Filing Period for School Board Begins Today

It’s Valentine’s Day, the day when people show their love and affection to each other. Coincidentally it is also the beginning of the 1-month long filing period for three seats on the Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustees.

But love and affection, I think, will be far from the minds of any school board filers.

Three seats are up for grabs, One is currently held by Laurie Caldwell, the last of the gang of four that put the BOT on its ear for months on end, and ended in the separation of two District Superintendents. The other two are currently occupied by David Menendez and Susan Hohnbaum who were each voted in during the May 2008 election.

Now why is this worthy of attention? Well, not much, really, right?  It’s just the election that will have the most personal impact on the lives of local residents. More impact than a mid-term election that saw the installment of a super-majority in the Texas State House. More than a presidential election. And really more important than usual in a local school board race.

And why is that?

This year will be a year of angst. It will be such a contentious year that, really, I have to wonder about the sanity of anyone who would want to run for a seat on the Board of Trustees – a seat, need I remind you – where no salary is paid. You get some perks, but you also get to have your name published in the local papers when you take advantage of some of those perks.

This year’s BOT will have to deal with something like a $74 million short fall, that is $74 million fewer dollars than the state must statutorily hand over to the school district.

Because they say they don’t have the money because the money they have in the so-called “Rainy Day Fund” is not “on the table,” won’t raise taxes to get it, and will not lift a hand to allow local school districts do anything to take up the slack. Nothing that anyone is hearing about, anyway.

Very much on the table is the end of quality education in Fort Bend ISD. This is not a sumptuous spread let’s just say.

And let’s just say I am going to be very interested to see what kinds of people are going to step up and run for these three seats. Because as the district superintendent has said in the past, there are plenty of funds on hand to build and expand campuses, there is just no money to run them.

Is Telfair Over the Proverbial Barrel?

Telfair is a huge master planned community that is going up here in Fort Bend County. It has been tough, I think, to attract new residents during these times of higher unemployment and foreclosures, and I bet Telfair is feeling the pinch as well.

So it comes to no surprise that the Telfair developers find themselves somewhat over a barrel with the promises they have made to people who have already bought homes there. It seems that part of their master plan was to set aside some land to build two schools, with Fort Bend ISD, the school district that surrounds Telfair on all sides, as the obvious choice to buy that land and build the schools.

Having neighborhood schools are a big selling point, you see. It is one of those intangibles that factor in to quality of life.

But now there is a letter circulating in Telfair that is doing some finger pointing at said school district.

From FortBendNow:

“Within the next 18 months, Newland will finish with the planning and development of Telfair. In order for us to timely complete the community we need to definitively understand FBISD’s intention for these two proposed school locations. Newland is strongly committed to working with FBISD to bring the potential high school and second elementary school to Telfair. We have requested FBISD to let us know their decision on whether or not they’ll purchase the land for schools by the end of January, 2011”

Trouble is, while they used this plan to lure customers, no one at Fort Bend ISD had any plans to build anything there.

And now the lawyers are involved. Fort Bend ISD general counsel Leila Feldman planted this little bomb:

“Fort Bend ISD was not consulted in the development of the plan and is not obligated in any way to purchase the sites. This notation by the developer simply means that the potential school sites could be used for schools in the designated areas.”

Could be used. Not will be.

Telfair developers complain that they have offered the land to the school district “at deeply discounted prices,” but I am now wondering whether they may have given the district some bargaining leverage in that they have already sold homes on the basis of their plan, and that plan was never run by the school district.

So get this: this developer is looking askance at a school district to buy its land. Its deeply discounted land. A school district that is so cash-strapped that it lays off teachers, and promises more to come. A school district that is holding its breath waiting to see how the Texas legislature is going to make up that $18 billion budget shortfall. Education makes up more than half the state budget, you see.

Now here is what I think. Schools bring value to a neighborhood like nothing else. Schools bind the community together. Telfair needs Fort Bend ISD more than Fort Bend ISD needs Telfair. My suggestion is that they drop all notions of selling this property they have set aside for new unplanned schools.

My suggestion is that if Telfair wants Fort Bend ISD to play in their backyard, outright donating that land to the school district would be a fine idea. An act that displays the kind of public spirit and commitment to the development and their customers that will simply bring more buyers to their area.

And not to Aliana.

The Politics of Choice

I was mildly amused today to see that a small tempest has erupted in a local school district’s teapot. It’s here at the Chron blog of the Fort Bend, Texas area.

It seems that the school district, Fort Bend ISD, has decided to change its mission statement and its “vision.” These are the things, they say, that define how the district sees itself and what it hopes to achieve. Why that is I cannot fathom. What has changed?

Nevertheless the district appointed a committee to refigure the mission statement and the “vision” and new versions of both were just revealed to the school board this week. For your edification I will place the old and new mission statements adjacent to each other.

Old:

“By teaching every child and learning every day, Fort Bend ISD will provide the best educational opportunities to ensure that all students are successful in a global tomorrow”

New:

“We will prepare our students to succeed in a global tomorrow!”

Not much is new under the sun. The “global tomorrow” language is still there as it has been for decades as far as I know. But perhaps the first part of the old mission statement was too many words, or perhaps there was too much there in terms of how all of this was going to be accomplished.

Maybe it was too much information.

