Thread by @HISDParents

I'm here awaiting the beginning of Open Session. See the attached thread for details. Live commentary will be here.

#HumbleISD #BoardMeeting

https://twitter.com/HISDParents/status/1701257266282823781

It's time for public comments [PC]. There are several speakers, so they are limited to 2 minutes per speaker.

PC1: Brings up conflict of interest and existence of disruptive relationships. Supt being engaged to UIL Director. (Interrupted by Board. Will finish addressing the Board in Closed Session.)

We'll be back.

PC4: Rep from a vendor. Wants to discuss contract regarding work they were contracted to do. Dispute based on delays in work done.

PC5: Addressing the podcast around "3 Cueing" reading strategy. Says it's illegal in TX and 27 other states. Public needs to know HISD will amend the DOI plan to include that strategy. Ignores voters and will harm children and their reading scores.

PC6: Junior at KHS. Wants to be athletic coach, but that path is not available in Humble ISD. Wants district to add athletic coaching internship to student teaching options.

PC7: Wants to address biological males, specifically in bathrooms, locker rooms, and/or participating in female sports. Wants district to create a policy addressing these issues.

PC8: Wants to speak about reading. When her kid was in 1st grade, he was not successful and needed support (No Child Left Behind). He was initially helped with context, pictures, surrounding words. This was not successful.

K-3 is pivotal in learning. Against "3 Cueing."

PC9: HISD shouldn't partner with orgs that distrust parents. ALA, TASB, TCHATT on list. They advise districts to hide information from parents, such as not advising parents of children's pronouns and gender identity used at school. Radical trans ideologists training...

...professionals within the district. She wouldn't trust them with her kids, and we shouldn't have them training personnel.

PC10: People have made much money with new reading strategies. Gives history of bad strategies. Data supports reading phonics and not "3 Cueing" methods. Says district should follow the law in this area. This harms the poor most.

PC11: Local pastor. Wants to advocate for underserved children. Here to encourage Board to haste to open the clinic at HHS and not let politics or red tape slow down our ability to take care of those who need it the most.

Time for comments from Board members.

Lemond Dixon: Congrats to all teachers of the year. Excited for NBE. Said Happy Veterans Day. Says this is Legal Counsel's last day and wishes her luck.

Sitton: Congrats to teachers of the year. Recognizes Dave Martin who is present. Congrats to Fagen and good start of the year. Says we are in good shape financially and thanks Scarfo and CFO.

Grabowski: Congrats to teachers of the year. Thanks speakers (as did Sitton, forgot to type that). Recognizes the HS Junior that spoke up for his courage.

Holmes: Also recognizes the student. Congrats to teachers and volunteer of the year recognized. Thanks admin and parents/students. Says he will miss Legal Counsel.

Parker: Echoes sentiments of colleagues. Also recognized the Gold Fight Win promotion.

Kirchhoffer: Thanks to teachers, Humble ISD Education Foundation. Recognizes teachers of the year.

Scarfo: Echoes sentiments others shared.

Fagen: Address the two reps from vendor that spoke up. Wants to continue to work with them, but speaks against the idea of using more taxpayer dollars to make it happen.

Thanks to teachers that have done a fantastic job this year. Culture in district is fantastic...

(Fagen, cont'd): Want to make sure our teachers have every tool they need to ensure kids succeed. Wants local control and freedom of the district and parents on how we teach them. Teachers are not interested in unsuccessful strategies.

Consent agenda passes with exception of C & J that were pulled.

C was pulled so that Sitton could abstain because he was not present.

This was pulled by Grabowski. Says he could not review contracts in a timely manner. "Why can we not just be fully transparent to the public when the agenda comes out?"

Legal Counsel says contracts were not received because they were not specifically requested.

Grabowski asks if that means it would be public.

Legal Counsel says not necessarily. Depends on the item.

5C & 5J do pass (6-0 and 7-0, respectively).

Motion to accept the Administration's alternative plan for HB3. Trustee asked for clarification. Scarfo says it was discussed in Closed Session. Passes 7-0.

[6B] District of Innovation Plan updates is now up.

Parker moves to accept it with the exception of the "3 Cueing" update.

This is a good time to remind you to buy your School Board Trustees a copy of Robert's Rules of Order. 😁

Sitton asks to hear from Fagen. Fagen says she'll defer to people who use it all the time, but she doesn't believe they're married to "3 Cueing." Just wants to have teachers to have as many options as possible.

Speaker says Humble ISD uses explicit phonics teaching. 3 Cueing is simply an additional tool they have to use in the toolbox. Agrees that they're not married to it, but it's an additional tool.

Lemond Dixon asks Legal Counsel to expand on public comments that accused district of disobeying law around this topic. Maher explains that law allows DOI districts to have leeway in certain areas.

Lemond Dixon: "So we have not broken the law?"

Maher: "That is correct."

Holmes asks why we DO want to continue with 3 Cueing.

Whitaker: It's an additional strategy we have. However, we focus on phonics. There are tons of other strategies. 3 Cueing is just the one being questioned right now.

Holmes: Is there any way to measure the effectiveness of 3 Cueing, and have we done so?

Whitaker: We benchmark phonics teaching. We do not benchmark 3 Cueing since it's an extra strategy. It's only used in 1-on-1 situations to assist students at times.

Grabowski: I struggle with 3 Cueing as 27+ states have outlawed it and TEA doesn't recommend it. And it appears to be an emphasis of HISD, not an extra strategy. If we're trying our best to help students, and it doesn't help and might be harmful, why do we use it?

Whitaker: It's not used in the way it's being described. You see it more in small group sessions. It's a strategy that is available, but is not presented to entire classes. The law says it can't be used in place of phonics. That's not how we use it.

