IT’S WORKING! THE KINDERS AGREED, PARTIALLY!

Sunday night (April 23) we received an email from HSPVA Friends with a letter from the Kinder Foundation attached. Here’s a link (two pages). https://www.dropbox.com/s/gamjx5ljm5a15u7/KinderHSPVA_PetitionResponse_042317%20reverse%20order.pdf?dl=0 The Kinder Foundation wrote Friday (April 21) to Superintendent Carranza at HISD saying they will release HISD from the naming provisions of the contract, while continuing to provide the money. This is a HUGE step and we want you to give a giant shout out, all together now THANK YOU, NANCY AND RICHARD KINDER! YOU LISTENED! YOU ARE TWO REMARKABLE HOUSTONIANS! There are some devils in the details here. The release addressed to Carranza rather passively leaves it up to him to decide whether to accept the Kinders’ offer. It sets up an all-or-nothing choice. Either the Kinders get no recognition at all, or Carranza replies, we couldn’t possibly accept this. We made a deal with you and we stand by that—in which case we all are back to Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. Once again, Carranza comes under pressure between the wealthy citizens HISD hopes will become a new source of funding for the district, and protecting the fine name of our one-of-a-kind nationally recognized HSPVA. HSPVA Friends’ letter to us, after thoroughly scolding the petitioners (“uninformed” we are not), finally gets to their point, which is that they will tell HISD NOT to take the Kinders up on their offer to release the naming rights. Talking to HISD is where Friends feels on safe ground. Last October, that deck was very stacked. You should know just how stacked. Last night we added a page our website to publish an article detailing the Six Days from announcement to vote. If you can’t take the time to read all of it, just open the links to the emails and other documents. The thousands of pages of emails we received from HISD are primarily with HSPVA Friends and HISD school staff, parents, alumni, and trustees. They tell the story on their own. http://www.kindergiveitback.org/how-did-that-happen.html Nonetheless, Superintendent Carranza needs to hear from the community. You can write to him at hisdsuperintendent@houstonisd.org. It does not matter if you don’t live in Houston. The original name change deal makes Houston look like a place where everything is for sale, even our cultural history. The release of the name makes the Kinders look great and erases that initial mistake. HISD is one of the largest school districts in the country, and this deal is setting precedent. He will care how this looks to everyone, not just Houstonians. All HISD board members’ emails can be found here: http://www.houstonisd.org/domain/10786#finder You can write to boardservices@houstonisd.org and put “ALL TRUSTEES” in the subject line. They will forward it to all nine trustees. Write to Mr. Carranza also. And please share, post, email and spread the petition every chance you get. Clearly, 800 signatures and those fantastically positive “why I signed” comments you all are writing have made an impact. More signatures will help us to have a greater impact. We at Kindergiveitback.org will focus our energy on the Kinders, asking them for a stronger statement to HISD about keeping HSPVA’s name untouched. We DO NOT want them to have no recognition at all. That’s not the right precedent either. We hope they will take the name of the new Black Box theater and leave the Denney, the Denney.