December 14, 2021 Patron Presentation, Damon Barone

Greetings, Damon Barone, Alief ISD parent, taxpayer, and alumnus.  

At the October 20, 2020, school board meeting, while discussing agenda item #7, Director of Public Relations Kimberly Smith stated that the district went door to door for three days, specifically on September 30th, October 1st, and October 2nd, canvassing the school district for what you all called “missing” Alief ISD students.

Master Trustee Rick Moreno went on to state, “if only one student was found then all of the district’s efforts were worth it.” 

During the very same October 20, 2020, school board meeting Alief’s Deputy Superintendent of Business Charles Woods talked about the district losing 4,000 students from the previous school years enrollment, and that the greatest concerns were in kindergarten through sixth grade.

In fact, Mr. Woods stood at this podium and began crying because the Texas Education Agency was not going to continue funding the school district beyond the first 18 weeks of school for the students the district claimed they could not locate, but still wanted the federal government to pay Alief ISD for kids they clearly were not educating. 

Fast forward to October 24, 2021, to a story that became breaking news all around the country, eight-year-old Alief ISD student Kendrick Lee had been missing from school for an entire year because he was deceased in apartment #531 at the City Parc II at West Oaks apartment complex, with his three brothers, whose ages are 15, 9, and 7 years old (https://youtu.be/m57ZxIuYNVs

Authorities said that eight-year-old Kendrick had been deceased in the bedroom of the apartment since November of 2020, allegedly right before Alief ISD’s Thanksgiving break. 

One year prior to Alief student Kendrick Lee and his siblings truancy from multiple Alief ISD campuses, during a December 18, 2020 Channel 13 News report, investigative reporter Ted Oberg interviewed our Superintendent, Coach Henry David Chambers, and Ana Troya whom toted that the district had been going door to door looking for the districts “missing students” the entire year which 8 year old Kendrick Lee lay deceased with his three other siblings fending for themselves in an apartment that is 90 yards across the street from Alief Miller Intermediate school, 1 ½ miles from Alief Albright Middle school, 3 miles from the closest Alief ISD High School, and 4 ½ miles from the Alief ISD Administration building and this board room (https://youtu.be/SRQ4MMJBi8c 

As I drove to tonight’s school board meeting, I passed by a huge billboard on Highway 6 of Pastor/Doctor/Alief Trustee Greggory J. Patrick advertising his private school, Southwest Christian Community Academy, at 14880 Bellaire Blvd, within Alief ISD’s boundaries; specifically, at Trustee Patrick’s church/alleged home which is 4 miles from the Alief ISD Administration building and this board room. 

33% of Alief ISD’s elementary schools are currently in TEA’s improvement required status, because the schools have been failing campuses for six consecutive years; with two more elementary schools approaching TEA’s improvement required status, and not one tear has been shed. 

Yet you all stood up here and cried over funding because the district “lost” 4,000 students and you all may have to let go some of these high paid administrators who have zero direct contact with a single student, or some of the newly created positions Coach HD Chambers has created but whom still haven’t improved students’ academic outcomes.  

You all also sat up here and cried because Coach Chambers parents were in the audience at the September 21, 2021 school board meeting, and you all also campaigned to have Pastor Gregg Patrick serve on this Alief School Board while he runs a private school 4 miles from tonight’s board meeting and he competes for the same students, parents, teachers, and administrators that the district blames TEA for not funding  their education while the Pastor is charging those same Alief students to attend the private school that is at his home/church here in Alief. 

I have two questions for Texas Education Agency, parents, students, and community members, how long are we going to continue to allow the Alief ISD school board and the baseball coach disguised as a superintendent/politician to continue failing our students; and more importantly at what cost will it take for someone to finally get involved and say enough is enough, the students, parents, and community of Alief deserve better?

It is time for New Voices with a New Direction to stand up and take back our school district from these professional politicians, the public relations spin department, and fake advocates who have an agenda different from Alief ISD Board Policy AE Local.

Damon Barone, Alief ISD parent, taxpayer, and alumnus.