This is going to be a challenge, assuming it does go forward. The North Forest Independent School District is nearing the end of its appeals to stay open, paving the way for Houston ISD to take over. State education commissioner Robert Scott notified the North Forest administration in a letter released Friday that he was [...]
Posts Tagged ‘HISD Board of Trustees’
Back to magnet schools
It’s Magent Awareness Week in HISD, and the Board of Trustees will be reviewing a new magnet school policy along the way. A proposed new policy, released by HISD last week, calls for the creation of a new funding model for magnet schools and an accountability system that would give under-performing programs three years to [...]
2011 Houston results
Let’s go through the races… – Mayor Parker won with a shade under 51%, with none of her opponents cracking 15% on their own. Obviously, this is not a position a Mayor with no serious opposition wants to be in, and it won’t surprise anyone if one or more potential opponents for 2013 are on [...]
Your annual reminder that every vote matters
HISD Trustee, District III results, with 38 of 38 precincts reporting: Manuel Rodriguez 2,401 50.25% Ramiro Fonseca 2,377 49.75% There were 653 undervotes in this race, and turnout in the district was 11.61%. Fonseca carried Election Day by 78 votes, but had trailed by 102. At one point during the count, the Clerk had Fonseca [...]
Chron retracts Rodriguez endorsement
Good for them. Earlier this campaign season, we endorsed Manuel Rodriguez Jr. for another term on the board of the Houston Independent School District. We now retract that endorsement in the race for HISD Position III trustee. A last-minute campaign flier for Rodriguez displays appalling homophobia. The flier urges recipients not just to vote for [...]
More school districts looking at school finance lawsuit
From San Antonio. Trustees of the area’s two largest school districts — North East and Northside — on Tuesday deliberated about joining a lawsuit against the state over what some consider to be an inadequate and inequitable education funding system. Houston attorney David Thompson, who plans to file a lawsuit, one of several expected over [...]
Time to evaluate Grier
It’s performance review time for HISD Superintendent Terry Grier. The elected nine-member school board uses an evaluation form that consists of data measurements in categories such as the increase in student college readiness; recruiting and retaining the best teachers and principals; and improving the public support and confidence in HISD schools. Trustees have moved toward [...]
HISD to join school finance lawsuit
Good. The Houston school board committed Thursday to suing the state, adding to a growing list of districts taking legal action to force Texas lawmakers to improve the way they fund public education. Trustees of the Houston Independent School District voted 5-0 to join a pending lawsuit that will ask a Travis County court to [...]
Endorsement watch: HISD incumbents
The Chron sticks with the incumbents in the three contested HISD Trustee races. For HISD Trustee in District III: Manuel Rodriguez Elected to the board in 2003, he was its president in 2007, when the district successfully passed an important bond to build 21 new schools and repair and remodel more than 100 others. He [...]
Chron overview of HISD races
They paint it as a referendum on Terry Grier. He’s not on the ballot, but Houston ISD Superintendent Terry Grier is a key figure in next month’s school board elections. Grier has led the state’s largest school district for two years – winning fervent fans and foes – and the newly elected trustees will have [...]
HISD tightens ethics rules
Good. The Houston school board agreed Thursday to tighten its ethics rules to prevent trustees from meeting with vendors and from accepting certain campaign donations during open bids. [...] Board members would not be able to attend meetings with vendors and the district’s administration under the policy change. HISD board president Paula Harris, who has [...]
The $25,000 question
What the hell? A $25,000 campaign contribution to a Houston school board member normally would raise eyebrows for its size. Add in the fact that the donation was not listed in the trustee’s financial disclosure forms, and the five-figure check becomes evidence in a lawsuit. A Houston construction firm, the Gil Ramirez Group, alleged in [...]
Interview with Paula Harris
We close the week with HISD Board President and District IV Trustee Paula Harris, who is service her first term on the Board. Harris has a degree in petroleum engineering from Texas A&M and has worked as an engineer and project manager for over 20 year. She is on the Board of Directors for Space [...]
Interview with Ramiro Fonseca
Opposing Trustee Manuel Rodriguez in District III is Ramiro Fonseca. Fonseca is the program manager of Minority Male Initiative at HCC, where he has also been a financial aid associate. He has also served as President of the Houston Hispanic Forum, and is on Mayor Parker’s Hispanic Advisory Board. (See also School Zone’s Q&A with [...]
Interview with Manuel Rodriguez
Trustee Manuel Rodriguez was first elected to serve District III in 2003. Rodriguez is a businessman and longtime education activist who has served as the Board President and currently serves as its Vice President. (See also School Zone’s Q&A with Rodriguez and his opponent, Ramiro Fonseca.) Here’s the interview, which I should note was conducted [...]
