I don't think anyone is very surprised. Honestly, HISD has had its fair share of fuckery over the last several years. What's frustrating is that at this point, the worst bad apples are gone from the board, results have actually improved at the high school that triggered the takeover in the first place, and people seem to like the new superintendent. What I'm feeling as an HISD parent, and what seems to be the general feeling, is not surprise but more like fear. Given what we know, I think the chances that Abbott/Morath appoint at least some managers that are political cronies, or people with an agenda other than supporting public school students, are very high. And it's going to happen just as things had actually started looking up a little for HISD. Right now we're just waiting and holding our breath.
There's no timeline for the state to hand back control to elected trustees. If you look at the rules, the state can basically say "eh, hasn't improved enough" and keep kicking that can down the road forever. So in effect we have the school district being turned into a political plaything for state GOP leaders for an indefinite amount of time, with no accountability to people that live within HISD. Studies have shown that these state takeovers are a mixed bag in terms of results - sometimes they help, sometimes they don't.
I find it ironic that the GOP's rallying cry regarding education right now is "parental choice!!", yet they're going to take control of HISD away from a diverse set of trustees elected by the people of Houston and hand it to a group of managers chosen by a political appointee in Austin.