PEOPLE
ChristieWhitbeck The new Fort Bend ISD superintendent takes the reins of the district
BY HUNTER MARROW
of 16,000-student Bryan ISD, deputy superintendent of FBISD for four years, assistant superintendent of academ- ics in Alvin ISD and as a principal in Katy ISD. Community Impact Newspaper spoke with Whitbeck to hear about the current and future challenges facing the school district. Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Christie Whitbeck took the helm of Fort Bend ISD in September. She took over the position from former Superintendent Charles Dupre, who announced Nov. 16 his intention to resign by December. Whitbeck comes to the district having served 4 1/2 years as superintendent
WHATBROUGHTYOUBACK TOFORTBEND ISD? My time in Bryan ISD was won- derful. I loved it. Drawing me back were multiple things. The challenge of a much larger district. I’m a driven person. I started as a first grade teacher, and I always gravitate toward the next challenge. There’s certainly self motivation there. Can I make a difference on a larger scale? To me, it’s about making a difference. I don’t want to be anywhere where I don’t make a positive difference. I do have enough familiarity with this district to help us move in the right direction, but not so much familiarity that I’m going to be stuck in a certain way of doing things. FBISD IS SIGNIFICANTLY LARGERTHANBISD.WHAT HURDLESDOES THATBRING? HOWDOYOUGETUPTOSPEED? For CEOs in any company, size depends on the amount of senior leaders that you have who report to you. Then: Howmuch can you actually get to the core, which is the classroom? So, I’m further from the classroom in a district that is this large, so how do I still keep my hands on enough knowledge to know what is happening? Then: How do I listen? Finding those avenues has been
last fewweeks are social media-related issues. I can speak very clearly to parents: This is a responsibility. When we give a child a device, whether it’s a phone or a computer, there’s a respon- sibility associated with that for them and for us as parents. I encourage parents to monitor, to let their child know they are going to monitor. Get with your other friends and help each other monitor what is going on with kids in their chats and their different social media platforms. When people threaten to harm the school through social media, we have a robust police department, with 75 officers and a strong police chief who knows what he’s doing. We will go the extra mile to trace it. We did it last week, having to go through subpoe- nas to get to this account, the next account, the next account, and guess what? There it is—there’s the person who did it. We will prosecute to the fullest extent. Honestly, these threats are some- times not done by who you’d expect. Sometimes it’s an adult or someone in another community. HAS COVID-19CHANGED ENROLLMENT? The budget is determined by pro- jected enrollment. August enrollment was less than the district anticipated.
my greatest challenge. I’ve been in multiple schools with principal one on ones and campus tours. I will get to every campus. IS THEREANYTHING, LOOKING BACK, THAT FBISDSHOULD HAVEDONEDIFFERENTLY REGARDINGTHEPANDEMIC? I think FBISD handled it as best as it could. What happened with all school districts in the fall of 2021—and I think my colleagues would agree— was that 2021 was harder for us than 2020. You would think it shouldn’t have been, but it was. Some of that is the ambiguity of the law changing, governor orders, back and forth. … So the schools are sitting in the middle, honestly—and they’ve been playing a pawn in that play. It is what it is, and it became very political. We need to depoliticize these issues because children are children. It doesn’t matter where they come from, who their parents did or didn’t vote for. We’re going to have to take a stand on things, particularly with masks. No matter the decision, you’ll make people mad. WHATAREYOURSAFETYAND ILLICIT STUDENTBEHAVIOR CONCERNS INFBISD? What we’ve seen an increase in the
Lower than projected
Fort Bend ISD 2020-21 enrollment dipped due to COVID-19. Enrollment grew, but not to projected levels, falling short by over 2,100 students.
FBISDenrollment
PROJECTED ACTUAL
2021-22 2020-21 2019-20
77,554 76,735 77,756
79,701 79,076 77,226
-2,147
-2,341
+530
SOURCE: FORT BEND ISD/ COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
Therefore, the budget was made with many more millions of dollars anticipated. First we ask: Where are our chil- dren? Children need to be in school. We plan on finding our kids. Then we look at our budget. There’s no way the district could have [predicted the shortfall]. Nowwe need to deal with it. We need to be fiscally responsible.
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