Alton Frailey & His Sycophant Board Majority Consumed By Their Own Arrogance Confronts Katy Citizens With The Most Important Board Election In Community History; Tonight’s Executive Session Of KISD Board Is One For The Ages: Question - Does Section 13.901 Of The Texas Education Code Even Exist?

This column is not written in the kind of white-hot anger that produces a mistake.

Rather, it is written with the cold fury of righteous indignation that Katy I.S.D. is under the authoritarian control of a superintendent and a working school board majority so consumed by their own arrogance that they have quarantined the public from its rightful place as meaningful participants in its own government.

When last Alton Frailey and his sycophant school board majority met in a ‘workshop’ setting, they passed two-year contracts for a class of administrative employees and one-year contracts for classroom teachers for the 2012-13 academic year without so much as one word of discussion or narration.

They did so on the authority of an agenda that did not allow anyone in the general public to address the board on the underlying issues for which votes were scheduled and taken.

Facts and analysis will follow, but first let’s focus on the workshop meeting of the board scheduled for today (Monday, April 16).

Here’s the agenda posting for the closed meeting:

After the closed, executive session, the Board will reconvene with the authority to take action on the following posting:

Now let’s discuss the real meaning of last month’s ‘workshop’ meeting and today’s ‘workshop’ meeting.  It has been about changing the contracts of your children’s most experienced classroom teachers without having to discuss the issues of the subject in public session.

That’s the reason these matters have been consigned to a ‘workshop’ meeting at which no member of the public can address the board.

The issues are discussed in executive session; the board comes into the public portion of the meeting; and votes to approve what they have discussed privately without ever having to listen to the public.

Oh, and by the way, Section 13.901 of the Texas Code Education Code no longer exists according to my own review as well as confirmation by three attorneys with whom I have sought independent confirmation before writing this paragraph.

This community has a superintendent and a working majority school board that proposes to go into closed session citing an explicit provision of state law that no longer exists.

Certain issues formerly alluded to in the old Section 13.901 are still in state law, but Section 13.901 of the Texas Education Code was eliminated by a previous Texas Legislature.

Maybe they can do this. After all, it is the Texas Legislature that produces the law. But, has the condition of state government degenerated so far this is OK? I guess we will find out tonight!

Now, let’s proceed in bullet-point format with key points or questions that hopefully will explain what’s going on here with broader context:

• The Texas Legislature passed law in its last session that gave dramatic new authority to school boards to change the working conditions and contracts of experienced classroom teachers who work on ‘term contracts.’
• Most of these fundamental changes were ‘permissive’ and not MANDATORY.  In other words, school boards were given the authority to do certain things but were not required to do those things.
• These ‘things’ include such matters as 10-day or 45-day notification for non-renewal of a teacher’s contract.
• These things include such things as the power to force teachers to work free on hours or days not included in the terms of the contracts.
• These things include the board’s power to furlough classroom teachers.
• These things include the process by which classroom teachers can challenge the non-renewal of their contracts.

What Frailey and his sycophant school board majority did last meeting and propose to do this meeting is make changes in the contracts of experienced classroom teachers and modify the official policies of the district to facilitate those contractual changes under the shadowy pretense that the public need not be involved because it is all being done under the color of state law.

That’s why Bill Proctor and Terry Huckaby left the last workshop at the pivotal moment.  It was a noble, ethical, and moral effort to delay action on the contracts until there was a chance for public review and input.

Now, I am not going to fall into the trap of presuming to know precisely what the wording of the proposed new policy DFBB Local will be.  It may be ‘good’ or it may be ‘bad.’ I allowed myself to be suckered into a trap once before, and I won’t do that again.

But here are some more bullet points for today’s (April 16) meeting under the righteous banner of why can’t the public know what’s under consideration with time to prepare questions and form judgments in order to address the board?

• When did this district formalize consultation agreements with employee groups in this district pursuant to explicit state law?
• What specific matters over the past have involved statutorily-defined consultation with employee groups?
• What is the specific nature and content and scope of these formal consultation agreements between the administration and the employee groups?
• What were the times, dates, places, and subjects that statutorily defined consultation occured between Alton Frailey’s administration and employee groups.

Here are two things that need to be emphasized:

1. Frailey and his board majority are scheduled to go into closed executive session pursuant to a specific citation of an explicit provision of the Texas Education Code that no longer exists to discuss the district’s consultation ‘positions’ with employee groups.
2. Frailey and his board majority are then scheduled to come back into open session to take definitive action on the two policies that are theoretically the subject of consultation.

Please understand that the word ‘consultation’ is a term of art in the context of state law.  It has meaning.  It has process.  It has procedures.  When did Katy I.S.D. approve this? When?

 

Further understand that a superintendent of schools does NOT need board approval or state authority to ’summon’ the leaders of employee groups to his office and say something like this:

“I am thinking about taking a matter (any matter) to the school board for consideration.  Before I finalize my recommendation, I’d like to hear what you think about this.  I’d like to hear your suggestions.”

That is NOT consultation in any legal sense of the world.  It’s called input.

Alton Frailey can do that any day of the week based on his own authority.

So, in wrapping up this column, I have three questions:

1. What in the holy hell is going on tonight under the banner of consultation with employee groups?
2. Why can’t the public be told what’s going on and the items be posted at the regular meeting in two weeks or so when the public can address the board?
3. When this process of contract and policy revisions is finally over, will classroom teachers be able to have access to an independent hearing officer from a pool provided by the State of Texas?

There is only one way for sure to break the blockade or quarantine that Frailey and his band of sycophant board members have imposed upon the general public and their employees. That opportunity comes election day with the election of Terri Majors and Cynthia Blackman.

No pair of school board members since Mary McGarr and Ken Burton have tried harder to do what’s right than Bill Proctor and Terry Huckaby.

The public will either send them Majors and Blackman to create a new working majority or this nonsense marches forward.

If Community Wants Reform, They Must Be Prepared Soon To Help Proctor & Huckaby Stand Up To A School Board President & Administration In Fear Of Losing Their Control

The issue of reform in Katy I.S.D. has reached the point it was destined to reach IF members of the school board ever actually began scoring points with the public to the degree that the administration and its lap dog board protectors like Joe Adams began to feel the earth moving under their feet.

Bulletin:  The earth is moving under their feet.

Dr. Bill Proctor and Terry Huckaby have brought the reform effort to that moment in time where Adams and the administration he has spent over two decades playing kissy-poo with actually feel threatened in that they sense they are losing control of the public policy debate. 

They are losing control of the ‘message’ and the Hollywood-like sound stage they have created to project a different public reality than private truth.

The matter involving contracts for delinquent and current tax collections that has played out in the public arena is the one issue that is bringing this matter to a head.  But in reality, it is about far more than one contract.

The public should understand this.  It is about what it has always been about to public school administrators who control different pieces of a billion dollar industry that doles out contracts.  It’s about control.

And Adams is losing it.  The administration in Katy is losing it.  Consequently, they are showing signs of lashing out against those who are leading this effort.  They are angry and mad at Proctor and Huckaby.

