Although the controversy surrounding a trustee’s comments on the LGBTQ community is ongoing, the Conroe ISD board of trustees was still able to approve school improvement plans and hear attendance zone changes at its Dec. 17 meeting.

Inman’s fallout

Several residents renewed calls for trustee Dale Inman’s resignation for his comments calling the LGBTQ community “one of the most vile, hate-filled communities [he has] ever come across” and comparing the community to Middle Eastern terrorist groups.

CISD parent Emily Harris said Inman’s comments were homophobic, xenophobic, and in violation of the district’s anti-harassment policy.

A Woodlands High School sophomore only identified as Ty said although he is not a member of the LGBTQ community, Inman’s comments were “distasteful.”

“School is hard already,” he said. “If the goal is to minimize stress put on students, it’s not very helpful for people who are supposed to represent us are not including us and speaking out publicly against us.”

No residents spoke in defense of Inman, unlike several other meetings.

Improvement plans

The trustees approved improvement plans for both San Jacinto and Creighton elementary schools. Both schools received a D rating from the Texas Education Agency for the 2018-19 school year, earning the lowest scores in the district.

Debbie Phillips, the district's assistant superintendent of elementary education, said the two focus improvement areas for both schools are objective-driven daily lesson plans with formative assessments and data-driven instruction.

“[Daily lesson planning] is all about how teachers plan together. How they plan their time, how they pace their lessons, how they differentiate for students of different levels,” Phillips said. “[Data-driven instruction] is the strengths of teacher teams coming together, analyzing data, identifying areas of focus for students and then targeting instruction for them.”

The improvement plan also includes additional staff added to each school, including full-time positive behavior support liaisons and Lone Star governance coaches.

Attendance boundary changes

Ahead of the August 2020 opening of Stockton Junior High in the Conroe feeder zone, Deputy Superintendent Chris Hines has been leading the attendance boundary committee in crafting possible changes and soliciting community feedback.

Although a final recommendation will be made in January, Hines said the committee is leaning toward Scenario B, which would rezone all of Washington Junior High to Stockton and Peet junior highs, as well as large portions of Peet to Stockton. Washington will be repurposed as Washington High School.

“Scenario B is very popular with the committee as far as what we looked at,” Hines said.

Stockton’s opening would also require rezoning the intermediate schools in the feeder zone, including Cryar, Bozeman and Travis. Hines said the committee prefers Scenario 2, which would rezone a small section of Cryar to Bozeman.

Parents and community members can view the scenarios on CISD’s website. The final recommendation will be approved in January.