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2019-11-08 Home Front: Culture Wars
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Texas Fighting Back Against Bad Education
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[TexasTribune] State to take over Houston Independent School District by replacing school board and superintendent.
Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath informed Houston ISD of those plans in a letter Wednesday. He also sent letters saying the state would take over Shepherd and Snyder ISDs.
Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath sent a letter to Houston ISD Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan and Board President Diana Davila giving two principal reasons for the decision: the school board’s “failure of governance” and the repeated low academic performance of Wheatley High School, which received its seventh failing rating this year. In addition to appointing a board of governance to replace the elected school board, Morath will also appoint a superintendent to lead the district. The timeline of the takeover action is unclear.
The announcement of a takeover was far from unexpected. Last week, a final state investigation report recommended Morath replace the school board, finding that it had violated state open meetings law, attempted to influence how contracts were awarded, and took action on district issues individually without consulting other board members.
Just yesterday, the state denied Houston ISD’s appeal of Wheatley High School’s state accountability rating, killing one of its last hopes of remaining independently governed. A 2015 law requires Morath to penalize a district with a school that has been failing for more than four consecutive years, by either shutting down the school or taking over the entire district. This is the first time that law will be used to take over a district.
The same law also led Morath to inform two small, rural school districts Wednesday — Shepherd ISD, in East Texas, and Snyder ISD, in West Texas — that he would replace their elected school boards with appointed boards. Snyder Junior High and Shepherd’s elementary and intermediate schools received their fifth consecutive failing ratings this year.
The districts will also be assigned state conservators, who will attend all board meetings, oversee district operations and submit monthly progress reports to the state. Houston ISD has had a state-appointed conservator since 2016, initially appointed to oversee another long-failing school. 
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Posted by Mercutio 2019-11-08 00:00||
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