They are frustrated beyond frustration with John Pape at Instant News Katy because they have grown accustomed to the other wimpy media outlets that reigned supreme until Pape’s Instant News Katy restored actual journalism to the community.  They want to put the toothpaste of reform back in that tube.  As they find that harder and harder to achieve, their anger and frustration rises and rises.

Thus, the issue of reform in Katy I.S.D. for at least awhile has nothing to do with contracts, academics, business efficiency, bond issues, or any other of the myriad of issues that gain the attention of the public in the course of events of a modern public school district.

It’s about control.  It would be fair of me to say that there are people in this community who should have over the course of the last two years forgiven me for my abrasive personality and style in confronting the public education system in general and the leadership of Katy I.S.D. in particular for years.  It is clear that there is now a greater understanding of just how deep the roots of institutional and organizational arrogance in the public education bureaucracy grow.

Here’s the deal.  Here’s where we stand.

Joe Adams and the administration he ‘fronts for’ do not want Bill Proctor and Terry Huckaby talking about public education issues with the public or the media.  Joe Adams and the administration he represents are apparently furious that Proctor and Huckaby make public comments about issues that come before the school board (or will come) with Instant News Katy.

Joe Adams and the administration he helps protect want to stop it cold.  Joe Adams and the administration he has helped insulate from accountability  want Proctor and Huckaby to shut up and let Joe Adams do the talking FOR THE BOARD because he is the current president of the board. It is as if Proctor and Huckaby have no constitutional right to speak for themselves on public policy issues of importance to them and the constituents who elected them.

Joe Adams and the administration for whom he serves as a blocking guard apparently believe that elected public officials must always filter their thoughts through the carefully manicured processes of government.

Here’s my advisory to that portion of the public who believes that Proctor and Huckaby are the first rays of sunshine to break through the face of administrative dictates and control in many, many years.

The day is drawing near that you are going to have reach into your pocket and pull out $10, or $50, or $100, or $200 or whatever you reasonably can to contribute to the effort to make sure that Proctor and Huckaby do not get steamrolled by one of the most powerful and sinister bureaucracies in all of governance - the public education bureaucracy.

I wrote upon the occasion of the election of Proctor and Huckaby that it was an event that threatened to shake the system statewide to its very core.  Katy I.S.D. is viewed in Texas as one of those pivotal districts. The powers to be throughout Texas do not want the reform movement on business, finance, and academics to get a foothold in Katy. Let me be clear.  The last place that these powerful people want to see become a haven of reform is Katy.

Be clear.  If Proctor and Huckaby help lead the citizens and classroom teachers in Katy in the breaking up of this management cabal that public education has imposed throughout Texas, no school district in Texas will be immune.  If it can happen in the safe environs of Katy, where successive superintendents and acquiescent school boards  have kept the lid on the bottle,  it can happen anywhere.

People often like to envision being involved in a movement greater than themselves.  Too often, many think they have to go to Washington D.C. or Austin or some other giant playing field to have great impact.  It’s not true.

Proctor and Huckaby’s sheer determination and courage have brought the reformers of Katy to the point where if we can take one more big step, we can begin addressing the real issues that have controlled the processes and the people far too long.

And frankly, Adams and those he seeks to protect are more scared than they have ever been before that what they value - control - is slipping, slipping, slipping away.

Those of us who want government at all levels to be reformed are going to have to reach into our pocketbooks and help.

Proctor and Huckaby have already done so much.  They want to do more.  And, we are going to have to surround them with support and tell the status quo forces that are protecting their domain that to get to Proctor and Huckaby you are going to have to come through us.

People who have read my columns and heard my speeches for many years now know that I most often have been required to focus on the ‘evildoers’  who stand in the way of reform. We now have two legitimate leaders in Proctor and Huckaby. 

Don’t let this moment slip away.  You may never get it back.

Be ready to help.  When the announcement comes soon, please be ready to help.

The Process Of Selecting Superintendents Has Become Dysfunctional And Driven By ‘Insiders’; The System Itself Sabotages Any Genuine Business Or Academic Accountability For Students, Parents, Teachers, & Taxpayers

If local reformers lose the magic moment that is now before us to bring actual business and academic reform to Katy I.S.D. it will be because of a failure to address decisively the issues involved in selecting and evaluating the superintendent of schools.

In Katy, we have a superintendent working under an existing contract.  While that makes the immediate path of reform vastly more difficult, there are steps than can be taken if the community elects a working majority in May.  It should be noted that Alton Frailey will not be the last superintendent in this school district (unless of course the Mayans are right). So either way, there are steps that must begin now to prepare the way for the future.

The current selection and evaluation process is one in which weak, subservient school boards throughout Texas have surrendered their common sense to consultants, system insiders, and professional associations allowing the process to degenerate to the point that it has become the alpha and omega of any effort to achieve meaningful reform.

In my The Path Forward reform plan, I wrote about the need for the Katy school board to assert itself in the process of selecting and then evaluating its superintendent of schools.  This column will go into more detail.  Like The Path Forward, it is not light reading.  Further, I have not divided it into multiple parts.  The column stands on its own.

However, no one column can deal with all of the complexities of the subject matter.  In this matter, there are specific issues I do not want to address given the possibility that individual members of the board or the community in general might want to take specific steps to begin improving the process locally.  There are some aspects of what needs to be done that I simply don’t want to give local defenders of the status quo a head’s up.

Before beginning on search process itself, I want to make one other central point that is essential to understand.  Some of the current processes have a statutory or regulatory framework.  However, there are navigable pathways through those artificially-imposed standards by the defenders of the status quo.

But, those paths are littered with rocks and boulders.  It will be absolutely essential that those who want to deal with this issue retain independent legal advice on contract law and relevant portions of government codes.  Setting ego aside and notwithstanding Frailey’s comments about me to some of his supposed confidants in the administration building, there are few people who understand the nuances of this system better than I do.  If I were on the school board and wanted to address this issue, the first thing I would do is retain private legal help to make sure that I was not going up against this system by myself.

If this matter is to be confronted in Katy, then citizens are going to have to raise some money so that one or more individual members of the board can get the independent legal advice they need to chart their paths between the rocks and the boulders the system has put in their way. Even establishing the process of acquiring such help will require the services of an attorney.

There simply is no way around the fact that you don’t confront a system as powerful as the Texas public education industrial complex with good intentions and pea-shooter.

Having said that, the issues addressed today are two-fold.

1. The Search Process: Fort Worth I.S.D.’s superintendent search process will help me make critical points about this portion of the issue.
2. An Actual Contract: Fraily’s current contract with Katy I.S.D. will be the focal point that helps me make critical comments on this portion of the issue.

So, let’s begin with the news that Fort Worth I.S.D. named its lone finalist to the job of superintendent of schools on January 16 after a process that began last September.  Between then and February 13, the district and the superintendent will finalize details of the contract. All of the finalists are gone; there’s one person standing; and the essential deals of the contract are being negotiated.

