Fort Bend Independent School District Board of Trustee At-Large Position 4 incumbent Daniel Menendez and Position 1 incumbent Susan Hohnbaum have filed for re-election in the May 14 election. Bruce Albright has announced his intention to run against Menendez.
No candidates have filed for Position 5, currently held by Laurie Caldwell.
Albright is a longtime resident of FBISD and raised two children in the school system with his wife teaching in the district for more than 19 years. He has served as a volunteer teaching Sunday school for more than two decades.
Albright said that if elected he will “focus his attentions on the severe budget crisis the district is facing and work to bring more openness and transparency to the central office.”
“Restoring the board as the supervising body for the district is paramount in this campaign,” says Albright. “During times like these we must have community support to be able to continue improvements in the academic programming while simultaneously reducing extraneous spending and better aligning our processes of service delivery. We must be more responsive to the needs of the public and remember at all times, it is they who are paying for all this. The days of deliberate public deception by governmental agencies and their operatives must end during these tough times we now face.”
Albright has a work history in sales, business and personnel management and has worked on staffing issues including “turn around” operations. He graduated from UCF in 1978 with a degree in Business & Personnel Management.
“I expect in the coming year, FBISD will need a fresh new prospective in dealing with fiscal responsibility in funding problems, staffing, and student population growth,” said Albright. “They are going to need someone who can look from the “outside-in,” not the “inside-out,” and think outside the box for a change. For far too long the special interests have determined how our money is spent and not the taxpayer, teachers, parents and families of our community. We now face a budget crisis building over the last few years that demands the involvement and support of the public.”
For Position 1, candidates must reside within the west side of the district. For Position 5, candidates must reside within the east side of the district. Position 4 is an at-large position, and candidates can reside anywhere within the district.
Candidates can file at the FBISD Administration Building at 16431 Lexington Blvd. in Sugar Land. The last day to file is March 14. Although the last day to file is during spring break, the superintendent’s office will be open from 2-5 p.m. to accept applications.
This election is in May folks and believe me they will keep raising your taxes and playing ping-pong in the zoning battles if you let Jenney do this.
DUMP Jenney and his “yes”board. Elect more like Babb!
http://www.brucealbright.com
Volunteer today and change the path this district is headed. Over a billion and a quarter in long-term bond debt, 388 million hidden in reserve funds from prior bond elections and 4 consecutive record budget deficits, teacher layoffs last year because of the debt and debt service with another 1000 projected.
What good ideas does FBISD BOT Cand. Mrs. Reynolds for position 5 to fix or continue to expand the big hole FBISD taxpayers an staudents are in, thats effecting todays education of the future?
I’m sure Mr. Albright has many supporters and you may like some of them while not agreeing with others but at least he isn’t in bed with those that helped cause the last 4-5 budget deficits and riffed over 400 teachers with another 1000 planned for this year.
If I were Mr. Albright I would distance myself from the likes of people like Mike Lee. His disinformation adds nothing to the cause of education reform… all he’s doing is pitching red herrings into the mix.
All these subdivisions upset by the current zoning proposals need to help flip Mr. Jenneys board. I’m going to vote for the challengers and encourage everyone to just DUMP JENNEY!
Why do they call FBISD a “public” school system?
The FBISD does not serve the public.
Jenney and most of the Trustees ignore the public.
Jenney and most of the Trustees insult the public.
Jenney and the BOT funnel money to vendors to build the GSTC in direct opposition to the wishes of the public.
Jenney fires teachers even though the public wants MORE teachers.
Oh, now I see… the “public” is allowed to PAY for the schools and the administrators.
Good luck to Mr. Bruce Albright!
A board member should respond to questions by a taxpayer. Mr. Menendez was always the last to respond if he decided to respond at all. Mr Reitz moved away from our district. I believe he left for better schools for his kids so I do not need to hear from him. If I am wrong he can correct me and I will accept the correction.
Right you are again SoupNazi,
And the nerve of David Reitz to try and give insightful commentary about TAKS scores and the relationship of ethnic breakdown and socio-economic status as a driving force to justify acceptance of low achievement from children of low income. Wrong Mr. Reitz, intellectual ability and the ability to achieve well academically is not measured by one’s income level–maybe in FBISD, it is, but not for true educators and true men of character who are sincere in their desire want for all children to achieve and not be stymied by low expectations based upon the low income level of their parents. Your commentary indicates you were fed that garbage—please don’t embarrass yourself to let the rest of us know that “perhaps“you digested it, too.
