TEA complaint

In regards to an OA story that ran Wednesday, David Finley, executive director for facilities and maintenance for ECISD, said he didn’t feel pressured into building a fence for one of trustee Donna Smith’s constituents.

Finley said Smith contacted him to tell him of a constituent who was adamant about having an enclosure on Dotsy Street because trash was blowing into a person’s yard.

Finley said he told Smith the fence was already a part of a continuing construction project at the time.

He said Smith was relaying information for a constituent and her call didn’t distract from his work duties.

“No, that wasn’t disruptive,” Finley said.

Finley said many board members call him about different issues, and they have a right to contact him just as any other resident.

Original story

A Texas Education Agency official says he will need the rest of the week to determine whether the TEA will need to follow up on another complaint about ECISD trustees.

Ron Rowell, TEA senior director for governance, said he received a complaint Friday from Jason Moore, an ECISD parent and political activist, but couldn’t say whether an investigation would be started since he hadn’t read the document yet.

Rowell said each complaint is treated as a stand-alone request.

Moore sent a letter to TEA Thursday requesting an investigation into certain trustees “unethical behaviors.”

“I am alleging that based upon cited evidence requested through Open Records that particular members of the board have violated some governance and/or ethics policies,” Moore wrote.

Rowell said he had previously met with deputy superintendent Joe Gallegos and Shannon Baker, then-curriculum and instruction director, about their concerns of some trustees publicly commenting on an executive session.

Moore said he is with the Permian Basin Citizen Watchdogs advocacy group but couldn’t estimate how many members belong to the group. He said about 200 people subscribe to his e-newsletter. He said the group works more like a network and no one pays dues to the organization.

“We’re not a formal business entity,” Moore said. “We’re just a collection of like-minded citizen taxpayers.”

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.

He maintains he didn’t file the complaint to target any one trustee, but said he felt Woodall and Smith had exhibited the most effort to “circumvent policy.”

“I thought they were examples of governance gone wrong,” Moore said, noting they had the largest “paper trails.”

Moore said Woodall’s recent request to the TEA to have himself investigated without providing examples of how he could have cleared himself were another reason Moore filed his own request.

“I just felt like that it was a honest attempt to open the door with documentation for the TEA to look into if everyone is playing by the rules,” Moore said.

In the letter, Moore claims Smith didn’t have the authority to ask for “negative comments” to be placed in deputy superintendent Joe Gallegos’ personnel file.

Smith said she hadn’t seen Moore’s complaint but said she felt Gallegos had “behaved inappropriately,” and she went to former superintendent Wendell Sollis to address the problem by placing the comments in Gallegos’ file.

“Wendell said, ‘No, I don’t want to do that,’ ” Smith said. “I respected his position, and I did not want to pursue it. If Wendell felt pressured, I didn’t know about it.”

In addition, Moore’s complaint said Smith tried to use her status as a trustee to have a fence built near a high school parking lot “because a constituent threatened a media campaign and petition drive if this was not done.”

Smith said the constituent approached her as his board representative saying trash was blowing down Dotsy Street.

Smith said she went directly to David Finley, ECISD executive director for facilities and maintenance, to see if a fence could be built. The fence ended up being constructed. Smith said she sent Finley a thank you note.

Efforts to reach Finley were unsuccessful Tuesday.

Smith said Moore’s complaint paints her as a troublemaker when she didn’t think she was doing anything wrong.

“I was operating as the parameters had been laid out for me as far as I knew,” Smith said.

Moore’s letter also states Woodall crossed a line as a trustee when he asked for names and phone numbers of dyslexic students.

Woodall said he did ask for the names and numbers and was initially told he couldn’t have the information.

“I wanted the list to see if I could visit with some of the parents to see if they were satisfied with the intervention their children were receiving,” Woodall said.

Woodall said he talked with ECISD attorney Mike Atkins, who according to Woodall, was able to help him receive the information since “it was within my purview as a trustee,” Woodall said.

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.

Moore said he later learned that Woodall received the student information, but still considered Woodall asking for the phone numbers and names as a violation of privacy.

“It still goes outside the bounds of what I think he needs to be doing,” Moore said.

Also in Moore’s request, he asks if TEA would reinstate Wendell Sollis as superintendent until an investigation is completed.

Moore said that portion of the request wasn’t the backbone of his complaint but he wanted the agency to know because he didn’t think Sollis was given due process when trustees voted to buy out his contract.

“It’s not the person (Sollis), per se, I think it’s the principle that’s at stake here,” Moore said.

Moore didn’t file an investigation request when former ECISD superintendent Roy Benavides’ contract was bought out in 2004 because he didn’t follow school board issues at that time, Moore said.

Moore said he doesn’t plan to run for the school board in May, especially now that he’s researched trustees. He said with the latest happenings that the elected position may not be for him.

“I think there’s just so much involved in it that is so outside of the true realm of education,” Moore said.

Moore said he now knows what happens to people who take strong stands on the school board. Whatever a trustee says or does they’re seen as a “bad guy,” he said.

Meanwhile, Smith said she thought Moore’s request had nothing to do with governance issues but instead it was about people being on the opposite side of the board’s power structure.

“Whenever I asked questions, whenever I disagreed, whenever I expressed an opinion, I think I was perceived to be a critic or a naysayer,” Smith said.

“And my full intention ever since I’ve joined the board is to be a full participant and to represent the concerns of primarily the people in my district,” she said.