TEA's response

The Texas Education Agency has no plans to investigate any ECISD trustees at this time.

Ron Rowell, TEA senior director for governance, said the Texas Education Agency doesn’t have jurisdiction over the complaint ECISD parent Jason Moore sent July 26.

In a response letter Rowell sent to Moore on Friday, Rowell states “the agency encourages districts to resolve their concerns, as local resolution is preferable to state intervention.”

Thus, Rowell said he doesn’t see a need for the agency to investigate further at this time.

Instead, Rowell suggested the board and acting superintendent Hector Mendez come together and discuss the appropriate method to go about trustees discussing issues with his staff. Also, Rowell said, the superintendent needs to communicate with his staff.

"(Superintendents) need to rely on their assistants to give them the facts," Rowell said Tuesday.

Mendez said trustees and his staff know they can talk with each other about certain issues, and some employees may even be friends with trustees.

But, it becomes a governance issue, he said, if trustees give directives to employees because the board must act as a whole.

“The collective entity has the authority,” Mendez said.

In his letter, Moore claimed some ECISD trustees violated board policies and acted outside their authority as elected officials.

The agency won’t be launching an investigation into allegations claimed by Moore, Rowell said.

Rowell said anyone from public residents to board trustees may request information or that certain projects take place — but the final decision to act on the requests falls on the district administration.

In his TEA letter, Moore cites documents he obtained through the Freedom of Information Act in an effort to back up what he saw as trustees — particularly Doyle Woodall and Donna Smith — stepping outside their rights as board trustees. Moore also enclosed copies of newspaper articles.

Moore claimed both committed actions that may have violated local or legal board policies.

Moore stated Woodall asked district staff for names and phone numbers of dyslexic students and this action violated local board policy.

Rowell said based on Moore’s complaint Woodall violated students’ privacy rights, but it was up to the district administration whether to give Woodall the information.

However, Woodall said he didn’t do anything wrong because the district’s legal department gave him the list he requested upon then-superintendent Wendell Sollis’ approval.

“Legal wouldn’t have given me the information if I didn’t have a right to it,” Woodall said, noting he may ask for an updated list of students in the future if there’s a need.

In fact, according to FL local board policy, a trustee may access student information.

“School officials have a legitimate educational interest in a student’s records when they are working with the student; considering disciplinary or academic actions, the student’s case or an individualized education program for a student with disabilities; compiling statistical data; or investigating or evaluating programs,” the policy states.

Also in the complaint, Moore said trustee Donna Smith acted outside of her authority as a trustee by asking David Finley, ECISD executive director for facilities and maintenance, about building a fence on Dotsy Street.

Rowell said he felt Smith was acting on a “good neighbor policy” where she was trying to get something done, but again he said the district is responsible as to whether it follows through with a request.

Rowell said trustees need to respect the duties of administrators, and that’s outlined in law.

“The law regarding school governance is very narrow and really says board members shouldn’t get involved in day-to-day operations,” Rowell said.

Attempts Tuesday to reach Smith were unsuccessful.

Smith said she asked Mendez how to handle questions she had for administrators, and he told her he’d relay her concerns to the appropriate staff.

“I’ve never done anything but play by the rules as they were explained to me,” Smith said.

Smith said since the TEA wasn’t planning an investigation, the district could now focus on starting school Aug. 27 and other important issues.

In the meantime, Moore said he was pleased with the letter he received Monday afternoon from the state agency but added he wished the agency would have become involved.

Moore has been an outspoken critic of the firing of former superintendent Sollis and of board members Woodall and Smith.

“I still wish they could have come down because I feel the board had reached a point where they couldn’t work it out themselves,” Moore said Tuesday.

He added that he may file more requests in the future, but he planned to have Rowell clarify his response for him prior to doing that.

In his original complaint, Moore also asked the TEA to reinstate Sollis as superintendent.

In response Rowell wrote: “Regardless of the popularity or fairness of a decision, a majority vote of the board is binding.

“When citizens do not agree with decisions made by the board of trustees of a school district and wish to initiate changes among board members, the proper avenue for manifesting such changes is through the political process of electing trustees who agree philosophically with the citizens involved,” he wrote.