She also noted that similar behavior on the part of the El Paso ISD Superintendent prevented that board from gaining information about illegal activities that eventually led to jail time for Superintendent Garcia. Venable correctly stated that public records belong to everyone, including elected members of the board.
Regarding the School Health Advisory Council (SHAC,) it seems the Superintendent finally got around to reading the state's education law code and created a new presentation that includes detailed information. The new document is in stark contrast with the sloppy and unprofessional work submitted by Superintendent Jesus Chavez' administration for 2011-2012. Of course this battle is far from over; Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards' group, "Texas Freedom Network," has been trying to use local SHAC's to impose radically leftist sex education programs in Texas schools. Watch for the RRISD Superintendent and the liberal-progressive members of the school board to try to stack the district's SHAC with TFN activists.
If you are not too busy with those Christmas preparations and would like to send a note of support to Peggy Venable and the two board members who are standing up for transparency in government, here is their contact information:
Texas AFP Director Peggy Venable: Comment on her Open Letter here.
RRISD Elected Trustee Terri Romere: terri_romere@roundrockisd.org
RRISD Elected Trustee Pauline Law: pauline_law@roundrockisd.org
Update: It seems I missed another powerful message that was delivered to the RRISD Board of Trustees on December 13. A Round Rock citizen by the name of Scott Campbell addressed the board and circulated a copy of his comments. Campbell's well-written letter reminds me of the scare-mongering perpetuated by RRISD Superintendent Jesus Chavez during the 2011 Legislative session, and the erroneous information he put forth. Regarding recent board conduct, Mr. Campbell notes that five board of trustee members "have fallen short" of our trust.
Scott Campbell's letter to the RRISD Board of Trustees.
Thank you for the opportunity to address the Round Rock ISD Board of Trustees.
During the 2011state legislative session, as the state budget proposal was becoming clearer,
an error in calculating the remaining RRISD budget impact,
including the benefit of $7m additional federal
funding, forecasted a $33m deficit rather than a
$13m deficit, a
$20m error. The board approved
a tentative action
allocating $15m from the available fund balance to reduce the $33m deficit, while continuing to communicate fear and anxiety to the employees, students
and parents. I brought this error to the attention
of the board president and superintendent. Rather
than examine the numbers more closely, the board president's only response was that the state hadn't finalized the budget. Ms. Occhiuzzi called me at the superintendent's request and after
I explained the error, she had Mr. Flores
call me who confirmed the error in the district calculations. That day, the incorrect information was pulled
from the district website,
thereby reducing stakeholder anxiety. At
the time the board of trustees acted on this data, a basic ''gut
check" should have exposed
the magnitude of the error.
In the course of this
process, I contacted Ms. Romere. She took
the time to understand the data in the
interest of making
informed future decisions.
We further know that incorrect
data was presented during the boundary alignment process and that the recent Student Health
Advisory Committee was not formed according to state education law. The Student
Health Advisory Committee
is only one example where the RRISD Board of Trustees
and persons at various levels in the administration are unaware of state and federal law that should
be guiding the decision process.
Our
message this evening
is about "trust", the
root of the word "trustee", the trust we as parents
and community members
placed in you when electing you to make decisions maximizing our children's quality
of education while
optimizing the use of funds financed by the taxes
we pay. Recent
decisions by five
board of trustee
members have
fallen short of this trust.
The board member
these board members
have censured on multiple occasions represents a minority
viewpoint within the board of trustees. The legitimate concerns she raises
on behalf of the community stakeholders are being marginalized. She asks questions and digs deeper for data in the interest of making informed decisions. This due diligence
is met by resistance from other board members with statements such as “I/we don't or can't ask those types of questions". While community input is solicited, these board members
generally vote with the administration's recommendation.
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