What We Can Do with a Majority

In this week’s election our school board went from a 4-3 conservative minority to a 6-1 conservative majority. That’s a great win!

It could have been better. It could have been a clean sweep. I’ll talk a bit about that, for future reference and strategy. Then I’d like to be looking at what this new board can get to work doing.

My husband and I worked the election on Tuesday. It’s an off-off-year election (non-presidential and non-congressional year). The only things on our ballot were the school board races and propositions. I estimated we’d get maybe 150 voters for the day; we got 392. We were steadily busy all day. I think that means people were more interested in voting than in a usual low-turnout election. It was still low turnout, but much better than I expected.

Things went surprisingly smoothly, compared to the last several elections. No paper jams or failed scans. No running out of ballot paper. We had plenty (more than enough) election clerks, and we didn’t encounter any provisional ballots or ballot-by-mail surrenders (people who get a ballot by mail but change their minds and decide to vote in person must surrender their unused mail-in ballot, which is set aside to make sure it isn’t counted). We had no drive-up voters (which is a service for people who have mobility issues, but the process is a pain for election clerks because of frequent equipment failure, and it's time consuming), so that is a win. And the weather was beautiful.

Our Cy-Fair ISD school board candidates,
from left, Todd LeCompte, Justin Ray, Christine Kalmbach, and George Edwards
image from Christine Kalmbach's Facebook

 

What Happened in the Election

There were four school board trustee positions on the ballot. These are supposedly non-partisan positions. No political parties are on the ballot. It ought to be that people of differing political parties can come together to think through what is best for our kids in our schools. That may have been the case in some bygone decade, but it is clearly not the case now.

Two years ago, we had seven anti-parent board members. Three races were on the ballot. We, the precinct chairs within the school district who were willing to put in the effort, vetted candidates and came up with our top three, who then chose which position they would run for. The purpose was to coalesce all conservative voters around those three. The opposition had never faced that kind of organization. We surprised them. And we won all three seats.

This was in spite of another quite conservative candidate who refused to step out of the race, despite it causing a split in the conservative vote, risking a loss in that position. But, because the opposition (in that case, the 20-year incumbents) weren’t prepared for us, we were able to get out the votes for our side.

This time they weren’t surprised. However, three of the four incumbents decided to retire. Two retired for age and health reasons, perfectly reasonable. The other had served long enough, but was somewhat younger and could have served longer. I don’t know his reasons for not doing so. That left one incumbent. But, after the worst of the worst was ousted in 2021, this incumbent was the ringleader of opposition to parents and the champion of LGBTQ and SEL agendas. We really wanted her gone.

That was the race where we had the vote split, unfortunately, and we lost.

It’s not that either of our conservative candidates in that race was either incapable or not conservative enough. We had a process, and we had expected—because it was made clear in every forum—that whoever the group chose as the top four, we would all support. The one who split the vote never got into the top four, in any straw poll at any time.

We would have won all four seats if she had stepped down. Our group of four candidates got the endorsement of Harris County Republican Party, the Republican Party of Texas, and an additional endorsement from Senator Ted Cruz. I don’t think that any school board candidates in the state have ever gotten the endorsement of a US senator before. The group worked together, campaigned together, had forums together.

Ted Cruz endorsement of our candidates,
image from Todd LeCompte's Facebook

Meanwhile this fifth candidate went about her campaign. I thought she campaigned well. Her message got clearer and less confrontational. And it’s obvious she knew much about the goings on in the school district—which we knew from her many testimonies at school board meetings. But she knew she was going to split the vote and did it anyway. And she had a number of supporters, who abandoned their commitment to the precinct chairs’ process, because they wanted her on the ticket.

In 2021, Todd LeCompte ran, not knowing about our process. But when he recognized that his campaign would split the conservative vote, he stepped down. And he improved his message and viability so that this time he got elected. I wish our fifth candidate this year had done the same.

