Michelle Hughes:  Nonpareil Facilitator

By Mary McGarr

A long time ago, Michelle Hughes was the Partners-In-Education director for Katy ISD.  I knew her well, and as KISD board members, Ken Burton and I were supportive of her programs. We were on her Board, and attended her meetings and luncheons. She worked really hard to develop the program and to increase the participation of local business people in an interaction with students.  On its face, it was a good thing, and we appreciated Mrs. Hughes' efforts.

As time passed, however, I became conscious of a direction of which I did not approve.  Allowing business people to come in to public schools to mentor children was presented as a way to help students who needed help.  As I asked more questions of the superintendent, Hugh Hayes, I was told that the parents of these students would not be allowed to know this business person (not even their name) or to know what that person might be saying to their children.

That sent up red flags for me.  I think parents have every right to know who is visiting with their children under the aegis of the school district on a recurring basis. Evidently others did not agree with me as this program continues, and I still have great reservations about it.

That story aside, I still liked Michelle Hughes, and I assumed the feeling was mutual.  She invited me to "walk" regularly with her and Mrs. Merrell one time.  I declined the opportunity preferring to keep our relationship professional.

Over time I have realized that I too was duped by Ms. Hughes.  She was brought here by our District to implement part of the School to Work Agenda.  She obviously still believes in that agenda. 

In contrast, the person who was the head of the School to Work program, Mrs. Bonnie Green, left the District after I did, and to her credit she called me one time several years later from her residence in Oklahoma to tell me that I had been exactly right about the agenda, and that she wished she hadn't been a part of it! 

I had noted that Michelle Hughes had also retired from the District. Imagine my surprise, then, when I attended a 2006 bond committee meeting at the ESC one night to see her there in the capacity of a hired facilitator.

Seems Ms. Hughes has set up shop in Texas, a business called TM Strategy & Design Group--an odd name since there appears to be only one person, Ms. Hughes, who is employed.

The function of her business is to hire out to public school districts to "facilitate" their bond committees in order to convince them, by use of the Delphi technique, to arrive at a consensus regarding a pre-ordained bond proposal.  The committees then think they met, spent their time, and evolved to a point where they all "agreed" on a proposal.  They even, if she is successful, think they thought of the proposal all by themselves!

Not so, but Ms. Hughes gets paid handsomely to make them assume that they did think of it by themselves as a group and to take ownership of the proposal. If she's REALLY successful, they also will talk their spouses and all their friends and neighbors into voting for the bond! That matter is part of the reason for including so many on the bond committee--they represent favorable votes!

Such is the case with the recently completed Bond Committee that has met and proposed another bond referendum for Katy ISD in November 2014.

I am not pleased that Ms. Hughes has created this position for herself as I think it is not very nice to deceive people. She has to live with it, and down the road I hope she is sorry about her actions.

Here is a link to another of Ms. Hughes efforts in the Birdville ISD:  http://www.birdvilleschools.net/cms/lib2/TX01000797/Centricity/Domain/4934/meeting1.pdf

If you read this PDF file, you can see for yourself the manipulative technique that is used.

Or you can go here for a similar effort in Garland ISD:  http://www.garlandisd.net/bond2014/documents/cac/06-18-14_combined_revised-7-1-14.pdf

Or this testimonial on Amazon.com: 

January 17, 2008

By Michelle Hughes

This review is from: Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making (Paperback)

Without succumbing to ambiguous metaphors or descriptive processes, Dr. Kaner and his co-authors capture the nuts and bolts of relevant, useful facilitation skills. In clear, understandable language, he makes the concepts of this book available to newbies and the experienced alike. His diamond of group dynamics and linear diagram of the gradients of agreement are common sense approaches that allow groups to understand themselves. I have both used and recommended this book to hundreds of my peers as well as clients in many social sectors.

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Ms. Hughes has been brought back once again in 2017 to "facilitate" (a better word for what she does is "manipulate") a group of citizens collected to embrace and promote another bond referendum.  A few of these citizens are sincere participants simply wanting to do their part to improve our school district.  They are naive.

Most of the bond committee participants are people who stand to make a buck off of the results of a bond referendum.  Anyone who can't see that is stupid.

Recall my father's admonition:  "Don't ever be dumb enough to vote a tax on yourself!"

The hype will be that KISD needs new schools for the growth.  That is not a true statement.  They have bought portable buildings with every bond referendum, and we have them sitting empty all over the district.  The District could house 10,000 students in their empty portable buildings.  And they are not portable. They never move any of them. They buy new ones with each bond--they are included in the 2017 bond. 

KISD has loaded up schools with students in areas of new growth so that credulous young parents who live there will go vote for the bond because they believe the schools to be overcrowded.  The schools ARE overcrowded but only by design. Those parents are also being manipulated.

Even though one may see an itemized list of items for the bond, there is NO guarantee that any of them will be built or purchased.  Once the bond is passed, neither the public nor the school board have any control over the bond money.  It is a blank check for administrators to spend as they choose.