HOUSTON — The Houston ISD Board of Managers unanimously voted to approve the district's 2023-24 budget at Thursday night's board meeting.
Teachers said they came into the meeting with plenty of concerns ranging from magnet schools to scripted curriculum to STAAR scores.
Superintendent Mike Miles' also presented his framework for his new "Destination 2035" plan promising "wholescale, systemic reform."
It was a much different atmosphere than previous meetings, but tensions still lingered.
“We want to be heard not patronized," one meeting attendee said.
Speakers like teacher Michelle Williams were critical of Mike Miles' absence early in the meeting.
"Our elected board members would never allow any superintendent to miss public comment," she said during public comments.
When the superintendent did arrive, the crowd gave him an earful.
"It sends a message of disrespect and unprofessionalism on his part," Williams said.
During his presentation of the Destination 2035 plan, Miles said it will start with a subset of schools before becoming more widespread.
His presentation included, among other things, changing instructional models and curriculum, cutting down the size of the central office, introducing the "Hospital Model" for teachers and treating teachers more like doctors, taking more responsibilities outside of teaching off their plates.
Several of the elected board of trustees that had been stripped of their power were in attendance, including Sue Diegaard.
"They're coming in with some thoughtful budgetary changes that they presented last week along with some cuts in order to fund those," Diegaard said.
Kathy Blueford-Daniels, another of the elected trustees, said data pointing to changes being needed at underperforming schools is nothing new.
"We've been trying to draw attention to the fact that these kids and these campuses were the lowest achievement and needed it most," Blueford-Daniels said.