Moreover, why are you giving congratulatory, warm fuzzy good will greetings to teachers? You don’t like teachers. Remember, you congratulated rogue administrations for being abusive to teachers and for firing an excellent teacher who had excellent results with students without regard to ethnicity or socio-economic levels and/or looking for an excuse or justification not to educate “all” students.
Please don’t fancy yourself Mr. Reitz, anyone with good, clear logical uncompromised thinking does not miss your leaving nor can figure out your coming.
Exciting times in Fort Bend. Get out and Vote! We saw what happened in the FCCA elections. Voters supported write-in Candidate Hancock. He won and now is the President of the FCCA board. There are good seats to win. Albright is teeing up against incumbent Menendez. Who else will come out? Rodrigo? Will Pinnock challenge Caldwell? Will we see George run? Then we have the City Elections with all District Seats in Missouri City. The race to watch there will probably be the seat Mr. Marshall holds. If Pinnock doesn’t run for School – WATCH OUT Brett! As for Rosenberg the Mayor is not seeking reelection should be fun to watch. And finally Sugarland’s race. Lets see what happens with District 4-Farha Ahmed ,Harish Jajoo and Frank Yonish are running to take the outgoing Michael Schiff’s spot. Hopefully there will be roundtables and meet and greets so residents can learn about the candidates. – GOod Luck to all!
It sure is good to see 2 former trustees from FBISD and another local district giving a big vote of confidence to Mr. Albright! They are certainly judges of good character!
“Many of you are concerned about the fraud, graft, and feeding at the public trough by construction people, architects, vendors and so on that is going on in public schools all over the country.”
This comment I found especially important. It is time to get the dog wagging the tail again instead of the other way around Ms. McGarr.
I sure hope we have more willing to truly represent the families & teachers of this community like Mr. Albright. I was able to meet him last night at Marshall during the “budget” meeting. He was amenable and a very good listener. We need more just like him.
I also wanted to take a moment to address a comment below by a poster who quoted some erroneous information about district performance. As a current teacher I know the AEIS data included the “Texas Project Measure” which inflated scores across the state. I have access to my raw scores not included in the TAKs or AEIS reporting system and we had minimal improvement in some areas but not nearly what is being claimed by the superintendent. Further if you look at the NCEA (ACT national data) you will find that FBISD lost 10 school from the high performing list from 21 listed in 2009 and they had to appeal to be a recognized district. That combined with the huge bond debt they carry and the budget crisis that has been going on for several years now under this leadership, one would no better than to support the incumbent in this race. As a matter of fact, it would be a foolish decision to support Mr. Menendez. I even surprised he decided to run again. I also notice when I searched your name that you were on the board too and voted for increased spending on the Global Science Center, voted to raise our property taxes while running several budget deficits and then you left the school board after one term. I’m not sure if I was on the school board that I would want the endorsement of such a character.
I just wanted to share a few thoughts on this thread. Good luck Mr. Albright! We need more like you and we need to DUMP Jenney now.
That score inflation? Our school actually did BETTER than school who were “projected” higher than us. That whole thing is absolutely ridiculous.
Ft. Bend voters are lucky to have a man like Bruce Albright who is willing to run. Fewer and fewer honest citizens are willing to go through what is necessary to become a school board member.
Many of you are concerned about the fraud, graft, and feeding at the public trough by construction people, architects, vendors and so on that is going on in public schools all over the country.
Don’t be sidelined by issues such as that. You need to be more concerned about the curriculum and the methodology that’s impacting your children who attend those schools. There is an agenda, and if you don’t understand what it is and how everything you see that you don’t like is all playing together to generate a dumbed down populace, you need to do some reading.
The problem is we have too many people at the top that are so far removed from the classroom and they are the ones making the decisions that impact us in the classroom. That would be like me trying to give advice to a brain surgeon. I think MOST of the Board needs to be replaced. Babb seems to be good, but I think he is surrounded by a bunch of idiots. I think Dr. Jenney needs to work as a classroom teacher for about a month to get a reality check. Let’s send him to one of the jewels of Fort Bend for about a month. Those of us in FBISD know exactly what campuses that would be. Those kids would chew him up and spit him out. I think some of those board members would benefit from some time in the classroom, and I am not talking about the “First Colony” schools.
