HISD delays key vote after heated meeting
An HISD vote to temporarily give up control over 10 schools is delayed after police remove members of the public from meeting.
Houston ISD board members adjourned late Tuesday without voting on a controversial measure to give up control over 10 low-performing schools after the meeting turned physical and police escorted members of the public — nearly all of whom opposed the plan — out of the room.
Chanting “no more sellouts” and shouting at trustees, most of the roughly 100 community members in attendance watched angrily as officers began physically pulling disruptive residents out of the room. The skirmish came after HISD Board of Trustees President Rhonda Skillern-Jones declared a recess in the middle of the meeting due to repeated public outbursts.
If trustees choose to meet again, they likely will not return until Saturday at the earliest. Trustees must issue 72 hours advance notice of any public board meeting. The vote had been expected to be narrow, with several trustees already voicing support or opposition for the proposal.
The uproar speaks to the heated nature of HISD’s recommendation to allow Energized For STEM Academy Inc., which already runs four in-district charter schools, to take over operations of the 10 campuses for five years. Without the agreement, HISD would likely face forced campus closures or a state takeover of the district’s locally elected school board due to its failure to improve academics at the schools.
Members of the public were detained during the scuffle, with a few being hauled out of the board meeting. Interim HISD Police Chief Paul Cordova said two people were arrested on misdemeanor charges and transported to jail. One other person was detained but not arrested, Cordova said.
Jenny Espeseth, who said she has children in first and fifth grades in HISD, was dragged out of the board room by her arms and pulled into a hallway side room. She said police told her they intended to file a report, then released her.
“It felt like (Skillern-Jones) was waiting for a moment to order the room cleared,” Espeseth said. “I don’t think any of the trustees in favor of charterization want to vote in front of the public.”
At one point, Skillern-Jones emerged to briefly speak with a few members of the public, separated by the building’s front door, and Trustee Elizabeth Santos addressed the entire crowd.
In the meantime, about 50 people lingered outside the front door. They chanted “open the doors” and “free Kandece,” in reference to Kandece Webber, who they said had been detained.
Under a law passed in 2015, any school district with a campus that receives a fifth straight “improvement required” rating for poor academic performance this year would be subject to the sanctions. Ten HISD schools, all of which educate predominately black and Hispanic student populations in high-poverty neighborhoods, risk triggering the law. HISD administrators have said it’s highly unlikely all 10 will meet state academic standards this year.
To avoid forced campus closures or a state takeover, HISD administrators proposed employing another law, this one passed in 2017, that would give HISD a two-year reprieve if it gives up control over the 10 schools to an outside organization. After several weeks of community meetings, HISD administrators recommended Energized For STEM Academy as their partner.
Trustees must approve any partnership agreements and submit plans to the state by April 30. Texas Education Agency officials are expected to approve or deny any arrangements by early June.
In the district’s first public statement since administrators named Energized For STEM Academy as the potential partner Friday, Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan said the organization “will help our students to reach the level of achievement that we know is possible.”
The choice, however, faced immediate resistance. Multiple trustees said they lacked enough information to properly evaluate Energized For STEM Academy’s academic and governance history.
All speakers at Tuesday’s school board meeting opposed the district’s plan. Many advocated for suing the state over the 2015 law that imposed sanctions. Several questioned whether Energized For STEM Academy is dedicated to special education students, noting that the organization has a disproportionately low special education population at its current schools. A few students implored trustees to maintain current operations at their schools.
“We are asking you to do the right thing for this community,” speaker Jessica DeFeo said. “If you choose to sell us out now, this will be the absolute last board you sit on.”