With that said, I hope she realizes that the ultimate goal was not for her to be on the board, but for our community to get a board that would be responsive to parents and taxpayers in the district, to get the results we want for our kids—and the protection from the woke agenda. If she continues to work as she has done, we all benefit. And there may come a future time when she will be the right person to run for a board position. That is, if people can set aside hurt feelings on both sides. She says she will continue to maintain her website detailing many of the problem practices in our district.

I have not heard a word from George Edwards, our candidate who should have won but didn’t, because of the split vote. He is a personal friend. He is a gentleman—and a gentle man. He was consummately prepared to be a board member—on par I think with Natalie Blasingame, who won in 2021, being the most qualified school board candidate I had ever seen. (She had run two times previous, before finally winning—because we coalesced and worked together.) I thank George for his effort. I wish I’d be seeing him on the board, instead of the incumbent we worked so hard to oust.

 

The Data

Here's the voting data. My source is Harris County. 

Position 1	Affiliation	Votes	Δ (diff between us and them)	%	My Precinct
					votes	Δ	%
Todd LeCompte	Our 4	24,149		43.69	289		47.3
Tonia Jaeggi	Woke 4	21,062	3,087	38.11	170	119	27.82
Cleveland Lane, Jr.	Other D	10,062	14,087	18.20	152	137	24.88
Total Votes	55,273				611
Total Conservative	24,149		-6,975
Total Democrat	31,124
Position 2	Affiliation	Votes	Δ (diff between us and them)	%	My Precinct
					votes	Δ	%
Julie Hinaman	Woke 4 (i)	25,078	-1,433	45.57	246	46	40.59
Ayse Indemaio	Other R	6,311	17,334	11.47	68	224	11.22
George Edwards, Jr.	Our 4	23,645		42.96	292		48.18
Total Votes	55,034				606
Total Conservative	29.956		+4,878
Total Democrat	25,078
Position 3	Affiliation	Votes	Δ (diff between us and them)	%	My Precinct
					votes	Δ	%
Leslie Martone	Woke 4	21,339	2,374	39.15	194	83	32.34
Michelle Fennick	Other D	9,458	14,255	17.35	129	148	21.50
Justin Ray	Our 4	23,713		43.50	277		46.17
Total Votes	54,510				600
Total Conservative	23,713		-7,084
Total Democrat	30,797
Position 4	Affiliation	Votes	Δ (diff between us and them)	%	My Precinct
					votes	Δ	%
Frances Ramirez Romero	Woke 4	26,829	1,177	48.93	283	42	46.55
Christine Kalmbach	Our 4	28,006		51.07	385		53.32
Total Votes	54,835				608
Total Conservative	28,006		+1,177
Total Democrat	26,829

 

I added my precinct data, mainly for my personal record. There are parts of the district targeted for GOTV more than mine—because they are more solid red. I’m not an ideal precinct chair; I do not do a lot of block walking, which is essential for GOTV. But I do keep in touch with a pretty sizable number by email and text. I write here and share my views (it looks like that was a valuable tool, by the numbers in my stats for that piece). And I did spend an afternoon electioneering at an early voting location, which was actually kind of fun. So, anyway, I’m pleased that my precinct contributed to the winning margins. Our candidates all won in my precinct, including position 2, and with a higher percentage than the district overall. But I also want to recognize those who put in a lot of time, treasure, and heart beyond what I was capable of doing.

the candidates and the team leaders, from left, George Edward, Justin Ray,
Terry Wheeler, Christine Kalmbach, Clark Denson, Bill Ely, and Todd LeCompte
image from Christine Kalmbach's Facebook

Note that, in every race with a third candidate, it split the vote for that party’s candidates. Without extra candidates in positions 1 and 3, we likely would have lost those races. Let’s hope the woke coalition doesn’t catch on next time and eliminate their vote splitters.

We did, however, win solidly in the race with only 2 candidates; that means it’s a matter of messaging, and Christine Kalmbach got it right.

One more detail. Although I thought our vote splitter, Ayse (pronounced I-shay), was running a strong campaign, she garnered the fewest votes and lowest percentage of any non-coalition candidate. So it is unlikely she would have won if our candidate, George, had not been in the race. But it is highly likely George would have won without her in the race.

