Board of Managers
It is done. The HISD Board of Trustees decided last week not to appeal the TEA takeover. I don’t think the arsehole Gov. Greg Abbott will sign legislation to let the takeover end sooner.
A Superintendent and Board of Managers will be selected by TEA Commissioner Mike Morath right after June 1.
You have until April 5 to fill out an application if you want to serve on the Board of Managers. I encourage good, smart, and decent folks to sign up. I don’t want to be one of those who is looking for the Board of Managers to fail. Right now, turning some schools around is the quickest way we are getting our HISD back.
We aren’t going to do it through the courts. The feds aren’t going to step in. Sadly, the Texas Democratic Party has not built a structure that will help Democrats take back the Texas Senate or Texas House. Those who have been running the Texas Democratic Party certainly don’t have us in a position to win statewide in 2026. That is the situation HISD voters are in.
Here is everything you wanted to know about the HISD and the Board of Managers process: Houston ISD Board of Managers | Texas Education Agency.
Here is some info from that webpage:
Community Information Sessions
The Texas Education Agency will host a series of community meetings to provide information regarding the board of managers process. Community members are invited to come and learn more and ask questions about the process.
Meeting location and times coming soon.
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
Thursday, March 30, 2023
I don’t think these meetings will be the place to bit_h and holler. You can, but it won’t do any good.
Let us not forget that we had some trustees whose unethical behavior helped get us to where we are today. One is still there.
Commentary is not going to bother to post some statements made by elected officials and other leaders yesterday expressing outrage at the TEA takeover. Most of them never expressed outrage at school trustee behavior. Heck, some of the trustees got endorsed and even hired by some of those expressing outrage.
If Democrats are smart here in Harris County, we can make local school governance a top issue for us in 2024, and still work with the HISD Board of Managers to get our schools back. If Democrats are smart.
Go check out the Chron E-Board’s take today on this. It is a good read.
_____
What is the point of having local government in Texas if you can’t govern locally. See this from Texas Monthly:
The bill: SB 2431
Filed by: Paul Bettencourt, District 7 (Houston)
What it would do:The Texas Legislature created the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) in 1937, in response to two catastrophic floods that hit Houston in 1929 and 1935. The Lege charged the district, which is governed by the Harris County Commissioners Court, with the “control, storing, preservation, and distribution of the storm and flood waters of the rivers and streams in Harris County”—no easy feat in a pancake-flat region with 2,500 miles of waterways.
But what the Legislature gives, it can take away. Last Friday, Senator Bettencourt, who represents a section of northwest Harris County stretching from the Woodlands south to Houston’s wealthy Memorial neighborhood, introduced a bill that would rename the HCFCD the Gulf Coast Resiliency District and place it under the control of a five-member board appointed by Governor Abbott. Bettencourt told Texas Monthly that he’s lost faith in the Harris County Commissioners Court, which is led by Democratic county judge Lina Hidalgo, whose party holds a four-to-one majority.
Bettencourt was particularly aggrieved by the Democratic commissioners’ decision in 2022 to adopt a new “prioritization framework” for flood control projects—such as bayou modifications and retention basins—that gives greater weight to the number of residents benefited by a project. The commissioners believed that the old framework favored neighborhoods with high property values over more populous parts of the city that have traditionally been underserved by the county. “There are some areas that haven’t seen a project in a very long time, that would never see a project were it not for these equity guidelines,” Hidalgo told Fox 26 News in 2019, shortly after the new framework was proposed. (Hidalgo did not respond to an interview request for this story.)
Here is the entire read: A GOP Bill Would Put Greg Abbott in Charge of Houston Flood Control – Texas Monthly.
A long time ago I used to respect Bettencourt even though I didn’t agree with him on most things. Now he is dangerous. He doesn’t like that Harris County has turned blue so now he is getting state government into our business. It is happening to our local elections and now this. This guy is dangerous to democracy.
_____
Opening Day is two weeks from today.
