Melissa Yarborough had been teaching sixth-grade reading at Navarro Middle School for seven years when state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles took over in 2023.

She loved her students but heard one too many times that asking children how their day was going or encouraging them to read during reading class was “wasting instructional time.”

“My professional values and my personal morals conflicted directly and strongly with things they were telling me to implement in my classroom,” Yarborough said.

She joined a group of HISD students at a Thursday press conference to raise awareness about how they believe students and teachers have suffered since the Texas Education Agency appointed Miles as part of a state takeover and handpicked a board of managers to improve the district’s perform

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