Hundreds of Houstonians apply for HISD Board of Managers

A key milestone in the Texas Education Agency’s Houston ISD takeover process came to an end.

The agency concluded its application process for the school district’s new board of managers on April 6. They announced that hundreds of Houstonians have applied to serve as part of the board.

This is the first step of the process for TEA to replace Houston ISD current superintendent Millard House II and the nine elected school board trustees by June 1, according to the agency.

“I am looking for Houstonians with wisdom and integrity who can be laser-focused on what is best for students,” said Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath in an official statement. “It is exciting to see so many Houstonians express a willingness to help move the school system forward in service of students.”

Many have been critical of the agency’s lack of transparency and empathy toward community concerns over the process. Last month, TEA hosted a series of community forums that were highly attended but the presentations were anything but satisfactory.

“I have concerns about the transparency and meaningfulness of this process. I’m very convinced that the commissioner already has his pick when it comes to the appointments of the board of managers,” Jackie Anderson, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers. “The people need answers.”

TEA said they’re looking for a wide array of backgrounds, experience and perspectives to help students achieve at high levels.

In total, there were 374 individuals who submitted applications. Of those, 345 applicants live within HISD boundaries, according to the addresses they provided. Here is the breakdown by race and trustee district shared by TEA: 40% of the applicants are African-American followed by white applicants (33%) and Hispanic applicants (10%).

TEA states that board of managers candidates now move to the next phase of preliminary applicant screening. The entire process will include detailed applicant reviews, community reference and background checks, training and interviews.

The agency will open an additional application window to allow more people in the community to consider serving during the applicant screening phase, an idea that Anderson is very skeptical about.

“If you’re going to select from round one applicants, why would they want to leave it open after stressing the deadline for applications to be turned in in the first place?” she said. “The commissioner is the only person who can answer the questions we have and he hasn’t met with the people who are going to be the most affected, and that is the employees of HISD.”

By the numbers