Dear in the district,
T-o-t-a-l-l-y agree!!. Jenny is the dictator of the district running everyone to the ground..Reality check was needed a long time ago for nearly every board member as well. Teachers get treated like dirt more so by the administrators who have free reign to violate state law every day.
At our campus, there are still meetings being held during conference periods–against state law. That is just one violation that can easily be proven.
Mr. Albright would clearly be an improvement, and his election might inspire reform efforts in other ISDs.
Jeff Daiell
Yes, school competition betweem parents PTO group of leadership raising funds for school needs, to keep are schools students moving forward and feel happy in school.
Bruce is right – It is time for a fresh perspective. Any system that accumulates debt like FBISD and does not have the results needs a change.
Here are some suggestions:
* Each school should be a recycle center. Not just paper – all recycables. Want lower taxes? – take your recycables to the school. Yes, the city/neighborhood has curb-side that they pay for. That should stop. Community would get a net gain because of the savings.
* School holidays need to be more parent friendly. Stop the half days and days off every six weeks. I have to work 12+ hours a day; there are going to be days when they are going to need to work extra hours to get their planning in.
* What about opening up competition within the district between schools. Let the parents choose which schools their kids should attend. Let each school operate as a private company and compete for students and ideasto maximize use of its assets – the school buildings. A private company would go broke if it let its major assets sit un-used for 3 months.
I definitely agree there needs to be reform in public education. The public school system is just a holding pen for most kids that just don’t give a rat’s behind about education and why should they – their parents don’t either.
Here are my suggestions:
1. Each school should be governed by a board of teachers (that work in the classroom) in partnership with the community. Get rid of all this bureaucratic bs and fat at the top. Other than support staff (attendance clerk, receptionist, etc.) all people in the school should be working with children.
2. Kids with emotional problems should not be allowed in the general population classroom. I am sorry that your child has problems, but my child should not have to be subjected to your child’s mental illness. By the way, I have NEVER met a young kid with an emotional disturbance label that got that way naturally. 95% of the time it is caused by environmental issues from their home life.
3. Kids that have low IQ’s should not be in a general ed classroom. I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but my kid that can learn grade level material should not be hindered by your child that can’t. Because most kids that are below grade level act up in class and monopolize the teacher’s attention because they can’t do the work. I want the teacher to spend time with my kid that is respectful and listens.
4. If a child can’t master the BASIC of grade level material, they should not be passed to the next grade level. Let’s face it, if they are in the 4th grade and still reading on a Kindergarten level then one of two things is happening: A)they have a learning disability or B) they have a low IQ and are not capable of functioning at an average level.
5. Parents should be held accountable for their own child’s learning. If the child is failing, the parent should be required to attend tutoring with the child. If the child is disruptive and has behavioral problems, the parents should be required to enroll in a family and parenting counseling/class.
The parents out there that care about their children’s education better take heed because it could be happening at your child’s school. Your good child could be stuck in a room where the teacher spends most of the day dealing with psychos. I am so glad my children are not in the public ed system anymore and my grandchildren won’t be either if I have anything to do with it.
To Texas Rex:
Recycling Center – I don’t know how we could construct that or manage that when we don’t even have the facilities for our students (portable buildings with cracks in the floors and rotting floors) and yes, this is in Fort Bend
School Holidays and Half Days – School is not a daycare, it is an educational facility. Parents need to be responsible for their children when they are not in school.
Teachers working 12+ hours a day -your quote-”I have to work 12+ hours a day; there are going to be days when they(I am supposing you mean the teachers) are going to need to work extra hours to get their planning in.”
I can bet that if I logged every hour that I spent outside of the school day in planning, preparing, and paperwork, that you would see that teachers REALLY don’t get all the time off you think they do. We do all of this with no extra pay so that we can go to work to have some kid call us a B****, kick the walls, turn over desks, and throw their books on the floor.
Much to people’s surprise, teachers actually have families of their own. Sometimes (please forgive us) we like to spend time with our own kids and spouses.
In the district…you are DEAD ON! I really wish that those that teach in the district would come out to speak up for teachers/students. I know that there are risk of losing jobs, but as a parent…I would love to have the time to discuss these matters with you so that I can become a better advocate for reform. All of your points are so very VALID. However, when a parent attends one of the “TOWN HALL Meetings” the load of manure that the Administration feeds is so thick.
Would love to get more info from you!