Ask yourself: who is on top in that negotiation?  It is not the school board that has sent its finalists packing.  It is the person who will be superintendent of schools.  Understand three things:

1. There are legal barriers to dealing effectively with this fundamental flaw in the process.
2. The process is ass-backwards.
3. If reformers don’t figure out how to deal with this one fact, they will never be in a dominant position to determine the standards by which the superintendent of schools will be held accountable.

This dilemma, more than anything, explains why a reform member of the board and those who support reform must retain independent legal counsel with expertise in contract law and government code.

Let me put it this way: the typical end of the superintendent selection process (the naming of the sole finalist for the job) is the nanosecond in time that represents the beginning of the end of a school board’s real ability to hold the superintendent accountable.  Genuine accountability is over even before the superintendent cashes his first paycheck.

How did we get here? The selection process has become one driven by industry insiders, professional associations representing administrators and school boards, and lobbyists all of whom have an interest the search committe process. For this, let’s look at Fort Worth I.S.D.

Here are the four members of the search committee that Fort Worth I.S.D.’s board turned to for help in choosing its superintendent:

• David Thompson
• Dr. Mike Moses
• Dr. Rod Paige
• Dr. Julian Trevino

Their names above are linked to their biographies (some longer and some shorter), but let me tell you about them. They are all hall of fame insiders within the public education establishment.

David Thompson is the insider’s insider given his roles with the Texas Association of School Board, Texas Association of School Administrators, and his law firm’s representation of school districts including Katy I.S.D. throughout Texas particularly in the greater Houston region but beyond. He lobbies the Texas Legislature.  He helps write laws and regulations.  He helps write or confer on matters involving school board policies.  He moves seamlessly through the entire web of the education system. He gives school boards advice and school boards pay his firm a lot of money to defend the advice he gives them.

Dr. Mike Moses was a superintendent before becoming the Commissioner of Education in Texas and then superintendent of schools in Dallas I.S.D. During his tenure as TEA commissioner, he defended the indefensible - the supposed academic integrity of the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test.  He once appointed me to serve as one of only a small handful of non-educators to his prestigious Commissioner’s Accountability Advisory Committee, a position I resigned over access to data. Now, to some degree or another, he’s one of those consultants that prosper in the system.

Dr. Rod Paige was superintendent of Houston I.S.D. before following George Bush to Washington D.C. to serve as Secretary of Education leading the disastrous expansion of the federal Department of Education through No Child Left Behind whose foundation was the academically corrupt and dishonest Texas Educational Miracle arising from the TAAS testing system.  Now, he too prospers in the system.

Dr. Julian Trevino is one of the four I do not know personally but he too is the ultimate insider. His biography shows he is affiliated with School Executive Solutions in Houston. Follow the link quickly and come back here. Who are Dr. Trevino’s colleagues and peers?  Superintendents.

So let me take two paragraphs to summarize all of this.

The superintendent selection process is one that is far too often guided by former superintendents, lawyers for current superintendents, consultants to current superintendents, consultants and lawyers to professional associations within the education industry helping veteran superintendents get better, more lucrative superintendent jobs and newbies their first superintendent’s job.

In this system who is loyal to whom? If you believe in reform then you also must believe that this system is pervasively sick, organizationally maniacal, and counterproductive to the cause of holding school administrators genuinely accountable for performance.

There are ways to break up this educational cabal.

Now, let’s shift our focus to Alton Frailey’s contract with Katy I.S.D.

It’s a five-year contract that has been extended during Frailey’s term of office.

For this column, I am not going to address those issues that do not deal with accountability in some fashion.

I am not going to play lawyer here.  Remember my earlier remarks included the statement that if I were a member of the school board I would retain independent legal counsel knowledgeable in contract law.  My remarks are given here in the context of a knowledgeable layman who fully understands that he would need an attorney to deal with the matter in reality.

The contract that Frailey has now with Katy I.S.D. empowers him as a mutual partner in the development of annual performance goals.  Much of the evaluation process itself is cloaked in privacy by the contract itself.

Section 5.1 of the contract says the board and the superintendent shall develop the goals for the district for the next school year on or before March of every year.  These goals will be reduced to writing and “shall be among the criteria on which the Superintendent’s performance will be reviewed and evaluated.”

Section 5.2 of the contract says in part: “The evaluation and assessment shall be related to the duties of the Superintendent as outlined in the Superintendent’s job description, Board policies, and lawful board directives (emphasis mine), and to the adopted annual goals referenced in Paragraph 5.1.

From what I have seen of the superintendent’s goals, my assessment is that they are wholly inadequate. Defenders of the faith can disagree. However, here’s the central point.

When a school board or a community is dealing with an existing contract where the standards of accountability are much weaker than genuine reform requires, it is a trickier and vastly more complex process of moving that contract to higher standards as opposed to getting it right in the first place.

Getting the accountability measures right in the first place must be addressed in the search and selection process itself.  Dealing with an existing contract is a separate issue. Accountability can be salvaged.  It is just infinitely more difficult.

In my assessment as a layman, here is the pivotal leverage point in dealing with the current situation.

Section 1.1 of the contract for which the relevant part for this dicussion reads as follows:  …”The Board may, solely at its discretion, extend the term of this contract as permitted by state law.  Any extension will be with the consent and acceptance of the Superintendent.”

Frailey has a five year contract.  Extension simply means that as the first of five years draws down, it is extended back to a five-year contract. A board’s failure to extend does not change the terms of the contract.  All remains as is except that it is one year closer to its end.

With good reason, superintendents generally do not want a school board to fail to extend a contract because of the message it sends to the community and the district’s staff.  From a practical standpoint, invoking the board’s right not to extend a contract is the primary leverage that a board has to enhance its negotiating position over accountability standards.

As it relates to 5.1 and 5.2 cited above, those are the clauses in the contract that  permit a school board to toughen accountability standards. There’s one other passage in the contract that is very relevant, but that will come in a few paragraphs.

Bill Proctor and Terry Huckaby cannot accomplish anything pursuant to 5.1 and 5.2.  They are not a board majority.  They can and are helping focus the public attention on the issue of accountability, but until they are part of a working majority nothing will happen in the context of the current contract with the current superintendent.

That’s why the election in May will be the most pivotal election in the history of this district. There will either be a working majority ready to deal with 5.1 and 5.2 or there will be a status quo working majority to stay as far away from reform as possible.

I am only focusing on a few fundamental parts of the contract.  However, the full contract is a complex document with many moving parts (reinforced with law, regulation, and case law) from which even a well-intentioned but uninformed working majority might breech with costly ramifications.

Look at 5.2.  What is a lawful directive? The board has contractual authority to issue them.  Lawful directives can be used to enhance accountability.  In fact, they must be used if there is to be enhanced accountability in the system. But, what is a lawful directive in the context of contract law, the contract itself, and the laws and regulations of the State of Texas? This is no arena even for a smarter than average Walter Mitty ‘attorney.’

