The Frisco Independent School District (FISD) recently updated its operating procedures for school board meetings.
In a vote of 6-1 on February 27, the Board of Trustees restructured the public comment section of each meeting in favor of FISD “stakeholders:” parents, residents, school district employees, and students.
When all FISD stakeholders have spoken, members of the public can speak.
Board President René Archambault told Community Impact, “Especially as our public comment … has become a bit more heated as of late, I think it’s important that those that are in the audience and those that are watching on the stream know if they’re hearing from Frisco ISD constituents or if they’re hearing from someone outside of our district.”
Trustee Marvin Lowe was the lone vote against the proposal. He told The Dallas Express he believes most board members were playing politics ahead of the May elections when two board seats are up for grabs.
“It wasn’t like I was completely against [amending the procedures]. I just didn’t like the motivations I think are behind it,” Lowe said. “The reason they were doing it was to separate citizens’ voices … to limit the voices of people outside the district.”
Public school districts across North Texas will hold elections for at least a handful of their trustee seats in May, and voters will register their preferences at a time when school board meetings have become sites of sometimes heated contention over controversial policy issues regarding critical race theory and transgender bathroom use.
Trustees’ responsibility for student outcomes also may be on the ballot in light of the recent move by the Texas Education Agency to take over the Houston Independent School District because of its chronic academic underperformance at two of its campuses, as previously reported in The Dallas Express.
Six candidates are running for three seats on the Board of Trustees for the Dallas Independent School District this cycle, one of whom is running unopposed.
Like HISD, the district has not been able to educate its students adequately, despite the best efforts of its hardworking teachers. Last year’s TEA accountability report for DISD found only 41% of its students scored at grade level on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness exam. Additionally, almost 20% of its graduating class of 2022 did not finish high school in four years.