After all, why explain all of that? Just make it a positive affirmation.

Or could it be that the district is rethinking the notion of teaching every student every day?

Who knows?

The change in the district’s “vision” is even more mysterious, and to some school board members, “disturbing.” Again, arranging them adjacently:

Old:

“Fort Bend ISD students will acquire knowledge, develop skills and build character so that they will lead productive, fulfilling and moral lives.”

New:

“Fort Bend ISD – the school system of choice!”

Common theme between the new vision and new mission statement? Fewer words and an exclamation point.

Common theme between the old vision and the new one? None.

The old vision simply rehashes the mission statement saying what it hopes to do and how it hopes to do it. The new vision either says that people choose to send their children to Fort Bend ISD over other districts, or that in Fort Bend ISD there is choice.

I think the vision committee meant the former, but I suspect the school board interprets the latter.

Choice, it seems is a loaded word these days. Republicans, which abound on the Fort Bend school board, don’t really like that word.

But it doesn’t bother me in the least.

Teacher's Union Makes FBISD BOT Endorsement

The Fort Bend County edition of the Houston Chronicle is carrying a story on which of the Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustees candidates the Fort Bend Employees Federation (aka The Teacher’s Union) endorsed as a result of their survey and their recently-held candidates forum discussed on this blog here.

And basically the Union declined to endorse a candidate for the Position 3 seat, even though both candidates for the office submitted answers to the FBEF questionnaire, and both appeared at the candidates’ forum.

Cutting to the chase, these two candidates weren’t “union enough.” That’s a pretty bold statement in this state, a “Right to Work” state (meaning a right to fire you state). It is fairly much the case that finding a pro-union candidate in this state is like finding a four-leaf clover.

Rare as hen’s teeth among Republicans, and still considered a lucky find among Independents.

Alumbaugh was clearly uncomfortable with the word “union.” His unease with the very idea of a worker’s union was clearly evident on his face, in his mannerisms, and what he said. Pretty gutsy considering his audience was nearly 100% union members.

Rice kept to his “no comment” script and declined to make a direct answer because he allegedly didn’t know the legal ramifications, even though it is state law that unions can negotiate with school districts if the school districts allow it. A convenient lack of knowledge that Rice used to punt this question.

Jim Babb, on the other hand, was pretty frank about how communications are sometimes nonexistent between the district and employees. For this performance, and I would say, this one alone, this earned Jim Babb the FBEF’s sole endorsement in this election.

You need to see this for yourself. Here are excerpts from the video I shot that pertained to the answers to the following question on Union representation:

“How do you feel about granting the Union the right to exclusive consultation?”



Any questions about who is the pro-Union candidate?

Voting in Texas Elections vs. Parental Complaints

As one who votes in every election that they will let me in the door for, I have to say I am surprised and a little miffed at a story I heard today when I went to cast my vote in the Texas Constitutional Amendment election, the only election here in Fort Bend County.

I typically go to a middle school campus that is roughly between my workplace and my residence to early vote.

It is convenient and usually the lines are short.

Today it was no different in terms of lines, there were none, but not in terms of the convenience. Upon arriving and presenting my voter registration card I was made to stand by while the elections clerk waited for his laptop PC to connect to the internet.

It took an overly long amount of time and the light that was emitted by the scanner that would scan the bar code on my registration card kept switching between red and green.

Back and forth.

We joked that maybe the kids at the school had hacked into the system – a joke that was too serious to laugh too much about these days – and finally the scanner was ready to scan my card.

Then as we were waiting for the adhesive tape to print out, again in a stutter-stop way, I was told the real reason why there was such slow service. It seems that the reception in the area of the school that the polling place was located was very poor. Poor enough to make what should have been a 10 second procedure turn into a 5 minute one.

And then I heard something that made me cringe.

“It was much better when we set up in front in the lobby.”

I replied, “That’s right, you used to have this up front near the front circle. Why did you move back here?”

[I keep forgetting not to ask questions to which I don’t want to hear the answer]

“The parents complained that we were making too much noise.”

Now I have to ask myself, what would have happened if the poor reception that the elections clerk was getting today occurred on a heavy turnout early voting day? How far out the door would the line to get in to vote have gone? How many voters would have turned back in disgust because of the horrendous wait time?

This is clearly a case of misplaced priorities. Parental complaints need to be prioritized right behind everything else when it comes to the democratic process, and any facility that provides space for citizens to cast their votes in elections needs to ensure that this space is optimal for that purpose.

Otherwise, Fort Bend County should take its business elsewhere.

Fort Bend ISD Proposes 3.5 cent Tax Increase

Coming on the heals of a Fort Bend Central Appraisal District policy of raising the appraised values of property in the county by an average of 10.8% at a time when property value – and home sales - are sharply lower due to the recession, now we hear that the Fort Bend ISD school board wants to raise their tax rate by 3.5 cents per $100 assessed value.

When will these tax and spend Democrats ever learn? When in a tough economic downturn, the last thing you want to do is raise taxes.

Oh, no . . . wait. Fort Bend County is still firmly in the hands of the Republican Party isn’t it. Republicans still dominate county government. A Republican majority still sits on the school board.

So much for making generalities based on party affiliation.

Because just as it happened at the federal level, where Republicans opened up the hen house doors and let the foxes have full run of the place – putting us all in a very uncomfortable spot, so has it happened at the local level.

