Black leaders rip HISD’s Lathan vote
Backers say interim leader has earned job; some trustees defend the national search
About 20 of Houston’s leading Black elected officials, clergy and racial justice advocates called Tuesday for Houston ISD’s school board to reverse its vote last week declining to name Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan as the district’s long-term leader.
In a statement and at a news conference, many of the city’s Black leaders argued Lathan has proven herself worthy of the top job since assuming the position on an interim basis in March 2018. Some officials also questioned whether trustees were motivated in part by race, given that the board’s three Black members supported retaining
Lathan while the six non-Black members voted against it.
“For several reasons, we are united in our belief that the decision not to name Dr. Lathan as superintendent of HISD was grossly misguided, and I must add, ill-motivated,” NAACP Houston Branch Second Vice President Bishop James Dixon said Tuesday, surrounded by about a dozen Lathan supporters outside the district’s headquarters.
The rebuke of trustees came five days after board members voted to resume the district’s long-dormant superintendent search and forgo removing Lathan’s interim tag. The board majority argued HISD should conduct a national search — with Lathan as a candidate, if she chooses to apply — before selecting a long-term leader.
“My decision is totally based on best practices. I cannot stress that enough,” said HISD Trustee Dani Hernandez, who voted for a search. “My decision is not based on race at all.”
The group that convened Tuesday included state Rep. Ron Reynolds, former HISD trustees Rhonda Skillern-Jones and Jolanda Jones and several religious leaders. In addition, U.S. Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee and Al Green, state Sen. Borris Miles, and state Reps. Alma Allen and Harold Dutton Jr. signed a statement in support of Lathan, according to the NAACP Houston Branch.
The issue of race has loomed over HISD’s superintendent position since the district’s former leader, Richard Carranza, abruptly left more than two years ago to run New York City public schools.
Seven months after appointing Lathan, who is Black, as HISD’s interim superintendent, the board’s four Hispanic trustees and one Asian-American member voted to replace her without giving advance notice of their intention to consider her ouster. Black leaders opposed the move, while other critics argued the decision lacked transparency. Trustees reversed their vote a week later.
Board members were on the brink of naming a superintendent finalist in March 2019, but a state-appointed conservator ordered trustees to stand down. At the time, HISD remained under the threat of a state takeover of the district’s school board.
The Texas Education Agency ultimately moved in November 2019 to replace HISD’s elected trustees, citing a state law triggered by chronically low aca
demic scores at Wheatley High School and multiple instances of trustee misconduct. HISD trustees sued to stop the takeover, and Travis County District Judge Catherine Mauzy issued a temporary injunction in January halting their ouster.
As part of the injunction, Mauzy ordered that the conservator is “prohibited from acting outside her lawful authority.” However, Mauzy did not state clearly whether that applied retroactively to the conservator’s order, leading to questions about whether trustees legally can conduct a superintendent search.
HISD unexpectedly took up Lathan’s tenure during last week’s board meeting, with Board President Sue Deigaard saying she obliged trustees wishing to discuss retaining Lathan long-term. Following the vote, Lathan said she respected the board’s decision and remained focused on supporting students, staff and families. She declined to comment on Tuesday’s press conference and release.
Lathan’s supporters point to her success reducing the number of state-labeled failing schools from 36 in 2016, the year before she took over as chief academic officer, to 21 last year. They also noted HISD has earned a B grade from the state in back-to-back years, topping some of Texas’ largest urban school districts.
“If you’re concerned about the data, the data speaks for itself,” said Skillern-Jones, the former HISD board member and current Houston Community College trustee.
HISD’s state-measured student growth rates have been fractionally belowstate averages in recent years. The district also was slightly off-track toward meeting several of the board’s 2020 reading, math and high school performance goals before the pandemic.
HISD Board President Sue Deigaard, who favored a search, said
she intends to evaluate candidates’ academic track records, with a particular focus on Black students’ reading scores and college entrance rates.
“My decisionwas not a personal reflection on Dr. Lathan, and I hope, as in 2019, that she applies
for the position,” Deigaard said in a statement.
HISD also has endured two deeply critical state reports — one fromthe Legislative Budget Board outlining numerous operational deficiencies, one from the TEA documenting extensive special education issues — and a federal raid tied to former chief operating officer Brian Busby during Lathan’s tenure.
Dixon called Tuesday on the city’s Hispanic leaders to “engage in a meaningful dialogue and discussion” around the superintendent position. At the same time, Dixon and others made clear their belief that Lathan had been racially discriminated against by board members.
“The governing board of HISD voted against the best interest of the 200,000 children who attend school” in the district, Dixon said.
HISD trustees have not yet outlined a timeline for the superintendent search.
The effort could become moot if the TEA prevails in the district’s lawsuit, whichwould result in Education Commissioner Mike Morath selecting a replacement board and choosing the district’s superintendent. The case is pending before the Texas Supreme Court.