Okay. Good evening. This meeting is now called to order at 05:01PM. I'd like everyone to, please silence your cell phones. Quorum of the Board is present in the auditorium. The first order of business is here to hear from speakers to the agenda items. Public comment during school board meetings will only be available to those persons who signed up to speak prior to the meeting, Time per current protocol, verbal and other disruptions by persons during the School Board meetings are not acceptable as they inhibit the Board's ability to conduct business and the public's ability to observe those processes. Persons who participate in such behavior will be given one warning and if the behavior
is repeated, they will be asked to leave the meeting. We have 10 registered speakers, who will be limited to two minutes each per Board policy. We ask that you stay on topic and refrain from naming individuals, especially students as their identity is protected under the law. But you may name your own child. I ask you to please respect our procedures and the other speakers and end your comments promptly when your time has expired and the timer rings. Please note that the workshop listed in the public notice for this meeting will not be conducted today. And Agenda Item four,
approval of the proposed revision to Board Policy E L Local Campus and Program Charter Second Reading was withdrawn by the Administration before this meeting. We'll now hear from our speakers. Ms. Smith will call the speakers. I do want to acknowledge we do have some elected Trustees here. We have Doctor. Maria Benzon who is here. We also have Michael McDonough which is here as well. Welcome. Anybody else come in? Okay. So let's go ahead and start speakers. Good evening. My name is Doctor. Maria Benzon, the elected trustee in District 5.
I want to begin by grounding us in a simple truth. Public schools only work when the public is genuinely included. Right now, many families, students, and educators do not feel included in decisions that fundamentally reshape their schools. The postponement of tonight's workshop on using SB eighteen eighty two to charter magnet schools like HSPBA, HAIS, and Energy raises serious concerns. There are not minor these are not minor operational changes. They go to the heart of school identity, access, and trust. When public discussion appears to happen only after community members sign up to speak,
it sends the message that engagement is an obstacle, not a priority. At the same time, HISD is facing steep enrollment losses, declining teacher retention, and growing reliance on uncertified teachers. And yet, per a recent Houston Chronicle article, cabinet level leaders are receiving bonuses, retirement reimbursements, and other perks. To families watching programs close, schools deteriorate, and property sale revenues diverted away from long overdue capital improvements, this feels profoundly disconnected from reality. An analogy may help.
If a ship is taking on water, the crew does not reward itself for maintaining appearances while passengers are putting on life vests. Leadership is measured by stability, trust, and shared sacrifice. Doctor. Martin Luther King Jr. Warned that justice too long delayed is justice denied. Transparency, too long delayed becomes distrust and distrust drives families away. We owe our community leadership that listens, we owe our community leadership that listens first, explains decisions clearly and measures success not by internal rewards,
but by the stability, safety and confidence of the families we serve. Thank you. Thank you. Hang on one second. Trustee McDonough, would you like to, come up and say hello or no? You're good? Okay. Good. I'm Laura Henry. I'm a speaker at one of the magnet school parents, but, I'm not talking about that particular school in the 1882. I'm talking about all of them. I'm requesting that you ask a lot of questions about schools that are being asked to form 1882 innovation partnerships so that you can protect those schools from potential harm. From an outsider point of view, it seems like a franchisor franchisee relationship.
If the franchisees are required to purchase services from the franchisor, those services can be pretty expensive unless contracts are set up to protect the franchisees, especially if the goal of the franchise is to make money. School principals aren't education attorneys. They already have full time jobs, and so they need some protection. We already know that Miles has had the opportunity to learn from his mistakes with eighteen eighty two. His third future charter in Beaumont has already been on the other side of this arrangement. When third future schools broke its contract with Beaumont, they cited insufficient funding and want to reduce revenue holdbacks. If Mike wants to rip our high schools off,
and I'm not saying he does, but if he wants to, he knows how. Note that Phil Price is now the reason for Beaumont's takeover. Miles has already told you that he wants these partnerships in order to bring revenue into the districts which he needs because of low enrollment. He's already told you that he plans on taking some of the money for his schools. Low enrollment is data. To exploit schools that the families are happy with in order to bring in more school money for the schools people are leaving is problems. If you're gonna allow Miles to have these partnerships, ask questions, get the principals legal support that comes from neutral third parties,
get involved with contracts. Our schools shouldn't eat each other. Enrollment's not declining at the schools that people want to go to. Don't just pass money around. Ask families why they're leaving and then try to solve those problems. What I know is that a lot of those problems throughout the district do have to do with teacher turnover. Thank you. This board keeps weakening important financial controls. It's basic control to segregate financial from operational duties. Yet here's mister Terry, CEO and CFO. That would not happen in a $2,000,000,000
publicly traded company. And it's basic to have a whistleblower hotline that reports independently to the audit committee or the external auditors, yet here it reports internally to ethics and compliance. It's basic to have audit rights over large vendors and partners, yet Miles strikes the audit provisions over these eighteen eighty two operators. He eliminates HISD's authority to operate their, to audit their operations and he weakens their requirement for audited financials. Any audit that does not attest to compliance with generally accepted accounting principles is just
meaningless. Miles lowers our standards to the fictional generally accepted, standards for fiscal management. Will HISD's financials now three months late only comply with these new fictional standards? And speaking of late, Miles also eliminates the deadline for these operators to provide audited financials. Do you guys even read these policy changes? These are all basic financial controls to prevent fraud and misuse. You have a fiduciary duty to protect our assets. We'll be turning over money,
students, communities, and physical infrastructure. Massive assets, not just the annual dollars. We'll be turning over the reputation of our flagship magnet high schools In the case of HSPVA, a reputation built over fifty years of exceptional operation. There is huge risk in getting these schools up to the private sectors. These are basic fraud controls. Why do you believe your fiduciary duty here is so inconsequential? Thank you. Good evening. I had signed up to speak about, the policy change with EL Local.