At the local level county government has granted an obscene amount of property tax breaks to businesses so that they will move into the county. Trouble is, when you grow the county, county expenses go up. Roads need to be built and maintained. Infrastructure needs to support new growth. Where to get the funds for all of this if you can’t get it from the very entities responsible for the new costs? Get it from those who are already here.

But since Fort Bend County is run by the Republican Party, don’t make it look like you are raising taxes. Raise the assessed values.

Never mind the fact that home insurance companies will take these new values and raise their premiums as well.

Never mind that Fort Bend ISD will also take these new assessed values as the meter against which they assess their taxes.

Truthfully, the school board is between a rock and a hard place. They have to service a debt that was taken on during an unprecedented growth period (partly, courtesy of the county’s tax abatement policies), and have had to adopt a budget where more is being spent than coming in. Fort Bend ISD runs on a net deficit budget.

Given all of this, and given that the district is severely limited in the number of areas where it can make budget cuts, they don’t really have any choice here.

That won’t stop the tax-averse right wingers from coming out in force for this evening’s bi-weekly school board meeting. They will be there. These people who demand a first-rate education for their children, but simply don’t want to pay for it, will be there shaking their fingers at people who really don’t have much of a choice here.

Really, it is better to lay the blame where all of these problems originate. Place the blame for this mess where it truly needs to be placed. Place the blame at the feet of a pro-business, anti-homeowner county government.

And start thinking about getting these rascals booted out of office.

May 9th is Election Day – Go Vote

This is it. May 9^th 2009. Election Day in city elections, MUDs and school districts. It doesn’t get more local than this.

These elections affect your life the most because when politics are local, the effect is local, too.

In Fort Bend ISD you have a choice. And apparently the candidates have split themselves into tickets, because where you see an Albright campaign sign, you see a Cain sign right next to it.

So is the case with Bhuchar and Glover.

So you have a clear choice here. You can vote for the rabble rousers who want to turn their fellow Trustees on their respective ears, or you can vote for the status quo, which is he message I am getting by seeing Marilyn Glover’s sign next to Sonal Bhuchar’s.

Because that’s where you usually see it, when it isn’t laying down in the grass, that is (look closely at the Albright/Cain photograph above).

Or, you can be original. Make your own ticket. Mix and match.

That’s fun, too.

Joint Election Early Voting Starts On April 27th

So if you want to exercise your opinion on local politics, or if you want a huge say in what kind of school board you want running your life, go vote in the Joint Election. No it's not an election to legalize marijuana, several entities have combined together for this uniform election day to make it less costly and more efficient.

Go vote.

Vote because voter turnout for these elections is pitifully small. You could have as much as 15 to 20 times the voting clout as your neighbors because for one reason or another, they don’t vote in these things.

Early voting starts tomorrow. April 27th and goes for an astounding 2 weeks with the last day of early voting on El Cinco de Mayo (the only holiday we Americans celebrate because of a beer company’s ad campaign).

Races in the joint election are for races in Fort Bend ISD, City of Arcola, City of Missouri City, City of Sugar Land and the Kingsbridge MUD

And there are tons of voting locations. Click here for a .PDF file of times and locations.

But what the heck, if you are a procrastinator like I have been lately or for some reason you still think that only certain privileged people can early vote wait until Election Day on May 9^th (it’s on a Saturday – isn’t that a novel concept?)

There are more voting locations then, I guess to avoid all the long lines.

(That was a joke)

At the FBEF Candidates Forum

Rather than rattle off a first impression of the Fort Bend Board of Trustees candidate’s forum yesterday evening, I decided to place the pot on the back burner and turn it on to “low.”

Mainly because I have never, in my short history of school board candidate forum attendance, come away from one of these things so conflicted.

Can we have another box to check on the ballot?

One that says “None of the above?”

First, two of the five candidates did not show up. Nor did they submit answers to the nine questions formulated by the Fort Bend Employee Federation (aka “The Teacher’s Union”). One of these, I did expect. Sonal Bhuchar offered that she had an early flight, or some such thing, on the following morning, thus preventing her from attending the meeting.

Or submitting written answers to the 9 questions.

As president of the BOT, maybe she should have taken this a little more seriously. But given the election results last time she was up for election, where she took the field with 39.8% of the vote, leading her closest competitor (there were 3 of them) by 1147 votes (a full 10% of the total vote) maybe she feels safe as an incumbent, board president, and, as Carlos Cain referred to her (time and time again), as the official seal of approval on the Fort Bend ISD Bend ISD Board of Trustees (that is, he called her a “rubber stamp”).

All of that, and her public indecisiveness on the funding and construction of the proposed Global Science and Technology Center, aka “The Taj Mahal” should help voters decide her case right promptly.

I was a little surprised that Rodrigo Carreon was a no-show. He always shows up to anything. But given the explanation seen here, I can see his point. Less than 24 hours notice to construct positions on these 9 questions is a little bit much to take. Not that he doesn’t have positions on all of these points. From past elections, if I’m not wrong, he has answered some of these questions before. Not that it garnered him a teacher’s union endorsement. It didn’t. My thinking is that given the choice between sitting down at home the night before last and writing his answers down . . . again . . . and maybe having some food and beverages at his buddy’s Texas Hold ‘Em party, maybe he opted for the latter.

