A PRAISE - regarding our School Board

[Cow Poke]

Could you send your school board up here to fix our district?

The School Board has been the major problem - last spring we ran 3 candidates who won their races, but they are a minority - we ran 4, but only 3 won.
Seven board members, only 2 are standing strong to represent us.

Those 2 have stood up to the Board's insolence, and have prevented the board from hiring the Superintendent they wanted.

We just had an election and the same people got in. I keep wondering when it's going to dawn on people up here that they're doing the same thing (electing the same people) and expecting a different outcome (a better school district). Unfortunately, I think a certain hot spot will freeze over first.

We are hoping that next spring, in the next round of elections, we can get rid of the three main board members who are the biggest problem.

By the way, what is TASB?

Texas Association of School Boards, a liberal outfit - basically a union - to which the current board members bow. They need to be booted out, and we believe that, next round of elections, we'll have enough conservative board members to get rid of TASB.

[Cow Poke]

OK, not sure I mentioned this elsewhere on Tweb - but this is amazing....

The Acting Superintendent (let's call him John) had the same name as a boy who was in my youth group in Longview Texas nearly 40 years ago.
My wife asked me (because it's an unusual last name) if John's parents were Steve and Judy -- friends of ours in Longview - nearly 40 years ago.
When I sent an email congratulating John on his assignment to Acting Superintendent, I included a question about his parents - could they be Steve and Judy, friends of ours.

SURE ENOUGH - this guy was in my youth group (well, he was too young, but was about to enter) in the same Church where I served in Longview.
It is ALSO the same Church from which I was dismissed (or "allowed to resign) because I had been arrested for Home Schooling, and a good number of the Deacons were School Board Members.

WHO KNEW!!!!

Quick update....

The Acting Superintendent and the Acting CFO have jointly asked for a meeting with me, because they heard I was encouraging other parties to look for ways we can work together, now that the former Super and CFO are gone.
They will be meeting with me at my church at 8 AM tomorrow, and I believe they will be working with me to get the Teacher Appreciation Banquet (torpedoed by the previous Super) back on track, and to get the Chaplain program off to a good start.

I will be speaking at the School Board meeting in just a couple hours encouraging the School Board to suspend their search for a new Super, and allow the Acting Super and the Acting CFO to continue to work together, much like an interim pastor is often called in after a crisis in a church. To build unity, to get things back on track, and to bring all parties together.

So far, it looks very hopeful!

[Cow Poke]

So, VERY good School Board meeting last night.

I spoke during public comments, and asked the Board to consider the fact that, when Churches have trouble and lose a pastor, especially through forced termination or whatever, they often hire an interim, and "slow the roll" to find the next permanent pastor.
That allows time for healing and setting the stage for the next pastor.
I suggested it would be a great idea for the Board to do likewise --- put off the search for a new Superintendent for a while longer, and let these guys work to heal and unify, while fixing budget issues.
The Board was actually receptive!!!

Then, there was the financial information dog-and-pony show, and the Super and CFO shared how much they had trimmed expenses, managed to find a few new revenue streams, and the budget deficit is SHRINKING.

So I'm even more excited about these guys staying around.

Then I met them for breakfast this morning, and shared my concerns about the Teacher Appreciation Banquet that got torpedoed by the last Super.
They were very excited and told me they would love to promote it, and help plan it.
I mentioned that the former Super told us we couldn't fund it from our PAC, so he slammed the door on it again.
The new CFO looked very puzzled and said, "that's simply not true - there is nothing that prevents a PAC from supporting our teachers...."

So, feeling VERY positive about this, and the Board would really look silly --- grossly incompetent, in fact --- if they pushed to search for a new Super when these guys are doing so great!

[Cow Poke]

So, the "it's a small, small world" theme keeps playing....

Not only was the Acting Superintendent in the same Church I was serving in Longview, Texas - it's where I was arrested for homeschooling.
Then, this morning, I find out that the acting CFO was working for Fellowship of Christian Athletes, based out of the same Church where I served as College Minister in Huntsville, Tx, and his pastor is a good friend of mine.

[Cow Poke]

Acting Super and CFO came to a meeting of our local pastors yesterday at our church and enthusiastically supported our Teacher Appreciation Banquet.
This is HUGE, as the previous Super did everything he could to block it while trying to appear to agree we needed to do it.
The school district as a teacher recognition in the Spring for "best teacher of the year", "best principal of the year", "best paraprofessional of the year", and so on --- the Acting Super and CFO suggested we could combine that with our Teacher Appreciation Banquet.

When I mentioned I would like to do a press release soon that the Teacher Appreciation Banquet was back on track, the Super said, "no, let's do that TOGETHER" - a joint press release!

It is absolutely amazing how this has turned around, and I don't need to go to the School Board for any of this - the Acting Super, with full authority to do so, will help make this happen!

