K-12 Zone

Blogging Houston-area education with the Chronicle staff.

Hogg Middle School principal steps down
















Categories: Uncategorized
Ericka Mellon

41 Responses

  1. Hogg neighbor says:

    Establishing a no-exceptions rule of basic courtesy would be a start for Hogg. Our kids went there for a middle-school tour and each time (several years apart) were shocked and scared by the vulgarity and verbal aggression they heard in the halls between classes. When the student chosen to lead the tour is verbally assaulted for her role, then replies with profanity in front of a group of 5th-graders, the families will have no confidence in anything else happening at that school. Though zoned to Hogg our kids went elsewhere.

  2. JWDH says:

    It will not make any difference if the central office does not support the principal. It seems to me that they don’t as this guy was only there for a semester and three others for a year. You can’t change a school around in five months.

  3. Hogg neighbor says:

    Right. And putting it politely, nothing Grier does inspires confidence in this taxpaying HISD parent.

  4. rgvguy says:

    We all know who really step down. This person is a lot higher up than any principal.

  5. Funny says:



    Ha. As if parenting doesn’t directly correlate to performance level of the students!

  6. concerned resident says:

    As I recall, Mr Wood was placed in the position by Dr Dance just 6 months ago without an actual application process just as the new principal has been placed in her position also. I wonder if the community had any input?

  7. H4 says:

    As a former Hogg teacher, I would never ever send my kid to Hogg. Never!

  8. Incredulous says:

    Dallas Dance is so funny. He is the fellow who described the Ryan principal as one of the most outstanding educators he had ever encountered. Hah! Now he ranks EXPERIENCE as the top characteristic in a principal. Funny because experience is the one thing HE lacks. He would not know a good principal…Dr. Grier is reaping the “benefits” of his out with the old-in with the new movement. It has only just begun.

  9. Hoggneighbortoo says:

    The school improvement officer (Wood’s immediate supervisor) and Dance should be held accountable for utterly failing to support this young principal. They have no plan to address the needs of the school and its students and no apparent interest in doing so. Grier’s too busy with his infatuation with researcher Roland Fry and his Apollo debacle. Time for a new leader at the top – one with the interests of students and families at the forefront not half-cooked structural and cosmetic changes trotted out as reform. With Grier gone maybe Hogg and schools like it will get the attention they deserve.

  10. Math Maestro says:

    Let’s see…last year’s principal just turned Hogg from Acceptable to Recognized, and Grier replaced a fairly competent principal with this Wood guy, and now has to replace him. This does not sound like Grier knows what he is doing.

    What the Heights parents are really saying is that the 90% economically disadvantaged kids at Hogg are really dragging down their property value. Continued shuffling of the teachers and principals or changing Hogg to a charter school will change little. Re-zoning so the 90% economically disadvantaged go somewhere else is really what the parents want.

  11. Math Maestro says:


    It looks like the Heights parents figured out the bogus TEA Recognized that Hogg earned last year.

    Don’t blame the Hogg principals or teachers–blame the TEA and Pearson (who make the TAKS tests and standards). They will continue to make the tests easier so more students will pass. The achievement gap is closing not because the lower level students are increasing to the higher level students. But instead, the higher level students are decreasing to the lower level students. Charter students just spend more time preparing for the easier tests than the non-Charter students at the expense of extracurriculars, and other electives normally in the magnet programs.

    The real solution that the Heights parents want is to re-zone the district to Hogg so that the 90% economically disadvantaged students go elsewhere. Good luck in selling that without actually having to say it…

  12. Hisdparent says:

    Something is strange the w/Hisd logic, they claim to be concerned abt Hogg but for years have blown off parents zoned to the school. Teachers at Hogg are asking for donations to get basic class supplies. So what is the real deal for letting the school fail. Is is to apply for some sort of grant, like Hisd does for other schools. IB sounds hip but its not all that. Ib cert costs Money. A safe school w/ challenging cirriculum is what is needed.

  13. SuperTeach1 says:

    Grier’s lack of ability to hire appropriate people to top administrative positions is showing, again. Dance may be a nice person, but he is young an inexperienced as many of his decisions have shown. The principal of Ryan is a perfect example. Perhaps he has learned something from his bad choices – the person he has chosen for Hogg does seem to have experience and may do a good job, but only time will tell. At any rate, the damage that has been done to the entire district under Grier’s administration is just now beginning to really show. The incompetence of the majority of the school board to continue to support bad decisions and their insistance to continue to support him tells me the ride down the waterfall of disaster is just beginning and starting to really pick up speed. What is it going to take for those on the board who continue to support him to wake up?