I was pretty surprised when I opened my email to see that this meeting had been postponed. There was a big deal made, at the regular board meeting, in fact Mr. Campo had said that the board members did not need to ask questions because we were gonna have a workshop we were gonna get to find out about the future of HISD. Now it's canceled. I hope this doesn't mean we're gonna use, we didn't have the workshop, so we're just gonna railroad this all through without anybody knowing what you're doing. It's very concerning. You're talking about eighteen eighty two partnerships.
I wonder if any of you as board members know there are specific deadlines to get that extra money. You can't. It's not an open ended deal. And by not having a policy in place, which is actually part of the contract, so you can't have a contract with HSPVA friends till you have a policy in place, then you have to apply and get approval from the TEA to get the money. There are deadlines. The timetable you're on puts you in May before anybody will know if you got the money. This is completely irresponsible. I don't know. I mean,
your administration is not doing their job. They are not doing this professionally. I don't understand why the workshop get cancelled. I don't know why you can't get EL local. It's been moved off on and off an agenda. It is ridiculous. And I'm gonna I don't mean to be rude, but somebody's gotta say this. Y'all have built a reverse field of dreams. You have built NES thinking build it and they will come, and unfortunately, everyone is running away. Why don't we evaluate that? It's okay to admit, hey we tried it and it didn't work out.
But we need to be honest, you're dragging this district down a financial rat hole and it needs to stop. Thank you and I appreciate your time. Thank you. Hi, Doctor. Ruth Hoffman Black. In the nineteenth century, writers claimed that people of African descent were not only unable to learn or think critically, but that allowing them to read was harmful. Native American children were kidnapped and placed into abusive residential schools given English names and not allowed to speak their native languages because the white men knew this was best
for them. You were placed on the board of managers to accomplish one thing, get the district out of takeover. You were not supposed to change high performing schools, or destroy CTE programs, or magnet programs. None of you are experts in public education, but you are sure that a man who has zero certification in teaching or administration knows more than the entire faculties of university education departments. He knows those children, what they need, more than actual experts or their own parents. North Forest High is not only not gonna get the new barn that they were
promised, but they're not even going to get to keep their animal ag program, because careers in agriculture don't pay enough. But as one parent there pointed out, veterinarians sure do get paid a lot. So, the mostly black underprivileged kids at North Forest, which literally sits in a giant open field in the most rural part of the district, they don't need an animal ag program. But the mostly white, mostly wealthy kids at Lamar High School that is surrounded by concrete, those kids need an animal ag program. That doesn't make any sense to me. You have to take care of people first,
you said, Mr. Campo. Here's the thing. You're assuming that you, the wealthy white businessman, that you know more about what HISD kids need than the experts and then their own parents. That's not taking care of kids, that's paternalism. And your motives don't matter. Thank you. We're working on our audio. One second. One second. Okay. Could you start over, please? Hi, dictator. Thank you. K. Hi, Dictator superintendent. So I took your standardized test. It said my reading Lexi level was about 1,200 to 1,400, which is upper high school.
