HISD board leader called to step down
Heated meeting sparks trustee’s public message
Houston ISD Trustee Elizabeth Santos on Thursday called for school board President Rhonda SkillernJones to “immediately step down” from her position in light of last week’s heated board meeting, which resulted in two arrests and dozens of community members temporarily booted from the district administration building.
In a message shared on Facebook, Santos said Skillern-Jones’ “wholly unjustified” actions at the meeting have eroded public trust, prompting her call for Skillern-Jones to relinquish her post as board president. Santos did not demand Skillern-Jones resign her position as a trustee. Santos is the only member of the nine-person board who publicly has called for Skillern-Jones to give up her post, though other trustees have criticized Skillern-Jones’ handling of last week’s meeting.
“Right now, the shame of our actions and inactions at
the April 24 board meeting looms over our board,” Santos wrote. “It clouds our decisions and intentions from proper public scrutiny and erodes the trust our community places in us.”
In a brief phone interview with the Houston Chronicle on Thursday, Santos confirmed she authored the message but declined to comment further.
Santos’ remarks came nine days after a contentious board meeting that centered on an HISD proposal to surrender control of 10 longstruggling schools to a local charter school operator in exchange for a reprieve from state sanctions. About 100 members of the public attended the meeting, with nearly all of them opposing the plan.
During the public comment section of the meeting, many crowd members continued to make noise despite repeated demands by Skillern-Jones to be quiet. When a woman refused to immediately leave a podium after her allotted minute of time, Skillern-Jones ordered police to remove the woman.
As crowd members jeered, Skillern-Jones ordered police to clear the room for a recess. Several scuffles with officers ensued as frustrated crowd members refused to immediately disperse. Officers arrested two women who physically resisted demands; they were released the next morning and no charges were filed. Members of the public were allowed to return after a two-hour break and watch proceedings from a separate room, but opponents of the HISD proposal opted not to come back, saying they did not want to “legitimize” the meeting.
Trustees did not to vote on the proposal, which was shelved the next day. As a result, the Texas Education Agency may be forced to decide this summer whether to close some of the 10 schools, replace the district’s locally elected school board or unilaterally issue a reprieve from sanctions.
Skillern-Jones said Thursday that she is “not making comments at this time.”
In a Facebook post the day after last week’s meeting, Skillern-Jones wrote, in part: “I hoped we could calm the tension and return for an orderly meeting. Unfortunately, the situation escalated and subsequently caused many unintended consequences. I’m saddened at this outcome as it was not at all what I wanted. I take responsibility for calling this recess and am regretful it only created more discord.”
Many crowd members who were ordered to leave the eeting have also called on Skillern-Jones to step down.
Reached by phone Thursday, HISD trustees Wanda Adams, Jolanda Jones and Sue Deigaard did not echo those calls.
“Many may not support her actions and the way it was done, but this doesn’t warrant stepping down as board president,” Adams said. She added that she believes it was “not proper” for Santos to publicly call on Skillern-Jones to step down without talking to the entire board of trustees.
Deigaard said she is listening to many different stakeholders — including parents who have not been vocal at community and board meetings — as she contemplates whether to support Skillern-Jones’ continued leadership of trustees. She called last week’s meeting “a powder keg” that could have been better diffused on all sides.
“I’m a very pensive person. I’m not a reactive person,” Deigaard said. “I’m looking at, long-term, what is the healthiest thing for the governance of our district so that we can focus on kids.”
Messages left with other HISD trustees were not immediately returned.