Houston ISD’s board of managers retroactively approved all cooperative vendor awards from Aug. 11, 2023, to the present, totaling up to $870 million.
HISD Superintendent Mike Miles earlier admitted that his administration did not get board approval for the contracts spent over the past 16 months, according to the school district. Miles called this a “good faith error” with no “mal intent,” which is now being rectified.
Seven of the nine members voted to approve the expenditure, with only Rolando Martinez voting against it and Cassandra Auzenne Bandy abstaining.
The administration did not receive prior board approval for these contracts, violating board policy. Per a Houston Landing analysis, HISD has spent roughly $200 million of the $870 million in agreements.
Although Miles has purchasing authority to make budgeted purchases, board approval is needed for purchases of more than $1 million. According to the board agenda for Dec. 10, Miles’ administration made several purchases exceeding $1 million without the board of managers’ approval.
The board discussed this agenda item in a closed board session, which is not open to the public.
HISD’s Audit Committee chairperson Janette Garza Lindner said that the internal audit team found all processes to be “appropriate,” and the findings will be published.
“I wanted to just make sure that was noted and for our community to understand that we did leverage our internal audit team to review those purchases.”
Board President Audrey Momanaee added that changes will be introduced in the approval process, including a full audit of the procurement process “that will begin immediately” and be managed by the audit committee. Audits will include follow-ups and the adoption of a new regulation that will require “additional legal review of the procurement process and other process improvements.”
The board also voted to place board vice president Ric Campo as president, replacing Momanaee, who will now serve as the vice president.
Context
In December 2023, the board tabled an agenda item for the purchases that were made since August 2023.
Dani Hernandez, elected HISD trustee, said the agenda item was “troubling and confusing” as purchases from August 2023 made it to the agenda “and not even for approval,” which meant the money was already allocated.
This amount of money is astronomical…The policy is very clear: financial responsibility is the board’s responsibility.
Dani Hernandez
“This amount of money is astronomical,” Hernandez said. “I completely understand that HISD has to spend money, but as an elected trustee, I always received the information beforehand and in a timely manner, and the cooperative agreements were not as big. There are multiple contracts with the same vendor for over a million dollars. The policy is very clear: financial responsibility is the board’s responsibility.”
What Miles said
Miles said during a press conference the team that reviews projects and purchases made a mistake in understanding that purchases affiliated with purchasing cooperatives did not require board approval, which is why those projects were not submitted to the board.
“There are many steps to the purchasing process, especially cooperative purchases, and they were completed correctly except for the fact that they did not receive board approval…” Miles said. “No laws were
He added that each purchase went through the necessary procurement process and was disclosed on quarterly reports to the board. Before the winter break, the board directed HISD’s external auditor to review the projects and purchases, and the auditor had determined that there was no violation, Miles said.
To rectify the error, Miles said HISD will hire an attorney for the legal team to supervise further procurements and contract approvals, conduct a quarterly compliance audit, and send updates on changes to board policy to district leaders.
What the community said
HISD parents, teachers and students addressed the issue and discussed possible financial mismanagement in light of the revelations following a Houston Landing investigative reporting piece. At the meeting, parents, teachers and students expressed concerns about how HISD handles its spending and community engagement.
The revelation comes after more than a year of continual criticism from the HISD community regarding board transparency, persistent issues within the New Education System (NES) curriculum, frequent school leadership changes, and lack of community engagement, among other things.
“I have a dream that we’ll reclaim our schools from the hands of Mike Miles, who spent nearly a billion dollars without the approval from the school board,” said Maller Sarah, one of the several speakers who addressed the procurement agenda item. “We stand at a crossroads where transparency and account accountability guide our path forward.”
Michelle Williams, president of the teachers’ union Houston Education Association, believes otherwise.
“He’s [Miles] is on contract and what the narrative he’s attempting to spread is that he didn’t break any laws,” Williams said. “The issue is he’s in breach of contract…He has multiple violations and his contract should be terminated.”
Miles said HISD will take “appropriate action” if the need arises, but when asked if he had taken any steps yet, he said, “Not yet.”
Victoria Fredette, a speaker, highlighted HISD’s lack of transparency.
“Mike Miles says oops, but it’s fine because no laws were broken,” Fredette said. “This puts the bar of acceptability, accountability, and integrity pretty freaking low, but what can we expect given the last year and a half of complete chaos under the current District leadership?”
