The Briefing Room
State Chapters => Texas => Topic started by: Sanguine on August 13, 2019, 08:16:59 pm
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After years of threatening a state takeover of the flailing Houston ISD, the Texas Education Agency's report recommends replacing the Trustees over myriad ethics violations.
Holly Hansen
Last week the Texas Education Agency (TEA) filed a damning report summarizing an investigation into the Houston Independent School District Board of Trustees. The preliminary report recommends that the Commissioner of Education appoint a conservator and Board of Managers to replace the elected Trustees.
While Houston ISD has been operating under threat of state intervention for several years due to chronically underperforming schools, the most recent TEA investigation and subsequent recommendations are based entirely on the elected Board of Trustees’ failure to comply with state laws on governance and ethics.
Filed with the U.S. District Court in Austin, the TEA document details the findings of a Special Accreditation Investigation conducted by the agency’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU.) The SIU examined three main allegations: that HISD Trustees 1) had violated Texas Open Meetings Law, 2) acted individually and exceeded the scope of their lawful authority, and 3) had failed to follow contract procurement rules and procedures....
https://thetexan.news/scathing-tea-report-calls-for-state-takeover-of-houston-public-school-district/
I had no idea the schools were that bad in Houston.
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I had no idea the schools were that bad in Houston.
They are much worse! This should have been done years ago.
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I had no idea the schools were that bad in Houston.
More a case of the Administration is that bad.
https://media.click2houston.com/document_dev/2019/08/09/TEA%20preliminary%20report_1565367523082_22164885_ver1.0.pdf
...TEA fînds that HISD Board of Trustees violated the requirements of the Texas Open Meetings
Act by coordinating an unposted meeting of a quorum of the board of trustees to conduct important
district business in secret. Five out of the nine board members met in a "walking quorum" on
October 8, 2018 atalocalrestaurant in Houston, Texas. SIU determined that members of the HISD
Board of Trustees engaged in conversation and dialogue to relieve Dr. Grenita Lathan as Interim
Superintendent and hire Dr. Abelardo (Abe) Saavedra as her replacement. This conduct not only
violated the Texas Open Meetings Act, but also violated Tex. Educ. Code $ 11.051 because the
trustees acted on behalf of the board without the authorizationby a majority vote of the members
of the Board of Trustees present at a meeting held in compliance with the Open Meetings Act.
TEA finds that HISD Board of Trustees acted individually on behalf of the board numerous other
times, exceeding the scope of their authority in violation of Texas Education Code $11.051. Sru
discovered numerous instances via email correspondence where the HISD Board of Trustees acted
individually, on behalf of the board, without the prior authorization by a majority vote of the
members ofthe Board of Trustees present at a meeting held in compliance with the Open Meetings
Act. The HISD Board of Trustees also violated the board policies adopted to govern the
interactions between the board members and the district's administration.
Lastly, TEA finds HISD Board of Trustees violated contract procurement rules while the district
was selecting a vendor/contractor as well as attempting to tamper with contracts that had been
awarded in violation of Tex. Educ. Code $$44.031 and 44.031 (aXl). HISD failed to monitor
contractual obligations, resulting in the manipulation and abuse Job Order Contracts. The HISD
Board of Trustees attempted to award contracts indirectly by contacting vendors during the
Request For Proposal (RFP) process, advocating for specific contractors and HISD Board of
Trustees manipulated contracts to circumvent contract procurement rules....
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Trustees unworthy of trust overseeing educational malpractice.