HOUSTON – Rochelle Cabe is preparing to protest Monday morning in hopes of changing the mind of Houston ISD’s Superintendent Mike Miles.
“Our principal at Meyerland Middle School is beloved,” said Cabe of principal J. Auden Sarabia. “There’s never a time you don’t see Mr. Sarabia in the hallway when he’s not helping a kid, when he’s not going to a classroom. He is that principal that you want.”
Cabe said Sarabia was given two options last week: resign or meet with the board of managers for a conference for the record.
“Now, if you resign, you don’t have the opportunity to talk to the district, hear exactly what they have against you,” Cabe said. “If you terminate, they’ll give you the option to see what’s in your file, talk about it, and you get the right to appeal to the TEA.”
Cabe is the school’s incoming parent teacher organization president.
Sarabia was apparently also on a list of more than 100 principals on the district’s performance screening. The district used a proficiency screener to rate its principals and based on performance reviews, 125 principals have demonstrated the leadership qualities necessary to keep their jobs for the next school year.
After significant community outcry, the district walked back their plan.
“The district wants to clarify prior communication regarding the use of the proficiency screener,” Superintendent Miles said during a March board meeting. “The proficiency screener rating will not be used in the evaluation of principals or other campus administrators in any adverse employment decisions for 2023-24.”
Last week, Miles said principals were instead going to be evaluated by several data points.
“Principals are on a pay for performance evaluation system,” Miles said. “The core of that is data: instructional data, achievement data, action plan data, leadership data so a lot of information on a principal. The evaluations have not been done yet those are end of year evaluations. This is the time right now where some decisions are made based on several things and part of the several things is data.”
Cabe is hoping with more parent engagement, they can prevent Sarabia’s ouster.
“We hope that people from all over the district, whether you have a child in the HISD system or not, whether you lost teachers and beloved principals last week or not, we hope that you come and join us,” Cabe said. “Stand up for our principals in this district that have lost their positions.”
The protest is scheduled for Monday, May 13 in front of Meyerland Middle School.
“If you are tired of the constant chaos, the fear, our inactive Board of Managers, and the micromanagement of folks with dubious experience, come stand with us,” said in a release sent to KPRC 2. “We are #strongertogether.”