George Scott elected to School board by 3 votes

May 13, 2016By Dennis Spellman

George Scott will be the newest member of the Katy ISD Board of Trustees. George Scott will be the newest member of the Katy School Board.

One week later we learn George Scott really did win on election night

KATY (Covering Katy) – By a razor thin margin education reformer George Scott has upset 27-year incumbent Joe Adams in the 2016 school board election. It’s the first time since 1989 that Adams has lost a school board race. Scott had 1475 votes to Adams’ 1472, after all votes were counted including provisional ballots. The provisional ballots were counted Friday afternoon, a week after the election. There were no military ballots. Friday was the deadline military ballots to arrive and be counted.

Provisional ballots are provided to voters when there is a dispute at the polls over a person’s eligibility to vote. The voter is issued a provisional ballot and allowed to vote. If there is a very close election where the provisional votes could determine the final outcome, the provisional ballots are reviewed and a determination is made as to whether the voter was legally eligible to vote. In this case there were 14 total provisional ballots. Eight were accepted as valid. Six were disqualified. Adams narrowed Scott’s election night victory from 7 votes to 3 votes but in the end Scott won the race.

A “flawless campaign”

Even though it was a very close election, it was not easy to beat a man who has been re-elected nine times in a row. Scott won by running “a flawless campaign,” according to supporter A.D. Muller, who has worked as an advisor on numerous campaigns in Katy, including Scott’s campaign.

“I’ve never seen a Katy school board race with zero mistakes until this one, and I’ve never seen such an unconventional race as Scott has run this year,” Muller said.

Among the unconventional tactics Scott used was spending no money on campaign signs, until the very end of the campaign. Instead, Scott spent all of his advertising budget with Covering Katy during much of the campaign. Later in the campaign he also used direct mail.

An unconventional approach

“People thought I was crazy, but I know everyone reads Covering Katy,” Scott said. “I did not have a big budget. My choice was buy yard signs or buy a great advertising position on Covering Katy. The decision to go digital instead of traditional was a no-brainer for me. I had to constantly tell my supporters to trust me. They thought I was crazy because no one had ever run a successful campaign without yard signs,” Scott said.

“I didn’t buy a single campaign sign until the very end when a supporter said he’d donate to my campaign if the money was used for yard signs, so I bought some signs,” Scott said. Otherwise, he said he would not have purchased any signs.

Weather played in Scotts favor too. When the recent flooding hit Katy it spiked Covering Katy’s page views, meaning Scott’s advertisement was seen nearly 800,000 times in the last four weeks of the campaign.

Adams’ missed opportunities

Meanwhile, Joe Adams ignored Covering Katy. He would not provide a phone number or email address to be contacted for stories on the election. He never personally responded to any requests for interviews or comments.

Scott recognized Adams’ mistake and saw an opening. He provided Covering Katy with a barrage of big name endorsements, which bought him credibility with many Katy newcomers who didn’t know his background as a former member of the Harris County Hospital District, a staffer with the Harris County Appraisal District and the former owner of The Katy News.

Scott also quietly made amends with people he’d criticized on his blog George Scott Reports. Known for his slash and burn commentaries, Scott criticized people on all ends of the political spectrum. At the start of the campaign he needed to know if those he criticized would turn against him during the campaign. He visited with them and was surprised to find almost every person said they’d support him, some key people even endorsed his campaign publically.

George Scott having fun with his grandchildren at Saturday night's election party at El Asador in Cinco Ranch - Covering Katy photo

George Scott having fun with his grandchildren at Saturday night’s election party at El Asador in Cinco Ranch. When the night was over he had a 7 vote margin of victory over incumbent Joe Adams but there were 14 provisional ballots that were uncounted. The ballots were counted Friday afternoon and Scott won the race by 3 votes. – Covering Katy photo

“At times during this campaign I’ve wondered what did I do to deserve this type of support after being so critical of these folks over the years,” Scott said. “I told them I’d understand if they told me no, but they all felt I’d do a good job on the school board and pledged their support. I’ve been supported by a lot of good people, and I appreciate what they’ve done for this campaign,” Scott said.

Scott also surprised people with a quiet campaign. There were no scorching attacks that he’d been known for on his blog. Early in the campaign Scott told Covering Katy, “I’m going to conduct a very different campaign than my opponent is expecting.”

He avoided fiery rhetoric and kept his criticism squarely focused on his opponent, knowing that if elected, he’d be working with the rest of the school board. He admits choosing his words very carefully when talking about other members of the board.

“I kept my criticism to my opponent and reassured other board members that I’m willing to take a step in their direction if they’re willing to take a step in my direction,” Scott said. “I want to be effective in bringing about reform. I appreciate that the other members of the board did not take my institutional criticisms personally during the campaign,” Scott said.

Scott’s statesmanship came at a time that board members were growing increasingly frustrated with Adams for a variety of reasons that they won’t talk about publically. In the end the board stayed neutral in the race. They never challenged Scott’s campaign claim that Adams wasn’t an effective leader on the board, even though he’d held the position since 1989.

“Has Adams served nine terms on the board, or has he served one term nine times?” Scott asked during the campaign. The implication was that the senior member of the board had never grown in his leadership skills even though he’d held the position for 27 years.

