It was not unanimous. The Houston school board on Thursday extended Superintendent Terry Grier’s contract through June 2014 in a split vote that signaled the controversial chief has bridges to build with the newer trustees. The five trustees who were on the board that hired Grier in 2009 supported the extension, expressing their confidence in [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Manuel Rodriguez’
No recount in HISD III
There will be no recount in the HISD Trustee District III race as challenger Ramiro Fonseca has officially conceded. “After examining the official election results, I have decided that a recount is not an option that would change the outcome of this election,” Fonseca said in a statement. “I congratulate Mr. Rodriguez on his re-election.” [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
HISD strategic direction meetings
From an HISD press release: HISD will be holding two interactive, live TV shows to gather comments and feedback from the community. The first will be on Monday, June 28, from 7:00–8:00 p.m., on the HISD channel, and will be hosted by KPRC’s Khambrel Marshall, Board President Greg Meyers, and Superintendent Terry Grier. Viewers will [...]
Two trustees speak about CEP
This week, Carl Whitmarsh forwarded to his list a pair of articles written by HISD trustees on the subject of CEP and the changes that have been proposed by Superintendent Terry Grier. Since that has been such a contentious topic, which took up a fair bit of time in the interviews I did with Grier [...]
Parents get their vote on HISD school construction projects
The battle between a parents group and some HISD trustees had been waging with HISD Board President Larry Marshall over getting a vote for some school construction projects that the parents said had been promised during the 2007 bond referendum campaign is over, and the projects will go forward. Most of them, anyway. The Houston [...]
Parents call on HISD to keep promises Saavedra made
With the revelation that HISD may have chosen its new superintendent, this Chron story from yesterday about how parent groups who were promised certain specific actions from outgoing Superintendent Abe Saavedra relating to the bond referendum, and the Board of Trustees’ apparent reluctance to act on them until they have a new super in place, [...]
Search openly
Is there really a debate about whether or not we should conduct a search for a new HISD Superintendent in an open manner? Because I think the choice is clear. The Greater Houston Partnership, which represents the business community, is lobbying the school board to introduce a few leading contenders to the public — something [...]