LESSONS FOR A LEADER
HISD community spells it out for new superintendent: Our city’s future depends on district’s success
Nearly one year ago, shortly after former Houston Independent School District Superintendent Terry Grier announced his pending resignation, we asked members of the community to weigh in on what the HISD school board’s priorities should be in its selection of the next school chief. After a lengthy search process, trustees late last month named San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Richard Carranza as their finalist. The board is required by state law to wait 21 days before sealing the deal. As that deadline approaches, we again reached out to people in the community to learn what they think the new superintendent’s priorities should be.
WHERE TO BEGIN?
Houstonians have a history of following strong leaders. This city was built on the backs of forwardthinking individuals whose thought leadership has captured the imagination of our citizens. As the HISD school board prepares to finalize the hiring of Richard Carranza as the district’s next superintendent, we look forward to him being one of those leaders. The future of our city depends on it.
Like anyone starting a new job, he’ll be faced with what to do first. Here are a few thoughts: • Spend initial time listening before doing. Not only is Houston different than San Francisco, but every corner of Houston is unique. One of the big criticisms of Terry Grier was that he didn’t listen and take input. Carranza will be wellserved by learning the lay of the land with his own eyes first without being influenced by others.
• The district lacks strategic intent and will benefit from having the trustees get aligned behind a set of key priorities. This is no easy task with singlemember districts, and in an environment where HISD is going to have to address the loss of $162 million in state tax revenue due to a reclassification of the school district’s status under Texas’ public school funding formula. In a district as large as HISD, there are constant and frequent requests. Having a strategic focus makes it easier to know when to say yes and when to say no. • Raise the bar for all HISD students. People have moved to Houston for decades because of the potential our city has offered them. Today we find the odds stacked against kids who live in lowerincome neighborhoods. Ensuring that we have a great teacher in every classroom is a great place to start to address this. A great classroom leader can help a student see potential in themselves. And creating a school environment where teachers want to stay means kids will benefit over time.
I’m pleased that the school board has given Carranza their unanimous support. I look forward to witnessing them working together to move the district forward in a powerful way. Scott McClelland, president, H-E-B Houston division
EQUITABLE RESOURCES
My school, Jack Yates High School in the city’s Third Ward, is filled with many students who have unmet potential. And when we look around the HISD community and see how funding seems to be distributed — and how much of it misses my campus — it seems we’ve been forgotten, and our potential stands to be forever lost. This needs to change.
Yates is a Title I school. That means most students come from low-income families. The poverty we see around us shows up in kids’ lack of confidence: They don’t believe in themselves, and I believe this is why standardized test scores continue to be so low. They think that because they go to a Title I school and come from a low-income family, they won’t make it in life. I know a lot of kids who got tired of hearing that they failed a test, and they gave up.
Now I don’t think it’s the kids’ or the teachers’ fault; I think it’s the fact that some schools don’t get enough resources to be able to teach students the way they need to be taught.
I believe the superintendent should do a better job of prioritizing school funding to make sure that schools and students have what they need. I’m not talking about extras. I actually remember a time before PowerUp, the districtwide program that provides laptops to students, when my school had run out of both ink and copy paper, so we really didn’t do much that week that involved any kind of writing.
At one point, our school’s band even went on strike for better uniforms because the uniforms they had were falling apart. They couldn’t even get that until two years later because the school didn’t have enough funding.
I can go on and on listing similar experiences. Fair funding needs to be a big focus. HISD must provide the necessary resources needed for its schools to run well; it would make a big difference in the lives of many children. So if Superintendent Carranza could make sure that we have what we need to be successful, we students could show him the potential that we really have. Jalesha Bass, Yates High School, Class of 2017 Member, HISD Student Congress
UNIQUE NEEDS
With fights over funding and school names, there is no shortage of urgent matters to capture a new superintendent’s attention. If the HISD school board moves forward with Richard Carranza as our new superintendent, I would urge him not to be diverted from a primary focus on the culture for teaching and learning in our schools.
Autonomy. Mastery. Purpose. Relevance. A champion for the arts and restorative justice in San Francisco schools, Mr. Carranza understands the ingredients that motivate students and educators to excel. He knows that equity in excellence means all schools must engage students in real 21st century learning, cultivating problem-solving, collaboration, innovation and communication.
Poverty rates are higher in HISD than in San Francisco, where he most recently led a school system. Some recent consultants to our district would say this means our students need an impoverished curriculum that’s focused on drill-and-kill test prep. The result of this test-and-punish approach to school management has been sky-high teacher turnover rates and decreasing student enrollment at many schools.
Research shows that our most vulnerable students need more enrichment. They need more project-based learning, more art and music and libraries, and more wraparound services and after-school learning opportunities. They need more stability in schools – teachers, principals and community partners who are there for them year after year, well-trained in meeting the needs of diverse students.
The priority of our next superintendent must be to hold all levels of the district accountable for building a culture of real 21st-century teaching and learning in every school. This is the key to rebuilding trust and buy-in among all district HISD continues on A34