Humble ISD school board elections

School board elections will be coming up on us shortly, May 9th.  Last year I became involved in it more than I ever had before. We had quite a few vying for Jim Eggers position last year. This year will be totally different. We have 3 incumbents, Dan Huberty Position 1, Email Mr. Huberty’s profile, Keith Lapeze Position 2, Email Mr. Lapeze’s profile and Bonnie Longnion Position 3, Email Dr. Longnion’s profile.  Mr. Lapeze has a challenger, Aquarius Terry Johnson and Dr. Longnion is being challenged by Vernon Reed, 45, a business manager of a paralegal firm who previously ran in the 2008 special election for the vacant Position 5 seat, losing to Brent Engelage. At this time, I feel running against an incumbent would be an up hill battle. Unless the trustee is totally incompetent, and in this case I don’t feel that is true, it would be a huge waste of time, money and resources.

A candidate forum will be held Tuesday, March 31, at 7p.m. at the Administration Building, 20200 Eastway Village. It is being hosted by the Humble ISD Council of PTA’s and the Humble Association of Texas Professional Educators.

Questions you may want to ask school board candidates.

1. In what areas are our schools doing well? Not doing so well? And what are your plans to improve those areas?
2. What are the biggest challenges facing our schools and what are your plans to address them.?
3. How will you ensure our students graduate with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed?
4. How will you meet the needs or diverse students regardless of culture, language or abilities?
5. What will you do to help keep children in school and engaged in the learning process?
6. What are you doing to address the drop out issue in our district?
7. How will you attract recruit and retain good teachers in the classrooms?
8. How will you ensure that all children get a good start in school?
9. How will you help children transition from elementary to middle school and then from middle school into high school and from high school into higher education or the workforce?
10. What will you do to advocate and ensure support for public education in our community?
11. What are you doing to address our fast growth district?

You can read more about the races here. Early voting begins April 27.

Dan Huberty

Keith Lapeze

Dr. Bonnie Longnion

Sound familiar?

‘Rally in Tally’ to support education

DAYTONA BEACH — Dozens of Volusians will travel to Tallahassee on Wednesday in an attempt to persuade Florida lawmakers the state’s public schools need better funding.

The rest sounds about like our mess. I figure President Obama will hopefully change a lot of this going on. We may not rebound as soon as everyone would like, but if we educate our young better, maybe we won’t get into these messes. Ya think?

While the PTA took the lead in organizing this week’s rally, representatives of other education-related groups also are joining the effort, including presidents of unions that represent Volusia teachers and school office workers.

Those groups spearheaded a local campaign that collected more than 100,000 pennies to highlight a proposal from the Florida Education Association, their state affiliate, to increase the state sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent for three years to raise more money for education.

Are we up to the task?