Trustee Candidates Spar Over School Finances
Opponents Also Debate Academic Performance, Bond Proposal
The Houston Chronicle - May 3, 2006
By Betty Martin
Katy school district voters can't complain that there is little to distinguish this year's trustee candidates from each other regarding platforms and issues.
Stark contrasts in opinion regarding the May 13 bond initiative, district finances and academic performance emerged when Position 6 candidates Fred Hink and Robert Shaw and Position 7 contenders Tom Law, Gregory Gibbs and Neal Howard spoke at a forum last week at Taylor High School's ninth-grade center.
On the question of what might happen if voters don't approve the proposed $261.5 million bond, Hink and Law, candidates endorsed by the Katy Citizen Watchdogs, differed sharply from the other three candidates, who generally suppport the bond.
Gibbs, 32, an Alief school district grants specialist, noted that Katy is already at its tax cap of $2 per $100 assessed valuation. Accommodating the district's rapid growth without bond funds earmarked for five new schools, renovations and other items would mean bringing in portable buildings and getting waivers to increase class sizes, he said.
Howard, a 48-year-old chemical engineer, told the 40 residents at the April 27 forum that the portables would have to be purchased from the same fund that pays teachers' salaries.
"It would hurt teachers, hurt students and hurt the community," he said.
Also supporting passage of the bond proposal is Shaw, 57, a three-term board member.
Hink, a part-time writer, said he'd rather see the bond's passage postponed for a few months than for voters to agree to a spending package that calls for paying more for schools than neighboring districts spend.
"I'm not against bonds, just this bond," said Hink, 42. "I want the board to come back with an itemized bond."
Law, 50, said the estimated costs for building three elementary schools and two junior high schools in the proposed bond are inflated beyond what other comparable schools cost.
"We need to build them, but we need to build them the right way," said Law, a health-care industry employee.
Asked why Katy doesn't generate more National Merit Scholars, Shaw said rapid district growth has added children who are economically disadvantaged and don't speak English as a first language.
Law said Katy's curriculum has been moving toward teaching what is on state-mandated tests.
Gibbs said Katy is still well above the state average and most Houston-area school districts, but Hink said there's too much focus and money spent on developing a curriculum that can be accessed on the computer.
"The Katy management of online curriculum costs way too much money in developing it, and the district fails to provide evidence it improves student performance or that its teachers like it," Hink said.
All agreed the job of a trustee is governance, to hire a superintendent, adopt budgets, levy taxes and oversee the school district's direction, but not to interfere in the daily operation of the schools.
Law would like to see more communication between the school board and the public, with an expanded open forum, while Gibbs suggested that more residents become informed by visiting the district's Web page, www.katyisd.org, or reading minutes of board meetings about the decisions of trustees.
Shaw described himself as "a decision maker with a long-term vision for the future" and said he makes himself available to answer phone calls and e-mails from Katy residents.
Hink said he's running because of his concerns of increasing gaps between schools in student academic performance.
"This is not a matter of ratios, race, socio-economics," he said.
He noted that the Katy district tends to keep the same board members, and that no incumbent board member has lost an election since 1996.
"This needs to change," Hink said.
Position 7 candidate Law said the district is at a crossroads.
His goal, he said, is "to restore academic excellence" while weaning the district from its "precarious position" of debt.
"Our credit card is maxed out," Law said.
Howard said he has coached Katy school sports, has volunteered to teach math and science classes in Katy classrooms and was part of the district's 2002 bond committee.
He said Katy has had good financial stewardship.
"The financial people are first-rate and they constantly win awards," Howard said.
Gibbs, who is working on a doctorate and superintendent's certificate in education, said that if Katy didn't build schools big enough for growth or if the district built ugly schools, it would hurt property values.
"A community drives the cost of schools," Gibbs said.
"School leaders have to decide what's most important," said Gibbs, who is married to a Katy elementary school teacher and has three young children. "We all have our own interests, but we have to decide, are we building for today or for the next 10 to 15 years from now?" Gibbs said.