Last minute factors

While Scott’s disciplined campaign was picking up steam, Adams’ was hurt by three controversies late in the campaign.

First, it was revealed that the school board was over budget on the expensive and controversial second football stadium. Lack of planning for traffic was going to add additional costs to the project. The news reignited people’s frustrations over the district spending more than $60 million on a football stadium and not listening to the warning that its location could create a traffic nightmare.

Second, the Katy ISD administration created a controversy by using legal tactics to keep Fox 26 News from obtaining pubic documents that it had agreed to furnish. The television station had paid for the documents but the district used numerous reasons for not turning them over. The TV station grew frustrated and wrote a story about the delays. That story hit the news two nights before the election and reminded voters of a dark time in the board’s relationship with the public, when it was seen as being secretive because it stopped making video available of the public comments portion of their meetings.

The third controversy came when Katy ISD’s email list was used to distribute a pro-Adams email in the final hours of the campaign. Numerous parents were upset that their personal email addresses were used to promote a candidate in a school board race. It’s happened in past campaigns and the list was used again. The email was not sent by the Adams campaign but he was blamed by many. Outraged parents called the school district to complain, and took to social media to say they’d go to the polls and vote for Scott just to show their dissatisfaction with what they considered a dirty trick.

Scott’s seemingly quiet campaign was actually not very quiet at all. He spent hours walking neighborhoods, shaking hands and meeting with voters. Scott was willing to talk to anyone wanting to engage him on public education issues. His outreach to voters continued through election day, when Scott and his wife Anne were still calling voters.

While Scott was engaging the voters, Adams left local news organizations wondering if he would talk with them. In at least one case a local newspaper published its election story and Adams was not part of it because he’d not scheduled his interview. The story was all about Scott. Adams eventually provided an interview and a second story was published, but his lackadaisical attitude about his participation in the interview process seemed to reveal a man who was not taking his challenger seriously and believed he was invincible.

In the end, the candidate who was readily available to answer questions from the pubic, and the media, was the one voters elected.

5 Comments

Russ Reynolds

May 16, 2016 at 8:27 pm

Can someone tell us the status of the election results??? Is Joe asking for a recount? When is the deadline for such a request if made? Can we stick a fork in things and say George is elected? I am getting a bit antsy about all of this and never discount the notion of a May Surprise out of the ESC.

Kim Belcher

May 16, 2016 at 3:27 pm

I am very happy for the community to be rid of our lobbyist board member. It is time for us to focus on what is best for our students and teachers from an academic perspective and help to guard our children from the social/emotional activism that is being forced into our schools. We have to return the power to the people at the local level and that may mean that we have to wrestle it back. Get ready. Electing George is step one of that process.

Russ Reynolds

May 13, 2016 at 5:14 pm

So it is all but official George “Landslide” Scott will be taking a seat on the school board. It is about time we had a passionate, knowledgeable, engaging person sitting on the board who also knows what it is like to actually work for the district and labor under its rules and regulations.

George will bring a new dimension to the school board and I hope the other six will take their lead from what he has to offer.

I have found George to be more than reasonable but his strong suit is his ability to hold his ground when the cause is just and the outcome is of consequence. He truly can be a majority of 1.

Personally, I hope they make him the president of the board and get things moving.

PS Joe, thanks for your service.

I am sure George will hear from many more people than who actually voted how it was their vote which pushed him over the line. I am sure it is mine, so don’t bother telling him otherwise.

Jim Beckner

May 13, 2016 at 3:53 pm

I wish to offer my heartfelt congratulations; not to George Scott😃 But to the patrons, students, teachers and those administrators who get it.

They are the winners.

George is YOUR tool to improve what needs to be improved and eliminate what needs to be eliminated.

To Mr. Adams, well, thanks for showing up for 27 years.

To the rest of the school board;

Be thoughtful to each other. Be open and listen to what others, ALL others, have to say.

When you have questions of administrators or teachers, ASK.

Make a commitment to each other and the patrons and students and the superintendent and the teachers that you will always be open and honest and direct.

You, the Bord of Trustees, are NOT a team of 8. While endeavoring to foment success, that can only come about through honest and open frank discussion. Disagreement is NOT bad or a deal breaker. You MUST promote openness by being open. You must promote trust by trusting. When it comes to the task of educating the students you must be all these things.

The superintendent does NOT set policy. YOU DO!!

The entire admitsration and teaching staff implement that policy.

You, the Board of Trustees, MUST implement clear and concise accountability goals, established jointly by you and the superintendent.

You do this not to fire or run off anyone, but to develope the top executive of this district. I have never worked with any executive that didn’t need skills improvement.

You should make this absolutely clear, that this is the POLICY the entire Board will establish, with the new superintendent you will be hiring.

One last thing;

I HEREBY PUBLICLY ASK ALL BOARD OF TRUSTEE MEMBERS, WHO HAVE SERVED TWO TERMS OR MORE, TO ANNOUNCE PUBLICLY THAT THEY WILL NOT SEEK ANOTHER TERM.

Kim Belcher

May 16, 2016 at 3:25 pm

Love this.