SO YOU WANT TO RUN FOR THE SCHOOL BOARD!

So You Want to Run for the School Board?

Updated September 15, 2010 Updated February 2015

Filing for positions on the Katy ISD School Board commences in February of each year. Citizens, who are thinking about a candidacy this spring, need to prepare long ahead of the February filing date. Running for the School Board is no easy task. Preparing one’s platform, studying the issues, and contacting supportive friends needs to start at least six months ahead if not sooner.

Strategizing about which position to seek also takes some time. Will the incumbents continue to try to hold on to their seats? Are they vulnerable? If the incumbents vacate, will the Administration’s favored replacements be beatable? Which Business Roundtable company’s employee will show up this year to run? Can someone who is just a plain citizen who cares about academic educations for our school children be able to win a seat? How will one’s family survive all the public scrutiny? Will one’s children be subject to adverse conditions at school if one becomes a candidate?

The answers to all of these questions usually keep a lot of good people from running. That situation is a shame. Our School Board, in my opinion, seriously needs new blood. No one should serve more than two terms, but many do. Anyone there for more than six years usually no longer has children in the district, and after a while, they lose the perspective necessary for sincere involvement. They may be hanging around just so they can get a school named after themselves. Perhaps our Board should just go ahead and name the next seven buildings for themselves, and then they could move on and make room for others.

Something else that keeps people from running is an attempt by those currently in office to try to dissuade potential candidates from running.  That happened in 2014.  I just told the candidate to tell them to kiss off.  Don't know if she did. The thing is, if someone is so unsure of herself/himself that these ninnies we have in office can talk them out of running, they probably wouldn't have entered the school board race anyway.  Think about why "they" would ask someone to pull out.  Can't be a good reason.  For certain they aren't being very transparent if they would slither around and try to get people to back out!

The current situation that we have all witnessed over the years is that the Administration and the Board belong to a mutual admiration society and have therefore compromised the relationship that should exist between employer and employee. Our School Board should be in charge of the Superintendent, and instead we seem to have, as Board Member Garry Weiss used to say, the “tail wagging the dog.” (Actually he got that line from me!) Such an arrangement does not make for proper governance and a well-run school district. Another telling phrase that’s cropped up lately is the “Team of Eight.” We didn’t elect these people to be a “team.” They are elected separately, and they are elected as part of a representative government. That means they should have individual opinions that they express freely (and are allowed to express freely) and that on any given night at a school board meeting we would expect that not ALL of them will agree on too many matters. The fact that they always vote unanimously on all matters should tell the public what the situation is. Even the Supreme Court issues a minority opinion on every decision--but not our School Board. They are too busy keeping up appearances, presenting a “united front,” and mindlessly rubberstamping everything the superintendent puts in front of them.

Having been a member of the Katy Board, I can tell you that the Texas Association of School Boards provides training (of the brain-washing variety) that encourages Board members to vote unanimously in front of the public. In doing so they are in violation of the law because they obviously are making decisions behind closed doors. But just try to do anything about it or get them to realize they are wrong and very unethical with their behavior! The public has a right to know and see and hear ALL of their discussions. Otherwise they are part and parcel of a dictatorship, not a representative government in a free country. They also need to stop taking "rolling votes" by calling each other on the phone to gain consensus before they appear at the board meeting, or texting each other or people in the audience while the board meeting is in session!