Katy ISD
Voters on Saturday ousted Katy ISD’s politically conservative board president within the aftermath of controversial gender insurance policies he supported.
Victor Perez misplaced his place 1 seat to longtime educator James Cross, in accordance with full however unofficial election outcomes, which present Cross obtained 58% of the vote within the college district west of Houston.
His win may sign a shift in what’s thought-about a extremely politicized college board. Perez led initiatives to take away books about gender id from elementary college and junior excessive libraries, together with a coverage requiring college students to make use of restrooms that correspond with their organic intercourse.
Cross, who spent greater than 20 years within the college district serving in numerous positions, mentioned he hopes to stroll again the politicized nature of faculty boards.
“It’s imagined to be a non-partisan place since you run to serve each household on this district and never those that line up with you politically, however all people,” Cross mentioned.
Within the different Katy ISD trustee election, Lance Redmon obtained greater than 75% of the vote towards two challengers to retain his place 2 seat. Redmon was first elected in 2019 and voted towards the gender fluidity coverage — together with Daybreak Champagne and Rebecca Fox — earlier than voting in help of the 2024 coverage that eliminated books about gender id from elementary and junior excessive libraries and requires parental permission for highschool college students to test them out.
Perez campaigned on conservative rules, reeling within the endorsements of right-leaning political motion committees.
“I need everybody to really feel like they’ve a voice with me as a board member,” Cross mentioned.
In a press release to Houston Public Media, Perez on Monday mentioned he intends to remain engaged by persevering with to carry the brand new college board accountable.
“Over the previous three years I’ve met and gotten to know many mother and father and devoted, fantastic academics and employees,” Perez mentioned.
He was first elected to the college board in 2022 after working for greater than 20 years as a chief monetary officer for oilfield providers corporations. He had three youngsters and 4 grandchildren within the college district.
“We’ve got a great college district,” Perez mentioned. “Nevertheless, I didn’t come out of retirement, and make the non-public sacrifices which can be crucial, to only take up a seat on the board and to ‘go alongside to get alongside,’ however to be an agent of change to enhance Katy ISD – to be a voice for folks, shield our kids, present sturdy oversight over the superintendent and the district, and enhance the job satisfaction of our overworked academics.”
Perez was one in all 4 college board members in 2023 to approve the district’s controversial gender fluidity coverage, which requires district directors to inform college students’ mother and father in the event that they determine as transgender or ask to be known as by pronouns that don’t correspond to their organic intercourse.
Perez throughout a 2023 college board assembly mentioned the gender fluidity coverage aimed to advertise parental authority, and that utilizing pronouns was a approach of social transitioning youngsters. His feedback drew the ire of pupil activists, like Cameron Samuels, a 2022 Katy ISD graduate and co-founder of College students Engaged in Advancing Texas.
“Now with the election outcomes from this weekend, we all know that the group doesn’t stand for this,” Samuels informed Houston Public Media on Monday. “We don’t stand for bigotry. In Katy ISD, we’re a various group and so I used to be upset three years in the past when our group gave into this.”
Samuels mentioned a rise in pupil activism amid concerns of controversial gender insurance policies within the district reiterates the group’s rejection of partisan college boards.
RELATED: Katy ISD dealing with federal Title IX investigation over gender fluidity coverage
Katy ISD trustees in 2023 additionally voted to droop the acquisition of library books and place newly bought books into storage till they may very well be reviewed for questionable content material. Trustees additionally gave themselves the authority to take away current books in the event that they assume they’re inappropriate for college kids.
Opponents of these initiatives have mentioned they aim the LGBTQ+ group.
Katy ISD, which serves about 94,000 college students, is a fast-growing suburb west of Houston.
On Monday, Cross mentioned he hopes to carry again discussions on the gender fluidity coverage.
“If we actually sit down and take a look at what’s greatest on this and we do it with not an agenda in thoughts, however simply what does this appear like for a kid, for a young person, and what would that appear like for a mother or father,” Cross mentioned. “If we will come again to the desk, and simply ask what’s affordable for everyone concerned.”
Opponents of the coverage final yr mentioned insurance policies that out college students who could also be transgender may put them in harmful and undesirable conditions.
“We received children which can be in troublesome relationships with mother and father,” Cross mentioned. “On the finish of the day, our primary simply is to guard youngsters.”
