The state takeover of HISD was the subject of Today’s Topic’s first meeting last Tuesday. The current-events club dove into the takeover’s reason, new policies and effect on students and teachers.

President and junior Riley Rexford said the meeting was inspired by a split-second decision. Rexford was driving home on June 8 when she saw educators protesting against the Texas Education Agency at the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center, better known as HISD headquarters. She pulled over and grabbed her camera.

“I was like, ‘wait, hold on. I know what this is,’” Rexford said. “That’s the only reason I knew [TEA protest] was happening.”

As soon as she got home, Rexford dug into the takeover story. The more she uncovered, the more fascinated she got.

“I read literally everything,” Rexford said. “I was like, ‘well, this is actually really bad. This is not good for anyone.’”

It was only until the start of school when Rexford realized the extent to which the takeover impacted Bellaire. She knew that the TEA takeover was the topic her club needed to discuss.

“I wasn’t actually expecting it to affect our school,” Rexford said. “And then I walked in [on August 28] and sat down. [The teachers were] like, ‘hey, these are the strategies that we have to do.’ And I was like, ‘oh no, it is affecting me.’”

Rexford incorporated the new teaching policies into the meeting. She asked members to do a whip-around to state one thing they know about the takeover. She encouraged multiple think-pair-share activities to discuss the effects on teachers. She set a timer for every four minutes for a discussion, which “interrupted the lesson.”

“I was losing my mind,” Rexford said. “There’s no way if I’m asking you one thing every four minutes, it doesn’t get boring and miserable.”