I attended the Hays CISD School Board Candidate Forum held at the Kyle Library. I would love to tell you it was well worth my time and very informative; that it will help me to make an informed [voting] decision. It did none of those things.
It did tell me that I should never attend a candidate forum that is presented by a group who has a vested interest the winner of the election. Shame on me for not realizing this.
This forum was arranged and hosted by the Hays Educators Association TSTA. It may have served their cause better to have a more balanced approach to the questions they chose to ask. I find it difficult to believe that with all the teachers in HCISD not one would have a question other than those that were salary related. There was not ONE question posed by the Association about [improving] student performance, not test scores, but student performance. In fact, there was nary a mention of students. No one was asked how they felt about the current curriculum. No one was asked [how] to improve the graduation rate. No one was asked how they felt about…more career oriented classes…as opposed to a “college for all” approach.
The running theme in the questions was the fact that HCISD ranked 16 in Central Texas in pay and all the ills of the district would wash away if we could pay our teachers more than AISD.
Good thing there were questions from the floor [that] dealt with the Dyslexic program; the pay scale; how to keep young teachers; what qualifications the candidates had to lead the district, what cost cutting measures could be taken in light of the bond being presented and how to handle the fact that students from HCISD are entering college with no writing skills.
The Candidates, to their credit, were patient with the same question asked in varying fashions and did try to get as much information out as possible. I am a retired educator. Worked for 30 years in an inner city. I know all about low pay, long hours, and no pat on the back. I get it. However, a Public Board of Trustee Candidate Forum is not the venue to press low salary as the only issue for our District. The HCISD community deserved better this evening.
Michele Christie,
Kyle