All accountability efforts must ensue from 5.1 (district goals) and 5.2 (lawful directives). While the system itself favors the superintendent and while the road to actual accountability is strewn with rocks and boulders set up by the status quo, 5.1 and 5.2 are the only legitimate paths through this legally treacherous road.

That means that reform school board members and their reform-minded supporters must answer two questions.

Do you want to depend upon the Thompson & Horton law firm (see the first half of the column) to guide you on the path of reform and accountability?

Do you accept that independent legal advice from private counsel familiar with contract law is needed in a full scale effort to bring reform to public education?

Right now in Katy I.S.D. we are in a battle to try to reach a point where actual reform can begin.  That requires a working majority on the school board.

In closing this column, let me point out a passage from 5.3 in the contract:

…”In the event the Board deems that the evaluation instrument, format, and/or procedure is to be modified by the Board, such modifications must be adopted with input (emphasis mine) from the Superintendent and the Superintendent shall be provided a reasonable period of time to demonstrate such expected performance before being evaluated.”

The road to genuine accountability is tough.  Only the tough-minded could ever be successful.  But it is doable.

The question is whether the community wants to get it done and will take the actions necessary to get it done.

It Is Time For Good People To Stop Watching In Silence As Government Bureaucrats And Private Vendors & Consultants Enrich Themselves Professionally & Financially As The Public Education System Implodes In A Sea Of Academic Corruption

My primary thesis regarding the public education system is that it has evolved into a state of pervasive academic corruption that has essentially destroyed the integrity involved in the delivery of instruction to an ever-increasing majority of students in the State of Texas.

Further, my thesis asserts that intellectually dishonest public school administrators, corrupt private corporations including a wide range of education service companies and consultants, and intellectually lazy elected public officials including members of the Texas Legislature and schools boards across Texas are all philosophically and operationally guilty of imposing this great travesty and tragedy on the public school system.

Many if not most of my critics want to hold me guilty for using such judgmental language to describe the situation and the people I hold accountable.  The problem that my critics have is two-fold:

My assessment is factually accurate and is supported by mountains of empirical data.

The professional people who have engineered this system know it to be true while maneuvering the twits of both major parties in the Legislature and on school boards to protect their professional standing and their cash flow generated in the public treasury.

I have for many years offered to participate in a Lincoln-Douglas, cross-examination debate (one on one) on the subject of my thesis with public school officials (in Katy and elsewhere), university level academicians and statisticians, school board members, and representatives of private corporations who profit in the public educational industrial complex.

These folks do not refuse to debate me because I have an uncompromising personality or because I have a unique rhetorical style that expresses big ideas with force.

They refuse to debate me because they do not want to expose their financial and professional nest eggs constructed on a foundation of intellectual dishonesty to a withering attack based upon empirical evidence and uncompromising analysis - especially with a video camera recording us.

They refuse to debate because many do not want to pit the reputations of their soft doctorates or their professional standing and reputation to someone who is insulated from their sphere of influence and knows more about the subject of public education accountability than they do.

Joe Adams, for instance, is one of the most experienced school board members in Texas now having served in that capacity for a couple of decades.  His name will be carved at some point in time on some school building in this district in honor of his service.

A good man as far as I know, he is (on the subject of public education accountability) an intellectual parasite (see what I mean about my rhetorical style) who essentially knows what the public education system’s professional bureaucrats and sycophants want him to know.

If there is one school board member in the State of Texas who should be prepared to accept a Lincoln-Douglas, cross-examination debate with me on the subject of public education accountability, it is Joe Adams. Not in a thousand years…

Katy I.S.D. Superintendent Alton Frailey is one of the highest paid superintendents in Texas.  He has been a professional educator his entire adult life.  He actually declared his administration the “Center of Truth” on matters of public education in the community of Katy.

If there is one superintendent in the State of Texas who should be prepared to accept a Lincoln-Douglas, cross-examination debate with me, it is Alton Frailey. Not in a thousand years and may I add, “Pluck, pluck, pluck, pluck…”

My conclusion is that these are two among thousands who would rather choke in a raw oyster speed-eating competition than confront me in a debate on the subject of public education accountability and the roles they have played in it.

About a year ago, a major university academician who read a few of my columns wrote something that was meant to be very insulting.  He concluded with an admonition of sorts that he was going to use some of my columns that attracted his attention in teaching students in his classes how not to analyze subjects.

He apparently thought that because he was a university professor and I was a blogger that I would wilt before him.  It didn’t take long to disabuse him of that notion.

After I responded to his specific criticisms which were for the most part baseless, I challenged his manhood by writing something to the effect that what he would not do would be to conduct a debate with me on the specific subjects in front of his students in his classroom.

If there was one professor in the State of Texas who should have accepted my invitation to a debate, it was this professor.  However, no professor of graduate students wants to be humiliated in front of them.  However, to a professor who says he values academic freedom, the concept could not be extended to his students to hear something other than his company line.

There is a brutal truth that I have long accepted that many do not want to accept or will never accept.

The professionals and corporations and academicians and consultants who are empowered and often enriched by what the system has become do not want to risk the power, wealth, and influence that it has bestowed upon them.

Over the course of the next four months, I am going to write things that I have not put to paper before.  And for those of you who read my column, you have a choice. You can use what I write as the foundation of fueling your own personal research on behalf of your children or you can ignore it.

I will not temper my language or my analysis to put this into soothing, compromising terms.  What has happened and what is continuing to develop is an unmitigated tragedy for one of the historically great institutions that powered over two American centuries of prosperity and freedom.

That system of public education helped create and sustain the American society - the greatest in the history of humanity and the greatest to inhabit the earth.

It helped create a nation of people who have done more good for more people than any nation in the history of humanity. That system of public education created a society thirsty for knowledge that empowered the world with scientific progress, social justice, and respect for the human condition.

However, that same system of public education has now been compromised to the point that it is turning on its very soul threatening all that it touches including the very future of our civilization.

And good people are watching in silence…

A Note To You Great Posters Over At Instant News Katy - JW2, Westside Bill, Lisalou, Ciri93, Ktmom2009, And Others: Please Don’t Let This Opportunity Slip Away If Elections Go Well And Incumbents Are Ousted; Plan Is Vital

Your posts over on Instant News Katy are uniformly excellent about the state of affairs at Katy I.S.D.  The fact is that some of you have said nice things about me and some of you have not.  Regardless of what you think of me, it is clear that you folks have keen insight into what’s going on inside the bureaucracy of Katy I.S.D.

From my perspective, there is at long last an opportunity to change the culture of the board of trustees and begin the long journey of restoring the prestige and appropriate role of the board relative to the superintendent of schools.  The deterioration in the quality of the board of trustees actually began in the final years of the Hugh Hayes.

When the last two board members who actually fought the system hard left the board, the downhill path of administrative abuse accelerated under Leonard Merrell. The unabated crescendo has continued up through the debacle engineered by Alton Frailey’s team with acquiescent permission from the successive school boards.

