Fixing HISD

Here’s a start

Regarding “Meeting melee” (Page A14, Friday), last week’s HISD meeting debacle is hopefully the straw that will finally result in some change in how the Houston Independent School District is managed. The path forward not only needs to help students in failing schools, but also must restructure a school board that has been plagued with corruption, power-mongering, cronyism and personal agendas. We've seen the board vote itself power to weaken ethics policies put in place after prior ethics transgressions, fire an auditor for doing his job too well and once again conduct secret negotiations not even known to several board members, much less to the public.

The solution should involve reducing terms limits to two years and electing additional or replacement members from at-large districts. Those board members could truly have all students' interests at heart and represent the myriad of magnet students who rely on specialty schools to pursue their talents and matriculate with like-minded peers.

We need an auditor not beholden to the board but to an objective committee of community and parent members who have financial skills to properly oversee the auditor's and the trustees' actions.

We need to consider paying the trustees a salary so the position is not as tempting to those who need to finance their personal accounts through favors from campaign donors.

We need logically and objectively drawn district maps that allow the community to vote for trustees who oversee their zoned schools and not have someone they can not vote for disregard the needs of that school because of a gerrymandered district.

We need a shared decision-making committee that requires the board to review major plans and agendas with representatives from the community of principals, teachers, parents and administrators. It must advance the transparency that has been sorely lacking with the current board president in this session and prior sessions she has led.

Yes, we need proper funding for HISD by the state of Texas, but we also need to demonstrate that we can handle those funds responsibly, efficiently and ethically for the education of our children. Elaine Matte, Houston an HISD parent