Parker: References NY Times article that talks about ineffectiveness of 3 Cueing. Talked to admin about it before meeting. Parker says her understanding is that we do use phonics first.

Grabowski: When we use 3 Cueing to kids, we aren't teaching them to read. We're teaching them to guess based on context, but it's not teaching to read. Says we should focus on strategies that we know work, not ones that don't work.

Whitaker: Says that it's an additional tool that we aren't married to. We have sound phonics instruction.

Scarfo joins in. Says his research shows it's not effective and so many states have outlawed it. Says he'd think that admin would be telling Board to get rid of it based on that information.

Motion is now to amend the item to remove 3 Cueing from 6B. That passes 6-1.

Now the motion is to pass 6B as amended.

Sitton says he voted No because he believes they should have every strategy in their toolbox.

Small discussion on if Sitton was out of order.

Motion passes 7-0.

6C is up next. Fagen intros by explaining that TEA just announced that they are re-calculating A-F scorings, and so a bit of this was blown up. Introduces a speaker to explain more.

I took some advanced stats and math courses so let me explain...

jk this is A LOT.

Explains that it is more difficult to get the same letter grade as before.

Fagen points out that it's a lagging indicator which increases the difficulty in planning.

Also who decided on white font on yellow background?

Motion passes for Humble ISD to join litigation against TEA around transparency in scoring system.

6D is up next. Fagen intros. Board passes this back in '21 to set up a free clinic for free healthcare for students in need (with parental consent).

Delays due to disagreement with contactor. Due to that, they are looking at partnering with MH to perform services in portables.

Parker says she noticed in contract it mentions "family planning" and it concerned her.

Fagen says that it doesn't include abortion, but (with parental consent), it could include birth control services.

Grabowski asks if we could change contract to remove that from it. Fagen says that was asked of Memorial Hermann, and they were not open to that change.

Grabowski brings up concern about gender affirming care. Fagen says that is not provided in school-based clinics.

Grabowski says he's concerned with what a dr would do if faced with that if the child doens't want parent notified.

He likes the idea of in-school clinic, but would like us to pursue a different partner due to their history of gender-affirming care.

Lemond Dixon confirms that they recieved in writing that MH does not provide abortion-related or gender-affirming/transitioning care. "I don't think any of us on the Board want that happening."

Scarfo asks if Memorial Hermann was clear on the family planning verbiage in the contract when it was voted on in 2021. Dr. Brown says that they were transparent and the Board was aware.

Scarfo says he doesn't understand why MH insists on that in their in-school clinics.

Parker: Has 12yo & 15yo who have been taught abstinence. Feels like there's a conflict of messaging by allowing family planning in the on-campus clinics.

After a brief discussion around rules...

Parker makes a motion to terminate the contract.

Holmes asks a question about the communities that it services, then makes a motion to table this motion.

Motion to table passes 6-1.

6E is up. Parker makes motion to table until the Oct meeting due to it being a long night. Passes 6-1.

Next up is 6F - adoption of tax rate.

Motion passes 7-0.

6G is up next. This changes the Supt Evaluation Committee to now include the entire Board.

Sitton: Says the existing structure is vital to the work of the Board. Says committee can't approve goals or contracts (contract was unanimously extended in a recent meeting).

He is against changing how the Board handles this topic.

Lemond Dixon: I question why the change at this time. Agrees with what Sitton said. Surprised at this recommendation and curious as to why now.

Scarfo: My reason is that the Board only has one employee, and I think it'd be better for all Trustees to be involved in that discussion.

Parker: If it passes, that would negate one of Sitton/Lemond Dixon primary committee assignments, so we'd need to look at committee assignments.

Scarfo: It would add people to the committee, not remove anything.

Lemond Dixon points out for a 2nd time that Scarfo didn't want to be on that committee originally and she is again confused as to the reasoning for this motion since the Board is already involved.

Scarfo disagrees that the Board is adequately involved in the Supt eval/goals.

Fagen says that since she's been here she's never discuessed goals or evals without the entire Board. Wanted to clear the record on that.

Grabowski says that when he went to training as a new Trustee, he learned the majority of districts do it the way Scarfo is recommending, where the entire Board participates.

Lemond Dixon says most districts do not have committees at all, and we could just get rid of them all.

Sitton says it's also important people know it's the "Board & Supt Evaluation Committee." It talks about both what the Board does as well as Supt.

When we had Fagen's eval, the entire Board was present and all were allowed to ask questions.

Motion passes 4-3.

On to information items.

-No intruder audit since the last meeting.

Sitton: Bond 2018 has been huge success and now on to 2022.

Addressing Holt Construction (spoke in public comments). Says multipurpose rooms have been major disappointment. Contracts were signed in 2021. District & community are frustrated, and Holt is frustrated.

(Sitton, cont'd): Based on Holt's legal argument, work should have been done in July, and it has not. We can't issue a check for work not done. Apologizes to community for the hardship it has caused. Recieved several emails. Had to hire addl contractor to finish up.

(Sitton, cont'd) We are going to have to go to litigation if not resolved. 16 schools are behind held hostage. And we're not going to be held hostage for $10MM more for work that hasn't been completed.

Future Board business:

Sitton: Wants to address Board operating procedures to have Board Pres required to get polling on items before adding to agenda.

Scarfo takes a poll, poll fails 3-4.

Lemond Dixon wants to add Memorial Hermann topic to Oct Board Mtg. Board agrees 7-0.

Holmes brings up Pass/Fail. Passes 5-2.

Grabowski wants to add that we add full contracts on interlocal agreements to agendas when Board is voting on them for community transparency. Poll fails 3-4.

Meeting is adjourned.

I for real deserve tacos this time. #SendTacos

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