 

What Now

Now I’d like to get to what we want this new school board to do. I’m sure there are others with more to add to this list. I hope they do. And I hope they share their lists with our new board. There are so many things we were frustrated about, because of being a minority on the previous board. With a solid majority, now is the time to show real improvement.

These are not necessarily in order of priority; they’re in the order I thought of them, and are grouped into administration, indoctrination, academics, and teacher care.

Administration

·        Rename the Mark Henry Administration Building. How about something like the building it replaced: the Cy-Fair ISD Administration Building?

·        Suspend the newly chosen replacement to Superintendent Henry, so that the superintendent will be one in alignment with the new board, and who will carry out their will.

·        Reconsider every employee filling that new administration building and keep only essential ones; their salaries mean less pay for teachers in the classroom. No school district should have enough employees who do not work in schools to require a building of that size.

·        Consider renting out the unused administration building space to lessen the cost to taxpayers for this extravagant building.

·        Put parental input up front in board meetings. No more 6-hour meetings that seem designed to get parents to go home, rather than wait to speak for a brief minute or two near midnight—after the board has made decisions (often in closed meetings) before even hearing the people. Make it clear you want to hear from the community, and that you value their ideas.

Indoctrination

·        Get rid of the pornographic and sexualizing books in the school libraries. No need to wait until courts decide whether the legislation requiring this is to be allowed.

·        Reconsider the contracts of each and every librarian and principal who insisted the pornographic and sexualizing books were educationally appropriate—after parents brought them to their attention and they saw the inappropriate materials and then defended them. These people are groomers—normalizing sexual perversion and abuse, and sexualizing younger and younger children, all of which can traumatize children and psychologically damage them. Such people should not be allowed near children.

·        Get rid of SEL. Schools are not families. If a child has an emotional problem, the school can suggest to parents that the child needs help, and could even point the parents toward possible resources, but should otherwise get out of the way of parents. This includes getting rid of therapy counseling in the schools, as well as medical care—other than first aid. No prescribing and dispensing of abortion drugs, ADHD meds, vaccines, or anything else schools have no business doing.

Academics

·        Teach reading in the way that works for the vast majority of learners: phonics. Occasionally there is a child with a brain problem that may need an alternate strategy, but that is no reason to deprive what works best for all the other students. And for those few—find the brain exercises that will help the child overcome the issue, not just get a label to excuse lowered expectations for life.

·        Teach math in a way that works. Memorize math facts. Practice basics. Don’t have a child move on until the child has mastered the skill. This may require adapting to have students working at their own pace—rather than what is either too fast or too slow for most students.

·        Get shop classes back into schools. Maybe add some certifications for various skills. Not every student is meant for college. And colleges are less and less capable of educating instead of indoctrinating. So let’s give our students plenty of alternatives.

·        One candidate assured me that special ed and gifted classes are much improved over when we pulled our kids out two decades ago. I hope that is so. Over the years I have seen too many candidates who want to concentrate efforts on children without a lot of family support. OK, but if you are announcing you’re going to ignore my child—or any gifted child—I’ve got a big problem with you. You might also note that the best methods for teaching gifted children are often the best methods for teaching all children.

·        Let’s see some innovation. The factory method of sitting bodies in chairs until a bell rings—like a factory—is stultifying. There are better ways. Families use better ways all the time. Kids are different ages, learning at different rates; that’s OK. And it can be done in a classroom. 

Teacher Care and Keeping

·        A teacher ought to have a life outside of the job. If you’re burdening them with re-certifications, improvement classes, paperwork, and requirements galore, you’re going to keep losing teachers. You can’t pay teachers enough to tolerate the abuse.

·        And, speaking of teacher abuse, that includes all the rules you have about not disciplining students that are disrupting the learning environment for all students. This includes students who harm and threaten one another and the teacher. Teachers deserve protection from a hostile work environment.

·        Teachers should be set free to teach, creatively. We have to exempt from that any attempt to indoctrinate our kids with LGBTQ, SEL, and any other flavor of woke agenda. Maybe you should only hire teachers you can trust. But once you have a good teacher, let them do what they love to do: teach.