The real possibility that we will have one to three new members of the school board in May could change the dynamics of this situation. The issue of who was right and who was wrong and who did what when and who did not do what when is a matter that is where it now needs to be given the new opportunity: in the rear view mirror.  There are people in this community who will never forgive me for calling this gang of intellectual thugs out a long time ago - or, at the very least, how I chose to call them out.

My focus right now is to lay out several steps that the new board members must take starting immediately upon election if the effort of reform is going to be achieved. It will not be achieved in a substantive way until two new board members are also elected next May or when a majority of four reformers have been elected. However, it is wrong to believe that powerful steps setting the stage for reform have to wait until there is a board majority.  My separate columns give a how-to on how a working minority can begin the process in very powerful ways.

I am asking you to set aside your views of my past temporarily and consider lending your support to the initiatives I am outlining in separate columns. The first one dealt with the scope, nature, and terms of the district’s contract with its superintendent.  It was posted Thursday.  The second one posted in conjunction with this column addresses a specific strategy to ‘open up’ the school board meetings to more meaningful access to rank and file citizens in this community and independent experts on a variety of subjects.  A third column also addressing school board meetings will be posted Sunday.

These columns advocating specific strategies will stand or fall on their on merits.  Here are some points that I’d like you and the general community to consider.

1. The election of Proctor and Dibrell (my third candidate is Terry Huckaby) is absolutely necessary to give a reform a chance to succceed.  However, the election of Proctor, Dibrell, and Huckaby will not necessarily mean that they will have a strategy to succeed. I am not going to mention names but we learned as recently as four years ago that the mere election of an ‘outsider’ does not  automatically translate to effectove actions at the board table.
2. My working thesis is that the first step of actual reform - and takes a little bit long to achieve - is a major refocusing on the entire issue of the contract the district awards its superintendent.  Every ultimate victory that produces long term change has to travel through a different approach to how the district employs and evaluates its superintendent.  Although the district currently has a superintendent with a five-year contract, I am absolutely convinced that there are things that can be done within the terms of that contract.  That’s the reason for this column.  COLUMN 1 - THE SUPERINTENDENT’S CONTRACT. If this issue is not successfully addressed, every ‘victory’ that is achieved will be transitory to the ultimate objective of achieving reform across the board.
3. My second thesis is that Merrell and Frailey with the permission of their respective boards have clamped down so tightly in order to control the public school board meetings and workshops that they are little more than orchestrated public relations events under the dictatorial direction of the superintendent. It has been a process of decline that has reached its peak.  The Board has established policies that make it impossible for a single member of the board to gain access to agenda.  The Board has restricted the numbers and time-allocation that board members can ask questions on posted items on the agenda.  The Board, like most governments, have devised practices that sharply restrict public access to the board beyond what the Open Meetings Act  requires in terms of both posting items of an agenda and the conduct of such meetings. That’s why I have written this column. COLUMN 2: LET’S STOP CONDUCTING SCHOOL BOARD MEETINGS LIKE SESSIONS OF THE OLD SOVIET UNION’S POLITBURO.
4. The two columns above call for specific actions that school boards throughout Texas don’t pursue with any real vigor any more. In most small school districts (the majority) in Texas, the establishment forces would use the metaphorical equivalent of a fly swatter to quell the rumblings of a revolution. What you should realize is that Katy I.S.D. is not perceived as a typical school district in Texas.  It is one of the state’s crown jewels. If Proctor, Dibrell, and my third choice Huckaby actually begin taking the actions outlined in the three columns that will all be posted by Sunday, the reaction will be fierce. The last thing in the world that TASB, TASA, lawyer David Thompson (those groups’ lobbyiest and Katy I.S.D.’s attorney and his counterparts) want is for the Soviet-like politburos they have carefully created and empowered throughout Texas to begin crumbling.  Katy I.S.D.’s movement towards actual reform  and higher levels of LAWFUL accountability of its superintendent would have  dangerous ramifications to the this system that has prospered over the past 20 years.
5. Recent events in Katy I.S.D. and school districts throughout the region and state should convince you that this is a bureaucracy dedicated to protecting itself first and foremost.  It’s an elaborate system that has grown over time because it has had the resources necessary to entrench itself with lawyers, professional associations, and contracts that have been awarded to the private sector that have rallied to protect it.  Think of it in term of the old Soviet Union.  It is a closely held industry that rewards itself, rewards friends, and punishes enemies. It is a fact of history that Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul, and Lech Walesa were all the early leaders of the movement that finally ended in the breakup of the that system.  Others take credit and played a role, but it was Reagan, Pope John Paul, and Lech Walesa who seized their moments of opportunity and made the most of  them.
6. There will never be a better opportunity to start the reform movement in Texas.  The time is right. But, like Poland in the 1970’s and early 1980’s, it won’t just happen.  Steps have to be taken by those who assume a position of leadership that allows them to take such steps. Those who may get the opportunity as a result of this election must not be timid in seizing the moment.  Those whose anger, frustration, disillusionment, and passion will give, possibly, three people a chance to be heroes must not let that passion slip away. Nor, must they confuse passion with action.  Nor, must they allow the possible exhilaration of an election-night victory cloud their judgment as to the hard work that must follow. Katy went down that path before and, in part, that’s how we got here.
7. We can’t call on Reagan, Pope John Paul, or Lech Walesa to help organize this revolution. We can, however, summon their courage, foresight, mental toughness, and outright resolve that failure was not an option.

The Modern Day Contract That School Districts Have With Superintendents Is A Giant Roadblock To Local Reform; If We Get New Board Members In May, One Will Need To Emerge As Key Leader On This Issue - Here’s The Path To Follow

The steps that I am going to outline over the next week are very practical steps that must be pursued to return the balance of power in this district to the citizens. Let’s start with a very fundamental issue and call it the first ’nut that has to be cracked.’ 

This particular effort will require (initially) the solo leadership of one member of the newly constituted board (if we are so fortunate) for the reasons I’ll describe who will exercise his rights as a citizen of the United States who happens to be a member of a school board.

The issue is the scope, nature, and terms of the school district’s contract with superintendents of schools.  Here are six things you need to know about the issue overall:

1. The typical contract of a superintendent in an urban or major suburban district’s primary goal is to make the superintendent financially secure for the rest of his or her life.  For those of a certain age, the contract is designed to give a strong measure of financial security in the process of serving as  a stepping stone to an even more lucrative position. For one closer to retirement, it is designed to be a financial golden parachute.
2. The typical contract is designed to protect the superintendent from the people rather than protect the people from the superintendent.  This is basically accomplished in the initial contract by the inclusion of loose, generally esoteric, generally non-empirical or irrelevent contractual standards of performance review.  Once ‘mutually agreeable’ evaluation standards are included in the first contract, the hands of the school board are generally tied pretty tightly UNLESS  you know what you are doing on the basis of sound and independent legal advice.
3. Once the initial long term contract is in place, it becomes extremely difficult to terminate (fire) a superintendent for failure to perform at acceptable levels under terms of the contract.  It is also expensive to write the check and just say leave.  The terms work to the advantage of the superintendent - not the people.
4. Critically, the initial process of interviewing and employing a superintendent generally follows an ass-backwards path.  While there are laws in place that must be followed, it is ludicrious on its face to believe that a school board can’t adopt a hiring-process strategy that brings some if not a tremendous amount of the power back to the Board.
5. School boards - including Katy I.S.D.’s - appear to be intimidated by all of the experts lined up to “help” them find the Mr., Mrs., or Ms. Right.  Further, the whole cabal of the the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA), the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB), a handful of powerful law firms generally in professional bed with TASA and TASB, and the industry-acceptable search firms drive this train from school district to school district throughout Texas dropping off their chosen favorites at communities along the way.
6. Any school board that depends exclusively on this cottage industry of “experts,” consultants and lawyers will always be on the losing end of the hiring process.  Always.  Never an exception. Never. Always on the losing end. Always.  This cabal that drives the train must be avoided to the degree possible, and it is possible to chart a better path.