Interview with Juliet Stipeche
Next up is Trustee Juliet Stipeche, whose campaign webpage is here. She won a special election in 2010 for the Trustee seat in District VIII that was vacated by Diana Davila. Stipeche is an attorney and a graduate of HISD schools, including the High School for Law Enforcement. (See also School Zone’s Q&A with Stipeche [...]
Interview with Rhonda Skillern-Jones
We now shift to HISD and HCC Trustee races, which will take us through the end of the interview series. To start off, I bring you a conversation with Rhonda Skillern-Jones, who will succeed Carole Mims Galloway as the Trustee in District II. Skillern-Jones is a mother of five children, all of whom have attended [...]
HISD considers revamping ethics rules
This all seems like a good idea. Houston school trustees, who now may accept campaign cash from anyone at any time, would face new restrictions under a proposal meant to curb improper influence in the school district’s business deals. The new rules, slated for board consideration next week, would bar a trustee from taking contributions [...]
My overview of the 2011 election
Note: I was asked to write a guest post at BOR to summarize the 2011 Houston elections. I figure if I’m going to put all that effort into something, I may as well use it here, too. It’s mostly familiar stuff to you if you’ve been reading here, but feel free to clip and share [...]
Lineup update
The Chron story that ran in yesterday’s news is now updated online to reflect the fact that CM Melissa Noriega does have two opponents, Brad Batteau and Chris Carmona. I emailed reporter Chris Moran yesterday to ask about that discrepancy, and he replied that it was just an error on his part, for which he [...]
Your 2011 electoral lineup
There are many candidates running for office this year. Some of them have a better rationale for running than others, but thankfully for them that’s not a requirement. A flurry of late filings to run for city office Wednesday filled out an election ballot that left only two Houston officials unopposed for re-election in November. [...]
Trautman running for HCDE
And we have our first contested Democratic primary in Harris County for 2012 as Diane Trautman has announced her intent to run for Harris County Department of Education Trustee in At Large #3. Here’s her Facebook page for that. She joins David Rosen, who made his announcement last month. The At Large #3 seat is [...]
We have a contested HISD election
School Zone: Houston ISD school board president Paula Harris is the first incumbent to draw an opponent in the November elections. Arturo “Art” Huerta — who, according to the board office, is a parent of a child at Lanier Middle School — has filed to run to represent District IV, which includes parts of central [...]
Please place the blame where it belongs
Stories like this concern me. Public opinion of the Houston Independent School District plummeted this year amid severe state budget cuts, while support of the superintendent also dropped, according to a new survey. Among parents surveyed this spring, 54 percent said HISD was headed in the right direction, down from 79 percent two years ago. [...]
HISD to hire back some teachers
More good news. More than 300 teachers and other educators in the Houston Independent School District have been rehired since the massive round of layoffs in the spring, according to newly released data. Additional HISD teachers could get their jobs back in coming weeks thanks to a better-than-expected budget outlook — though Superintendent Terry Grier [...]
Update on HISD and HCC finance reports
I had mentioned before that it was hard to find campaign finance reports for HISD and HCC Trustees. I now have some updated information about this, so I wanted to share it with you. First, HISD Trustee Anna Eastman (who represents my HISD district) emailed me on Tuesday to let me know that their finance [...]
The other races
In addition to the city of Houston races, I am trying to follow the HISD and HCC Trustee elections as well. I say “trying” because there’s just no information out there that I can find. For one thing, though there are seven such races this year – four in HISD, three in HCC, including one [...]
The 2011 interview season has begun
As of this week, I will begin interviewing candidates for the 2011 elections. At the top of the site, you can see the 2011 Election page, where I will be keeping track of interviews, endorsements, campaign finance reports, and possibly some other things as they occur to me. I just have City of Houston candidates [...]
HISD adopts its budget
No tax increase, at least not at this time. Students in the Houston Independent School District can expect to see larger class sizes and fewer teachers, librarians and elective courses next year under the spending plan that trustees approved Thursday. The $1.6 billion budget reflects a state funding shortfall affecting districts across Texas, although for [...]
No more cuts for HISD, for now
As we know, the HISD Board of Trustees had originally set its budget based on the initial House appropriations, which cut almost $8 billion from public schools. The budget that’s in the works now would “only” cut $4 billion, so HISD has a little more money than it planned for. But don’t expect them to [...]
HISD rejects uniform start time
I must say, I’m glad to see this. The Houston school board Thursday rejected a cost-cutting plan to change campus bell schedules next year after families complained about the disruption to their daily routines and their children’s sleep habits. Objections from parents mounted weeks ago after Superintendent Terry Grier proposed standardizing school schedules as a [...]
HISD contemplates a tax increase
They’re not saying it explicitly yet, but the inference is clear. Houston ISD board president Paula Harris said today that raising property taxes, dipping into the district’s savings account and suing the state over school finance inequities are all possibilities. Harris noted twice that HISD has the lowest tax rate of all school districts in [...]