5 things to know about the new HISD superintendent

• The nine managers include HISD parents, a former teacher, a small-business owner and an Army veteran.

Catch up quick: The TEA initially tried to take over the board in 2019 due to years of failing test scores at Wheatley High School. The agency succeeded in March, ending a four-year legal battle.

• The agency will remain in control of HISD until no campus receives a D or F state rating for multiple years, the district's special education program is in compliance with state legal requirements, and there is an established board procedure and conduct that "meet a focus on students consistent with high-performing governance teams," per a takeover letter from the TEA.

Here's what you need to know about Miles and his plans:

1. Mike Miles' background

Miles served as superintendent of Harrison School District in Colorado Springs for six years before joining DISD in 2012.

• He left the district before the end of his five-year contract, per the Dallas Morning News.
• Miles then founded charter school network Third Future Schools, which serves students in Texas, Louisiana and Colorado.
• He served in the U.S. Army and as a diplomat in the Department of State. He received a bachelor's from the United States Military Academy at West Point and the University of California at Berkeley along with a master's in international affairs and public policy from Columbia University, according to his LinkedIn.

2. His leadership

Miles is described as an innovative yet combative leader, according to the Houston Chronicle.

• "The challenge with Mike Miles wasn't his ideas of turning around schools or trying to reform education, the challenge with Mike Miles was his approach with people. He's a military-minded person, he came in saying 'It's my way or the highway,' and he didn't do well with Dallas politics," Edward Turner, a longtime Dallas education advocate, told the Chronicle.

3. His general plan

• Miles said he will spend his first year focusing on 30 of the highest-need schools, per the Chronicle. He predicts it will take five to six years to overhaul and implement his plans.

• At these schools, he said, he'll increase teachers' salaries to an average of $85,000 by cutting other positions like office managers, consultants, substitute teachers and librarians.
• Teachers at other schools will be compensated based on their performance, a much-debated policy that Miles introduced in DISD, according to the Chronicle.

4. His thoughts on school closings

He pledged not to close any schools in his first year but said there likely will be closures in the future.

• "It's too early for that, it's June already and I don't want to disrupt communities that are already planning on a school being open," Miles said. "So not this year, but down the road, most likely," he said to the Chronicle.

5. His connections with charter schools

Miles denied that he would turn HISD into a charter network, per the Chronicle.

• "My first job, my first priority work area is to make sure that all of our kids get a really good education and really good school," Miles said to Houston Landing. "So I'm going to work on that, making sure our schools are improved systemically, and then we'll see if we need any charter operators in the district."