Cy-Fair ISD board, parents grapple with curriculum changes
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas -- Bob Covey served on the Cy-Fair ISD school board for 16 years until he and two other longtime incumbents were unseated in 2021 by candidates who ran on conservative values with endorsements and financial contributions from partisan groups.
The video above is from a previous report.
Two years later, three additional like-minded candidates won their respective seats.
Public school boards are nonpartisan, according to the Texas Association of School Boards, and Covey, a 50-year Republican, said he never thought politics had a place in public schools.
But Covey spoke out on June 17 when six trustees doubled down on a previous decision to omit climate change and vaccine content from textbooks.
"There wasn't a single speaker up there that was in support of them cutting those chapters," he said.
In a nutshell
House Bill 1605, passed in 2023, permits school boards to adopt instructional materials that aren't approved by the State Board of Education. CFISD's board voted to remove chapters from textbooks approved by the majority-Republican state board and by CFISD educators.
"Education is supposed to be about providing the very best up-to-date and factual information to our students and [making] sure that students are able to make decisions and be critical thinkers," trustee Natalie Blasingame said on June 17.
Emily Witt, senior communications and media strategist at public education advocacy group Texas Freedom Network, said many policies passed by local school boards start at the state level.
Library book policies and school chaplains, among other issues, have also been discussed in response to 2023 bills.
SEE ALSO: Cy-Fair ISD STAAR results show decreases in passage rates among grades 3-8
"[If] school boards see it at the [Texas] Legislature, they certainly know that they have allies above them," Witt said.
Since Blasingame, Scott Henry, and Lucas Scanlon were elected in 2021, the board has changed the way meetings are run, selected a new superintendent, and altered several district policies.
Per board operating procedures updated in May, media requests must go through Henry, the board president, who did not respond to an interview request.
The board's influence
Nov. 2021: Natalie Blasingame, Scott Henry and Lucas Scanlon are elected.
Aug. 2022: The board adopts CFISD's new character education program.
Jan. 2023: A new policy requires educators to categorize all books by age level.
Nov. 2023: Nonpartisan incumbent Julie Hinaman is re-elected alongside new conservative trustees Todd LeCompte, Justin Ray and Christine Kalmbach.
Dec. 2023: Trustees create five subcommittees, allowing them to discuss business outside of public meetings.
March 2024: In a 5-2 decision, the board votes against allowing chaplains to be employed by the district.
May-June 2024: The board approves budget cuts, science textbook omissions, and policy updates clarifying the board has ultimate authority over library books.
Meet the players
Campaign finance reports show that 2021 and 2023 elections featured tens of thousands of donation dollars from political action committees, including both local nonpartisan groups as well as conservative groups such as CyFair4Liberty, Conservative Republicans of Harris County and Texans for Educational Freedom. Community Impact reached out to these groups but received no response.
In the 2019 election, three of the four open positions were uncontested. The contested candidates each spent $1,500-$2,900 on their campaigns. According to campaign finance reports, most funding for 2021 and 2023 elections came from PACs.
Local nonpartisan PACs have supported Julie Hinaman, among other candidates, in recent years. Friends for CFISD raised about $29,000 in 2019; ALL4CFISD raised about $76,000 in 2023.
Conservative Republicans of Harris County endorsed Blasingame, Henry, and Scanlon in 2021 and spent nearly $25,000 on advertising for them.
PAC support grew in 2023, with CyFair4Liberty pouring more than $78,000 into the election, supporting candidates including Todd LeCompte, Justin Ray, and Christine Kalmbach.
The organization is focused on "[taking] back our republic and [preserving] our liberty ... [by fighting] to win every election from MUDs and HOAs to school boards, Texas House and U.S. Congressional districts," according to the website.
Most CFISD trustees have prior experience running for office, including serving on municipal utility district and homeowners association boards, at the city level, and as previous candidates for school board or state representative seats.
How we got here
About 55,000 voters cast ballots in 2023 for the highest turnout for a CFISD board election in recent history-16.81%, according to the Harris County Clerk's Office.
At the same time, 83.19% of registered voters in CFISD did not cast ballots. Witt said she believes despite their importance, many don't pay attention to local school board elections.
Harris County GOP Chair Cindy Siegel said she believes more conservative candidates being elected is a result of conservative parents feeling their perspective isn't being considered. The Harris County GOP has endorsed all current CFISD board members except Hinaman.
"The concern-[for] a lack of better words, it's overused-but [the] more woke agenda," Siegel said. "That their children are being exposed to things that they haven't wanted them to be exposed to; that ... their viewpoints should be heavily weighted in how their kid is educated."
What they're saying
"[Parents] felt like their school boards weren't listening to them. ... We would hear concerns about curriculum and how the dollars were being spent and what was in the library for their kids." - Cindy Siegel, Harris County GOP Chair
"[Trustees] say you want transparency. You talk about parent rights, but yet you take actions that show just the opposite of what you say." - Debbie Blackshear, former CFISD trustee, at the June 17 board meeting
Why it matters
This spring, Blasingame led the effort to omit "controversial" chapters from science textbooks for the 2024-25 school year.
"When we teach our children ideas like uncontrolled human population growth can deplete resources, ... it's important that we make sure that we look at what do we know and what is the evidence before us," Blasingame said June 17.
The board heard from dozens of parents, educators, and students during the meetings in which these efforts were discussed. None vocalized support for this motion, but the board voted 6-1 with Hinaman opposed.
Megan Costello, a former Cypress Lakes High School teacher, served on the curriculum writing and instructional material committees that approved the textbooks. She said she felt the board did not value her expertise and resigned from the district just weeks after the board awarded her a "Bringing out the Best" award-a monthly recognition a handful of employees received this year.
"Today, I stand before you as a former teacher of this district that I grew up in and dedicated 21 of my 26 years of teaching to. I left because of you. You let me down, and you let down our students," she told the board on June 17. "Your lack of transparency and obvious lack of content knowledge showed that you had already made up your minds in order to further your own agendas."
Also on June 17, the board approved budget cuts for fiscal year 2024-25, but CFISD is still expected to have a $77.5 million shortfall.
RELATED: Cy-Fair ISD will cut more than half of librarian positions due to $138 million budget deficit
Public schools did not receive an increase in state funding last legislative session as Republican leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott, pushed for a voucher bill that would allow taxpayer dollars to cover private school tuition, effectively taking funds away from public schools, officials said.
"My job is to make sure we get across the finish line a piece of legislation that will return mom and dad to being in charge of their child's education," Abbott said during a March 2023 visit to Cypress Christian School.
CFISD Superintendent Doug Killian said he encourages parents to be involved in their children's education by establishing relationships with their teachers and campus administrators.
"It's really important to understand where the challenges are in the school district so you can get involved and help or be an advocate one way or the other," he said in an interview with Community Impact.
Dates to know
Nov. 5: Election determines who will represent Cy-Fair at the state level
Jan. 14, 2025: 89th Texas Legislature convenes in Austin
July 19-Aug. 18, 2025: Candidates can file to run for a seat on the CFISD board
Nov. 4, 2025: Three CFISD board seats are on the ballot; winners serve four-year terms
Atirikta Kumar contributed to this report.
This article comes from our ABC13 partners at Community Impact Newspapers.
