Two HISD Headlines

We are into the fourth week of the MLB season and folks are talking about the ‘Stros starting pitching rotation. How many of our starters have an ERA under 2.00?

Commentary hates to say this, but it looks like folks are nowhere in figuring out a plan to help the failing schools. Absolutely nothing is on the table and I don’t see anything on the horizon either. Remember when I said this yesterday:

How about the teachers? In case folks have forgotten, the Houston Federation of Teacher were pretty big players in last year’s school board election, like they dropped a ton of dough into many of the winning campaigns. Have they been at the table? If not, they should be. Like it or not, it just makes sense.

Now here is from today’s front page story in the Chron:

Now, the district must hope all 10 schools meet state accountability targets this year — a highly unlikely proposition — or Morath decides to give the largest school district in Texas extra time to turn around those campuses.

“We’re going to be rolling the dice with all 280-some campuses in HISD,” said Zeph Capo, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers. “Maybe we’ll win the game of chicken, but I don’t think that’s the best way to plan for the success of our schools.”

In a statement Wednesday, HISD officials did not explain why they no longer will seek a partner to operate the 10 schools. The district had until April 30 to submit plans to the TEA.

Here is the entire Chron: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/education/article/Houston-ISD-nixes-partnership-plans-raising-risk-12864425.php.

It looks to me upon reading this that Zeph and the Houston Federation of Teachers are not at the table. Like it or not, they should be.

The Chron E-board continues to have a take on HISD and here is how they start out today:

The Washington Post called it a “wild night.”

“Embarrassment” would be more accurate.

Frustrated parents and community members tried to make their case against a recent charter takeover plan at the Houston Independent School District board meeting on Tuesday. So HISD Board of Trustees President Rhonda Skillern-Jones responded by shutting down the whole meeting. Two people were dragged out by police officers. Videos of Jenny Espeseth, who said she has children in first and fifth grades in HISD, being pulled across the floor by her arms were broadcast over social media. She said police told her they intended to file a report, then released her, as reported by Chronicle reporters Jacob Carpenter and Shelby Webb.

 

The meeting eventually reconvened and then ended without a vote, and HISD now says it plans to miss the April 30 deadline for approving partnerships for 10 failing schools. A state takeover by the Texas Education Agency suddenly looks like a real option.

Good. Better to deal with the Texas Education Agency than lock 6,000 students into a poorly conceived charter plan.

Here is the entire E-Board take: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/HISD-melee-marks-total-failure-in-governance-12865086.php.

The E-Board has a lot more faith in getting the state involved than Commentary does. I have zero faith in state government when it comes to public education.

Remember when the H-Town Mayor took office over a couple of years ago and talked about “shared sacrifices”? It looks like that is where we may be at. Folks who make it to the HISD table have to leave their agendas at the door and figure this mess out.

Commentary has absolutely no idea what to do at this point. Guess what? It looks like nobody else does either. Which is probably a good thing, if you know what I mean. All you have to do is look at the two different headlines for the same E-Board take today on HISD.

Here is from the online take:

HISD melee marks total failure in governance [Editorial]

And here is from the hard copy take:

Work together

HISD and TEA must be honest partners if they want to help students

Did I say folks are nowhere in figuring this out ?

Gerrit Cole has an ERA of 1.29, Justin Verlander is at 1.36, and Charlie Morton is at 1.86 of course which isn’t bad at all for our starting pitching rotation.

You know what is cool? Verlander pitching 7 innings yesterday afternoon and picking up the win, then showing up last night at Toyota with his lovely wife Kate Upton and sitting courtside to watch the Rockets advance. Now that is cool!