What's the Matter With Katy ISD?

Katy super: Why he gets big bucks - Rick Casey
DA investigating Katy school trustee race
Controvery clouds incumbent sweep of KISD elections

School board elections are little-noticed creatures in the electoral spectrum. Probably doesn't help much when so many are conducted mid-year. But it also doesn't help much when a school official sends out an email informing teachers to vote for incumbent administrators so that "someone we might not prefer to get elected" stays unelected.

Much has been made of how religious right groups attempt the occassional takeover of school boards versus how teachers and education bureaucrats attempt to field their own overly friendly school board members. In the case of the Katy ISD elections, it should be noted, the one candidate this points to as being aggreived is one A.J. Durrani. Lil full disclosure here ... AJ has been actively involved in Democratic Party politics recently and was a candidate for DNC Delegate at the state convention. Don't recall that he went, but he's been doing great work in the Katy area for voter registration and GOTV efforts. He also finished about 15% behind the incumbent, Judith Snyder.

At issue is the rather clear and blatant violation of the Texas Ethics Code that violates political advertising via internal mail systems. Like Rick Casey, I don't see how the Ft. Bend DA can devote more than 20 minutes to such a case without realizing the obvious. Slightly bigger problem is that whatever internal disciplinary actions are taken would be confidential ... so there's no telling whether or not any such actions would even be doled out.

Way bigger problem is realizing that if people running the schools are this nervous about challengers running for School Board, then there must be a reason. Doesn't matter if it's Katy ISD or any other ISD in the great state of Texas. Hats off to AJ Durani for running an active campaign for the school board. Methinks he's been handed a bushel full of campaign material for taking it to the Katy board next time around if he chooses to run.