But three candidates did show up.

Marilyn Glover came off as a bit of a surprise. Ms. Glover had to sit up straight in order to be seen sitting at the candidates’ table. She characterized herself as “small, but a bulldog.” The other surprise, one that gave me pause, was that Ms. Glover’s husband, who was sitting in the front row at the meeting, piped up and offered his take on a question posed to his wife.

One final surprise is that she didn’t seem to have as good a grasp of the duties of a BOT member as I thought she would. As a Republican precinct chair, we know her politics. And as an HR manager we know her background. And it was she, of the three candidates, who seemed to know what it was behind the Union-generated question referencing to whether she would vote to allow FBISD employees to “meet and confer” with administration on matters of policy and procedures.

This question was “The Union Test.” She failed.

“I have always met with management directly because I felt I was best at explaining and asking questions about my situation.”

Black ball to Glover.

Not to mention the fact that Glover declined to express an opinion on construction of the Science Center, citing a lack of direct knowledge other than “what I have read in the newspaper”. My guess is that this issue by itself will mobilize a few thousand to go to the polls, something that has not escaped the notice of her opponent, Bruce Albright, or Sonal Bhuchar’s opponent, Carlos Cain.

Bringing me to the Dueling Duo, Cain and Albright.

Cain, having no one to fence with, did so anyway, calling his absent opponent a “rubber stamp” on the board. His final comment, the comment of the evening, was a comment on his qualifications as a trustee. “The person I am running against is the most qualified,” declared Cain. Qualified as the board’s “rubber stamp.”

Cain was folksy, tended to lapse into anecdotes, and his quiet demeanor belied his tendency to SPEAK IN ALL CAPS, at least when he writes things down. Albright spoke lots, but when he did, all you had to do was glance down at his answers to the 9 union questions distributed to the members of the audience – he read from that. When asked the more impromptu questions from the floor, you got a better feel for his grasp of the topics. Basically, I guess you could say it was hit or miss. Sometimes dead on, sometimes he missed the point of the questioner.

Cain came off as the scrappy one. In reference to the board’s 90 million dollar “Fund Balance,” Cain responded, “I am the one that actually discovered this ‘Slush Fund’ while facing off with FBISD in during the 2007 Bond Referendum. This fund balance is actually money from the 2003 Bond Referendum that was never used.”

No one bothered to take issue with this. The fact that some of the 2003 bond issue projects have yet to be completed, or paid for, did not come up. It didn’t have to. Clearly, if the voters want to elect a scrappy guy to the Board of Trustees, Cain is their man.

As a candidate, Albright was alright. And of the three on the stage, I lean toward this guy the most as someone I’d like to see on the board. I think, however, that personally speaking, the jury is still out. There is no incumbent on the current board that I would really and truly like to see sent packing. Not like last time or the time before last.

Of the three, I do have one un-recommendation. Give Glover a pass. She opposes union reps at campuses, and won’t even divulge her concerns on the burning issue of the day.

Besides, the last thing we need is another HR manager in high places.

Oh, and Dunn, "vye" is spelled "vie."

Fort Bend Employees Federation Holds Candidates Forum Tonight

I heard about this some time back, but when in the run-up to today I heard nothing further, and assumed that the Fort Bend Employees Federation, aka the Teacher’s Union, had postponed or cancelled.

Nothing like that occurred. Today we see in FortBendNow that the candidates forum will be held as scheduled.

Where: Sugar Land Marriott. [map] (Just go in the lobby area and look for a bunch of people going into a meeting room. That will be it unless there’s also a meeting for someone’s make money at home scheme or something like that. Choose the meeting with the grim-faced people going in. The happy people with money hanging out of their pockets are going to the Ponzi Scheme meeting).

When: 7 PM April 2nd, 2009 (they say it will go for 2 hours)

Nothing has been announced about which candidates will show up. It varies. Some candidates for school board opt out of this meeting because the last thing they want to do is address a bunch of people interested in education (they usually have a “time conflict” for an excuse).

I’d be interested in going just to see if Carlos Cain TALKS LIKE HE WRITES.

Will the Brawl Brewing in Fort Bend ISD Be Defused?

If you are even mildly interested in local Fort Bend County school board politics, or in science education in general, your attention must have been drawn to an item of discussion that has cropped up in the run-up to the May 9^th elections where all too few voters will decide who will fill two seats on the Fort Bend ISD School Board.

While policies in tax dollar expenditures are a common topic in school board elections, the issue has become focused on the proposition to build a Global Science and Technology Center whose construction has been recently proposed, and whose feasibility is currently under study by a select group of individuals who represent the district and the local community.

Position 2 on the Board of Trustees is currently held by Sonal Bhuchar who is running for re-election. She is being challenged on the ballot by oil and gas industry consultant Carlos Cain who opposes construction of the center. As outlined in this article, and in a previous posting of mine, the issue of whether or not to build this centerpiece structure in Fort Bend ISD has become the central point of contention in the Position 2 contest, and has also been addressed in the Position 6 race, currently an open seat, that is being sought by three individuals, two of whom, have also come out against the construction.

FortBendNow focused on Position 2, due to the presence of an incumbent I imagine, and due to the obvious differences in the opinions of the respective candidates on whether this science center should be built.

