Let’s hope this turns out to be no big deal.
The Texas Education Agency is investigating possible open meetings violations by some Houston ISD trustees last year when they engaged in private discussions that led to the abrupt ouster of the Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan.
TEA officials notified the district Tuesday that an investigation would begin following “multiple complaints” made to the agency over the vote to replace Lathan with former district superintendent Abelardo Saavedra, according to a letter sent to Lathan and HISD board President Diana Dávila. The Houston Chronicle reviewed a portion of the letter outlining the allegations.
“Houston ISD Board of Trustees may have violated The Open Meetings Act by deliberating district business prior to a regularly scheduled board meeting regarding the potential removal of the current interim superintendent and the installation of a new interim superintendent,” the notice read.
TEA officials confirmed they opened a special accreditation investigation into HISD, though they declined to specify the nature of the inquiry.
A special accreditation investigation gives TEA officials wide discretion to review potential wrongdoing and issue a range of sanctions. If investigators find repeated or extensive misconduct, the most severe punishment could be a state takeover of the district’s locally elected board. However, state leaders could issue nominal punishment aimed at preventing future missteps by trustees.
[…]
The investigation stems from an October 2018 vote by five trustees — Dávila, Holly Maria Flynn Vilaseca, Elizabeth Santos, Sergio Lira and Anne Sung — to replace Lathan.
The vote came with no advance warning to the public, and the board’s four other members have said they were unaware that colleagues planned to seek Lathan’s ouster.
Saavedra backed out of the job three days after the vote, citing “dysfunction” at the school board level. Trustees then voted to reinstate Lathan.
Saavedra told the Chronicle in October that he spoke independently with the five trustees who voted for his appointment prior to the vote. Some of the five trustees have said they communicated one-on-one, but they did not meet as a group.
Under Texas open meetings law, deliberations between school board members about “public business or public policy” subject to a vote must take place at public meetings. State investigators likely will seek any evidence of communications between trustees that could constitute a so-called “walking quorum,” which refers to a deliberative effort by elected officials to communicate as a group in private.
See here, here, and here for more on the Saavedra saga, which didn’t make much sense then and makes even less now. All I can say is that I hope the TEA finds no evidence of the five Trustees forming a non-sanctioned quorum, which would be dumb at the least and a violation of trust at the worst. The TEA already has the power to take over HISD if they feel the need. I sure hope we haven’t given them another reason to consider it.
Based on the Trump standard, government should be able to tear apart and investigate anyone, any business, any school district, etc., based on little to nothing. I have no doubt there is corruption, cronyism, and waste in HISD. That’s there in most large organizations anyway, but I bet HISD is a little above average. What was it we said about Trump? If he has nothing to hide, why wouldn’t he invite scrutiny into everything he has ever done and everyone he has ever known?
I hope they scour through the trustees’ personal finances, etc. They should want to be investigated, right?
The sh**show at HISD pales in comparison to the sh**show at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but it’s a sh**show nonetheless. Honestly, I’m just glad I don’t have children attending any HISD schools.
That being said, i find it unlikely an Open Meetings Act violation is going to result in an investigation into Jolanda Jones’ personal finances, unless it’s revealed she was involved in some back door meetings at a local Hotel (or at a ‘Tower’) she is also financially involved with…
It is my nature to look at the dark side of events. The infamous board meeting was October 11. Three months past before TEA showed up to investigate. Is this normal. or did the Board’s December 13 vote to decline issuing a RFP for an outside partner as mandated by TEA (deadline Feb. 4) trigger this investigation? Something doesn’t feel right.
Houston City Council used to have walking quorums all the time when Parker was Mayor and Feldman was city attorney. Feldman even describes how he had to talk to each CM individually about real estate deals because it was secret stuff and could not be discussed in open session when they were considering putting closed sessions on the ballot. He was complaining about all his time it took to do this.
Charles, TEA may find no evidence, but they probably did it.
Pingback: How much more danger is HISD in of being taken over? – Off the Kuff