[Cow Poke]

Acting Super and CFO came to a meeting of our local pastors yesterday at our church and enthusiastically supported our Teacher Appreciation Banquet.
This is HUGE, as the previous Super did everything he could to block it while trying to appear to agree we needed to do it.
The school district as a teacher recognition in the Spring for "best teacher of the year", "best principal of the year", "best paraprofessional of the year", and so on --- the Acting Super and CFO suggested we could combine that with our Teacher Appreciation Banquet.

When I mentioned I would like to do a press release soon that the Teacher Appreciation Banquet was back on track, the Super said, "no, let's do that TOGETHER" - a joint press release!

It is absolutely amazing how this has turned around, and I don't need to go to the School Board for any of this - the Acting Super, with full authority to do so, will help make this happen!

So now we have discovered that the Superintendent (the "Acting" one who we hope becomes our REAL one) is actually reassigning positions at the 8 campuses, and some of the rather questionable choices that the prior Super had put in place are "being allowed to resign" or "be reassigned". So far, three campus principals have been replaced with much more qualified individuals who just happen to be good solid 'for real" Christians!

(The High School principal - a woman - was brought into the district by the previous Super, and everybody was wondering why a person with as little experience as she had was given such a position, replacing somebody much more qualified who had been doing a great job. The only thing she had going for her (this newer principal) was that she was younger and prettier and had served with the previous Super in the past. )

AND, this just in - received word this morning that the Acting CFO wants to facilitate a meeting early next week with the head of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes to begin work on our Chaplain program!

[Cow Poke]

It just keeps getting better!!!

The School Board, in executive session on Monday night, voted to re-open the search for Superintendent - but with an interesting caveat --- the search will ONLY be open for 10 days, and ONLY from internal employees!!!

They have opened the door WIDE for the current ACTING Superintendent to apply for the job of ACTUAL Superintendent, and have indicated they would unanimously hire him, as he would be the only qualified candidate.

This is TREMENDOUS news. I still have people come up to me in Walmart or HEB and say, "Aren't you the guy who fired our Superintendent?" -- no, but I helped.

AND, by enlisting and electing the three school board members we supported, the result is that they are NOT using TASB to search for an outside Super, and we GOT OUR MAN!!!!

This is such a tremendous difference from how things were just 5 months ago!!!

[Cow Poke]

And STILL better!!!! On Maundy Thursday, our Board voted to remove the "Acting" from the Superintendent's nameplate.

He is now our fully official genuine for-really Superintendent, and he has not missed a single FCA meeting with us on Friday Mornings.
This morning, several of us had a prayer time with him.

AND... one of the School Board Members came up to me at a dinner on Friday Evening and said, "Hey, I just wanted you to know this was our plan all along, we just couldn't tell you because of certain laws...."

The flesh in me wanted so bad to call him out as the lying low-life little snake that he is, because it's obvious that was NOT their plan, as they had already spent just shy of $10,000 for a TASB Search for a Superintendent, when we were saying - skip that - you have the guy RIGHT HERE!!!! $10,000 WASTED when they were already nearly 6 MILLION Dollars in the red!

[rogue06]

And STILL better!!!! On Maundy Thursday, our Board voted to remove the "Acting" from the Superintendent's nameplate.

He is now our fully official genuine for-really Superintendent, and he has not missed a single FCA meeting with us on Friday Mornings.
This morning, several of us had a prayer time with him.

AND... one of the School Board Members came up to me at a dinner on Friday Evening and said, "Hey, I just wanted you to know this was our plan all along, we just couldn't tell you because of certain laws...."

The flesh in me wanted so bad to call him out as the lying low-life little snake that he is, because it's obvious that was NOT their plan, as they had already spent just shy of $10,000 for a TASB Search for a Superintendent, when we were saying - skip that - you have the guy RIGHT HERE!!!! $10,000 WASTED when they were already nearly 6 MILLION Dollars in the red!

Could they have been required to conduct a search?

[Cow Poke]

Could they have been required to conduct a search?

They were required to post the job listing, but - no, there was nothing requiring them to pay TASB for the search -- AND -- there was another less "leftist" search firm that made a presentation that could have done it for less than $5,000.
They subsequently posted the position as open, but limited to 10 days and only internal candidates. They could easily have done that the first time around.

[Cow Poke]

So, even though we only got 3 of our 4 candidates elected (and one of them was a sell-out) the two stood absolutely firm against hiring an outside superintendent, and the board had already agreed that the hiring of a superintendent had to be 7 out of 7 votes.
So, even though we didn't have the majority, the 2 very effectively have kept the rest of the board from doing really dumb stuff - AND are sending a message that we're ready for the next round, which will be May of 2025.

HOWEVER, this Superintendent is making it clear that he has no intention of rubber-stamping stupid Board Policy, or kissing their sixes.