As far as Katy I.S.D. is concerned, we have a superintendent armed with a long term contract. That points out the obvious.  The issue of contracts and superintendents is two-fold:

1. What do you do with a superintendent that already has you by the short-hairs because your existing school board surrendered without a fight for actual accountability?
2. What do you do in establishing a superintendent selection process when the current one leaves?

From this point forward, I am going to lay out what has to happen within tight parameters.  There are also points I will not write in this column.  This is not going to be like going to Luby’s Cafeteria where there are lots of options.  The relationship between a modern superintendent and a modern school board has entered a topsy-turvy, bizzaro world where up is down and down is up.  This must change.  No reform effort at the local level can flourish or survive under the terms and standards of the modern superintendent contract.

There is an essential common denominator to the process of restoring power to the people and the people’s board that must be followed.  Get off this path, and you will not succeed in this endeavor.  It will be tough enough anyway.

One brave board member upon election needs to immediately retain a personal attorney to guide that individual’s development of a specific plan to address the legal issues of a superintendent’s contract.  Here are the specific elements of this portion of the plan and the justification:

1. You are a citizen of the United States of America.  You have rights.  Although you are now a member of  a school board, you do not lose the authority or the power to conduct personal research on issues that are of importance to you.
2. As long as you are not representing yourself as acting on behalf of the school board on which you now sit, you have total freedom to know more about the law than less about the law.  And, in your ‘new’ position, it is vital that you personally know more about contract law.
3. Even with my knowledge base (having talked to an attorney about this) that is more developed by far than most citizens, the first step I would take if I were to go on the school board would be to retain such a lawyer whose expertise in contract law was profound. If I am telling you that I would hire a lawyer even given my decades of accumulated research and knowledge on such matters, it is my hope that you will understand just how important this really is for you.
4. The lawyer you retain should be totally independent of the public education bureaucracy but he/she should understand it like the back of  one’s hand.  The lawyer you choose should be tough, experienced in public education law, and the best  that is available and willing to accept you as a client.
5. As necessary, a political action committee could be formed to raise the funds necessary to pay for the services.  You cannot afford to ‘poor-boy’ this.  The step you would be taking to become a real leader is the heart, soul, and bone-marrow of any chance to reform public education in a local school district. This is not some romanticized trip you are about to take.  This about the nuts and bolts of what has to happen. Your legislature has abandoned you.  The school board of which you have become a member is too vested in its past mistakes and cowardice to the take the leadership on this matter. It’s up to you. That’s what leadership is about.
6. One member of the board needs to take the leadership on this for three reasons:  

1. You do not want to even come close to violating the Open Meetings Act.  Become a leader.  Do the hard work of research on your own.
2. It gives you maximum protection and maximum flexibility to develop a comprehensive plan that at some point you will take to your colleagues in open session in absolute conformance with the Open Meetings Act and at the same time you go to the general public.
3. You simply cannot trust any current member of the school board to help make this an official activity of the school board in the early phase of your research.  They will want to embroil the issue into becoming about an individual superintendent.  Even the existing contract might come into play. Plus, you do not want to be focused upon an individual.  You want to be focused solely on becoming more knowledgeable about contract law for the purpose of giving the people a better contract on their behalf.

At this point, the only advice I have given a potential member of the school board is to retain personal legal counsel.  And, as necessary, use a legal fundraising mechanism to pay the costs. From that point forward on these matters, you will follow the advice of your attorney.

From this point forward, I am not going to switch and start giving you legal advice for one very important reason: I am not an attorney. However, I will tell you a few things:

1.       Section 1.1 of the current contract says in part: …”The Board may, solely at its discretion, extend the term of this contract as permitted by state law. Any extension will be with the consent and acceptance of the Superintendent.”

2.       Section 5.1 of the current contract says: “On or before March of every year during term of this Contract, the Superintendent and the Board shall develop goals for the District for the next school year.  The goals approved by the Board shall be reduced to writing and shall be among the criteria on which the Superintendent’s performance will be reviewed and evaluated.”

3.       Section 5.2 of the current contract says in part: …”The evaluation and assessment shall be related to the duties of the Superintendent as outlined in the Superintendent’s job description, Board policies, and lawful board directives…(emphasis mine).

With an existing contract, these three provisions are among the primary battlegrounds for reform. When the day arrives that the process of selecting a new superintendent is on the front burner, a vast array of different issues will be important.

While I could write much more on this topic based upon my own research and legal consultation, I am going to stop the column right here while offering this observation.

We may be on the verge of having new and independent people take seats on the school board.  If that’s the case, all will be dedicated to reform.  Others before them have entered their positions with good motivations and high hopes.  They have fallen far short.  So my message to new board members is that if you don’t do it right from the start, the difficult path you face will become vastly more difficult.

If there are new ones, one will need to emerge to take the leadership on this issue. Others can choose their own areas of focused leadership.

I have given you the fundamentals.  I have given you a compass and I have shown you three interesting points along the path that you need to take.

Don’t travel this path alone.  If we have new board members in May and one of you picks this ball up and runs with it, real change can ensue.  The foundation of this is that eventually the school board must stop being intimidated by TASA, TASB, school-district attorneys, and selection firms.  A school board must re-achieve its self-worth and its dignity that has long been lost.

One strong person can plot a course to achieve that. It can be done.

If you want my help, please call.  There are things that need not be written here. All you have to do is ask for help.

Katy I.S.D.’s Current Contract With Superintendent

It’s Clear Now For All To See: This District Is Managed By A “Gang Of Trustees” Each Of Whom Have Empowered Unbelievable Behavior

Read Heartbroken.  The teacher’s insight is not about her/his  job or anyone’s job - not really.  It’s about dignity - those who have it and those who don’t.

This Board needs to go.  Dr. Bill Proctor, Henry Dibrell, and Terry Huckaby.  They need to go on the board - tomorrow if it were possible.

I had no intention of getting involved in this race.  But, when my worst nightmares about this Gang of Trustees’ ability to stoop so utterly low (mud, muck, slop pen are still too high and too kind) as has been witnessed over the last week came true, I cannot stay on the sidelines because Proctor and Dibrell are not the perfect candidates that I wanted them to be.

