Gallegos asks for buyout
An ECISD deputy superintendent wants ECISD to buy out his $128,042 contract and provide good references as he searches for another job and hints at a possible lawsuit if his demands aren’t met.
Joe Gallegos, deputy superintendent for accountability, curriculum and instruction, had a letter dated June 20 sent to Ector County Independent School District attorney Mike Atkins. The letter was later sent to ECISD trustees via district police.
Gallegos’ Austin attorney Kevin Lungwitz states in the letter that the deputy superintendent feels defamed by some trustees.
The letter demands the district buy out his contract, which runs from July 1, 2007, to June 30, 2008, or his attorney will investigate “the possibility of filing a declaratory judgment action against the ECISD.”
The letter also indicates Gallegos wants Lungwitz to investigate the merits of a defamation action against one or more ECISD trustees.
On Monday, Gallegos said “it wouldn’t be right for me to talk to you about something that is not resolved at the board level yet.”
Last week former board president Randy Rives called a news conference and said the district was being sued by Gallegos.
Following that news conference, Gallegos said “there’s no lawsuit.”
The threat of a lawsuit didn’t please at least one trustee.
“I’m not going to allow Joe Gallegos to extort money from this district,” trustee Doyle Woodall said Monday.
A board meeting is scheduled at 5:30 p.m. today in the ECISD boardroom to discuss the possible buyout of Gallegos’ contract, a pending ACLU lawsuit and a Gallegos lawsuit against both ECISD and Attorney General Greg Abbott.
Superintendent Wendell Sollis said Atkins will present the trustees with the information today during the closed session of the board meeting.
“If an action item needs to occur then I may make that or maybe our board president,” Sollis said.
Trustee Donna Smith said she received the letter from Gallegos’ attorney on Thursday and found the document to be puzzling.
“I think it’s a strange thing to ask for,” Smith said. “It comes out of the blue.”
Smith said trustees should be able to comment on an employee’s performance. Plus, proper processes exist for one to deal with problems in their jobs, she said.
“If you’re really angry with your boss you go talk to your boss,” she said. “You don’t go threaten to sue your boss in order to get your contract bought out when you haven’t tried to work it out at a less aggressive level.”
Attempts to reach trustees Carol Gregg and L.V. “Butch” Foreman were unsuccessful Monday.
The letter takes issue with a February board meeting centered on contract renewals for administrators.
ECISD trustees held a marathon executive session that month, and Trustee Donna Smith said the meeting mainly focused on contract renewals for Sollis and Gallegos.
“Because some of us didn’t think they should be renewed,” she said at the time.
After the executive session, contracts for Sollis, Gallegos and the other 129 administrators were approved on a 4-3 vote. In that same vote, the board agreed to revisit contracts for top administrators ranging from assistant superin-tendents on up.
The letter also takes issue with trustees passing a motion to evaluate Gallegos in September.
Gallegos is also currently suing Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and ECISD to keep private his scores on the ExCET test.
The test score became an issue after the Odessa American made a Freedom of Information request for Gallegos’ personnel file. Gallegos objected to the score being released and asked for an AG opinion on the matter.
A Feb. 5 AG ruling stated that his ExCET scores are public records, Gallegos’ attorney said at the time. Attempts to reach Lungwitz on Monday were unsuccessful.
Gallegos filed a lawsuit Feb. 16 in Travis County to halt his ExCET scores from being released. While the FOI re-quest was not designed to acquire the ExCET score, Gallegos moved to prevent release of the score.
