Houston ISD instructor and union chief Michelle Williams has been reassigned once more, escalating an already tense battle between the district’s state-appointed management and certainly one of its most vocal critics.
The transfer comes simply days after Williams filed a proper grievance with the Texas Training Company (TEA), alleging the district is failing to fulfill federal particular schooling necessities at Benbrook Elementary.
Thursday, Houston ISD eliminated me from my classroom after I filed a TEA Particular Training Grievance. I refused to present English Language Learners passages they could not learn. As a substitute, I used to be instructing them to learn regardless of being instructed by the assistant principal there is not any time for that pic.twitter.com/6xD7xcvmPF
— Michelle Williams (@hea_president) August 30, 2025
Williams, a 26-year classroom veteran and president of the Houston Training Affiliation, mentioned she was faraway from her third-grade classroom on Aug. 28 and positioned on “house obligation” with pay. A district memo accused her of repeated insubordination, failure to observe campus protocols and refusal to implement the HISD curriculum.
This isn’t Williams’s first time being pressured out of a classroom. In 2024, she was faraway from Shadowbriar Elementary College for what HISD known as “inappropriate conduct.” After a listening to, an unbiased examiner beneficial she be reinstated. Williams believes each removals are retaliation for her outspoken opposition to Superintendent Mike Miles’ reform agenda.
What occurred?
Williams describes a sample of conflicts along with her new principal, Edward Heard, who instructed her to observe the pacing fashions of NES-aligned campuses. She refused, arguing that almost all of her college students, many English learners, have been studying under grade stage. Williams claims they directed lecturers to hurry instruction, deny college students additional studying assist and even inform her to not sit throughout class, which she argued was unethical and unlawful.
She says retaliation escalated after she spoke at a board assembly about HISD’s denial of scholars’ proper to learn in English. District directors started visiting her classroom, writing her up and staging intimidating conferences with a number of supervisors.
My HISD story,,, pic.twitter.com/Rag5yqjIHq
— Michelle Williams (@hea_president) September 4, 2025
Williams responded by submitting particular schooling and ethics complaints and extra complaints with Incapacity Rights Texas, the Texas Workforce Fee and the U.S. Division of Training’s Workplace for Civil Rights, alleging HISD violated federal regulation and state guidelines on English learner instruction.
“The District is not going to touch upon particular person personnel issues. You will need to perceive that whereas we respect the precise of each worker to precise their opinions and viewpoints within the acceptable discussion board, workers are anticipated to carry out their job duties. Our precedence is making certain an efficient instructor in each classroom for each pupil,” HISD mentioned in an announcement.
District officers declare Williams didn’t return to class after a grievance listening to and did not log her absence correctly. Williams disputes that account.
“I knew one thing was occurring,” she instructed the Defender. “I ended up calling my coworkers and the secretary to see in the event that they have been, in reality, searching for me. And it was a lie.”
The TEA investigation
Simply days earlier than her reassignment, Williams filed a grievance with TEA alleging HISD failed to offer mandated helps to college students with disabilities at Benbrook. The grievance facilities on whether or not college students within the campus’s Structured Studying Heart (SLC) had their individualized teaching programs (IEPs) correctly applied through the 2025-26 college 12 months.
TEA has agreed to research the problem, citing federal rules below the People with Disabilities Training Act (IDEA). Investigators will study whether or not HISD complied with pupil tutorial placement and setting necessities. A choice is due by Nov. 7, though the timeline may lengthen given the systemic nature of the allegations.
The grievance additionally highlights issues about inserting a pupil with vital wants in a basic schooling classroom, the place she reportedly screamed all through classes. Williams contends HISD’s tutorial mannequin prioritizes pacing and alignment over legally required individualized instruction.
Clashing over instruction
Williams described mounting tensions with Heard over the district’s pacing guides. She mentioned Heard repeatedly instructed her to hurry up classes, even when college students have been struggling to learn primary passages.
“They have been considerably under grade stage,” Williams mentioned. “We bumped heads on that as a result of I used to be telling him, from my experience, the children wanted to learn to learn.”
Williams argues that directives from Miles’ administration, together with directions to “err on the aspect of too quick and never too gradual,” violate each finest practices and the regulation. She insisted on together with phonics and phonemic consciousness in her classes, notably for English learners and college students with IEPs.
She claims these selections fueled retaliation. After criticizing HISD’s management throughout an August college board assembly, Heard issued her a discover of concern. The next day, North Division Chief Daniel Girard visited her classroom. By week’s finish, she was faraway from campus.
What’s subsequent?
For now, Williams stays on house obligation whereas HISD investigates. She expects to be sidelined for the rest of the varsity 12 months. Within the meantime, substitute lecturers have been introduced in to cowl school rooms at Benbrook.
Williams insists her combat is not only private however systemic.
“They’re actually making an attempt to create a system of haves and have-nots like in a third-world nation,” she mentioned. “It’s the wealthy versus the poor or the individuals who don’t have, or the center class. There isn’t any center class in a third-world nation. Both you’re on the prime otherwise you’re on the backside.”
