Texas Education Agency plans for a neat and tidy transfer of information about how to apply for a board of managers position in the TEA takeover of Houston ISD were hijacked Tuesday night by a crowd of very unhappy people and U. S. Rep Sheila Jackson Lee.
Deputy Commissioner of Education Alejandro Delgado began his portion of the meeting by acknowledging “what you may be feeling tonight,” while stressing the only comments and questions at the meeting should be about the application process for the appointed board that will replace elected trustees.
As he gamely tried to stay on script which meant reading from a power point presentation on the application process, members of the audience began shouting “Pass us the Mic,” “Where is Mike? [referring to Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath who apparently wisely chose not to attend]” and “Makeover, not Takeover.”
And those were the nicest things said at the meeting in the Westbury High School spacious auditorium. More to the point there were accusations that TEA had failed at its takeover efforts in the North Forest ISD (later absorbed into HISD) and Beaumont ISD so why should it think it would be any better at HISD? Also voiced at high decibels: “You are stealing our community,” “Mike Morath has never taught Black children.”
click to enlarge An expression of unhappiness and a promise to be at all the TEA community meetings.
Photo by Margaret Downing
It didn’t help any when, abandoning the power point, Delgado opened up the Q&A session early on the time-limited (one hour only) meeting and the first questions collected in cards before the meeting asked questions of material that had just been covered in the power point – and which Delgado tried to wade through again till the crowd told him to stop.
Asked a direct question about why TEA thought it should take over the district, Delgado made the mistake of beginning his answer with a reiteration of all the good things about the district (like a boss talking to a disappointing employee before lowering the boom with a “but”) before starting to get to the point. The crowd, exasperated, shouted him down yelling “Answer the question.” Which he then tried to do but by then it was a lost cause.
(For the record, Morath determined HISD was in need of intervention after years of some low-performing AKA failing schools that didn’t meet state academic standards and board members that were not only dysfunctional but one convicted of corruption. Others engineered an aborted administration takeover in a private meeting in apparent violation of the Open Meetings Act. And while most of the board has switched out in subsequent elections, some members of the especially troubled times remain.)
Asked whether TEA was going to bring a lot of charter schools to HISD, Delgado threaded the needle by saying TEA would not be doing that at all. That anything like that would be the decision of the board of managers and the new superintendent expected to take over the district in June. The board of managers and the superintendent will be appointed by Morath, whose reputation is that he is a strong charter school supporter. Audience members didn’t miss the nuance.
Told that at the end of two years if HISD met all the commissioner’s criteria for meeting standards – including no failing schools (standards many other school districts in Texas would find next to impossible to do) the crowd broke out in jeers again. If however that goal was reached, elected board members would replace the board of managers appointees at the rate of three board members per year.
click to enlarge A long night became even longer for Deputy Commissioner Alejandro Delgado once U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee got the mic.
Photo by Margaret Downing
If all that wasn’t drama enough, about three quarters of the way through the meeting, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee swept in and Delgado made a significant strategic mistake. He ceded the microphone to her to say a few words. He did not get it back until more than 15 minutes passed and the meeting was within a minute or two of hitting its time limit.
Damning Delgado with faint praise, Jackson Lee said the deputy director was just doing his job, just doing what he and Commissioner Morath believe is right. Then she explained to him “the anxiety” of teachers, parents and other district employees about the change.
“I want Mr. Delgado to know that, it is not a personal opposition, but it is a giant of an opposition,” she declared to a round of applause.
She went on to say she opposes the takeover and plans to go back to Washington, D.C. to see if something can be done to change Morath’s action. "The board of managers will not be responsive to teachers or parents or children."
In making what was probably the truest and most apropos statement of the entire meeting, Jackson Lee declared : “I think Commissioner Morath needs to know he cannot have meetings like this and not answer your questions.”
Kudos to the HISD police force: They conducted themselves professionally, calmly and did not over-react during the hour's meeting. They'll have a chance to employ those skills again as TEA has three other one-hour community meetings planned: March 22 at Chavez High, March 29 at the Hattie Mae White Administration Building and March 30 at Kashmere High.