  14. Hogg neighbor says:

    Math Maestro, I’ve agreed with all your blog posts except for today’s. Property values have NOTHING to do with the very real desire of area families of any socioeconomic stripe who give a damn about their children, to be able to send their kids to a neighborhood school for a decent education in a safe, supportive, academically challenging, respectful environment. It gives us no pleasure to have to find somewhere else for our kids to go once they hit 6th grade. There’s the emotional stress of HISD magnet lottery or Vanguard testing, or the financial stress of private school, and in either case the logistical stress of our kids attending school miles away from home.

  15. Hogg neighbor says:

    Amen, SuperTeach.

    “…the damage that has been done to the entire district under Grier’s administration is just now beginning to really show. The incompetence of the majority of the school board to continue to support bad decisions and their insistence to continue to support him tells me the ride down the waterfall of disaster is just beginning and starting to really pick up speed. What is it going to take for those on the board who continue to support him to wake up?”

  16. hunter says:

    Unless those personal reasons are medically based, this is yet another example of the Grier culture in action:

    Twitching from idea to idea, tossing out or chasing off people on a whim, token attention to the actual communities, fast talk replacing actual planning.

    And as for experience:

    Read the resume of this new principal:

    She has little to zero time as a teacher.

    Her degree is in ‘educational administration’. No disrespect, but she is not an educator. She is a highly educated bureaucrat with an online advanced degree.

    HISD is not suffering from a shortage of administrators with online degrees and little experience actually teaching.

    From Superintendent on down to the youngsters hired as principals to this nice lady, it seems HISD is flush with inexperienced administrators who have no idea how to actually teach or hep teachers.

    Indeed, we are being drained to bankruptcy by this sort of person- who only knows that any problem in a school is always a teacher’s fault.

  17. Math Maestro says:

    SuperTeach1 says: “What is it going to take for those on the board who continue to support him to wake up?”

    When you vote the board out in the next election… Even then that won’t be enough because the students with the poor parenting will still be there, and the next board members can’t do anything more for the students than this board, superintendent, principal, teachers, etc. can. Is the answer to continue to rotate the board, superintendent, principal, teachers, etc.?

    Hisdparent says: “A safe school w/ challenging cirriculum is what is needed.”

    Is the answer to continue to rotate the curriculum/programs/school-types from Vanguard to IB to charter to Apollo-20 to online credit recovery, etc.?


    So a 5-year plan will work? If not re-zoning, do the Heights’ parents really mean to turn Hogg into a selective process school like Debakey, HSPVA or Carnegie-Vanguard? Because all that does is take the good students away from the other schools, and pass on today’s Hogg problems to the other schools.

    In a way, I’m glad this continued rotation of principals at Hogg is happening, because maybe everyone will realize that expecting a “Stand and Deliver” or “Freedom Writer” superman teacher fix is not realistic. The best that most can do with students with poor parenting is pass the problem on to someone else. The real solution lies not in the schools but in the homes, and measuring-blaming-replacing the teachers/principals do very little.

    Those in the district or TEA or school reformers that keep selling to the parents that they have all the answers are blowing smoke and mirrors since they want your tax dollars and donations, because that is all that they can do…that, and lowering the TAKS standards to make Hogg TEA Recognized.

  18. SuperTeach1 says:

    Hunter, I agree with everything you said. The superintendent and the board both don’t give a wit about what parents, teachers, or the general community think. If they did, they would not allow him to do whatever he wants. As for the teaching experience of the new principal at Hogg, unfortunately the state passed a mandate in the last legislative session that said that teaching experience was not necessary to be a principal. So, even the state has dropped the ball. Oh, and by the way, we never were told in any of our meetings about the new appraisal system that they want 50% of the appraisal to be based on test scores. That would never be approved by teachers. That just proves the superinentdent will try to do whatever he wants regardless of what the majority of the people say and think. We need to get rid of all the old board members who are continuing to vote with him and put in some people like the new ones who are not sheep and will vote against him and hopefully get rid of Grier.

  19. hunter says:


    Thanks for the kind words.

    Just because the state says it is OK to have a principal with no teaching experience does not mean the ISD’s have to use principals with no teaching experience. I believe Cy-Fair ISD has a three year minimum to go from teaching to Principal track. That seems short, but it is at least a serious amount of teaching. It seems like HISD is once again seeking out ways to isolate teachers by making them at once responsible for kids who are not parented well, while putting over them administrators with little to no perspective from age or experience who cannot or will not discern the difference between poor teaching and a child with poor capabilities.

