Save SBISD reached out to John Perez after he was elected to Position 6 asking him to provide us with a position statement on SBISD election procedures.
Mr. Perez had been clear in his campaign that he opposed any conversion to Single-Member Districts, but was gracious to provide us with this affirming statement earlier today.
John Perez said:
I have and will continue to fight to keep SBISD an at-large district.
The excellence within our schools came about through the at-large structure. Our district’s track record of governance does not support a move away from an at-large structure. Adopting a single-member or even a hybrid structure makes our district, our students, and our families vulnerable to policy and infrastructure stagnation.
Think how hard it would be for us to push anything through if Trustees were only focused on “their” schools. The unintended, but very real, consequences and pitfalls of SMDs can be observed in a neighboring SMD district who struggles to provide comprehensive and effective instruction to its students.
Our district is small in comparison to other urban districts across the state and city, which warrants additional caution against efforts to divide our district’s ability to govern and manage already-constrained funds for the greater good and whole of SBISD.
Lastly, we must remain vigilant to political agendas driving SBISD away from an at-large structure with gerrymandered sub-districts serving partisan interests. Why would we reduce and limit the talent pool for each Board of Trustee seat?
Excellence has no geographic, ethnic or gender boundaries – and I believe I uniquely proved this point on Election Day.
Again, I will oppose every effort today and tomorrow to change SBISD from an at-large district.
Save SBISD would like to thank Trustee-elect Perez for taking the time to campaign and to win, and for standing with us in the fight to preserve our exemplary district and its effective form of governance.
We maintain a website with the positions of each trustee here.
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