Dr. Proctor is a smart guy.  I know he has the ability.  Maybe what he has witnessed will help him understand the ferocity of my past criticisms. Maybe it will soften his (and others) view of why I have been so tough for so long. 

Dibrell is a smart guy.  I can’t figure him out in terms of what he really wants to accomplish.  He sometimes talks hardball but then practices slow pitch softball.  I know that he has not spent the time necessary to get up to speed at a significant level yet on important issues.  However, coupled with Proctor, he is a genuine good guy and I think he is absolutely smart enough to grow in the job.

The sleeper here for me is Terry Huckaby.  Like many, I didn’t know much about him.  I had a good conversation with the man.

He could literally be the glue to help Proctor and Dibrell bring reform to this district.

If HB 400 passes as it likely will, Katy I.S.D. citizens just don’t know what’s coming down the path.  The world of those who have given their trust and allegiance to Frailey and his ‘Truther’ team must now have some significant disillusionment.  It’s not time to dump on them for their past support of Frailey.  It takes time, experience, or actual events to take people inside what has happened to this sinister system of bureaucracy.

When  HB 400 passes, every person in this community who values public education will be glad that when the hurricane force winds of HB400 start hitting this community that at least three members of this terrible, awful, feckless ‘Gang of Trustees’ will have been replaced.

My vote in May is this:  Proctor, Dibrell, and Huckaby.

The thought of sending Crockett, Snyder, and some stand-in stooge to that important table is frightening to me and should be frightening to all of you who value public education.

With these three new folks, the long process of turning the “Gang of Trustees” backed into the “Board of Trustees” can begin.

Do you remember the scene in the Star Trek movie when Spock was going into radioactive zone to save the Enterprise? He did that Vulcan mind-thing and told McCoy: “Remember.”

I am not Spock, but please let me do the metaphorical equivalent by saying:

HB 400.  You want as many of this current gang gone when it hits.

Proctor, Dibrell, and Huckaby.  Remember.

“Heartbroken Teacher” Gives Insight Into The Hideous Behavior And Philosophical Ethics Of The Center of Truth and Human Resources - Just Wait Until This Gang Gets HB400

George,
I have been a teacher in Katy ISD for over 10 years. Each year, I’ve learned more and more about how things operate at the ESC. I must say that I get more disgusted with the upper administration in Katy ISD the longer I’m in Katy ISD.

I actually love my job and the people I work with. The morale at our school is pretty good along with the Asst. principals and principal. I have no complaints with my school.

I can usually ignore the craziness at the ESC. But last week, Human resources came to our school and turned our world upside down. Their visit to our campus was disturbing and heartbreaking.

Note:  This was submitted as a post to a story.  It’s too important to leave there.  Now, it is a featured post.  Here’s my plea:  Dear Heartbroken, Please try to make sure that as many teachers as possible read my columns on HB400 before election day.  If you think the last week’s disgusting, hideous conduct by the school board and Commander Frailey of the Center of Truth have been bad, you have no idea of what’s coming down the road with HB400.  Further, I am asking that you add the name Terry Huckaby to your voter preferences in this coming election.  I have talked to Terry, a classroom teacher in Cy-Fair.  He understands the issues include the nature and structure of the superintendent’s contract and finding a way to bring the administration under some form of genuine accountability.  I am now openly supporting Dr. Proctor and Dibrell (Dibrell somewhat reluctantly but supporting nonetheless).  However, Terry Huckaby needs to go on this board. Because I do not want to do anything to distract attention from your insightful post, I will start my additional commentary tomorrow about how to deal with the superintendent’s contract and other procedural and quick-step matters.)

As the day of their visit progressed, support staff would come to teachers’ classrooms and tell them that the principal wanted to see them. Every teacher knew what was happening. Teachers were frightened and upset. “Who was next?” we worried.

Perhaps the worst part of this whole ordeal was the fact that HR came during school hours while the students were there. We are an elementary campus with young children. Why would Katy ISD think it was appropriate to pull a teacher out of class in the middle of the day, then lay them off? Katy ISD said that they offered a substitute if a teacher could not compose themselves enough to continue with their day.

The higher ups in Katy ISD have no understanding of the school climate. Teachers care about their students, have lessons planned, and generally want to be there for their kids. All of the students saw the teachers leave and asked questions about their teacher. “Where did my teacher go?” “Is she sick?” “Is she coming back?” “Why was she crying?”

Although Katy ISD states that they had a substitute on hand for the teacher, what about the kids. Did they totally forget about how this may effect the children? Not at all. How can people without compasion for children be running our schools?

I truly believe our principal did not want to be a part of this. I think they were threatened to keep this master plan of letting teachers go a secret until Katy ISD figured out what to do about this whole issue. I also think HR was just following through with a directive from up above.

After witnessing how teachers were treated last week, I truly don’t feel that Katy ISD cares about their teachers. We’re just worker ants helping everyone up top look good.

Katy ISD likes people to believe that there were 50 people at the ESC going through the lay off process. Actually, these people are now assigned to campuses instead. Some are instructional coaches while others are classroom teachers. None of the “top dogs” lost their job. Why are there people at the ESC making over $100,000? Many of these people would not be making that kind of money in the business world. And what do they do? The people who were relocated to campuses were the only ones working with teachers and schools. The other administrators at the ESC have little to no contact with the campuses.

I watched some of your videos about the bond last fall. They made total sense. Most teachers don’t understand the financial impact of passing a bond. Just like a household budget, the more you borrow, the bigger monthly expenses. This is exactly what has happened in Katy ISD. We have borrowed so much, that we can barely afford to pay our bills. This is why we have to lay off so many teachers.

Critics like to blame the state. And yes, that hurt us financially. But what were the board members thinking when pushing these bonds? So much of the borrowed money is wasted.

Technology retrofits can be hundreds of thousands of dollars per campus. Do some schools need updated computers? Yes. But why can’t these items be included in our operating expenses of the district. Although I don’t know the statistics, I believe we are still paying for computers we purchased long ago that are now obsolete. Would anyone in their right mind go to Best Buy and finance a computer for 10 years? If Katy ISD had a Best Buy charge card, I bet they would. I am only an elementary teacher, but this is simple budgets and math. Why are we borrowing so much money to purchase technology anyway? They just cut the entire technology department. If Katy ISD does not have technologist to support the technology, what teacher is going to use them?

One of the reasons why Katy ISD borrows money for all of this technology is to impress parents. Katy ISD believes that every parent wants their kids to have Smart Boards in the classroom and lap tops. The same goes for other items in the bond. Katy ISD tries to “bribe” parents to vote for the bond. Parents think “If I don’t vote yes, my kids won’t have lap tops or flip cameras.” Or “If I don’t vote for the bond, our school won’t get a new roof.” Katy ISD was careful to make sure every school was going to get something. We even had posters in the building describing the items our school would get.

