Last Thursday, the Houston ISD School Board met for its monthly public business meeting. This month, seven of the nine trustees approved the formation of a committee to draft a District of Innovation Plan, as requested by Superintendent Lathan. They also voted unanimously to end their contract with NXTBoard Executive Coaches, choosing instead to schedule a series of facilitated workshops to finalize the district’s 5-year goals and constraints. Also of note was the 6-3 vote to renew the Board’s contract with the law firm O’Hanlon, Demerath & Castillo. Engagement with this external law firm cost taxpayers nearly $300,000 from April-December of 2019, and the average hourly rate spent with the firm violates the contract terms outlined by the trustees themselves last year. Given the pace of the lawsuit, we can only assume that the board has spent much closer to $1 million in lawyer fees by now. The district has not responded to public information requests since February of this year. No matter what the outcome of their current lawsuit, it is clear that our precious public resources continue to be spent on political games, rather than on children.