Conroe School District

Conroe ISD appoints Michels to school board vacancy

Oak Ridge North Mayor Joe Michels has been appointed to fill the vacancy on the Conroe Independent School District Board of Trustees.

CISD trustees unanimously approved Michels’ appointment to Position 7 at the end of Tuesday’s board meeting, following nearly an hour behind closed doors discussing the 19 individuals who submitted applications for the position. The position became vacant when longtime CISD trustee Gerald Irons resigned in June.

“I’m surprised and stunned and I’m very honored,” Michels told the board immediately after the vote.

Michels has been active in CISD for 13 years and even ran for the school board in 2008. He served on three CISD Facility Planning Committees, including acting as chairman of two in 2004 and 2008, which successfully promoted CISD’s bond elections, according to his trustee application.

It was his continuous involvement with the district that made him rise above the competition for the school board seat, CISD board President Mel Brown said.

“We looked at the amount of time he’s worked in the district,” Brown said about what set Michels apart. “He’s always been involved. This is not something new.”

Michels has practiced law for 20 years and served as the mayor of Oak Ridge North for nine years, from 1998 to 2004 and from 2010 to the present. On his application for the trustee position, Michels stated he would resign as mayor if appointed to the school board.

“This board has done an outstanding job, I think, and I look forward to joining them,” Michels said.

At the June meeting, where trustees accepted Irons’ resignation, they decided to ask the public for submissions to fill the vacancy instead of calling a special election to fill the position. The deadline for submissions was July 20.

Due to internal communication issues stemming from a hacker to the CISD system, the district allowed individuals to submit applications after the deadline if they could prove they submitted the information by deadline.

“It wasn’t as easy as it probably seemed,” Brown said about the decision to appointment a new trustee. “ … We did a lot of work.”

Each board member was asked to go over the applications of all 19 individuals and have a list of their top three, in order of priority, ready to share with the board at Tuesday’s meeting, Brown said. From those top choices, the board then focused its comments on top choices and several names kept coming up, including Michels, Brown said. From there, the board whittled down the list until one was left.

Conroe ISD Website Back Online « Montgomery County News Aggregate

 The Conroe Independent School District’s website was back up on Thursday after it was hacked on Sunday.

It is not believed that any sensitive information was accessed, but the district, FBI, and a third-party security analyst team are investigating the hack.

District e-mails were also taken offline Sunday, and e-mails sent to through the system between Sunday and Thursday were not delivered. A message on the site directed CISD staff to create new e-mail passwords.

“CISD staff must create new passwords. In order to create a new password, you must access a computer that is inside the CISD network. You may go to any CISD junior high school, ninth grade campus, high school, or the central administration building on Monday through Thursday from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM to reset your password, or you can reset it when you return to work. This process takes only a few minutes. Moorhead JH and Oak Ridge High School are closed due to construction, but you can access CCHS and ORHS Ninth Grade Campus.