    The imposition of EVAAS and dubious testing results only acts to further reduce the ability of the teacher to be responsive to the children’s individual needs.

    But maybe we are entering the end of this period of public education and this sort of systemic failure with PhD’s carefully planning and justifying disastrous policies that only serve to waste tax payer money and damage both student and teacher is inevitable. Think of the industry public education has become: One of the largest parts of any State budget. Look at the army of administrators, education colleges, ‘consultants’, publishers, ‘researchers’, etc. etc. etc. All are highly paid feeding at the trough of tax payer plenty. Like what Wall St. had become before the 2008 debacle, Public Education seems very similar: an industry devoted to the betterment of those at the leadership level, paying lip service to its mission yet delivering less and less at a higher and higher cost until it delivered nothing at a cost that nearly destroyed the economy.

    Read through the power point HISD gave out at the budget meetings. The numbers did not add up.Not even the number of schools presented was consistent. If that presentation had been done in a healthy institutional setting, the presentation would have led to big trouble for those responsible for it. There was not even a clear picture presented of the actual budget, much less how it is being managed. The best interpretation is that HISD leadership does not want the information out in a clear fashion. The worst is that they themselves do not really understand it.

    Neither bodes well for the mission of actually teaching.

  20. Sarah says:

    I think it was a mistake for Wood to resign. I have seen great improvement in the school over the last few months and as far as being under preforming… that’s not true.. the school has good test scores. I think Wood needs to come back to the school and at least complete the year. It’s not fair to hold him accountable for a bunch of grumpy parents who I’ve seen whine about everything simply because they don’t bother to take responsibility for their own childs behavior.

  21. Alex Scottchie says:

    I like Wood… He realy cared about my child’s safety and well being. My wife and I are going through a divorce and Our son started acting up.. Wood notified us and our chid is getting

    counseling.. Plus I’ve never known him to be harsh or un-kind. Yes he is strict with the students but still he is never un-fair and I don’t mind making donations to my son’s school.. I try to donate what I can and I would like to be more active in the PTA but some of the people who go to the meetings (not usually the members) just seem like they want to cause trouble and they keep talking about propety value and stuff that really has nothing to do with the school. I want Wood back that’s all there is .. If he doesn’t come back I’m going to run for school board and see that this never happens again.

  22. Myomyhumhum says:

    Yes the people in the neighborhood hate Hogg I admit it. I hate it but I think we went to far to cost someone their Job (Mr. Wood) just because we can has gone to far. Yeah I send my kid to Lamar because I think it sounds better than saying I send them to Hogg and no my kid doesn’t get a better education than my niece who attends Hogg. To tell the truth I was alittle mad because my kid was caught huffing and my niece is never in trouble she gets good grades she is a better writer than my kid and I’m mad.. I wanted it to look like her junior high was worse than my kids and no it’s not the junior high’s fault that my kid was huffing it’s mine because I bought her the sharpies and some other stuff but to cause Mr. Wood to lose his job because i was mad isn’t right.

  23. halfwit says:

    Hogg has the same curriculum as all hisd school’s and from what I have seen Wood made the teacher’s take it up a notch maybe that’s why some of them keep getting mad. And yeah I don’t want my kid around hoodlems but I’ve never been mugged jogging around Hogg and I can’t say that for Marshall.

  24. time2tell says:

    Gier is not the problem…And I like Grier, I also like Mr. Wood. He took time to talk to me about putting my 2 kids in Hogg. He really impressed me. He has an outstanding vocabulary and is well read…That is the type of person I want around my 2 kids. I’ve meet with a few of the princilpes of the more recognised middle schools in the area and none of them knew anything about Herman Hesse or even seem to interested in Poe or even that all time favorite shakespear (honestly the other’s assured me my children would not have to read romeo and juliet so I asked them if they would at least allow them to read the Tempest..they gave no reply)…..Please HISD bring back Wood, at least I know he can read!!

  25. bobisnot ur uncle says:

    So let’s get this straight a dozen people who’s kids do not attened Hogg have gotten together to remove a good principle? A dozen and they have all of their face book friends and twitter companions signing an online patition and some person by the made-up name of Dallas Dance (obviously trying to keep him self from feeling any backlash for doing wrong) has removed an excellent teacher, a supirior mentor, a person promissing to be one of the finest priniples in the city….. and ur okay with it Mr. Gier?????

