Hours after Houston ISD’s four recently elected trustees took office, enshrining the district’s first all-female school board, the new-look governing team on Thursday made its first big decision.

Trustees voted 8-1 to postpone approving a facilities assessment contract sought by the district’s administration, which would serve as a significant step toward asking residents to approve a multi-billion bond package in November. Board members will return in February to decide on the contract, giving them additional time to consider the ramifications of the deal.

Multiple board members said they wanted more discussion between the administration and trustees before spending up to $5 million on a facilities assessment. HISD likely will face headwinds in gaining support for a bond package, the result of dramatic state intervention looming over the district and a decline in public trust following months of board in-fighting.

“If it were that important, these conversations should have happened months ago,” HISD Trustee Elizabeth Santos said. “To spring it on brand new board members and expect a vote is unfair.”

HISD administrators said the facilities assessment would help the district craft a bond proposal, which would involve extensive construction projects at dozens of campuses, major investments in school security and hundreds of millions of dollars in technology upgrades.

Derrick Sanders, HISD’s officer of construction services, said the delay in a facilities assessment “wouldn’t be a fatal blow, but it would be a challenging one” for placing a bond request on the November ballot.

District officials have not placed a price tag on any potential bond packages, but it would likely exceed $2 billion and come with little to no increase in the tax rate. HISD residents last voted on a bond in 2012, approving a $1.9-billion proposal. Nearly all projects financed by the package have been completed.

HISD officials initially discussed seeking a major bond package in January 2018, but the proposal fizzled following the departure of former superintendent Richard Carranza and the quickly-reversed, covert ouster of Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan in the following months. Both events damaged confidence in the district, making passage of a bond less likely.

Houston residents late last year signaled their desire for change in the district’s leadership by voting out incumbent trustees Diana Dávila and Sergio Lira, both of whom where entangled in allegations of violating the Texas Open Meetings Act prior to Lathan’s temporary removal. Jolanda Jones and Rhonda Skillern-Jones did not seek re-election.

As a result, four new trustees joined the nine-member board: former HISD principal Patricia Allen, legislative aide Kathy Blueford-Daniels, former education nonprofit director Judith Cruz and real estate agent Dani Hernandez.

The trustees take office amid uncertainty about how long they will remain in power. Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath announced his intention in November 2019 to replace the district’s elected trustees with an appointed governance team, the result of chronically low performance at Wheatley High School and multiple findings of misconduct by board members.

Morath’s plan is on hold following a temporary injunction issued earlier this month by a Travis County judge, part of litigation brought by trustees to stop their ouster.

“Usually the learning curve for most trustees would be a lot longer,” said Cruz, who soundly defeated Dávila. “I’ve been trying to get up to speed as quickly as possible. I’m not going to hold back.”

In an apparent response to the election results, trustees unanimously voted Thursday to name Sue Deigaard as the board’s president for 2020. Deigaard, among the most vocal critics of the board’s behavior in recent months, will serve as a primary spokesperson for the board and wield significant control over meeting agendas.

Trustees also chose four members for officer-level positions — first vice president, second vice president, secretary and assistant secretary — who were not among those accused of secretly coordinating to remove Lathan in 2018.

“It’s not just a new year. It’s not just a new board,” Deigaard said. “I believe it is, based on what I’ve seen tonight from my colleagues, a new chapter in HISD.”

jacob.carpenter@chron.com