From FortBendNow:

“‘I am in favor of anything that will help our students academically,’ Cain said recently. However, ‘I can’t in good conscience justify spending $40 million or whatever when we don’t have enough copy paper for our teachers, when we’ve got kids sharing textbooks and we’re telling principals we can’t make all the building repairs that are needed.’”

And,

“‘How can you oppose something if you don’t know all the facts?’ Bhuchar asked, noting that a district-appointed feasibility committee, chaired by former Sugar Land mayor David Wallace, has just begun the first of several community meetings seeking comment on the proposal. ‘Everyone has tremendous concerns over the financing of it, myself included. But let’s see what they come back with,” she said of the feasibility committee.’”

Both candidates exhibit legitimate concerns on expenditure of public funds. Bhuchar, however, hints around something that I think is almost assuredly in the mix: the fact that the center will not be financed by public funds.

In the reality that is Fort Bend County, taxpayers are irate over their property taxes and school taxes which are collected at the same time. Some of these are legitimate concerns, and some of these concerns, in my opinion are knee jerk reactions from people who don’t know, can’t know, and have little appreciation for how much a quality education costs in this day and age. They just don’t want to pay anything of any real substance for education and view all calls for additional educational funding with a venomous eye.

And given past practices in the district, they generally expect that they will also be asked to foot the bill for this project in Fort Bend ISD.

And therefore think they have a point to make and can take issue with this new construction project.

But what if Bhuchar’s words “…let’s see what they come back with,” referring to the feasibility committee’s work, means that there is a concerted effort underfoot to line up a collection of corporate sponsors to privately fund this project? Really, there are lots of science/technology-based corporations in the immediate area, not to mention the corporate employers of many of the parents of Fort Bend ISD students.

My question, then, is this: if the funding is found, and the Global Science and Technology Center is planned and built with this private sector funding, is there any further objection to the project? Private sector funds in this case would never be used to buy textbooks, copier paper, or pay salaries of teachers. These funds are donated with the express purpose of seeing this thing get done.

I wonder about this, because I wonder what happens if, down the road, the feasibility study is completed, say one week before the election, and all of the objections of the candidates who opposed the project dissipate with the news that $25 million in private funding have been lined up.

That is, if this is what happens, having all of your eggs in one basket seems like a very bad idea because the whole issue could become moot.

Monday March 9th is Last Day to File For May 9 Elections

That’s right. It is just around the corner. Anyone who wants to stand for election in local school boards or in city elections need to get their paperwork filed by the end of the business day on Monday March 9^th.

This also means that if you have moved since the last election, and are new to the area, you need to register to vote by March 9^th in order to be eligible to vote in these very low turnout elections.

If you vote in these elections, then I probably don’t have to remind you.

In Fort Bend ISD, there is one open seat on the Board of Trustees. Steve Smelley, currently occupying Position 6, has announced that he won’t run for re-election. In order to run for Position 6, you must reside on the eastern side within Fort Bend ISD’s boundaries.

The dividing line between East and West is shown on the right. Where it really lies is really up for grabs as this map, lifted from the Fort Bend ISD information page on trustee elections, is of almost no help.

Position 2 is also up for this years’ election. The position is currently held by Sonal Bhuchar, who, it is understood, will be running for re-election.

Lamar CISD will be holding elections for 4 of its Board of Trustee members. These are now 4-year terms as discussed at this LCISD web page.

Trustee positions for Districts, 1, 2, 3, and 6 are up for election this year.

Longtime Trustee Jesse Torres will seek re-election in District 3 as announced in the Fort Bend Herald., as is Kathy Hynson of District 1 also announced in the Herald. The board’s Vice President, Sam Hopkins of District 2 is also running for re-election. No announcement could be located in regard to board president Michael Richard’s re-election intentions.

While these positions seem mundane, and do not pay a red cent, the importance of local school board elections are often underplayed. School boards decide tax rates. They decide how tax money is to be spent. They choose who district superintendents are to be.

Tip O’Neill said it best when he emphasized how local elections, while not as sexy as national elections, are the important ones that all voters should be concerned with:

“All politics is local.”

UPDATE: I hate loose ends and the fact of the matter is, the FBISD map is virtually useless as a tool to help someone decide whether they are living on the East Side or the West Side of the Fort Bend Independent School District. So I have taken matters into my own hands. If you look at the two little squiqqles in the Brazos River trace, the ones that occur just inside the East Side boundary, you can conclude that the line crosses the river at the inner bend of the second squiggle. Taking that to Google Earth, I have determined that the East/West boundary falls on a line of longitude, specifically 95 degrees, and 35 minutes West.

No thanks are necessary. Public service is its own reward.

Committee On Political Education Endorses FBISD Trustee Candidates

The Fort Bend Employees Federation, affiliated with the Texas Federation of Teachers, has released the endorsements of C.O.P.E. for three Fort Bend ISD Trustee positions that will be decided by the voters this coming May 10th.

Position 1 (West) is a position currently occupied by former teacher Stan Magee. Challenging Magee for his seat is Susan Hohnbaum, who has received the teacher’s union endorsement. Magee, it was reported today, will not be actively campaigning to remain on the board, noting that “new personal commitments in his life and commitments to his family needed to take precedence over candidate forums and debates”. Magee did not appear at the FB Employee’s Federation candidates forum, and did not submit answers to their questionnaire.