  26. Parent in the Hood says:

    I say we do the math. If we have more higher performing students attend Hogg the Campus performance rating goes up. If we have more parents showing high expectations for academic rigor (THE catch phrase these days), the teachers will provide it. My impression is that Mr Wood was demanding it. If we have more parents to support the principal’s and the teacher’s efforts to curb the vulgarity and improve discipline (and there are several ways we as parents can help), this too, can be turned around. If we have more options for constructive/creative after school programs and activities, we will see the students embrace the school in the way Mr. Wood has articulated it through his PRIDE theme. But we need more participation from parents. Where might we find these parents? For starters how about the parents signing the petition?

    Waiting for the school to improve does little to see that the school becomes great for all children, both neighborhood and magnet sent. Hogg is my child’s neighborhood school. And I am glad we are there in spite of the challenges. Being there and being a part of helping to make it better has given me the opportunity to see beyond the negative. (It isn’t so scary, folks.) There are great kids there, and great teachers, and if I do say so myself, some great parents. If we in the neighborhood wait to have the perfect superintendent, the perfect Middle School supervisors, or the perfect principal, significant change will not happen, not quickly enough. Hogg has some serious challenges, but the students deserve our efforts to make the change. In being there I think I am helping it move forward, and if other parents who truly want to see the change join in, Hogg can be the kind of neighborhood school neighborhood parents have been, for a long time now, yearning for.

  27. El Machete says:

    Someone wrote; “What the Heights parents are really saying is that the 90% economically disadvantaged kids at Hogg are really dragging down their property value.” Yes…that is exactly how I feel. I will never send my children to this school of immigrant children who’s only goal is to be a day laborer or buy a Cadillac Escalade.

  28. H4 says:

    Wood did not step down. He was forced out. There were many individuals like teachers that knew about him leaving before he did. He did not see this coming. Hogg is a mess and I mostly blame it on the parents that the school severs. I know because I was there for a few years. Hogg needs a strong leader and parental support. Most of the teachers are excellent teachers and work very hard to get the kids where they need to be. Yes, there are a few that need to leave but most are good teachers. The technology sucks, not enough parental support, not enough money, no teacher support, the expectations are not clear, the school’s mission is not clear, and on and on. It’s going to take a lot to get Hogg moving int he right direction. It’s going to take a strong leader and I don’t think the new principal will be able to take Hogg there and most of the teachers don’t think she can either.

  29. RDJPVU92 says:

    Principals should be teachers first, then Assistant Principals, and then assume the mantle of Principal. That process takes at least 10-15 years if you want the right people in the position to stabilize these campuses.

    Band-Aids do not cover stab wounds.

    Experienced educators understand that the discipline must be in place first. Most principals do not address the discipline because they are afraid of the backlash that would come from taking the necessary hardline stance to demonstrate to parents that they are serious about having a safe campus.

    If the parents of these students would support the teachers and administrators at these schools by discplining these kids at home, you would see a marked difference in the achievemnet.

    When you are a grandparent in your early 30s…that’s a problem. And many MS kids are living under these conditions.

  30. TheShark says:

    The Teachers started a witch hunt against Wood. The Teachers do not believe in educating college-bound children. The Teachers are the overpaid lap dogs of the unions. The Teachers bully the administration, the parents, and the kids.

    I’ve had it with the Teachers. Fire them all.

  31. Math Maestro says:

    TheShark says: “I’ve had it with the Teachers. Fire them all.”

    Yes, let’s do that! And let the parents educate their own kids…Oh wait…the smart parents are already doing that. It’s called home-school.

  32. lizzeth says:

    To all The people that talk bad about hogg..the kids dont have nothing to do with this they should see how they work relly had to pass the Taks…ya there kids they want to have fun..they should stop thinking about them slef and stard thinking about the kids from hogg and how they fell about all of this

  33. Hogg neighbor says:

    lizzeth, are you a Hogg student? If so, your grammar and spelling show just what a horrendous waste of time even TAKS preparation is. Not to beat up on you, but if you applied for a job at my business I would have to turn you away. Standard English is essential to getting ahead. If you don’t get it at home you MUST learn it at school.

  34. Math Maestro says:


    Hi Lizzeth, if you are one of the Hogg students, I know you are working and studying very hard. The posts that you see here are not directed at you. But they are directed more towards the parents and the administrators that have pressured your principal to resign. When things like this happen, it is important that everyone express what can be learned so that we all respond better in the future.

    Lizzeth, I can tell you are one of the good students at Hogg because you care. You are a solution for Hogg. Hogg needs more students like you who care about your studies and want to pass the TAKS.

    But still, Hogg has many problems. Many times the problems come from the homes that are created by the parents. Those are the real problems that your principals or teachers can not always fix. And hopefully someday you understand what I am talking about here, because many adults do not understand these problems either.

