HISD Is in Shambles and the Group Chat Has Receipts: Custodians Cut, 10,000 Students Gone, and That Fake Mike Miles Resignation

Y’all. If you want to know what’s really going on at Houston ISD, don’t watch the board meetings — read the comments in the Community Voices for Public Education group. Eight thousand parents, teachers, students, and community members in one Facebook group, and this past two weeks have been nothing but tea. Fake resignations, real budget cuts, disappearing students, and custodians getting the axe. Let me pour it out for you — with receipts.

Custodians and Maintenance Are Getting Cut — Today

The freshest mess dropped today: new HISD cuts are hitting custodians and maintenance staff. The folks who keep campuses safe and clean are being moved around, vacancies are getting slashed, and campuses that were already short-staffed are being told to just… do without.

And baby, the comments did not hold back. One parent said the school grounds at their campus haven’t been mowed and the exteriors are “an absolute mess.” Another said their campus custodial staff was cut back in 2018 or 2019 and it never recovered — so this is just piling on. One person pointed out the district had the nerve to tell custodians that with all the teacher cuts, there are “fewer classrooms to clean” — as if that’s a consolation prize and not an admission that everything is shrinking.

My personal favorite comment: “Apparently, we learned nothing about the importance of cleanliness and sanitation from COVID.” Three cheers for flu season, indeed. Most of the blame in the thread landed on two names you’ll see a lot in this article: Governor Abbott and Superintendent Mike Miles. Twenty reactions, mostly angry and sad. Nobody’s laughing about this one.

The Mike Miles Resignation That Wasn’t

Now for the messiest part. A few days ago, a story started going around claiming HISD Superintendent Mike Miles had resigned. It spread fast — the kind of viral where everybody shares it before reading it. Turns out it was fake, and Context Corner had to formally walk it back: no, Mike Miles did not resign. He is still the state-appointed superintendent of Houston ISD.

Here’s the thing though — the reason that fake story traveled so fast is because so many people wanted it to be true. Over on the enrollment post, one commenter just wrote “Go away Miles!” with the article link. When your community treats a resignation rumor like a birthday wish, that tells you everything about the temperature in the room.

Fair warning, though: the rumor hasn’t fully died. Other corners of social media are still running with versions of it — one account claims an interim superintendent is lined up, another cites a leaked article about a massive deficit. The only thing confirmed is the correction: as far as anyone can verify, Miles is still in the chair.

10,000 Students Gone

Speaking of that enrollment post — the Houston Chronicle reported that HISD had just over 155,600 students enrolled as of September 4. That’s a drop of nearly 10,000 students from September 2025. Ten thousand. In one year.

And the Texas Tribune went even bigger picture with a September 21 investigation asking whether HISD’s whole takeover playbook is sustainable: 21,000 students lost since the state took over, roughly $190 million in reduced state funding, and the district spending an extra $700,000 per campus — about $2,200 more per student — at half its schools. That’s the kind of math that doesn’t math for long.

The comments blamed everybody from Abbott to Patrick to Paxton to the TEA, and honestly, when you’re bleeding ten thousand students in a year, the finger-pointing writes itself. Enrollment is money in public education — every empty seat is funding walking out the door. And that funding hole is exactly what the next part of this story is about.

🧾 Receipt: @mochazina on Threads — early figures showed HISD lost 8,400+ students vs. a budgeted 4,000, with non-NES campuses targeted even when they met enrollment.

Teachers Getting Shuffled at Non-NES Campuses

Back on September 21, the group was already buzzing about teachers being reassigned because of drastic budget cuts to non-NES campuses. Remember, the NES (New Education System) schools are Miles’s flagship model — the non-NES campuses are the ones absorbing the cuts. “Check on your teacher friends,” the post said, and it read like a wellness check for an entire profession.

But it’s worse than reassignments. KPRC 2’s Rilwan Balogun has been documenting the damage school by school: Hogg Middle School facing a $215,000 cut that kills its ELA interventionist and journalism program. Marshall Middle School ending orchestra. Carnegie Vanguard firing an English teacher mid-schedule. And Lamar High School staring down $500,000 in cuts — choir, agriculture, debate, all on the chopping block. One source told him DeBakey High School’s principal was told he had reserve funds to save two staff members, and the district said no anyway.

This is the same budget squeeze that’s now reaching the custodians. Teachers, then the people who clean the classrooms the teachers were cut from. It’s cuts all the way down.

🧾 Receipts:

Follow the Money 💸

So where’s it all going? That’s what everybody’s asking. Courier Texas laid it out in a carousel that’s been making the rounds: a month into the school year, the district told campuses to cut spending after budgeting for 4,000 lost students and getting closer to 10,000 — and the Houston Federation of Teachers wants an independent audit, pointing out that campus budgets are being slashed while cabinet members pull in over $200,000 and the cabinet has tripled in size.

And then there’s the video going around breaking down the finances: HISD spending about $2,200 more per student than the state provides, draining rainy-day reserves, selling off district-owned buildings and land — with the sale prices and buyers undisclosed. State leaders keep holding HISD up as proof the reforms work. The math says otherwise.

🧾 Receipts:

The Board Quietly Changed the Rules on Naming Buildings

Buried in all of this, the Houston Press covered something from the September board meeting that barely made a ripple: HISD changed its rules on naming buildings and teacher recognition — in essence making Superintendent Mike Miles the final decision maker on building names — and killed the tradition of recognizing teachers at the 5-, 10-, and 15-year marks with service pins. If teachers are so valued, why take that gesture away?

It was a nine-to-nothing vote, and the elected members weren’t quiet about it. Board member McDonough protested the non-NES funding cuts on the record and called out a $20 million budget shortfall a month into the school year, demanding the board “demand the data.” Trustee Pereyra asked why they’re changing naming rules — including dropping the requirement that a person be deceased to get a building named after them — instead of fixing broken ACs in 100-degree weather. Next board meeting: October 8. Mark it.

Meanwhile in Beaumont…

One more piece of tea, and this one’s not Houston — it’s Beaumont ISD. A post went up rallying support for BISD Superintendent Sandi Massey, complete with her educator certificate, asking folks to share it so she knows the community has her back “during October” and to wish her luck in the comments.

Now, I don’t know what’s happening in Beaumont, but when a superintendent needs a public pep rally heading into October, something is brewing over at that board table. Consider this your early warning. I’ll be watching.

So What Now?

Here’s the through-line, y’all: ten thousand students gone, teachers reassigned — or just fired — custodians cut, campuses told to make do with less, a $20 million hole a month into the year, and a community so fed up that a fake resignation story felt like good news. The CVPE group is basically a real-time stress meter for Houston public education, and right now the needle is in the red.

HISD is the biggest school district in Texas, and it’s being run like a stress test nobody signed up for. The parents and teachers in that group aren’t waiting for a press release to tell them how it feels — they’re living it, and they’re talking about it. And I’m going to keep listening.

What’s the tea at your campus? If you’ve got HISD stories — cuts, chaos, or comebacks — you know where to find me.