One would wonder, then, on the remote chance that Magee were re-elected to Position 1, whether he would have the time to attend board meetings, or to prepare for them.

C.O.P.E.’s endorsement of Hohnbaum is a no-brainer for this and many reasons.

Their endorsement for Position 4 At Large, however, went to a candidate who, similar to Magee, was a no-show at the FBEF’s forum. While Daniel Menendez did complete their questionnaire, I do wonder about an endorsement for someone who did not have time in his personal or professional life to attend the forum.

I am therefore a little perplexed at their endorsement of Menendez. Rodrigo Carreon, who opposes Menendez in this open seat that is being vacated by Cynthia Knox, did make it to the forum, as he did when he served on the Board’s bond committee meetings, as he does in nearly every regular school board meeting, as he does in every other kind of meeting in and around the county.

I tend to lean toward Carreon. He may be all over the map when he makes a case, but we all know where his heart is. A Democratic heart, by the way.

But I am in hearty agreement with C.O.P.E.’s endorsement of Dr. Jonita Reynolds for Position 5 (East). Reynolds is highly qualified for this position notwithstanding the on the job training that her opponent has received over the past few years. Trustee Caldwell, who Dr. Reynolds is opposing, was once in a voting bloc with Stan Magee. These two represent the 3rd and 4th members of the “new majority” that was voted in a few years back. A “new majority” that got out a broom and ended the career of Dr. Betty Baitland, someone who one can successfully argue was the best administrator the district has had in years. After their broom job, the board ran up the district’s charge accounts and caused general mayhem. Dr. Reynolds will provide a much-needed breath of fresh air on the board.

So the union got it almost all right. Near perfect really. As they say in the “Meat Loaf” song, two out of three ain’t bad.

Fort Bend School Board Mulls Over Deficit Spending

Well, not really. The issue was placed before the board in their annual budget process by Superintendent Tim Jenney. From FortBendNow:

“‘What’s the board’s collective or individual position on deficit funding?’ Jenney asked.”

And that’s as far as it got. Just about to a man and woman, the idea was firmly rejected by school board members.

“This is a little scary”, “That’s going to change the perception of a responsible board”, “This is not a trend I’d like to see happen”, and “You ain’t gonna get my vote” were the varied responses.

In the past, the district budget has always counted on an increase in revenue because of growth. More houses built, more families, more children, more students, more revenue to Fort Bend ISD from the state. Yet this past year, growth fell below projections, and while it is difficult to see into the future, all you have to do is read the paper to see that the economy is slowing nationally.

And it would seem that the “Half Empty” outlook on life might be an appropriate one for the local school districts.

Plan for the worst.

Unfortunately the damage has already been done and planning for the worst is all but impossible. In their Republican zeal to slash local taxes so the local electorate will gorge themselves on their saved $180 dollars per household per year, the past board of trustees has agreed to placing a knife at the present board’s throat.

Once you cut taxes, it’s kind of hard to get that back.

And hoping to stay in the black with revenue from this tightfisted state that so devalues education, when your numbers can’t support it, is a fool’s errand.

Chickens, meet roost.

At the Candidates Forum for Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustees

As is their habit, the Fort Bend Employees Federation, aka “the teacher’s union”, held a Fort Bend ISD candidates’ forum last night at the Sugar Land Marriott. The public was invited to this under-publicized event, and as a result, the room was filled with Fort Bend ISD groupies, others running for public office, and a bunch of students from a local high school.

And me.

And FortBendNow.

I went out of curiosity and not knowing when I would have a chance to see them all in one place again.

That last, however, the thing about seeing them all in one place, will have to happen sometime in the future because two candidates did not appear, turning this thing, for the most part, into a beauty contest.

Fort Bend Trustee Stan Magee studiously avoided the whole thing, as expected, because Magee has little regard for unions and unionized teachers. So that left the floor to his challenger in this election, Susan Hohnbaum. Now I don’t know the woman’s politics but from where I sat I could see this is someone we can all use. A veteran teacher, Hohnbaum is also cognizant of technology issues – technology as in teaching technology. There are some questions that I have, however, like how she intends to separate her current position as an employee of a construction firm from her position as a school board member who would be deciding about construction contract awards. Would we lose a vote if her employer bids for a district project?

Come on, who am I kidding? Hohnbaum or Stan Magee? There isn’t even a question of who to opt for here.

Time to let Stan truly retire and enjoy those grandchildren.

Another race to fill Cynthia Knox’s seat is between eternal candidate and activist Rodrigo Carreon and a former candidate for BOT last year, Daniel Menendez. This forum also saw no opposition candidate for that position. Only Carreon showed up. Menendez, it was explained, was called out of town on business.

Strike one. What comes first, the people’s business or your own business? Menendez pulled out of the 2007 BOT election when he found that his good friend David Reitz was also running for the same position. No one told 504 voters though (page 6). So now, Daniel wants to serve on the board with his friend David.

Maybe he won’t quit this time.

