Texas officials again tapped a Houston schools administrator to helm a state takeover, this time for Beaumont ISD.
Sandi Massey is the new state-appointed superintendent of Beaumont ISD as the district has struggled with years of poor academic performance. Massey comes from the nearby Houston ISD, where she was the chief of schools during a takeover that has been controversial among parents but lauded among state leaders.
“I know what it takes to transform a district,” Massey said at a press conference Wednesday. “I am ready to do it here in Beaumont and make this city the best instruction you’ve ever seen.”
Massey is the third Houston schools official tapped in recent weeks to help shepherd a state takeover.
Texas Education Agency commissioner Mike Morath appointed Ena Meyers, who was a Houston ISD chief, as superintendent of Lake Worth ISD last week. And Peter Licata, on his first day on the job as the state-appointed superintendent of Fort Worth ISD, hired another Houston ISD chief Daniel Soliz as his deputy.
State leaders’ praise of Houston ISD’s academic progress during its takeover suggests they see that district as a playbook to improve public schools across Texas. Morath last year called Houston ISD a “truly historic” success, citing the rapid gains, including the elimination of F-rated campuses on the state’s academic accountability ratings.
The changes at Houston ISD have been largely instructional. That includes requirements to use district-provided scripted PowerPoints, timers to keep lessons strictly on pace and quizzes at the end of lessons to measure whether students mastered the materials.
While such changes have led to academic gains, droves of students and teachers have also left the district.
Massey will lead Beaumont ISD through its second state intervention in 10 years. The Texas Education Agency stepped in from 2014 to 2020 because of financial mismanagement.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School l and Fehl-Price Elementary triggered Beaumont’s second latest takeover after the two campuses failed accountability ratings for five consecutive years. The elementary school has never earned an acceptable rating – a C or higher — while the middle school has gone 11 years without one, according to the TEA.
“For more than a decade, persistent academic struggles have held students back from reaching their full potential,” Morath said in a statement announcing Massey’s appointment. “Today’s actions reaffirm our commitment to the children of Beaumont by putting them first.”
Beaumont school trustees — whose authority is replaced by a board of managers named Morath also named on Wednesday — had partnered with the charter network Third Future Schools in 2023 in an effort to avoid a takeover and help its struggling campuses. Third Future is the brainchild of Mike Miles, the state-appointed superintendent in Houston, and previously employed Massey before she joined HISD.
But, ultimately, the partnership wasn’t enough for Beaumont.
Under Texas law, when a campus reaches five years of failing state accountability grades, the commissioner must either order the school closed or appoint the managers to take control from the locally elected board.
Morath toured Beaumont ISD in September before announcing that appointing the new leaders was the right fix.
The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on education pathways coverage.
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