This Q&A with elected HISD Trustee Plácido Gómez has some good insights, but I want to note these questions towards the end.
Plácido Gómez
Fast-forwarding, if you, in an imaginary world, became a voting member of the board tomorrow, how would you describe your approach to working with the appointed board members?
We’ve got to get out in the community more. I can actually make this even easier, like right now, at this moment, as somebody who’s not on the appointed board. Myself and other elected board members need to get out in the community with the appointed board to repair trust between HISD and the community. So that means going out, meeting people where they are, not making people go all the way to (central office), which is about 45 minutes to an hour drive from some parts of my district in traffic, which is where the school board meetings are, in order to be heard. So that is the first thing I would do before addressing anything policy-related, is going out to folks and giving an honest attempt to to listen.
I thought it … showed an impressive amount of self-awareness, it was actually your story, where they rated themselves 1 out of 10 in community engagement. Self-awareness is a good place to start going forward, but self-awareness doesn’t actually mean anything unless we have some action that follows from that. So that would be the first thing I do is get out in the community with the appointed board to ask questions and hear what people have to say.
From a policy approach, what are some of the key components of the intervention that you would seek to maintain versus change?
I would seek to maintain the science of reading. That’s arguably the most important change that’s been made. I would seek to maintain the rise in teacher pay and find a way to incentivize the best teachers to teach in schools that are struggling the most.
The second part of the question was about things I would do away with. … It seems to be a mindset amongst the administration that when the community disagrees, the community must be putting adult interest over students, which is just not the case. And so changing that mindset first, before going into any policy things.
And then going into the policy things, I mentioned the philosophy course. … The one-size-fits-all-ness of the program I don’t like. I’m all for student discipline, but there are places where it goes too far, like students taking massive traffic cones in order to go to the bathroom. That is something I definitely would want to do away with. The midyear firing of principals. I would want a clear policy that outlines what would cause a principal to be fired midyear.
Then finally, something absolutely has been done about teacher turnover. I know from my experience as a teacher, my first year teaching I was not very good, which is something I have in common with just about every first-year teacher who’s ever lived. So with an extremely high rate of teacher turnover, the people who replace these folks, … every teacher has to be a first-year teacher at some point by definition. But having disproportional amounts of first-year folks cannot be good for student outcomes.
One last question here, and I’m gonna put you on the spot a little bit. There are a number of members of the community that have said the district should fire Miles, and of course, only the board can do that. So if you were a voting member, where would you stand on that issue?
I don’t mean to compare him to a pirate, but have you seen the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean”? There’s a scene where Elizabeth Swann is on the pirate ship, and she’s not quite aware that everybody’s a skeleton ghost on the crew, and she’s having dinner with Hector Barbossa, and at one point she strikes a knife through Barbossa’s heart in an attempt to kill him, and Barbossa takes the knife out of his heart, and just gives a perfect line to say, “I’m curious, after killing me, what is it you had planned on doing next?” And then Elizabeth goes out and sees the horror show of the pirate ship.
So I would give the same answer about firing a principal or as firing a teacher. There has to be a plan. What’s going to happen after that? It’s going to depend on what the plan is. So let’s say, for example, the board fired Mike Miles, what happens after that is actually unclear to me when it comes to policy. Because does the board get to pick a new superintendent, or is it the commissioner who gets to pick a new superintendent. When you make a decision as drastic as firing somebody, you have to have a good understanding of what the alternative is, and I don’t have a clear understanding right now of what the next step would be.
I’m pretty sure that Mike Morath would pick the successor, but the real answer to that question is that someone with a fuller understanding of the law that foisted Miles on us in the first place would have to try to tell us. There would almost certainly be litigation, either at the point of Miles being fired or someone – Morath, the Board, Elon Musk, who knows – picking the successor, in which case the courts would decide. Isn’t that something to look forward to?
My interview with Plácido Gómez from his election campaign in 2023 is here, and the interview I did with him and fellow Trustee Dani Hernandez in support of the bond referendum is here if you want some more insight into his thinking. I’m ready for him and as many of his colleagues as possible to be given back their power.
The point about first-time teaching is excellent. If you have never taught, think about your first job, or first having to stand up in front of a group to speak, even if just peers and/or parents.
I made students do it in college and at least one dropped the course to avoid this requirement. I hope the others appreciated the experience, although some had to overcome stagefright. I wasn’t unsympathetic. Had earlier in life chosen English and German as my double-major out of sheer love of letters, but dropped out because the only realistic career option was teaching. Much later I learned to love it, but occasionally still had nightmares about showing up for a lecture unprepared or having forgotten my notes. Presentations at academic conferences could be nerve-wrecking too, but practice makes you better.
As for firings of administrators, perhaps it
shouldn’t be based on nonprofessional considerations, not to mention as punishment for being a marriage-minded heterosexual.
Have you heard of the female ISD administrator that was terminated for marrying the coach at her school?
As if the right to choose and marry a mate had’t been recognised more than half a century ago in Loving v. Virginia.
Love is love, we’ve been told. … Except if the pair is composed of sisgender heteros.