PORTRAIT OF A BOND COMMITTEE MEMBER:

Portrait of a Bond Committee Member  

By Mary McGarr

August 9, 2014

I have reviewed the process and composition of bond committees over all the years that Katy ISD has had them. Those efforts at analysis are under other headings on this web site. 

Things have evolved with bond committees, and yet they remain much the same.

This year (2014), the school district hired a consultant to help them pass the bond in November 2014.  KISD had lost the bond referendum in 2013 by a vote of 9,011 to 7,458 (that's 54% AGAINST that bond), and since the superintendent's job hangs in the balance, in my opinion, with regard to this next bond's passage, they are pulling out all the stops to see that this next bond passes.

It's not a matter of whether we need the bond or whether we need the new facilities and equipment--it's all about the pride and reputation of the superintendent and what we can all do for the Katy High School football program.  Keep that in mind. A superintendent who cannot pass a bond is a worthless commodity on the market in the opinion of many including me.

In 2013, the school district put out the bond proposal pretty much in the first half of the year.  When I pointed out on this website that they had forgotten to use the de rigueur bond committee, they hastily put one together. They claim they asked 100 people to be on it. There were only 57 on the list that I saw. They met two times in July. At the second one of the meetings only 11 people showed up. Those of you on the 2014 bond committee realize that two meetings would only suffice to rubber stamp the already existing bond plan! They didn't have time to do anything else.

Another thing the public needs to know is that I have groused in all sorts of places (and on this website) about the fact that these committees do not reflect the composition of the Katy ISD student body. Our minority school district is (as of 2013-2014 school year) 41.7% White, 34.4% Hispanic, 9.6% African American, .3% American Indian, 11.6% Asian, .1% Pacific Islander and 2.4% Two or More Races. 

So it appears that they made a token and half-hearted effort to place a few more "minority" parents on the 2014 Bond Committee, but it still does not reflect the composition of the student body. I'm guessing that the reason for allowing people to volunteer for the committee takes them off the hook and gives them an excuse for not fulfilling a true measure of ethnic and racial components on the committee! "Well, "minorities" just did not volunteer to be on the committee."  I can hear it now.

The other thing that many do not realize is that while it was announced that they had a "200 member bond committee,"  they actually invited 247 people to be on the "Bond Committee," and then put 128 on the "real" bond committee and put 119 on the "B Team" bond committee.  They claim 600 people applied.  There were actually, then 247 people on the 2014 bond committee not 200. KISD is well known for exaggeration and not being able to figure out how many people they have on a committee!

Of course those who didn't get selected and those who were stuck on the "B Team" and who had no input, should be greatly miffed at the slight. They just used you, in my opinion, hoping that you will be honored to have even been considered and hope that you and your spouse will run out and vote for their trumped up bond anyway!

Most of you on that committee are nice, polite, public minded citizens who are active in your child's school, often volunteer in your neighborhoods, are anxious to make your child's school as good as it can be, are willing to devote your time to things that you feel are important, and you just want to help.

But all of that aside, those of you who made the "A Team" and participated like you were really doing something meaningful, need to consider yourselves hornswoggled!  They fooled you and cheated you. You didn't decide on the components of that bond.  In my opinion based on past experience, that bond's contents were decided on right after the first one failed.  They have been planning and conniving to pass this bond since then.  You were just a necessary part of the process.

It is unconscionable as far as I am concerned, for them to have used you in this manner.  They think they have outsmarted you.  And perhaps they did.  I've seen and heard some of the remarks about the committee's "work" from naive committee members.  It's hard to read them and listen to them.

Another thing you as a committee member need to think about:  the Katy ISD school board is a "representative" form of government.  As such, we all elected seven (not eight) people to represent us.  Each of them have an equal role in deciding matters of importance that are brought before them.  They are supposed to perform due diligence and reach a conclusion about how they will vote on their own. Instead, they turn over the planning and preparation of this bond to a committee.  Many of them do not even attend all the committee meetings, so in essence, they are delegating their legal authority to others! Such actions are truly unbelievable. What other elected officials at the local level do you know who would just give away their powers like this?  There's a reason why they let this power escape them.  They want to put the blame on a committee if things do not go well.  Of course they also should be rezoning right now instead of building new buildings all over the place, but that is a political nightmare for school board members, and so they do not do it. They are pushing that matter down the road, and like Spring Branch ISD, might have to tear down schools when they have built too many of them!

Do your homework.  Please come to your senses before you aimlessly cast a ballot in favor of this bond. Remember too that they went ahead and built the STEM Center when 54% of us told them we didn't want them to do that!

All they want is a new stadium located in the City of Katy for the Katy High School football team and to save Alton Frailey's reputation. 

Figure it out.