Sad to see him go, but he picked a good reason to exit.
Mike Floyd
Losing a vote to nix a $300,000 contract with a controversial special needs facility was the beginning of the end for Mike Floyd’s tenure as a Pearland ISD trustee.
The 21-year-old first made headlines three-and-a-half years ago when he was elected to the Pearland ISD school board as a senior at the district’s Dawson High School. His principal and staff cheered for him the day after the votes were tallied.
Few, however, cheered after a tense board meeting on Aug. 10 led to the approval of a partnership with the Shiloh Treatment Center and a potential $2.5 million budget shortfall, which precipitated Floyd’s resignation on Friday.
In a letter to Board President Charles Gooden Jr., Floyd said he wanted to cut his extended term short due to “recent board decisions that I cannot support.” His term was set to expire in May, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the election was pushed back to November.
While he had already told his fellow trustees he would not seek reelection so he could attend law school, Floyd said the board voting 5-2 to approve the contract with the Shiloh Treatment Center was “the straw that broke the camel’s back” and led him to resign.
“In a way I’m not just resigning because of this contract, which is abhorrent in and of itself,” Floyd said. “It’s a warning sign to people who care about what’s going on for this district.”
[…]
Regardless, the money issue will be decided on Nov. 3. And although Floyd has resigned and is taking a gap year before attending Georgetown University’s Law Center next fall, he plans to stay engaged with the board and local politics. He hopes others will, too.
“People have to watch these meetings and get to know their school board member and their city council members,” he said. “If they don’t get engaged, they won’t have the quality representation I would hope for Pearland.”
See here for some background on Floyd. The story has more about this treatment center, which sure doesn’t sound great. Floyd was a pioneer, but other progressive candidates in Pearland, for City Council and school board, were not able to duplicate his success at the ballot box. Not yet, anyway. I wish him all the best in law school, and I look forward to him resuming his political career in Texas at a future date.
Good article, Kuff, one I would have missed had you not posted it.
It seems like the crux of this is, Floyd was upset that the district spent $ 60,000 each to send 5 problematic children to a private facility to warehouse so they could be kept away from the rest of the students. I guess I don’t know what the other options were, or what they would cost, but overall, I’m OK with segregating deeply disturbed, broken kids from the kids who have a chance to learn and become productive adults. So my question is, were there cheaper options available, or is this such a specialty that there really are no other options. No other options were discussed, I’m going to assume there are none.
As to Floyd’s McCain like vote against the “golden penny” to protest the $ 300,000 contract, doesn’t this go against liberal principles? I mean, the golden penny is billed as “free money” from the state. Aren’t we supposed to be supporting Medicaid expansion for largely the same reason?
In any event, I’m glad to see Floyd gone. It was embarrassing to see a community elect an 18 year old kid, especially one whose primary concern was seeing to it that boys can use the girls’ bathrooms and showers. It’s like they elected the anti-Dan Patrick as a youth.
Electing an anti-Dan Patrick seems like a good idea, since Patrick is a despicable human being with no redeeming qualities. We get better governance when there’s a variety of views.