What in the hell is happening at HISD? (Houston, Post: how much, school district)

[Dopo]

What in the hell is happening at HISD?

This is the main question I have
what is TEA (Texas Education Agency) fixing and what's their plan on how to fix it?


This is the latest crazy story I read about this:
HISD Significantly Reduces New Hire’s Salary After Offer Letter Signed, Teacher Claims

A teacher in Houston Independent School District (HISD) recently rejected a job offer after the district dramatically reduced the salary she was promised. The incident has raised concerns about transparency and fairness in the hiring process. This article will delve into the details of the case, shed light on the challenges faced by teachers, and explore the implications for the education system.

The teacher, whose identity remains concealed due to fear of retaliation, received four offer letters from HISD. The first two letters stated her job as a high school special education teacher with a base salary of $92,000 and $12,000 in stipends. Excited about the opportunity, she accepted the position and made arrangements to commute from another county.

However, confusion arose when the teacher discovered that her campus was part of the New Education System (NES), which meant she was not automatically eligible for the higher salaries offered to teachers in schools required to be part of NES. The woman believed she would be on the NES pay scale due to her involvement in the special education program. Adding to the confusion, the third offer letter did not mention a salary, while the fourth letter stated a reduced salary of $65,000.

[WRM20]

It's all part of the plan by Abbott and his minions to replace public education with vouchers and charter schools. Abbott's man Miles is doing his utmost to ruin the district.

[Jtxg]

In this instance, I have a feeling there is more to the story. Anonymous, no letters with personal info redacted, just seems like there's probably more to this. Obviously just an opinion, but with so little documented facts in the article, any conclusion drawn from the article is purely an opinion.

And to WRM20's statement, I do feel like this is an additional waste of state resources. It seems clear to me that most parents are opposed to this, including the parents at the couple of failing schools. If that's the case, why bother wasting additional resources...let the failing schools continue to fail and be done with it. Though, in this case I do think it makes a decent argument for school vouchers. If my child was zoned to a 'failing' school, I could simply send them to another school. Where I draw the line is I do not think vouchers should be used for a private or religious school...just my two cents.

[Ghost Town]

And some people complain about the property taxes.
Even 65K salary is little higher than I thought it should be.
Plus need to maintain infrastructure, provide meals, etc.

How much does post doc at Texas A&M make?
Around 40K for doing a lot more complex job that requires much higher education level.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by Jtxg

In this instance, I have a feeling there is more to the story. Anonymous, no letters with personal info redacted, just seems like there's probably more to this. Obviously just an opinion, but with so little documented facts in the article, any conclusion drawn from the article is purely an opinion.

And to WRM20's statement, I do feel like this is an additional waste of state resources. It seems clear to me that most parents are opposed to this, including the parents at the couple of failing schools. If that's the case, why bother wasting additional resources...let the failing schools continue to fail and be done with it. Though, in this case I do think it makes a decent argument for school vouchers. If my child was zoned to a 'failing' school, I could simply send them to another school. Where I draw the line is I do not think vouchers should be used for a private or religious school...just my two cents.

HISD has school choice. 50% or more of students zoned to Yates and Wheatley high schools go to school elsewhere in the district.

I am in several forums where HISD teachers post. None of them are happy and none of them have any respect for Miles and his micromanaging of classrooms. Miles dumped a large portion of the HR staff, and payroll was immediately done wrong. Miles dropped the entire set of specialist teachers that helped classroom teachers with autistic students. Miles is imposing a requirement that teachers stop every 4 minutes to confirm student understanding. Miles has eliminated longer reading sessions in class. The list goes on.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by Ghost Town

And some people complain about the property taxes.
Even 65K salary is little higher than I thought it should be.
Plus need to maintain infrastructure, provide meals, etc.

How much does post doc at Texas A&M make?
Around 40K for doing a lot more complex job that requires much higher education level.

$65,000 is not a large salary. Accounting graduates make more than that in their first job. Post doctoral researchers at TAMU are paid low as they are in roles that build experience, and those roles don't last very long.

[SanJac]

Please. That woman knew there isn’t a school district in Texas that pays special ed teachers $100K, much less HISD.

Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear!

[Ghost Town]

Originally Posted by WRM20

$65,000 is not a large salary. Accounting graduates make more than that in their first job. Post doctoral researchers at TAMU are paid low as they are in roles that build experience, and those roles don't last very long.

I am not saying that 65K is a lot.
But if you give six figure salaries to everyone, then everything becomes super inflated.
And teachers were always supposed to make less.

[H'ton]

65k for 3/4 of the year...65K for .75 of the year comes out to just under 90k /year



They have the opportunity to work elsewhere for the other 3 months.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by H'ton

65k for 3/4 of the year...65K for .75 of the year comes out to just under 90k /year



They have the opportunity to work elsewhere for the other 3 months.

It's a different story when you do the calculation per hour

Federal Survey Data Sheds Light on Teacher Hours and Pay

The 2020-2021 National Teacher and Principal Survey found that teachers work an average of 52 hours per week, far exceeding the required 38.4. In addition to long hours, teachers found it necessary to supplement their salaries, with 40 percent of public school teachers receiving stipends for extracurricular activities.


$90k is $43.27/hour
When they work 52 hours per week, that drops to $33.28/hour => $70k