academic turmoil. HISD remains on solid financial footing and received the equivalent of a “B” grade for academic performance in 2018.

The possibility of losing local control over the district has loomed over HISD for months, as news of the investigation became public and the district faced possible sanctions tied to chronically low-performing schools. Leading education and community organizations have been split on whether to embrace state intervention, which could help heal years of division among HISD board members, but at the cost of surrendering local control to Texas bureaucrats.

The odds of HISD facing replacement of the district’s school board are heightened by the fact that TEA officials already have placed a conservator in the district for the past three years due to poor academic outcomes at several schools.and distrust. Conflict within the board reached a boiling point in the summer and fall of 2018 when trustees clashed over whether to retain Lathan, who took over as interim superintendent following Richard Carranza’s abrupt departure to become chancellor of New York City public schools.

Five board members had grown particularly frustrated with Lathan, believing she had not been responsive to their desires for the district and failed to adequately protect them from a threat posed by a community activist.

Through interviews and a review of text messages, state investigators determined the five trustees — Board President Diana Dávila, Holly Maria Flynn Vilaseca, Sergio Lira, Elizabeth Santos and Anne Sung — secretly met with former HISD superintendent Abelardo Saavedra in two separate groups to coordinate ousting Lathan and installing him