HOUSTON — Former Houston ISD special education teacher Amy Parker was focused on packing up her home on Thursday to move out of state.
She's moving back to her home state of Ohio after a couple of years with the district. She had moved to Texas for her husband's job and says she's leaving because of the Texas Education Agency's takeover of HISD.
"With everything, with the takeover," said Parker. “I’m not going to have to deal with this traffic, I’m not going to have to deal with this heat.”
She said the primary tipping point for her was hearing her school might be a part of the district’s New Education System, or NES.
That's part of state-appointed superintendent Mike Miles’s plan to improve academics and teaching quality in high-priority schools.
"They’re going to get overworked, they’re going to get tired, they’re going to get exhausted," said Parker. "They don’t know what they’re in for.”
Parker told KHOU 11 she routinely came home crying while teaching under the last superintendent’s RISE Program that was instituted in some struggling schools and can’t imagine the NES model being any more forgiving.
"These teachers are going to get burned out like me," said Parker. "That’s why I’m running.”
She said she'll have a smaller class in Ohio as well as a full-time rather than part-time aide.
We reached out to Houston ISD regarding teachers who may be leaving the district.
It offered no specific response.
But the district does report that 73 campuses are fully staffed right now. That’s out of more than 270.
Many districts are working overtime to fill positions before the new year begins.