For Skillern-Jones
Ex-HISD board president with experience in education governance is pick in HCC Dist. 2.
One thing is certain in this year’s race for the Houston Community College District 2 trustee: a white Republican won’t be elected again to represent the predominantly African American district on the city’s northeast side.
All four candidates in the race are black, and the incumbent, Anglo gadfly Dave Wilson, has moved next door to heavily Hispanic District 1 to seek election to another sixyear term there.
The District 2 candidates are former HISD board president Rhonda Skillern-Jones, longtime educator and community leader Kathy Lynch-Gunter and attorney Brendon Singh.
Retired teacher Linda Murray, 70, is on the ballot but told us she has dropped out and supports SkillernJones. Skillern-Jones, 52, is the heavyweight in the field, having served eight mostly laudable years on the Houston Independent School District board of trustees, including two as president.
The Texas Southern University grad’s reputation took a hit in April 2018 when she presided with a heavy hand over a failed attempt to transfer control of 10 troubled schools to a charter school company with a questionable reputation. The emotional meeting resulted in two people being hauled off by police and, in the end, the transfer of schools was abandoned. Skillern-Jones, who had asked the police to help quiet the protesters, accepted blame for the debacle.
Now, Skillern-Jones wants HCC to, among other things, increase its visibility, attract more students, strengthen ties with agencies like the Texas Workforce Commission and better publicize inexpensive courses for seniors.
Her biggest immediate ambition may be to catch up with rival Lone Star Community College, which is planning to offer several full four-year degrees next year.
“HCC should have beat them to that,” she said. “If our students could get a four-year degree at a fraction of the regular cost, that would be a game changer.”
There were a lot of things to like about Lynch-Gunter, 56, and Singh, 24, an HCC alumnus, but Skillern-Jones’ experience and knowledge of educational governance is hard to beat. Her long record in public service shouldn’t be reduced to her actions during a single meeting. We urge voters to elect her to the HCC board of trustees, District 2.