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What’s new in this story
- The Houston Landing reported earlier this year that Humble ISD’s trustees are concentrated in whiter, more-affluent parts of the district.
- A proposed change to the district’s election system that could have brought more diversity to the board was quickly shelved by trustees.
- Today, the district faces a lawsuit alleging its election system disadvantages Latino voters.
A former Humble ISD Spanish teacher is suing the Humble Independent School District, alleging its election system violates the Voting Rights Act by preventing Hispanic voters from electing their preferred school board candidates.
The federal lawsuit against Humble adds to a growing number of districts facing legal challenges to their “at-large” election systems, in which trustees can live anywhere in the district and are elected by all voters. It also comes several months after Humble trustees shot down a proposal to discuss voluntarily switching their system to one that could have yielded more diversity.
The firm Brewer Storefront filed the lawsuit Thursday on behalf of Judith Bautista, a Mexican-American parent and former Humble ISD Spanish teacher. Bautista intends to run for Humble’s board in the May 2025 election while currently living in an area of the district that lacks a local trustee.
The population of the fast-growing, 47,500-student district is roughly one-third Hispanic, one-third white and one-quarter Black. A Latino resident has never been elected to Humble’s board. Currently, five trustees are white and two are Black.
“Regrettably, the diverse ethnic and racial makeup of Humble ISD is not reflected in its elected Board of Trustees — who live in a cluster in the predominantly white (and higher income) areas within Humble ISD,” the lawsuit states.
As a remedy, the suit seeks the court to mandate that Humble ISD adopt “single-member districts,” an election system that breaks up a district into smaller geographic areas, with one elected official chosen by residents of each area.
Proponents of the single-member system say it allows voters to elect people that intimately understand their community’s and school’s needs. Critics, however, argue that trustees become too focused on their own area, at the expense of what’s best for the whole district.
Humble ISD spokesperson Jamie Mount said “the district will respond back to the lawsuit through the legal process.” Efforts to reach Bautista and her attorney were not immediately successful.
A Houston Landing analysis found that across the Greater Houston region, at-large school boards have led to less representation for lower-income areas, including Humble ISD’s south side.
READ MORE: These Houston school boards have few members from lower-income areas. Here’s a big reason why.
Two Houston-area districts, Pearland ISD and Spring Branch ISD, currently face Voting Rights Act lawsuits for their at-large election system. Both of the lawsuits are held up in federal court, pending a decision on whether it’s legal for private citizens to bring Voting Rights Act lawsuits against governing bodies.
Earlier this year, a majority of Humble ISD trustees swiftly squashed Trustee Martina Lemond-Dixon’s proposal to discuss a voluntary switch to a hybrid single-member district election model, which could have delivered more diversity — and avoided the lawsuit filed today.Â
The lawsuit also states that the lack of Hispanic representation on Humble’s school board is to blame for the district’s “achievement gap” between white and minority students. State data shows that 66 percent of white students in the district met grade-level standards in all subjects in the 2022-23 school year, compared to 34 percent of Black students and 43 percent of Hispanic students.
“Experience tells us that one of the best ways to decrease the performance gaps … is to get parents from all parts of the community involved,” William Brewer, the attorney, told the Landing in late March.
Humble ISD also faced backlash last year when administrators confiscated Latino students’ Spanish National Honor Society stoles at graduation — which led Bautista to resign from her teaching position, the lawsuit states. The lawsuit alleges the instance was indicative of discrimination exacerbated by the district’s lack of Hispanic representation.
Thursday’s lawsuit comes during a rocky period in Humble ISD. In late April, a Title IX investigation found that former athletic director Troy Kite, who is married to Superintendent Elizabeth Fagan, created a “hostile” environment by routinely making sexual comments to colleagues.
The investigation temporarily threw Fagen’s job into jeopardy and exposed a divide among trustees, who have described the board’s relationship as “broken.”
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