    Regardless of the problems that Hogg has, you can always rise above and be anything that you strive to be. Don’t let other students pressure you to do something that you know is wrong. Don’t feel like you need to get a boyfriend because you will have plenty of time for that in college. Even though you have a new principal, try to get along with her, because she will do her best for you.

    No one knows if there will be more changes coming to Hogg. Regardless of what new teachers or principals that you may have, do your best to listen and follow them because they do care about you and all the other Hogg students.

    Always do your best to learn as much as you can. Don’t get lazy. Don’t text too much with your friends. Don’t play too many video games. And always listen or follow your parents or guardians.


    Math Maestro

  35. SYLVIA AGUIRRE says:


  36. a student who attends hogg :) says:

    IM A StUdENt WhO AttENdS hOGG iM iN thE 7th GRAdE.!! LOOk tO tEll YAll thU tRUth WE AiNt bAd likE YAll thiNk WE ARE. WE ARE iNtElliGENt hUMAN bEANS. AN WE AiNt GONNA ChANGE CUZ YAll WANt US tO ChANGE.!! ThE tEAChERS ARE PUttiNG PRESSURE ON US NOt YAll US.!! WE Can’t tAlk iN thE lUNCh ROOM ARE NOthiNG CUZ OF YAll.! YAll NEEd tO CAlM dOWN CUZ YAll MAkiNG it WORSt.!! WE ACt bAd WhEN WE NEEd tO bE.! SO bYE.! :)

  37. H4 says:

    Aguirre, withdrawal your daughter from Hogg.

  38. hunter says:

    Math Maestro,

    That was a very nice comment to Lizzeth.

    Hogg Neighbor,

    The kids are obviously sending text messages. Texting grammar is not standard english grammar.

  39. FlyontheWall says:

    There once was a time…..not too long ago that Hogg had the strong curriculum, discipline, and community respect that it so desires today. I was one of the teachers that worked for 13 long, hard years to obtain such goals and I can categorically say I never worked harder in my life. Most of the ex-Hoggs would say the same. It was not until we left to teach somewhere else that we realized how hard we had been working. We had worked ourselves from the basement on scores, addressed the needs of the overaged students, wrote grants to fund our teacher initiatives and literally, pulled the wires that established whatever technology that now exists in the building. It took THE WHOLE VILLAGE about 10-12 years to pull that school from the abyss. I personally saw the beginning of the decline when the teachers and community no longer had a voice in who was placed as administrator. The decline that has taken place began 5 years ago with the first “placed’ principal. She devalued the efforts and programs that had been hard won over the years, backed off on the discipline, dress code and began to remove all the Fine Arts programs that were in place. It took less than 2 years for most of that hard working, caring staff to realize that they needed to move on if they did not want to participate in the decomp. JohnQPublic never noticed, did not seem to care. They voted in a Board and a Superintendent that has continued to devalue the site based decision making teams of staff and community members in all schools effectively turning them into rubber stamp committees for ineffective principals. The current policy on increasing Teach For America rotations while devaluing the efforts of those old school disciplinarians will have several more schools, not just Hogg, walking the same path. Yes, the parents need to begin at home. Yes, the teachers need to teach as hard as they can with rigor. Yes, the administration needs time to work a school before someone looking at data says “pull the plug.” But before any of these village “players” can give it their all, they need to have buy in and respect for their leader. If they can’t have that, they at least need a “leader” who has sense enough to leave them alone and stay out of their way while they roll up their sleeves to get dirty with the hard work. With Grier, you have a fool. You, JohnQPublic, need to chop the head off of the snake and find someone who really cares about people; staff, parents, and students.

  40. hogg students says:

    We Are Students who Attend Hogg Middle School we are in the 7th grade.All We Wanted To Say is that we Are Not a Bad School..and if yall think we are why dont yall come and see for your selfs…we are intelligent students we work realy hard to get where we are now,yes we have are days when we dont act good,but its life every school does that.You see all the other middle schools they act the same and yall over here blaming it on hogg its not only us..oh yea and all of yall people who saying racist thing yall need to quit because yall are making things worse.

  41. Disillusioned says:

    This “cut-throat” mentality is seeping into schools, teachers, students and communities. Where is it stemming from???? Yes, Grier! There is no intrinsic drive or motivation to be the best. It’s simply…do or die! Eat or be eaten! That is his mentality and underlying philosophy. If Houston is to become a leader in education or at least have pride in it’s academics, we must get rid of this “leader” SOON!!!! Let’s rally, protest, march. Let our voices as parents, educators, students and tax payers be heard. This is sickening :(