The board of managers for Houston ISD approved all cooperative vendor awards up to $870 million retrospectively from August 11, 2023, to the present.
According to the school system, HISD Superintendent Mike Miles already acknowledged that his administration did not obtain board clearance for the contracts it had spent during the previous 16 months. This blunder, which Miles described as being made in good faith and without malice, is currently being fixed.
Only Rolando Martinez voted against the expenditure, and Cassandra Auzenne Bandy abstained, while seven of the nine members supported it.
Board policy was broken by the administration by not getting previous board approval for these contracts. Of the $870 million in agreements, HISD has spent around $200 million, according to a Houston Landing study.
Miles has the purchasing power to make planned purchases, but acquisitions over $1 million require board approval. The board agenda for December 10 states that the Miles administration made multiple purchases totaling more than $1 million without the board of managers’ consent.
In a closed board meeting, which is not accessible to the general public, the board deliberated on this agenda item.
The internal audit team determined that all procedures were appropriate, and the results will be publicized, according to Janette Garza Lindner, head of HISD’s Audit Committee.
Just to let our community know that we did use our internal audit team to examine the purchases, I wanted to make sure that was acknowledged.
According to Board President Audrey Momanaee, the approval process will undergo modifications, including a thorough audit of the procurement procedure that will start right away and be overseen by the audit committee. Follow-ups and the adoption of a new regulation that calls for further legal assessment of the procurement process and other process enhancements will be part of the audits.
Additionally, the board decided to appoint board vice president Ric Campo as president, taking Momanaee’s place as vice president.
Context
An agenda item regarding the purchases made since August 2023 was tabled by the board in December 2023.
The agenda item, according to elected HISD trustee Dani Hernandez, is alarming and puzzling because purchases from August 2023 made it to the agenda without even being approved, meaning the funds had already been allocated.
“This sum of money is enormous,” Hernandez remarked. I am fully aware that HISD must make financial expenditures, but as an elected trustee, I was always informed in advance and promptly, and the cooperation agreements were smaller. The same vendor has several contracts worth more than a million dollars. The policy is very clear: the board is in charge of financial responsibility.
What Miles said
“Those projects were not submitted to the board because the team that reviews projects and purchases misunderstood that purchases associated with purchasing cooperatives did not require board approval,” Miles said at a press conference.
The purchasing process, particularly cooperative purchases, involves a number of processes that were correctly performed, with the exception of not receiving board clearance, according to Miles. There were no laws
Every purchase, he said, underwent the required procurement procedure and was reported to the board on a quarterly basis. According to Miles, the board instructed HISD’s external auditor to examine the projects and purchases prior to the Christmas break, and the auditor found no violations.
Miles stated that in order to correct the mistake, HISD will appoint a lawyer to oversee future contract approvals and procurements, carry out a quarterly compliance audit, and notify district executives of any modifications to board policy.
What the community said
In the wake of a Houston Landing investigative news story, HISD parents, educators, and students addressed the matter and talked about potential financial malfeasance. Concerns regarding HISD’s spending and community involvement were voiced by parents, educators, and students throughout the discussion.
The disclosure follows over a year of ongoing complaints from the HISD community about a number of concerns, including lack of community engagement, frequent school leadership changes, board transparency, and ongoing problems with the New Education System (NES) curriculum.
Maller Sarah, one of numerous speakers who spoke about the procurement agenda item, stated, “I have a dream that we’ll reclaim our schools from the hands of Mike Miles, who spent nearly a billion dollars without the approval of the school board.” At this juncture, accountability and transparency will determine how we go.
According to Michelle Williams, president of the Houston Education Association, a teachers’ organization, this is not the case.
According to Williams, Miles is under contract and is trying to promote the idea that he did not violate any laws. The problem is that he violated the contract. Due to his numerous infractions, his contract ought to be terminated.
Miles said HISD will take appropriate action if the need arises, but when asked if he had taken any steps yet, he said, Not yet.
Victoria Fredette, a speaker, highlighted HISD s lack of transparency.
“I apologize,” Mike Miles remarked, “but it’s okay because no laws were broken,” Fredette said. Given the past year and a half of total disarray under the present District administration, this sets a rather low bar for acceptance, responsibility, and honesty. However, what can we expect?
