Houston ISD’s board of managers signaled early support Tuesday for limiting the public’s ability to speak freely about any topic during its monthly board meetings.
Board members voted 8-1 to advance a policy proposal that would eliminate a portion of the meetings called “hearing of the community,” when members of the public could address the board about any district-related matter. The policy cannot become official until the board holds a second vote, likely in early 2025.
The vote follows months of friction between HISD’s state-appointed leadership, which took power in June 2023 as part of sanctions against the district, and many members of the public opposed to Superintendent Mike Miles’ overhaul of HISD. Some community members have argued the board hasn’t engaged the community enough, and board members gave themselves a 1 out of 10 rating on community engagement in its annual self-evaluation in November.
HISD Board President Audrey Momanaee said the proposed changes to community involvement at public meetings are meant to make the gatherings more efficient. She argued a board meeting “is not the best way” for meaningful engagement with the public.
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Under Texas’ Open Meetings Act, school boards are required to provide the public an opportunity to speak about items listed on the meeting agenda. However, they don’t legally have to give people the opportunity to address the board about any topic.
HISD has hosted “hearing of the community” for many years, allowing residents to address everything from principal changes to safety concerns to issues with getting special education services. While board members typically can’t respond directly to speakers, the public comments can bring issues to the attention of district administrators.
All of the Houston area’s largest school districts — including Cy-Fair, Katy, Fort Bend, Conroe and Aldine ISDs — offer the public an opportunity to speak about non-agenda items during monthly board meetings, though their public comment periods are often quieter and shorter than HISDs.
HISD’s lengthy and often raucous board meetings have frustrated some board members, prompting the proposal. Tuesday’s meeting lasted eight and a half hours, ending at 1:30 a.m., with public comment stretching for roughly two hours and the board going into closed session for about three hours.
Longtime HISD watcher Margaret Downing was not impressed.
It’s hard to imagine how much more of a misstep the Houston ISD Board of Managers is prepared to make than its proposal floated Tuesday night that would severely curtail what members of the public could address the board about at meetings and would end Zoom calls into the monthly public meeting.
This from a board whose president Audrey Momanaee promised all sorts of increased communication from its nine members with the public after its $4.4 billion bond issue went down in flames in the November elections. Unless, of course, you consider communication a one-way street.
What were they thinking? Whose bright idea is this? Superintendent Mike Miles who often gets shelled at these meetings? Board Vice President Ric Campo who’s made public statements about his dislike of long meetings. Board members Janette Garza Lindner and Michelle Cruz Arnold who’ve pushed for more “decorum” at meetings?
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So, for instance, if members of the public wanted to bring up their continuing concerns about HISD students and rail lines by schools given this week’s death of a 15-year-old attempting to cross the tracks, well that wouldn’t be allowed.
Perhaps unnecessarily (if they do away with it), the revisions to board procedure also call for an end to the stipulation that the Hearing From the Community should begin no later than 7 p.m. Why is that important? Because previous boards had a handy policy of putting public comment last, filling the meeting with all sorts of things first, so by the time the community got a chance to speak, most of them had gone home.
The proposed changes remove the present policy of allowing students to go first in addressing the board, no matter what the subject matter. Instead their turn would be decided by whomever the board president is. Get a board president who really doesn’t want to hear from students, and you have another move that discourages input. Few, on a school night, can stay the course, only getting a chance to speak late into the night.
You have to wonder why these people even wanted to be on the board. Success in business is fine on a resume but in a public position, you have to be willing to hear from people and at least give the appearance of listening to them. Even if it is, at times, tedious as all get out and repetitive.
As anyone who has attended a Houston City Council meeting can attest, if you give the public an open microphone, you will get some unhinged commentary. That’s the price of admission. As both of these stories note, the Tuesday meeting included some bad actors trying to rile people up about library books (you know, from all those libraries HISD schools now have). There are some reasonable limits that can be put on speakers, in terms of time and decorum, but this is going too far. And for a Board that had taken some baby steps in the direction of being more self-aware. This is a bad idea and they should reconsider when they take that final vote next year.
Next month, with the swearing-in of Deport Them All, it would not surprise me that the student population will decrease. So, all you anti-public education, it seems you are getting your wish.
Yes why would they take that position, dah?
An adage about heat and kitchens comes to mind.
Good luck getting any future bonds passed.
What are they afraid of? Torches and pitchforks are so passè, and it’s not like they’re going to be standing for election or anything.