Daniel is running against Rodrigo Carreon, who DID show up to this forum, and to any forum he is invited to. Sometimes it is difficult to follow just what Rodrigo is saying because he is all over the map, but when pressed for an opinion, Carreon does not allow things like politics stand in his way. Statewide, Carreon says, school district superintendents are all overpaid. He did not favor the recent pay bump given to the present district superintendent.

This brings me to the only trustee position where both candidates appeared. Position 5 is currently held by Laurie Caldwell. She is being challenged by a relative newcomer, Dr. Jonita Reynolds, wife of attorney Ron Reynolds who recently lost his bid to unseat Dora Olivo in a very hard-fought contest for HD 27 state representative.

Ron was in the audience to listen to and in support of his wife.

Caldwell, it may be recalled, was elected in a reform movement in 2005 which brought in a “new majority” that later devolved into the “Gang of Four”. That gang consisting of former board members Lisa Rikert and Ken Bryant, and current members who are running for re-election, Stan Magee and Laurie Caldwell.

Two of that old gang are now gone. Stan? Who knows. He is always such a loner on the board these days, who knows what his fate will be?

But now, Laurie Caldwell, now that’s a study. She was often seen as a swing vote, sometimes voting with the gang, sometimes against it. In a pivotal vote in October 2005, Caldwell voted against the gang and then-district superintendent Betty Baitland was spared the axe that eventually befell her, prompting one political wag to quip “Let's hope that Laurie Caldwell sticks with those who brung her.”

Sad to say, that did not remain the case, and eventually Caldwell placed herself squarely against the continued stewardship of Dr. Betty Baitland, effectively ending that woman’s career in education.

Clearly, Caldwell will want to avoid recollection of those bad old days. She cites her attention to “the data”, her years of volunteer work for the district including 8 PTA presidencies, and now most recently, her work in Alief ISD as a special ed teacher after receiving an emergency certification. And oh, yeah, she owns Caldwell Critter Sitters.

She faces Dr. Jonita Reynolds. Reynolds’ delivery saw no commas, semicolons or periods. Once unleashed on the audience, she spoke of her credits and accomplishments non-stop. Educationally, the woman was made for this job. Her MA and PhD degrees, from the University of Houston, are in the area of Education in Administration and Supervision. And, oh yeah, Reynolds is Chief Executive Officer of a non-profit corporation that employs 400.

400 people.

I Attended a Fort Bend ISD Candidates' Forum

I wasn't going to post anything more on the Fort Bend ISD School Board elections because there is so much more to write about. But circumstances changed.

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On my way home from work after a very TAKS-ing day I espied a banner at the entrance to the New Territory community advertising a Fort Bend ISD candidates’ forum. It was unfortunately blocked by a lawn sign advertising the services at a local church so I could not see the time or place. I resolved to take a peek as I was driving through the intersection. It was to be held that night (last night) at their HOA clubhouse.

I resolved to attend.

I arrived a couple of minutes late as the moderator was explaining the forum rules.

I took one look around. The audience was lily white and for the most part gray-haired. I just knew that I was the only Democrat in the room.

The moderator was explaining that each candidate would be given 5 minutes for a short spiel, then they had boiled down some questions from suggestions in the community, and each candidate got the same questions to answer.

Candidates for Position 3 spoke first, the speaking order was by alpha. So we got to hear Bob Broxson speak, then Lisa Rickert. Broxson, who by virtue of the fact that he wasn’t named Lisa, got the Half Empty endorsement in the previous post. I have to admit, for a Republican he didn’t come off half bad. We probably wouldn’t agree on stem cell research, but Broxson does think that it was a mistake for Fort Bend ISD to reduce the ability levels of instruction from 3 to 2.

For those of you who don’t know what I am talking about, most schools, typically high schools, group students according to their abilities so that they are taught at the same level of difficulty. Several years ago, in a cost-cutting move, the district removed the lowest ability grouping level of instruction from the district. By this I mean that a former three level system Honors, Advanced and Academic, became a two-level system, Honors and Advanced. Academic levels are for students with learning disabilities, or need alternative methods of instruction. And also for the ones with behavior problems. Lower Student-Teacher ratios are mandated for this level, and the district needed to save some money. The result, as Broxson elucidated, is the Advanced class is taught to the lowest common denominator. And this is partly the truth. The other truth is that more students than ever are failing courses because it is too difficult for them.

Broxson was also in favor of using methods of teacher hiring allowed in competing districts – signing bounties. No mention was made of the other popular method – cash bonuses in high needs areas.

Lisa Rickert came up next. I found out that I have been mispronouncing her name. The “i” is soft: Rihckert. Probably because I have been known to misspell her name. Just as in the FBEF forum, Rickert and Broxson were in agreement on the issues. The main difference that I could detect between them was that Rickert was an “In” – she kept mentioning things that “we on the board” did or were doing.

Another point that she emphasized was outsourcing. Rickert decried the fact that Fort Bend ISD is self-contained. It has its own garbage trucks and its own grounds maintenance staff and equipment. She wants to contract all of that out. You know, like George Bush wanted to privatize Social Security?

So while Broxson and Rickert are so close on the issues, I’m still going with Broxson, because unfortunately for Rickert, her first name IS Lisa.

Only two of the 4 candidates for Position 7 showed up. Noel Pinnock and David Reitz were at other fora and would try and make it, but ended up not.

Ken Bryant spoke first. Bryant emphasized keeping costs down and taxes low, but at the same time demanding excellent teachers and high performing schools.

