COMMENTS BY BOARD CANDIDATES IN 1990:

In the spring of 1990 I first ran for the KISD school board.  I lost in the run-off by 110 votes to Garry Weiss.  The excerpt below is from an article compiled from candidate responses to a questionnaire from the Houston Chronicle.  The entire article was a four column quarter page article.  Too bad the Chronicle doesn't devote that much space to local school board elections any more. 

I'm printing it here so that the reader may see the thoughts at the time of those who were running for the same position I was.  Some of them are very revealing.

Mary McGarr

Position 4

McGarr, an eight-year resident [and notice they didn't say I lived in Nottingham Country--and there's a reason for that] and homemaker, served on a parent committee which set the goals for the gifted and talented program mandated by the Texas Education Agency and was a member and officer of the Katy Parents of Gifted and Talented Students. [What they left out was that I helped organize and was one of the founding members of the KPGTS and was the first First Vice President.]

McGarr said she supports the single-member district concept.  [What was not said was that we got 5,000+ signatures on one day on a Single Member District petition in 1988 to get single member districts by standing at the polls for 12 hours on Election Day.  Five thousand signatures were all we needed. Unfortunately, all the petitions from the Memorial Parkway Junior High station were in Sherry Annett's SUV, and her car was stolen that night.  It was found the next day down in the 4th Ward with nothing wrong with it and nothing  missing, except of course, the signed petitions! Anyone want to talk about what happens in Katy when certain people don't want certain things to happen with the school district?]

"The need for new facilities is not as immediate as our school board would have us believe. The facilities we have are under-utilized for political reasons.  Schools sit half empty at one end of the district and bursting at the seams at the other.  A new junior high is being built in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Unbiased leadership is needed on our board to prevent such a waste of taxpayers' funds. [Ironically, this sounds like I live in the Cinco Ranch, but the Cinco Ranch wasn't here yet in 1991!  The crowded school was Memorial Parkway Junior High, and the school district had just built McDonald Junior High out in an uninhabited area north of Interstate 10, (and guess who sold them the land) where there were no houses yet and no students, while all of our children on the south side of  I-10  were packed like sardines into Memorial Parkway Junior High!]

McGarr said, "Improving core curriculum so that the 80 percent of our students who want to attend a good college can get in and stay in, is of the utmost importance.  Our board needs fewer financial, business and construction experts and more people who are knowledgeable about all aspects of school governance.  As a former teacher and school volunteer with no ties to the large land owners in the west-end who are manipulating this district, I can satisfy that requirement."

Bob Rettie, a 10-year Williamsburg Settlement subdivision resident said:  "Until the state's role in financial support of the school districts is clarified, detailed planning must be held in abeyance.  If and when interest rates drop, KISD must call its bonds, pay them off with money borrowed at lower interest rates, thus reducing future operating costs. It may also be possible to contract out some services and further reduce operating and personnel costs.  Also, joint usage of facilities with other districts on a cost-sharing basis should be explored.

"As a retired colonel, U. S. Army, former city manager, a successful businessman and an educator with 13 years experience, I am familiar with board functions and operations, particularly as they pertain to budget preparations and operations. --one of the key concerns in today's efforts to improve the quality of education.  Today, there are many ideas on how to improve the educational process.  They abound.  The key is how can the community financially support those programs it wants?

[Mr. Rettie, actually Col. Rettie, served in three wars and was a very qualified candidate.  He would have made a very good school board member.  He didn't have the necessary connections to get elected, however.]

Garry Weiss, a Katy-area resident since 1976, president of G. O Weiss Inc., and one-term incumbent, said, "Certainly a growing enrollment and the 22 to 1 teaching ratio has created a monetary challenge for any growing school district in Texas.  KISD is presently reviewing the costs needed to enlarge some of our older elementary schools versus building new ones.  The board should also continue the policy of adopting a balanced budget and reviewing all items of the budget process in terms of effectiveness and efficiency.  The procedure will ensure the greatest return for each tax dollar spent."

"There are many challenges facing KISD as there are for all districts throughout Texas and the U.S. Money alone cannot solve these challenges.  It will require the dedication and cooperation of all those involved in education: students, parents, teachers, legislators, administrators, support personnel and the business community.  I feel it's the board's responsibility to keep every one pointed in the right direction."

[What I've learned since this time is that the superintendent usually writes the copy for incumbents--they apparently not being smart enough to do their own!  All this stuff about needing more money was the hue and cry of the TASA (and still is) as the more money superintendents have to spend whether they need it or not, the happier they are. Note the passage about increasing the size of existing schools rather than building new ones--that's what they did to Nottingham Country Elementary--it went from from having a capacity of about 750 to being able to hold 1053. Currently the school has a little more than 600 students, so all that "extra space' they built is now sitting empty. Garry Weiss was only there, in my opinion, to sell dirt to the district, provide trash containers and haul them to his dump, and to sell his excess land to the district.  His other obvious interest was to stop corporal punishment.]