Our pick for Dist. VI
Flynn Vilaseca offers HISD a steady voice and open mind, as well as education expertise.
Through five years, three superintendents and an attempted state takeover of the district, Holly Maria Flynn Vilaseca has acquitted herself well on the HISD board as a steady voice and an open mind with a deep fluency on education policy. We recommend District VI voters give her another term representing west Houston.
In her second term, Flynn Vilaseca, 40, a bilingual former early childhood teacher, wants to bolster the district’s investments in special education and better train campus principals on managing finances to avoid wasteful spending. Her support for wraparound services for special education students is admirable and desperately needed in a district still routinely failing students with learning differences.
One downside is Flynn Vilaseca’s role in one of the more shameful chapters in the district’s recent history. She was among five trustees who allegedly met in secret with former HISD superintendent Abelardo Saavedra to coordinate replacing the interim superintendent with him. TEA officials alleged the “walking quorum” violated the Texas Open Meetings Act and led the agency to recommend replacing the entire board.
Flynn Vilaseca claims Saavedra was a longtime mentor and that she arranged the meeting so trustees could discuss “concerns on the board,” but never talked about hiring him. A 2019 affidavit revealed that she went as far as to hand Saavedra a copy of a former superintendent’s contract.
Flynn Vilaseca has been contrite about her role, has apologized publicly and has pledged to rebuild the public’s trust through transparency. We believe she deserves another chance, particularly as her challenger’s qualifications come up short.
The Rev. Kendall Baker, 56, is a skilled communicator with a decadeslong career at the city of Houston. But Baker has a checkered history that calls into question how well he would work with the rest of the board. In 2014, he was a vocal opponent of Houston’s transgender-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance. He was indefinitely suspended from his position as the city’s 311 director for sexual harassment after a city employee alleged that he solicited sex acts and hugged subordinates without their consent. As a school board candidate, his opposition to the district mask mandate is troubling.
We supported Flynn Vilaseca in the November general election because of her expertise and commitment to transparent governance, and we also supported her for a full term in 2017, nine months after she was appointed to the board to fill a vacancy. She has the policy chops and experience to help guide a new superintendent. We urge District VI voters to support her re-election.