The fallout continues over Katy ISD Superintendent Alton Frailey’s controversial comments last week about school employees living within the district and not being registered to vote.
During a staff orientation presentation in the Merrell Center, Frailey noted more than 8,173 district employees lived within the district boundaries and were eligible to vote.
He also noted 4,421 of those employees were currently registered to vote, while 3,752 were not.
He also pointed out the number of people who typically voted in previous bond elections, along with the pass-fail margin of those votes.
“There was a clear message. If district employees voted as a bloc, we could control the outcome of the election,” one veteran teacher said. “He kept saying, ‘Let’s all think about that.’”
Now, retired educator Bill Proctor has issued a public statement calling the district’s efforts to check on employees’ voter registration “bordering on workplace harassment” and “totally unethical.” He also said Frailey’s actions showed “extremely bad judgment.”
Proctor also called on Frailey to issue an apology to school employees and district residents.
Proctor’s statement, in its entirety, was as follows:
“In all of my thirty four years of working at the local and state level in education, I never once heard of an Administration of a district, community college or university checking the voting records of its employees. If not outright workplace harassment, this practice is totally unethical. Whether stated or not in Superintendent Frailey’s presentation, there is surely an implication that all employees should register to vote. Americans have the opportunity to register to vote, but there is nothing in the Constitution of the United States of America that requires citizens to register to vote. The decision to register is a personal freedom.
“Not only can a person obtain the voter registration status of those eligible to vote in the county or residence, their vote by party can be obtained for how they vote in primary elections for as long as they have voted in primaries. It is not within the realm of an employer to infringe on this personal freedom. I believe that Superintendent Frailey owes the employees of the district an apology as well as all the residents of the district. We do not know if he has obtained information concerned with those eligible to vote but have not registered for all the residents of the Katy ISD service area.
“I do not know if any employee will file a harassment suit against the Superintendent or an ethics violation but I am sure that a highly educated person like Superintendent Frailey is guilty of extremely bad judgment in this instance.”
A retired educator, Proctor has more than thirty years of experience at the local, state and national level in education. He served in Florida as a vice president of a community college and assistant executive director of the Florida Community College System.
Proctor also served as executive director of the Florida Postsecondary Education Planning Commission for 14 years, and executive director of the Florida Council for Education Policy, Research and Improvement for five years.
InstantNewsKaty has requested a comment about the statement from Frailey. He has not responded to that request.
RESPOND!!!! Are you kidding, what’s he going to say? He screwed up and has tossed another issue into the debate. He is making this election “personal” and that is a major mistake.
People might ask why he has to push so hard for a “yes” vote to this bond. If it is a good deal for our students and taxpayers, why worry about anything? Just go vote on Tuesday Alton and rest assured that everyone is with you.
Mr. Frailey is pushing for this bond because he was brought here to pass one. (I know that because there is no other qualification that he holds.) If he fails, he may be out of a job.
It’s that simple.
Let me see if I understand your comments correctly.
I we don’t want the bond vote “NO.”
If we want a new superintendent, vote “NO.”
If we want a new BOT, vote “NO.”
Gosh, don’t rush me, I’m thinking……