LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF THE KATY TIMES AFTER I RESIGNED:

Editor

The Katy Times

Bravo!! For the first time since I began subscribing to the Katy Times, important facts about KISD are on the front page, not hidden in the Letters to the Editor on page two.  Thanks for the balanced coverage of the mastery/non-mastery issue, as well as the rating for elementaries and SAT scores.  For sure, Ken Steger's column was a sham, but Mr. Steger is one of the majority of folks in KISD who laud the district, since it is much more difficult and time-consuming to be informed.  If Mr. Steger knew the facts of Mrs. McGarr's tenure, attended Board meetings and workshops, and investigated more than the obvious fluff in the KISD information officer's press releases, he would know of what Mrs. McGarr is made.  As Ken Burton said at the Board meeting after the May 4 election, there are many qualified taxpayers who choose not to run for the Board because of the manipulative shenanigans in our district.  Mary McGarr not only put up with the garbage, she rose above it.

Mary McGarr was the dissenting vote in the hiring of Leonard Merrell as KISD superintendent.  She questioned Merrell's outcome-basing of mathematics in Texas City ISD.  Mr. Merrell is a delightful and capable man, but he has also proven himself as a supporter of continued and new outcome-based methodologies and assessments in KISD.  Trustee votes do come back to haunt our children, and Mrs. McGarr's vote was an informed one, however unpopular with the status quo crowd.

You, Mr. Mundy, are to be commended for the decision to put meat into the education coverage in the Katy Times.  Keep it up.  We have a tax hike approaching, and another Board election.  Both need the vigilant eye of the fourth estate.  The shadow over the May 4 trustee election has darkened again, all but one of the candidates stood firmly against OBE, but they also voted the outcome-based party line on the assessment issue.  I have calls into trustees, level administrators, and the superintendent to furnish me with the empirical research citing increased academic achievement with mastery/non-mastery, but have yet to see anything on e-mail, fax, mailbox, or answering machine!!

Jack Kemp, Bob Dole, and Ken Burton are doing well getting the message out as private citizens. Mary McGarr will, as well.

Linda K.