And while parents all vote for the bond to help their children, Katy ISD has another line of credit to do as they please. Why is there a budget for meals when attending meetings at the ESC? Katy ISD is used to spending money as they wish as they have a continuous line of credit with the bond money.

Parents need to understand that they have been manipulated by Katy ISD. Katy ISD should have been tightening it’s belt years ago. Perhaps if they would have managed their money better, they wouldn’t have had to ask for so much bond money. And it also would have prevented so many teachers from getting laid off this past week.

I believe that the school board needs to be voted out. Even better, they should resign. They have created this mess. They need to be accountable for hurting our students’ education and financially destroying hundreds of teachers’ lives. These teachers have families and homes. They will not find another teacher job in the near future. The school board and Katy ISD administration has dishonored our Katy family.

I am not sure if I am helping you in your efforts. But I do commend you. Thank you for watching out for our children. I am sorry that the Katy community did not listen to your warnings. Perhaps now people will see the light and vote these board members out of office. Even better, stand up and ask for their resignations.

Thank you for letting me vent. I needed to say something to somebody. Like most teachers, we don’t want to say anything that might hurt our employment. You may post if you’d like. I only want to be known as:
Heartbroken Katy teacher

Guest Column: Republican Precinct Chairman James Yaklin Says Frailey, School Board Trying To Redefine The Role And Nature Of Government & Citizens Must Respond

By JAMES YAKLIN - Harris County Republican PCT 547 Chair

The English Bill of Rights of 1689 prohibited the imposition of taxes without the consent of Parliament.  However, the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Tea Act passed in May of 1773 were examples of taxes that were passed by Parliament directly on the British Colonies in America.  The problem with these taxes was not the amount of the tax, which was relatively small, but that since the colonists had no representation in Parliament, the taxes violated the guaranteed Rights of Englishmen.

By 1765 the term “No taxation without representation” was widely being used in Boston.  The origin of this phrase is thought to have been Reverend Jonathan Mayhew in a sermon in Boston in 1750.  However, Boston politician James Otis is known to have coined the phrase “taxation without representation is tyranny.”

In December of 1773 in direct response to the Tea Act, a group of colonists famously boarded three ships loaded with taxed tea from Britain and destroyed the cargo by throwing it overboard into Boston Harbor.  This was one of the major events leading to the American Revolutionary War beginning in 1775.  Hence, the philosophy of taxation without representation is regarded as the reason that our nation, the United States of America, was born.

Today, in the Katy Independent School District, the members of the Board of Trustees and Superintendent Alton Frailey have stated on numerous occasions that, once elected, trustees are not representatives of the people of the District, but have only fiduciary and administrative duties to the district.  The very people with the responsibility of providing a public education in things such as History and United States Civics have rejected the very reason our nation was born, and instead returned to the tyranny of Great Britain in the 1770’s.  In doing this Alton Frailey and the seven members of the Board of Trustees have redefined the republican form of government that not only the United States of America is based on but that the State of Texas is based on.

The people living within the Katy Independent School District vote the members of the Board of Trustees into their positions.  When the terms of the individual trustees expire they run back to the voters to ask for our vote so they can continue their work on the board.  To what end?  If the trustees and Superintendent Frailey do not believe that their job is to represent the people and the voters then why would we even bother to have elections?

The notion that elected members of a taxing authority in the State of Texas do not represent the people is preposterous.  For the members of the Board of Trustees to subscribe to this theory is nothing less than dereliction of duty.

This November the Board of Trustees and Superintendent Frailey are asking the taxpayers of the Katy Independent School District for permission to sell nearly a half billion dollars worth of bonds.  This is the largest bond proposition that Katy ISD has ever asked for and it is being asked for at a time of economic uncertainty.  The trustees will, in return, increase your taxes to pay for this new debt.  The Board of Trustees have seemingly failed to take into account the economic hardship that many taxpayers in the district are facing.

 The voters of the Katy Independent School District have a responsibility to reject this bond proposition outright and send a message back to this Board of Trustees and Superintendent Alton Frailey that, in fact, they as public servants are answerable to “we the people.”  In addition, the people of the Katy Independent School District should be seeking and supporting new leaders from within the community to run for the three trustee positions that will become open in May, 2011.  Members of the Katy ISD Board of Trustees have rejected the idea that they represent the people.  It is time for the people to reject the members of the Katy ISD Board of Trustees.

Lone Republican Precinct Chairman Goes Public With Criticism Of Katy I.S.D., Frailey’s Remarks, and 2010 Bond Issue; Instant News Katy (Link Provided) Gives Full Details

Katy Republican Precinct 547 James Yacklin has released an open letter to the public blasting Katy I.S.D.’s proposed $459  million bond issue (original column transposed the numbers), the school board’s lack of leadership and communication with the public including the Katy Tea Party, and Supt. Alton Frailey’s remarks of August 17 at a district convocation of employees, according to the community’s leading internet publication - Instant News Katy.

The complete story and open letter is published on that website.  Here’s a direct link to the story and comments by Yacklin  and InstantNewsKaty.com.

Yaklin’s precinct includes the Cimarron and Governors Place subdivisions just north of Cinco Ranch.

The Instant News Katy story includes these paragraphs: He said he was opposing the bond issue for a number of reasons, including the fact that school trustees have refused to take part in the Katy Tea Party Patriots’ planned nonpartisan informational meeting about the bond issue. Yaklin said trustees’ refusal to publicly discuss the bond issue demonstrates either “contempt for the voters” or outright “cowardice.”

“I find it appalling that the elected members of the board will not address the concerns of the people who elected them as their representatives,” Yaklin said in his letter. “In their silence, the elected board members are either demonstrating a high degree of contempt for the voters of the district or an unusual amount of cowardice on the part of an elected official.”

Yaklin also said the proposed bond projects “have inflated price tags.”

Additionally, Yaklin said, the school district “has not been managed in a fiscally-responsible manner for a very long time,” and that mismanagement is evident in a “top-heavy” administrative staff.  He challenged the district to streamline its overhead before asking taxpayers for more money.  Again, here’s the link to Instant News Katy’s full story and open letter.

George Scott Reports has previously published a column questioning why so few conservative leaders in Katy had emerged to speak out against developments in Katy I.S.D. including Frailey’s comments about having his administration viewed as the ‘Center of Truth’ on all matters involving public education in Katy.  Frailey lashed out at his critics as village idiots and shameless hypocrites.

He advised classroom teachers and other employees that the district had monitored their voter registration status; encouraged employees to “pay attention” to the fact that three incumbent members of the board would be up for re-election next May; and advised employees that hye wanted to be able to look up and see that they had voted in the upcoming bond election.

Here’s a link to that earlier George Scott Reports Column that includes video clips from Frailey’s convocation remarks questioning whether local conservatives are any match for Frailey’s ‘Center of Truth.’

It is now become apparent that there is at least one Republican precinct chairman who has the courage to help take on in a substantial way Frailey’s ‘Center of Truth’ positions and the district’s monstrous bond issue.

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