2. If elected, what is the first and most important thing you want the board to enact?

Recap of Katy ISD Candidate's Forum hosted by Rotary of Katy, Part 3:

2.  If elected, what is the first and most important thing you want the board to enact?

• Position 7 race:
• Neal Howard said he was glad that the the board had authorized web-casting the meetings and expected that to happen soon.  He said that the first thing the board would do is move into the budget cycle, and if funding is still low he would fight to maintain the focus on keeping dollars in the classroom.  He said if funding is improved, he would bump up teacher salaries and increase the number of teachers.
• Cynthia Blackman said her first priority would be to increase the amount of time people speaking in open forum would have to address the board, and would work to make it possible for members of the public to put issues on the agenda.
• Betty Powell said as a new board member she would be a good listener in order to figure out the job.  Half of communication is listening.  She would do research and work to "take care of the present while looking to the future".  She has no personal agenda, and is "about the kids".  She is ready to work.
• Charles Griffin said he knows a lot of teachers and administrators, and the biggest complaint he hears is that we have great ideas but they are hard to follow through from campuses up.  He would work to improve communication by establishing a process for teachers, parents, students to provide feedback.  As a school board member, he would look to trends to see and correct problems. This would work to help improve transparency.
• Position 6 race:
• Bryan Michalsky said the first thing that happens after being sworn in is to elect next year's school board president, and he would look for a change and a new kind of leadership.  He would like to see the board president delegate tasks to the other board members and engage them, and utilize the fairly diverse skill sets and talents of board members.  He also would look at the requirement of needing 3 members to put an item on the agenda, but recognizes that controls to avoid a single trustee hijacking the agenda is appropriate. However, he favors discussion and debate on issues. He would also review other policies, such as the policy of the school board president being the sole spokesman to the media, because right now, some trustees respect that rule but other trustees are ignoring it.  He would also work to get more interaction with the public, and more communication up and down the line with more input from teachers, etc. 
• Terri Majors said she had been in education 41 years, introduced her husband, and said she has two sons and grandsons.  She would work to increase communication and transparency, and thanked Bill Proctor, Terry Huckaby and Henry Dibrell for working to get school board meetings web cast.  She would change the amount of time patrons can speak to the board at open forum, as it is insufficient.  Also, she would change the rule requiring 3 members to add something to the agenda, as it is unusual.  Katy is one of the few districts that imposes such a rule.  She would also work to reduce bond debt.

Sorry; gotta disagree here-- the 3 members to put an item on the agenda thing is NOT unique to Katy ISD.  It is not uncommon to have some sort of check so that the board is considering only items for which there is sufficient interest to make a change.  From a cursory review of some nearby and large districts, I found Houston ISD requires 3, and Plano, Fort Bend, Magnolia, Round Rock, Pasadena, Arlington, ISDs all require 2.  Dallas ISD allows one member to request a report but 3 to put an item on the regular agenda for a vote. Austin ISD allows one member to make a request to a committee that an item be put on the agenda, but if the committee rejects it, the entire board has to vote to put it on the agenda or not.  Larger districts have a lot of business to transact and a tool that focuses the board is not a bad idea.