On Thursday, August 12, the Houston ISD Board of Education met for its monthly business meeting. As returning back to school continues to clash with rising COVID-19 rates, parents and community members came out to speak about HISD implementing a mask mandate. While there was support on both sides, the Board ultimately prioritized the safety of students and staff by passing the mandate. The Board voted to accept federal ESSER funds but expect the Superintendent to make amendments to the current budget allocations to better address learning loss. The Board also picked up their past conversation about police function in the district when they considered contracts for the police department, including a contract for tasers, which was not approved. On Thursday, August 19, the Board met for a special meeting where they passed additional COVID-19 measures, including vaccine stipends for employees, but chose not to reconsider the police contracts they voted down last week.
Overall Ratings
August 12, 2021
Trustee scores were based on votes and discussion related to agenda items A.2 and A.3 and assessed using core values for Leadership and Impact.
District I: Trustee Santos
HIGH
District II: Kathy Blueford-Daniels
HIGH
District III: Dani Hernandez
HIGH
District IV: Patricia Allen
HIGH
District V: Sue Deigaard
HIGH
District VI: Holly Maria Flynn Vilaseca Ocampo
Medium due to Absence
District VII: Anne Sung
HIGH
District VIII: Judith Cruz
HIGH
District IX: Myrna Guidry
HIGH
Key Votes
A.2: Goal 1 and 4 Progress Monitoring
A.3: Mask Mandate
Trustee Santos
For
For
Trustee Blueford-Daniels
For
For
Trustee Hernandez
For
For
Trustee Allen
For
For
Trustee Allen
For
For
Trustee Deigaard
For
For
Trustee Flynn Vilaseca Ocampo
Absent but In Support
Absent
Trustee Sung
For
For
Trustee Cruz
For
For
Trustee Guidry
For
For
Key Votes
Trustee Santos
A.2: Goal 1 and 4 Progress Monitoring
For
A.3: Mask Mandate
For
Trustee Blueford-Daniels
A.2: Goal 1 and 4 Progress Monitoring
For
A.3: Mask Mandate
For
Trustee Hernandez
A.2: Goal 1 and 4 Progress Monitoring
For
A.3: Mask Mandate
For
Trustee Allen
A.2: Goal 1 and 4 Progress Monitoring
For
A.3: Mask Mandate
For
Trustee Deigaard
A.2: Goal 1 and 4 Progress Monitoring
For
A.3: Mask Mandate
For
Trustee Flynn Vilaseca Ocampo
A.2: Goal 1 and 4 Progress Monitoring
Absent but In Support
A.3: Mask Mandate
Absent
Trustee Sung
A.2: Goal 1 and 4 Progress Monitoring
For
A.3: Mask Mandate
For
Trustee Cruz
A.2: Goal 1 and 4 Progress Monitoring
For
A.3: Mask Mandate
For
Trustee Guidry
A.2: Goal 1 and 4 Progress Monitoring
For
A.3: Mask Mandate
For
Time Spent on Student Outcomes
Research shows that school boards that focus on student outcomes have a greater impact. The Texas Education Agency recommends spending at least 50% of Board meeting time on student outcomes.
89 Minutes
89 Minutes: 33%
Trustee Comments
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- The Board demonstrated a commitment to Leadership and Impact by voting to implement a mask mandate for students, staff, and visitors inside HISD facilities and buses. The Board and administration must continue to do all that is within their control to ensure the safety of our students and staff. To learn more about HISD’s other safety measures for the upcoming school year, take a look at the Ready, Set, Go plan.
- While the Board fell short of their goal of spending 50% of their time on student outcomes, this board meeting did mark a significant improvement with 33% of the regular meeting dedicated to reviewing outcome data. This is up from 14% in May and June. The Board demonstrated a commitment to Impact by making students an increasingly important focus of the district.
- The Board took an important first step in addressing student well-being and learning loss from the pandemic by accepting federal ESSER funds to be used over the next three years. Several trustees and members of the community have expressed concern about how the funding is currently being budgeted. The new administration inherited the TEA approved plan and plans to make amendments, however, the trustees needed to pass the agenda item in order to approve the funds. While the Board may not have the power to approve future amendments, they should ask for regular updates from the administration about changes to ESSER budgeting to ensure that the influx of money is well-targeted and equitably distributed to address the highest need.
- The Board’s piecemeal approach to police function discussions has led to unintended consequences. We certainly appreciate trustees for continuing to probe into the role of policing in the district, but the lack of a more comprehensive conversation between the Board, administration, and the HISD police force about police policy caused the Board to vote down contracts for accountability measures like body cameras in order to prevent the district from buying additional tasers. On Thursday, August 19, the Board was again asked to consider the item without the taser contract, but the motion did not receive a second, preventing the Board from voting. The Board needs to have a public conversation to outline a plan rather than dealing with individual items as they come up.
