Crockett Elementary Parents and Students Call For Principal To Stay

Roughly 70 parents and two dozen children gathered outside Crockett Elementary Monday morning to protest the administration’s decision to remove campus principal Dr. Alexis Clark Vale.

Chants such as “Who do we want? Dr. Vale,” — and the Spanish translation “¿Quién queremos? Dr. Vale” —  rang out from the group as many passersby on their way to work honked in solidarity with the protestors’ messages.

Most students and family members were notified last week that Vale would not return next school year amid a wave of principal and teacher contract non-renewals due to what the administration referred to as not sufficiently meeting Superintendent Mike Miles’ employment criteria. 

These contract non-renewals come roughly a month before the district’s last day of school, which Cynthia Marquez, a godmother of a kindergartener at the arts magnet, says does not appear to be a coincidence.

“It buys them time to be able to do what they need to do, and we have time to forget about it,” Marquez said. “HISD doesn’t realize that parents actually do care and have a voice.”

Marquez brought her godson to Monday’s protest. He was among the crowd, not wearing the arts magnet’s uniform. She chose to keep him out of school for the day, joining many parents and other family members objecting to the administration’s decision by allowing their children to not attend class.

Alana Holmes, also present at the demonstration, gave her first-grade and fourth-grade daughters the option to stay home for the day or attend school. Holmes said her children planned to attend class after participating in the protest to support their friends who were sad about Vale’s removal.

According to one source who did not want to be identified for this article and who has ties to the district, about 20 to 25 children, or a quarter of students from each grade level, showed up for school. There were 15 kindergarteners and 11 pre-kindergartners present in their respective classes.

Another source said the administration threatened to revoke the teaching licenses of instructors planning to call in sick from Crockett and several other campuses where protests occurred.

The Houston Press contacted the district for a response to this claim. HISD senior media relations specialist Jose Irizarry replied in an email that the students and staff absent on Monday are subject to the district’s absence policies just as they would be on any other day.

The district’s statement:

To become a district that serves all students well, HISD must use data and on-the-job observation to staff every school with a leader who will ensure consistent, high-quality instruction at their campus.

When making decisions about school leaders, the first – and in some ways, most critical – piece of data HISD evaluates is the quality of a school. In most cases, if a school has an A or B rating, that is a strong indication that the principal is creating the kind of learning environment students need. When a school is rated C or lower, it often means the school is not serving students well on a consistent basis. And where campuses are not meeting the needs of all kids, HISD must examine what is happening at the school. That starts with the school’s leadership.

HISD, like all other districts, is making decisions about staffing for the 2024-2025 school year. All contract non-renewals for principals are unrelated to HISD’s overall budget challenges. Instead, these contract decisions are being made – again – with the goal of ensuring every student receives high-quality instruction, every day. In some cases, we hope principals who do not retain their current position for next school year will apply for assistant principal or other roles within HISD that will help the educator grow their instructional leadership.

The district understands that leadership transitions are disruptive for the impacted school communities, and that the principal is often the most visible and accessible person on a campus. Division leaders will work with every impacted campus to identify each community’s priorities for their next school leader. That process will involve surveys, community meetings, and opportunities over the summer to meet with incoming principals.

In all cases, we are asking our principals to finish the school year strong. HISD students need and deserve a full year of high-quality instruction in supportive, productive school environments.

With regard to teachers, the District did not cut teaching positions as part of its work to right-size the HISD budget. In our non-NES schools, most decisions to retain or release a teacher are made by the principal and are based on data and classroom evaluation. Campuses that saw enrollment declines may have had to adjust their staffing for next school year, but – again – teaching positions were not cut in the HISD budget.

At the District’s 85 NES and NES-aligned campuses, principals used data to determine which teachers are eligible to continue working in the NES and will be retained in their current positions based on the school’s projected enrollment. Employees who are not eligible to continue working in the NES but meet the requirements for non-NES positions in HISD are encouraged to apply for those available roles.

One protestor who requested anonymity said the challenges principals face daily to meet students’ real-life needs far exceed the instructional quality and student achievement Miles’s evaluation system is built on.

“He’s taking what until 2035 for his plan, but he wants them to do it in less than a year,” the demonstrator added. “That is such a double standard, Mr. Miles.”

Holmes said when the administration announced in January Crockett would become one of the NES schools in 2024-25, Vale was promised she would retain her position. Valle’s remaining in leadership encouraged parents and instructors to stay.

All but three teachers signed contracts for the next school year, a testament she noted to the school community’s trust in Vale. Those that didn’t were leaving for reasons unrelated to the system change.

“We knew that if she [Vale] stayed, she would have been able to implement his [Miles] desires while also protecting and honoring the culture that we’ve created at Crockett,” Holmes said. “The idea that he’s changing the script is not surprising, but it’s still very upsetting. It’s hard for us to come up with reasons to stay.”

Marquez echoed Holmes’s sentiment, acknowledging that if she knew the administration’s promises would be broken, she would’ve opted to relocate her godson to another campus or to another school outside the district.

She said families couldn’t choose to move to another HISD school because Vale was let go after school choice closed. Marquez added that if the community’s effort to fight for Vale’s return were unsuccessful, she would look for another arts-centric program outside of the district.

“We believed that if the teachers were able to pacify them with enough benchmark numbers, we would be left alone,” Marquez said. “Unfortunately, nothing that the school did was going to be enough. That was to keep us at bay so we wouldn’t go to HISD and do what we are doing today.”