TALKING TO THE PRESS:

My position with regard to the Press is that the Press is the "fourth estate," and as such, as long as they are honest, unbiased, fair, timely, deliberate, and simply report the facts without editorializing, they are an important component in keeping governments and those who run them, honest.

When I was elected to the Board, the superintendent, at the time, Hugh Hayes, often told the Board members not to talk to the Press and suggested that we would be better off if he "handled" them.

I did not agree.  I also did not consider the Board President to have any more authority to speak for the board members than any of us individually. The Board President certainly never spoke for me or my views!

As individually elected by position (1 through 7), the board members were and are representatives of the people who elected them.  That's what a representative form of government is! 

Unfortunately many do not consider school boards at this time as being a "representative form of government"!

Thanks to the TASB and the TASA, school board members seem to believe that they are a "body corporate" and that this phrase means that they have to all vote together on every issue, put a similar face on all board matters, and jump to the tune of the superintendent and board president.

The board members have themselves abdicated their power to such nonsense, all on their own--which, in my opinion, is an indication of just how inept many of them are.

While Texas Senate Bill1 in 1995 had language in it that eviscerates the most important of the board's powers, the interpretation that allows that the board is to "represent the school district" and not the people who elected them is a gross misrepresentation of the wording in the bill, in my opinion. This erroneous interpretation was fostered by the Texas Association of School Boards.

As a Board member from 1991-1996, I talked to any and all members of the Press who contacted me.

There was no reasonable question I wouldn't answer, and I was happy to provide commentary on Board matters and give my opinions. I thought and still think that such should be the case for every elected official and especially school board members.

One humorous anecdote in this regard comes to mind. The reporter from the Suburbia Reporter (the ancestor of the  Rancher/Neighborhood Houston Chronicle) called to ask me about the corporal punishment vote when that was made and another vote at that same meeting on the length of hair allowable for male students.

At the particular meeting in question, the Board had voted on ending corporal punishment but the practice had not been defeated. On another agenda item the Board had voted to allow young men to wear their hair as long as they wanted, and that item passed.

When she asked me about them, I said, "Well, the bad news is that students will continue to be paddled at the whim of their coaches, but the good news is that we're going to let them have long hair while they're paddled!"

I of course was making a joke of the inconsistency, and I never intended for the reporter to print my remark!  I learned then while telling the truth, on the record--that it was not smart to make light of it!

Unfortunately, most reporters these days never get past the Board president when seeking to hear the opinions of all the other board members on items of importance and interest. Anyone with a brain can see the advantage there is for the superintendent to keep his/her Board members reined in.  Anyone with a brain can also see that such practices as this are not conducive to having "a free and open government."