The sooner the better, as far as this teacher is concerned.

The story has been the same for years in this small, poor, mostly black school district in northeast Houston: Financial problems, shoddy recordkeeping and low test scores prompt sanctions from the state.

Employees get indicted on criminal charges. The school board fires the superintendent. The district might improve some but then falls again.

In the past decade, enrollment in the North Forest Independent School District has dropped 35 percent to fewer than 9,000 students. Today, eight of its 11 schools are rated academically unacceptable, and its average SAT score — 748 out of 1600 — is nearly the worst in Texas.

History repeated itself three weeks ago when the school board voted 4-3 to oust the superintendent, James Simpson, and the Texas Education Agency again has sent in a conservator to oversee the district's finances.

While some in the North Forest community are rallying behind the state's largest predominantly black school system, others, including some Texas lawmakers, are beginning to ask: When is enough enough? Would students be better off if the district were abolished and annexed by neighboring systems?

State Rep. Senfronia Thompson, a longtime defender of North Forest, recently told the Houston Chronicle, "I'm at the breaking point."

Thompson, a Democrat, said the school board deserves time to search for a top-notch superintendent. But if the district doesn't shape up quickly — she's not certain on a timeline — she'd be ready to support shutting down North Forest ISD. Closure could happen only if the state education commissioner ordered it or if the school board chose it.

And the school board won't choose it, as its members have been operating the district as their own personal fiefdom for years, to the detriment of the students and the teachers in the district. The neighboring districts, Houston, Aldine, Sheldon and Humble, would end up absorbing the students -- though I know we would have a lot of the students attempt to enroll in my district as well, as I suspect some already do.

I think that the state superintendent of education, Dr. Shirley Neeley, really dodged the question of whether or not the district should be closed.

Neeley said she always asks herself the same question before abolishing a district: "Would I want my children or grandchildren attending that school or that school district?"

Asked whether she would send her children to the schools in North Forest, Neeley skirted the question.

"I'm partial to Galena Park," she said of the nearby district where she once served as superintendent.

Come on, Shirley, I know you better than that. For all your love of GPISD (where you not only were superintendent, but where you, your daughter, and your grandson all attended school and where you taught and worked as an administrator most of your career), you KNOW North Forest ISD was not measuring up. You knew that when kids from NFISD were playing residency games to enroll at GPISD schools. The time has come for you to ACT, not to avoid closing down a majority minority district in your own backyard. After all, you would not have let either your daughter or grandson go to NFISD schools -- why should you continue to force anyone else's child to do so?

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Posted by: Greg at 07:13 AM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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