Typical Republican tripe.

I’ll never understand how African-Americans can be Republicans. Never. Bryant also supported the idea of going back to three levels of instruction, although how he intends to accomplish that while keeping costs down escapes me. But here is the curious thing. While Broxson and Rickert emphasized going back to 3 levels to allow students with alternative learning styles or disabilities a chance to succeed in school, Bryant emphasized that the 2 level system was “dumbing down” the Honors program. He wanted to go back to a 3-tier system to save the Honors program.

What’s with that? Does this present-day trustee not care about the fact that we are leaving behind a significant population of students who cannot possibly perform at the Advanced level?

Bryant’s only opponent speaking that evening was Ann Hopkins. Ann Hopkins is also African-American, but unlike Bryant, she’s a Democrat. Unfortunately I wasn’t really impressed by her. She had no audience eye contact. She spoke at the back wall of the room. Hopkins was concerned that not enough resources were being sent to schools on the east side of the district. She demanded a more equitable distribution. This is not something you want to tell a bunch of gray-haired Republicans living on the west side of the district.

Hopkins was also in favor of retaining the 2-tier system, but didn’t elaborate on the point. She also favored hiring more mid-level administrators – counselors really.

Another question asked of all candidates, whether they favored building small schools over large ones, was answered differently by Hopkins. All candidates admitted that higher performance was positively correlated to instruction in smaller-sized facilities, but none but Hopkins endorsed the idea, mainly because the district is growing at such a phenomenal rate that building more, but smaller schools was prohibitively expensive. Hopkins endorsed the idea, but did not elaborate on how to pay for it.

So that was it. I was disappointed that I didn’t get to see the other two candidates. Especially in view of the fact that a former “In” conveyed to me the fact that David Reitz is OK for a Republican. I wanted to see that. Frankly I don’t believe it possible to be both a Republican and OK.

Fort Bend ISD School Board Elections Gain Momentum

Well, as much momentum as school board elections gain in Fort Bend ISD.

It’s sad, really. School board elections are about as local as you can get in a given election. Even county commissioner and JP, which are at the county precinct level, cover a larger area than a school district – even one as sprawling as Fort Bend ISD. This is as grassroots as you can get. But typical school board elections have very low voter turnout.

The school board vote in May 2006 was a veritable stampede to the polls in comparison to past years. A full 7.09% of all registered voters in the school district voted in that election.

Two positions are being decided in this race. Position 3 has two candidates, the incumbent, Lisa Rickert, and a challenger Bob Broxson. Broxson has no campaign website that I could find.

Position 7 has 5 candidates, the incumbent Ken Bryant, who was recently defeated by Dora Olivo in his run for her seat in the state house, has four challengers, Daniel Menendez (maybe), David Reitz, Ann Hopkins, and Noel Pinnock.

Four of the seven were recently at a candidates forum sponsored by the Fort Bend Employees Federation, a teacher’s union that represents roughly 1300 Fort Bend ISD teachers. Bryant was a no-show and Ann Hopkins never answered her phone messages. Menendez may have withdrawn from the race. He wasn’t at the forum and no explanation was given in the article by Bob Dunn at FortBendNow. The union subsequently endorsed the candidacies of Broxson and Pinnock.

Both incumbents failed to receive the union endorsement.

And that’s what Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustee elections have been about for the past couple of years. Bryant and Rickert represent the last of a “new majority” that caused chaos and uncertainty in Fort Bend ISD. The group that I used to call the “Gang of Four” was directly responsible for the loss of experienced board members, district administrators and teachers to other districts or to retirement.

So the FBEF had their say on who a likely 7 out of 100 FBISD voters should choose. Now it is Half Empty’s turn.

Politically, in Position 3 we are talking toss up. As far as I can see there is no difference between Rickert and Broxson. Rickert is Republican through and through. Bob Broxson, who is actually John Robert Broxson, is, as well. So I can’t choose this race based on idealogy as I share diddly squat with neither one. So we are going to have to have another criterion in which to judge them. I choose the “Anyone but Lisa” criterion.

Oh, you say Board of Trustees is a non-partisan race? In your dreams.

In Position 7 we have Ken Bryant who ran as a Republican against Dora Olivo. So I can conclude that he leans toward the Dark Side. So he’s out. Daniel Menendez, is, I think, a Democrat. But so is Ann Hopkins, and very probably Noel Pinnock, judging from his galaxy of endorsements by Democrats. David Reitz may also be Republican. So we have a list of three to choose from.

Ann Hopkins won’t return her phone messages so I think we can rule her out. We don’t want trustees who are unreachable. She also had the gall to put on her campaign website (it’s gone now) that she was “endorsed” by the Fort Bend County Democratic Party, exposing her as a naïf. Ann’s out.

So it’s between Daniel Menendez and Noel Pinnock. I like Pinnock because he is well-spoken and has a campaign blog. I also tend to support those who have served some time in the trenches. He’s also got a scientific bent, which is a plus in my book. Daniel Menendez? Is he still running? He has no website and did not show up at the candidate’s forum. So since it’s Pinnock against, apparently no one, it’s Pinnock.

So there you have it, the Half Empty endorsement for Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustees: “Anyone but Lisa” and Noel Pinnock.