This most tumultuous school year is finally behind us.  We are now fully integrated with the pending TASB Superintendent of the Year, Lynne Cleveland, at the helm and we continue to pay Feldman & Rogers more per month than nearly any other budget line item of the district!

GISD at it's finest.

We will now turn our attention for a bit to our upcoming School Board election that will be held on November 3, 2009.  Three Lack of Trustees are up for re-election if they so choose to run again:  Kelly "code word" Chambers; Weez Doherty; and Carole Greany-Wurst.  They all need to be replaced and we intend to unseat them all.

There are a few glaring issues that we intend to use to unseat them.

First is the lack of oversight on the pirahna attorneys and the exhorbitant amount of money GISD spends on them every single month.  Please read the Action Sheet on the Board Book for item descriptions of the attorney bills.  If GISD is under threat of lawsuits every single month, the Lack of Trustees needs to investigate WHY and put a stop to it. Spending more in 4 months on Erik Nichols than on a single teacher for one entire year is not only unacceptable but reprehensable.  Where is the Lack of Trustees' priority?  For Chambers, Doherty and G-Wurst, obviously not on the children.  Erik needs to go; the Triplets need to go.

Second, is the lack of oversight on the financial management and budgetary preparation of the district.  There is something inherently wrong when a school district claims a huge budget shortfall then a few months later, it's not so bad, then it's a surplus, then it's balanced.  The budget changes depending on the issue the Superintendent is trying to push through.  Where is the oversight? Where is the understanding including the PEIMS accounting, the numerous banking accounts and slush funds, the holdover amounts and tax collections?  If you don't understand it, you can not manage it.  I see no understanding; I see no management. The Triplets need to go.

The third thing is difficult to decide.  Certainly the poor educational acheivement across the board is of concern. Despite the gerrymandering of the students for TAKS purposes, overall student achievement is of concern.  Will Ball High fall into the hands of the TEA with a third year of unacceptable TAKS scores? Apparently class time watching High School Musical has not helped improve TAKS scores or student achievement. 

The continuous flow of students out of GISD and either off the Island or into private and charter schools is of concern.  Where you aware that if you buy an existing house in Evia that they will pay for a full year to the Private School of your choice?  That's not a glowing endorsement of GISD.

Then there is the extensive and unnecessary busing that is forced on the students.  How about the overcrowding of the middle schools? How about laying off of teachers but yet not one penny less for our illustrious pending Superintendent of the Year. These are poor decisions made by a group of willing accomplices who would rather go to Lulu's than run the district.

Help us decide on our third issue with which to send the Triplets (and the Twins) packing.

Ah, summer in Galveston.............and the living is easy!