Two days ago, the Chronicle reported, very fairly I thought, about the decision of HISD administrator Margaret Stroud to retire after the results of an HISD investigation into her son’s employment with the district. She will repay the salary he was paid and the investigation has been forwarded to the DA for any further consideration.
At this point I want to add that it is not uncommon in public education circles for a situation like this to be hushed up, with the offender either being promoted or retired — with a handsome severance package. That did not happen in this case. Stroud is retiring and will make restitution.
Today a Chronicle editorial blames Dr. Saavedra for being too lenient:
Despite documented wrongdoing, Saavedra allowed Stroud the course of retiring with no penalty other than returning the money her son had been paid. That is a generous response to “critical lapses of judgment” that undermined the district’s integrity and directed tax dollars to an unqualified family member. Saavedra noted that HISD’s findings will be turned over to the Harris County district attorney’s office for review.
I would be curious to know what the Chronicle‘s editorial board thinks Dr. Saavedra should have done. Stroud’s retiring and repaying the money. The investigation’s findings are being forwarded to the DA. Dr. Saavedra doesn’t have the power to put her in jail, and I doubt seriously he has the power to punish her financially any more than the restitution.
What does the Chronicle think should have happened?
Also, I think the editorial writer makes quite a few assumptions that weren’t reported in the story. The editorial is written so that readers think Stroud initiated the contracts, knew about the funding arrangements and approved everything. That’s not what was reported in Jason Spencer’s story, and in fact, the interpretation I took from Spencer’s story is that Stroud’s lack of oversight which led to this situation was one of the problems. Is this editorial breaking some news that Spencer didn’t report?
And then the very last paragraph made me laugh-out-loud:
Houstonians must hope that Saavedra will soon be able to initiate solutions to festering HISD problems before they become front page headlines.
Actually that should be reworded a bit, because it’s the front page headlines that have been known to lead to problems with HISD-initiated solutions.
