An independent examiner recommended that Houston ISD reinstate Houston Education Association President Michelle Williams as a teacher after a two-day virtual hearing in June where Houston ISD proposed the nonrenewal of her contract.
The examiner recommended Williams be issued a contract for the 2024-2025 school year and be remunerated any back pay due to her loss of teaching compensation. The board will make the final determination on her job status.

Williams — leading the local affiliate of the Texas State Teachers Association and the National Education Association — was dismissed in March from her role as a third-grade math teacher, in part, over her social media activity. Williams believed the district's attempts to dismiss her were done in retaliation for her public criticism of district leadership.

The independent hearing examiner, Karen A. Egbuna, found that the recommended nonrenewal of Williams' contract was not supported by a preponderance of evidence and that HISD failed to support by a preponderance of evidence its 11 policy reasons for proposed nonrenewal.

Egbuna also noted that "some of the 2023-2024 accusations raised by HISD were based in part on incomplete, contradictory, retaliatory evidence and could not be accurately relied upon."

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