Bullying in the boardroom
It is time for Rhonda Skillern-Jones to step down as president of the Houston Independent School District board of trustees. Her my-way-or-the-highway management of public meetings shows blatant disrespect for the public she represents. Tuesday night’s meeting on the future of 10 struggling schools was inept and embarrassing. Upon arriving at the meeting, I observed many uniformed police officers — way more than normal. There were HISD police supplemented by city police. A third of the chairs to accommodate the public were missing from the board room, and black chain barriers separated us from police. The symbolism was thunderingly oppressive.
Skillern-Jones called the meeting to order and promptly adjourned trustees to “executive session,” taking the board behind closed doors to discuss the issue that citizens were eager to speak against. It seemed cowardly and similar to other techniques used by Skillern-Jones and previous presidents to wear people down, get them to go home and delay citizen remarks and voting until the hall is nearly empty. While the audience waited two hours for trustees to return. Someone made the wise decision to allow food into the boardroom.
Finally, the board returned and citizens began speaking against the charter school takeover. Commenters were given one minute to speak, and the microphone was silenced if they ran over — a common procedure at HISD board meetings. Several speakers completed their remarks by shouting over the dead mic — not common. When speaker No. 26 spoke past one minute, Skillern-Jones’ limited patience broke. “Ma’am, please step away from the podium. Officers, could you remove her … she can’t control herself.” This callousness got the audience vocalizing again — then the gavel banged. “Officers, please clear the room!,” Skillern-Jones ordered, a moment she and the police had obviously prepared for. But so, it seemed, had the citizens. Pandemonium broke out.. Trustee Wanda Adams was heard on a hot mic saying “I’m sick of this sh-t, recess, recess!” Within seconds the police shoved one woman out of the room and mosh-pitted another out with huge resistance from the crowd, while Skillern-Jones announced over the melee that the board would return to closed session.
I walked over to record on video board trustees Elizabeth Santos and Sergio Lira who had not joined the others in the back room, when a huge policeman grabbed my arm and started shoving me. Muscle memory from kid fights with my older brother triggered, and I dug in and pushed back against him. Fortunately, school activist Travis McGee and another African-American man ran over and spoke soothingly to us both as they separated us. I am so grateful to them both.
The chants that had been stymied by Skillern-Jones earlier broke out again: “Vote them out!” “No more sellouts!” Two people were arrested and accused of “criminal trespassing” at a public school board meeting.
A substantial crowd remained outdoors after the prolonged ejection process. When a spokesman for the board offered to allow us to return for the vote but sit segregated in another room, we refused to legitimize such a “public” vote. The offer seemed to underscore Skillern-Jones’ desire to avoid facing her constituents.
We stayed outside, in Skillern-Jones’ time-out corner. Finally, the board gave up and adjourned without voting.
For once, citizens had outlasted and worn down the trustees, an unprecedented reversal of the norm.
The next day, HISD announced it would not pursue the charter arrangement. The charges against the arrested women were not pursued. This is what it takes to get this HISD board, under Skillern-Jones’ leadership, to listen to its constituents: concerted civil disobedience by citizens, documented live with cell phones recording and broadcasting throughout.
Skillern-Jones had every chance to run the meeting differently than normal. She could have shown concern and listened to passionate citizens, parents, teachers and students who came to protest this unprecedented privatization scheme. But Skillern-Jones’ choice was to increase police presence and, apparently, to authorize them to use force.
The board had eight months to find a solution for 10 failing schools and prevent a Texas Education Agency takeover. All they produced was a single plan, announced days before the TEA deadline, to turn the schools over to a small corporation with a spotty record and ties to Skillern-Jones herself.
Skillern-Jones is not the right leader for the HISD Board of Trustees. She should step down. We don’t allow bullying in our HISD schools. Why are we allowing it in our boardroom?