~Maria Bjorngjeld
As a resident, I’m wondering: When are all these half days you speak of? You also want teachers to work late to get planning done? Have you talked to any teachers about the time they spend planning? Because YOU work 12+ hours per day then everyone should have to do so? Do you not think that plenty of teachers and staff already work that much too?
12+ days? and do you get paid for those days? The hours teachers get paid are from 7:45 – 3:45. the fact is that many teachers stay at school EVERY DAY until 5:00 or 5:30 and we do not get paid for that over time. We are also REQUIRED to go to 14 hours of trainings during the summer which we have to plan our schedules around and do not get paid for. we have been told that the number of hours required each summer is expected to increase.
The half days you are speaking of for elementary schools happen twice a year when we meet with parents. Once a year we are required to stay until 7 pm in order to accomodate parents. Not to mention the Literacy nights, Math nights, and Science nights we are required to stay for. As far as holidays, most of the holidays we are off for are NATIONAL holidays are have been since I was a students in Fort bend 20 years ago. So get over it!
If we were to allow parents to choose where their kids go, how would students get there? Would you expect buses to take them across the city? Where would they all fit? That idea is ignorant and would be a logistical nightmare.
As far as Bruce Albright is concerned, it would be nice to finally have a board that was more concerned about the best way for students to learn than their own personal agendas.
This is THE GUY for job. GO Albrigh GO
You have my vote.
To save employees and TO IMPROVE FBISD BUDGET deficit a 50% salary wage cut against FBISD ADMIN. departments! Oppose HB62 82-TEXLEG http://www.capitol.state.tx.us
effecting home values by private FBCAD .
FBISD BOT Daniel Menendez incument has fail to improve FBISD hispanic students education . We voters are go to elect new leadership of FBISD cand. Bruce Albright. FBISD has voters has fail to elect good leadership in previous FBISD elections of three years.
Not sure about the Hispanic student comment. I believe the job of a Trustee is to be concerned about ALL students. Nonetheless, only 58% of Hispanic students passed all TAKS tests in 2007. In 2010 that number was 73%. The real driver behind test scores is not skin color or heritage, but economic status of the family. In 2007, 54% of Economically Disadvantaged students passed all tests. Last year 70% did. If you are concerned about academic progress, the numbers show that things have improved considerably under Mr. Menendez’ leadership. Of course, passing TAKS is a minimal benchmark. Since 2007, the percent of ED students who earned Commended scores on the Science TAKS has grown from 7% to 20%. Way to go teachers!
Yes they have imporved lowers scores and more bond debt. Not the kind of imporvement we need. Not to mention his support ofr the GSTC 27 + million dollar boondogle.
Why would davidreitz care what goes on in FBISD…he fled two years ago and new he was moving the December before the election he bowed out of…
When in Menendez’a campaign did he promise to improve Hispanics’ education/scores? I don’t recall that. In fact, why should ANY board member only concentrate on ONE racial group? That doesn’t seem fair or reasonable.
Stanmcgee, thanks for your insight. Fort Bend County political offices are mainly held by individuals with multiple conflicts of interest. It is embarassing as a relatively prosperous community to have to such a corrupt machine consuming our tax dollars for their own personal benefit. We need more people like Bruce and Jim Babb to win office so that we can improve our community instead of siphoning tax dollars to select individuals.
Bruce is exactly what this District needs. The Board currently serving has too many hidden and personal agendas, except Jim Babb. Jim Rice has his hands in the financial pocket of FBISD as an architect and that is a conflict of interest. Susan Hoenbaum (sp) is married to an administrator so how can she vote against the administration without casting a vote against her husband? That too is a clear conflict of interest. I would run again but I am so busy with other interests right now that I just can’t do it. Someone please step to the plate, defeat the “good ole boys” and the Ft.Bend Education Association (Steve Smelley’s wife runs it) and turn this district around. Whoever you are will get my vote, and many others who are fed up with what is going on with the lack of transparency and back door dealings.
I hope others emerge to run against position 1 & 5 incumbents (or the superintendents hand picked). I found this comment very refreshing given the poor communications practices this district central office engages in,
“We must be more responsive to the needs of the public and remember at all times, it is they who are paying for all this. The days of deliberate public deception by governmental agencies and their operatives must end during these tough times we now face.”
You can find complete access to Bruce Albright’s campaign @ http://www.brucealbright.com.
Nice website