HISD buried the contracts, maybe trying to sneak them through?

The following is from an email that I received from Houston Landing.

How the story of HISD leaders failing to get approval for $870 million came to light An eagled-eyed source brought the issue to our attention, prompting a district response

Asher Lehrer-Small HOUSTON ISD REPORTER Sometimes, important stories are hidden in plain sight. That was the case with $870 million in spending that Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles’ administration greenlit over the past 16 months without receiving required board approval.  The purchase agreements — 142 pages of them — were buried in December’s board meeting agenda. But, admittedly, I didn’t clock them as unusual until receiving a tip from a source. HISD regularly includes a long list of vendor contracts in its board agendas that tend to get approved without fanfare. That was the case even before the state takeover. What made these contracts unusual, however, was their date: Some stretched back to August 2023. After looking into it, I came to understand that all of the purchase agreements were supposed to have come before the board earlier, but hadn’t. Miles’ administration was asking for retroactive approval. I asked HISD leaders about this Friday. On Monday, before HISD responded to our questions, Miles got ahead of the story by posting a video about the issue and scheduling a news conference.  Miles said the purchase agreements hadn’t gone to the board because of an honest misunderstanding of district policy. He also said an external auditor’s recent report on the agreements had come back clean. From some vantage points, the issue isn’t grave. It didn’t affect the district’s budget or student learning, Miles said. Board member Ric Campo said the purchase agreements themselves didn’t raise any red flags: “These were things that would have got approved without any question.” But from others, it’s a massive policy breach that kept the public from having the chance to weigh in on hundreds of millions of dollars in spending plans. Some elected trustees and community members have said the issue represents a serious failure of transparency and procedure. You can decide which way you see the issue. Either way, we believe the public ought to know the details of what happened. But without a key tip, this article may never have come to fruition. Your insights fuel accountability reporting. Keep ’em coming.