- On Thursday, August 19, the Board held a Special meeting where they approved additional COVID-19 safety measures, including additional sick leave and $500 stipends for vaccinated employees. They also ratified the submission of a legal brief opposing the Texas Governor’s mask prohibition litigation, which was co-signed by several other school districts in the state.
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Served Since: 2018
- Trustee Santos asked about accountability ratings for the new school year and is concerned about testing, however, she did admit that administration needs a baseline to assess students.
- Trustee Santos expressed concern about the taser purchase contract by HISD police and asked if the funding could be reallocated. Because the funding is already in the policy budget for safety, the Board would need to affirmatively adjust the safety budget to accomplish this.
- During ESSER discussions, Trustee Santos focused on sick leave, compensation, and smaller class sizes for employees.
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Served Since: 2020
- Trustee Blueford-Daniels asked how ESSER funds were being used to equitably address disparities Black students face as evidenced by increasing gaps in student outcomes following start of the pandemic. She also asked about data-quality issues that the administration anticipates for the upcoming year.
- Trustee Blueford-Daniels supported the taser contracts for HISD police because she is concerned for officers to only have a firearm as a last-resort when a taser could prevent severe harm or death.
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Served Since: 2020
- Trustee Hernandez asked how administration was ensuring students of color have highly-effective teachers considering the widening student outcome gaps exacerbated by the pandemic. She also asked about addressing root causes in early education.
- Trustee Hernandez asked for data supporting the need for officers to have tasers and has continually expressed concern about tasers being used on kids.
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Served Since: 2020
- Trustee Allen echoed Trustee Blueford-Daniels concern about the danger of firearms being used by officers as an alternative to tasers if the taser contract were not approved.
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Served Since: 2018
- Trustee Deigaard asked how administration would be monitoring the success of strategies identified to equitably address student outcomes and how they would be addressing data-quality issues. She further asked how ESSER funding would be used to address the disparity Black students are facing compared to their peers, wanting to ensure there would still be support even if the campus was performing well overall. Trustee Deigaard also expressed concern for students who might experience issues meeting graduation requirements because they have missed lessons and exams during the pandemic.
- During ESSER discussions, Trustee Deigaard asked if the district was considering stretching out the funding like other districts by using some of it in place of essential operational spending to save already budgeted money for later use.
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Served Since: 2017
- Trustee Flynn Vilaseca Ocampo appeared to be traveling during the Board meeting and was not able to appear virtually for the entire agenda. When trustees are absent from a Board meeting, they receive a low evaluation in each core value because we have no basis for evaluation. However, Trustee Flynn Vilaseca Ocampo did send her remarks supporting the mask mandate through another trustee and was present for some of the more important votes toward the end of the meeting, including the acceptance of ESSER funds. She was not able to be present for the student outcome discussion. For these reasons, Trustee Flynn Vilaseca Ocampo received a medium overall score.
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Served Since: 2017
- Trustee Sung asked for specifics about how the administration would complete their listed next steps to address student outcome goals. She also expressed concern for students who might experience issues meeting graduation requirements because they have missed lessons and exams during the pandemic.
- Trustee Sung asked about what circumstances would allow an officer to use a taser and if there was a policy that prevented the use of a taser on a student.
- Trustee Sung asked about how administration made changes to the ESSER agenda item and how the district could implement the new items Superintendent House described for safety and stipends to encourage vaccination.
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Served Since: 2020
- Trustee Cruz asked about the implementation of reading programs in early education, the differences in student outcomes based on learning location during the pandemic, and how the administration was measuring professional learning impacts on Board goals for student outcomes. She also asked about equitable distribution of resources and measuring how well programs and interventions are working.
- Trustee Cruz moved to allow students who signed up to speak to an agenda item to speak virtually on the issue of the mask mandate.
- Trustee Cruz did not support funding for tasers and called for further discussion about the police function in the district, specifically to address recommendations made by community groups in the workshop the Board had last fall.
- During the ESSER discussion, Trustee Cruz asked how the administration set the budgets with student outcomes in mind and how they would evaluate to determine what is not working and adjust. She also asked about items the Superintendent has flagged as immediate needs while administration evaluates potential amendments.
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Served Since: 2020
- Trustee Guidry asked if the Board and administration could adjust progress measure goals to equitably account for disparities that students of color, especially Black students, are facing academically to better target resources.
- Trustee Guidry pointed out that the taser contract was tied to the contract for body cameras for officers and software for capturing data of police dispatching.