last week and that the union plans to appeal those cases. She said these members were uncertified teachers who served as “teacher apprentices” and completed paraprofessional work. These teachers had been leading classrooms at least four hours a day.
In the early days of the state takeover, Miles defined “teacher apprentices” as people responsible for classroom preparation and management. Ahead of the school year, Miles said the district, even if it had vacancies at the start of the school year, would not have substitute teachers at many schools because HISD had “700 teacher apprentices on top of the 10,500 teachers” in its workforce.
Michelle Williams, president of the Houston Education Association, said she was not aware of any of her members affected by staff reductions or reassignments. She is aware of teacher colleagues who received new class assignments in different grade levels and reassignments to different schools.
She said this year’s process feels less transparent than previous years and described the historical process of determining which positions would see change, which positions would be protected due to shortages, and who would be hired for vacancies at other schools.
Enrollment has been dropping since before the state takeover.
At a Sept. 17 City Hall committee meeting in response to a council member’s question, Miles said enrollment data was forthcoming and described enrollment declines across the country and region.
“That means if we have fewer kids, we’ll have fewer teachers, which means we’ll have fewer central office staff, fewer purchased services,” Miles said. “We will be rigorous on the budget. That will also be a challenge. Just like the first year, we had to cut a whole bunch of staff because of ESSER (pandemic-era education federal funding). If we lose enrollment, we will be cutting staff also and purchased services over time. I’m not announcing that we’re cutting staff right now or anything, but overtime we will be cutting down and right-sizing that time of the year.”