The Houston ISD Board of Education voted unanimously to name Millard House II as permanent superintendent of the largest public school district in Texas.
Mr. House most recently served as superintendent of the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System (CMCSS) in Tennessee. He is a 26-year educator who started as a physical education teacher then went on to hold positions as chief operating officer and superintendent.
The Board of Education named House as superintendent after an extensive process of gathering stakeholder input, a nationwide search that included a diverse pool of applicants, and a comprehensive interview process of the top candidates. Trustees named Mr. House as their lone finalist on May 21, but state law requires a 21-day waiting period before signing a contract.
“I am so proud and so honored to say that we will be working as a team of ten,” said HISD Board of Education President Dr. Patricia Allen.
Mr. House says he was drawn to HISD because he saw a district working relentlessly to equitably educate the whole child and ensure every student graduates with the tools to reach their full potential. Serving more than 196,000 students in 276 schools, HISD is the seventh largest district in the nation.
“I am honored and humbled to have this opportunity,” said Mr. House. “I do not take this responsibility lightly. This work will be difficult. There will be tough decisions, but it will be worth it for our children.”
Mr. House had been with CMCSS since 2017 and in May, he was named the Tennessee Mid-Cumberland Superintendent of the Year. He was appointed assistant principal of Anderson Elementary in Tulsa, Oklahoma at age 25 and was promoted to principal the following year. During his five years at the school, it went from being one of the lowest-performing Title I schools in the state to one of the highest. In 2003, he became the first African American to win the Tulsa Public Schools’ Principal of the Year Award. He was also named Outstanding Administrator of the Year by the Tulsa Area Alliance of Black School Educators.
Mr. House earned his bachelor’s from the University of Montevallo in Alabama and his master’s in school administration from Northeastern State University in Oklahoma. He also graduated from the Fisher School Leadership Program at the University of California, Berkeley’s Hass School of Business.
Source: HISD
Photo Source/Credit: HISD