My mom wasn't surprised mainly because I went to an elementary with an actual quality education. Even when I check its stats today, it has a 100% certified teachers who teach non AI lessons. I never considered homeschooling, but I don't trust my lessons anymore. At my old school, the library wasn't as important as PE. We were constantly reading. Now we read books for my fourth grade once in a while, and I can't tell if I've grown. I used to be average when it came to how smart I was, and now I am sometimes the smartest kid in class. I will only really learn when you stop funding millions towards advertising and instead towards
a human written curriculum. I should have learned more just because my school was in a wealthier neighborhood. How about economic and educational equality with no AI and less boasting about us? Sounds better than a wire superintendent. No. Don't that was Suhani's. May I give my speech now as well? Sure. Go ahead. This was in respect to the SB 12, the lawsuit, which I don't think you're discussing anymore. But according to HISD's own student climate survey, only 37% of students report feeling a sense of belonging at school. That places HISD in the bottom fifth nationally compared to other districts using the same
measure. Nationally, about half of students report feeling they belong. This gap is not small, and it reflects how students like Suhani experience our schools every day. For LGBTQ plus students, this lack of belonging is even more pronounced. We recognize the legal constraints that HISD is navigating, but leadership is not defined only by compliance. It's defined by courage and the clarity of your values. I'm asking you to move beyond silence and to publicly affirm the dignity, safety, and worth of LGBTQ plus students and to name belonging as a non negotiable condition
for learning. Our students are telling us they are struggling. They are watching how we respond. Please show them that this district will not just comply, but that you will lead. Thank you. Okay. That concludes our speakers. We will now conduct the hearing scheduled for this meeting. Please note that we will not be conducting the hearing for Kiana McGruder as the hearing request has been withdrawn before tonight's meeting. We'll start with, the purpose of this meeting is to consider the recommendation of the independent hearing examiner in the matter of Tawara Petrie Whitfield,
Counselor Secondary Discipline Alternative Education Program. Hearings involving complaints against district employees are to be held in closed session unless an employee who is subject to the hearing requests an open hearing. Both parties, if both parties request an open session during the hearing, the Board may go into closed session to consult with its attorney under the terms, of the Texas Government Code Section 551.071. If any Board member wishes to seek advice of counsel, let me know. Tawara, Petrie, Winfield and counsel are not present. Erica Graham,
HIIST, Deputy General Counsel representing the Administration is present along with Katasha Woods, our HIIST General Counsel who is also present. Ms. Graham, do you have a presentation for the Board? Thank you. Good evening, Mr. President and members of the Board. I'm here today on behalf of the Administration. We're asking you to accept the TEA independent hearing examiner's recommendation in the Petrie Whitfield matter and vote to dismiss the TEA appeal in light of Ms. Whitfield's resignation of her employment from HISD, which was submitted yesterday,
01/28/2026, with an effective date of resignation for of tomorrow, 01/30/2026. Once Ms. Petrie's resignation was accepted by HISD Human Resources, the TEA appeal she filed became moot because the resignation terminated her contract and therefore her employment with the district, extinguishing all claims that remained outstanding related to the proposed non renewal of her contract, because the contract now no longer exists. Based on the aforementioned facts, the Administration respectfully requests that the Board vote to accept the TA appeal hearing officer's
recommendation in this matter and dismiss the matter in its entirety. Thank you. Thank you. Do I have a motion? Go ahead. I move that we acknowledge Ms. Petrie Whitfield's resignation and adopt the decision and recommendation of the independent hearing examiner that Tawara Petrie Whitfield's contract be non renewed, adopt the finding of facts and conclusion of law recommended by the independent hearing examiner and non renew Tawara Petrie Whitfield's employment with the district and dismiss the matter. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Are there any questions or comments? If not,
please vote. Thank you. The Board has voted, motion passes. A letter notifying both parties of the action of the Board shall be prepared and signed by the Executive Director of Board Relations as soon as possible. This hearing is concluded at 05:21PM. Okay. The next, item is the purpose of this meeting is to consider, the recommendation of the independent hearing examiner in the matter of Deontay Ford, a teacher at Thomas Middle School. Hearings involving complaints against district employees are to be held in closed session unless an employee who is subject to the hearing requests an open hearing.
If both parties request an open session during the hearing, the Board may go into closed session to consult with its attorneys under the terms of the Texas Government Code Section 551.071. If any Board member wishes to seek counsel, advice of counsel, please let me know. For the record, Mr. Atil, Mohammed, Counselor of Law representing Deontay, Jovan Ford is present, I believe, yes? Good, good, okay, thank you. Deontay Ford, is he present? Great. And, Bryce Corsaut is of Spaulding Nichols and Lamp Langolis represent the administration is present and Natasha
Woods, HIC General Counsel also present. Mr. Mohammed, do you wish to continue an open session or close? Closed session it is. Okay, great. The Board has now reconvened in the Board Auditorium in closed session at 05:51PM. Is there any other, discussion, any further discussion? Okay. We're just ready to vote. Let's go ahead and, is there a motion? Okay. What is your motion? I agree. We need to go back and open to vote. Oh, we need to get to the right item. There we are. And then we have to go back into open to vote. Pardon me? Go back into open to vote. Oh, I'm sorry.
Good point. Okay. This, special meeting of the School Board of the Houston Independent School District is now reconvene in open session. The time is 05:51PM. Do I have a motion? I move that the that we adopt the decision and recommendation of the independent hearing examiner that the Anti Jovan Force contract be terminated, adopt the findings of fact and conclusions of law recommended by the Independent Hearing Examiner and terminate the Anti Force employment with the District. Is there a second? We have a second. Okay, any other questions or comments? If not,
please vote. Voting is closed and the motion passes. A letter notifying both parties of the action of the Board shall be prepared and signed by the Executive Director of Board Relations as soon as possible. This hearing is concluded at 05:52PM. Thank you. With no further business to discuss, this meeting of the Board is adjourned. The time is 05:52PM on 01/29/2026. Thank you.