This was unexpected.
In a raucous school board meeting filled with shouting and accusations lobbed by trustees against each other, the Houston Independent School District’s board of trustees late Thursday replaced interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan with former HISD Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra.
The vote, which followed a motion that several board members said came as a surprise to them, returns Lathan to her previous role as chief academic officer.
The vote marks the third leader this calendar year for the 214,000-student school district.
The unexpected discussion came as trustees were about to decide whether to extend Lathan’s contract through Sept. 30, 2019.
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Before trustees voted on Lathan’s contract, trustee Diana Davila proposed a motion to dismiss Lathan as the district’s temporary leader and insert Saavedra.
That motion drew passionate criticism from trustee Wanda Adams, who said there was a racial divide on the board between African-American and Latino trustees. She said the proposal should have been discussed in closed session rather than sprung on the dais.
“This is disrespectful,” Adams said. “I did not know about this at all. Some of my other colleagues did not know about it. Some knew about it — (Sergio) Lira knew about it, Holly (Flynn Vilaseca) knew about it and (Elizabeth) Santos knew about it. It goes back to my original statement about racism on this board.”
In a discussion about this on Monica Flores Richart’s Facebook page, it was suggested that having an interim Superintendent who does not want the job on a permanent basis is better for conducting a national service than having an interim Super who is a candidate for that job. Saavedra (apparently) does not want the job long term, while Lathan does, and has the backing for that of at least the three African-American members of the Board. I think this is a plausible argument, but I agree with Trustee Adams that it’s the sort of discussion that should have been had with the whole Board before making any decisions (much less a motion). For sure, having this kind of public fight won’t do anything to attract decent candidates, and that’s before we take into account the continuing specter of a state takeover. I understand Saavedra has a good record dealing with a district that faced similar problems in recent years, but one wonders how much clout a known short-time boss will have, especially given the recent exodus of senior leaders within HISD. I wish Saavedra all the success in the world in his temporary gig, because we’re sure gonna need it. The Press has more.
So who is playing the parliamentary games? I am hearing that the board president, one of the Lathan trustee supporters, placed the Sept. contract extension in the 11th hour before the 72 hours notice deadline. It is a prerogative of the board president. Did the board as a whole discuss this? No. Was the 11th hour agenda item loosely written? Yes, Did Trustee Davila take advantage of this gap in the pro Lathan phalanx? Yes. We are seeing parliamentary gamesmanship at play. The 11th hour Sept. contract extension follows in the heels of the Energized annexation of 10 HISD schools last April,
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