Keep Eanes Informed                                                                                               

* Please download Adobe Reader 8.0 for best results in using this website.

 A Song for Mother's Day ... turn up the volume!  ;)   William Tell Overture for Moms

"The truth is like the sun.  You can block it out for a time but it ain't goin' away."  - Elvis

If You Aren't Completely Appalled You Haven't Been Paying Attention

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure. - Mark Twain

Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.

- Albert Einstein

No man stands so tall as when he stoops to help a child.
 - Abraham Lincoln

From: S Bushart
Sent: Monday, March 20, 2006 8:23 AM
Subject: Eanes Community Update #10

March 20, 2006

Dear Eanes Friends,

Because all of our Eanes ISD Board of Trustees' meetings are governed by the Texas Open Meetings Act, our district is required to make either written or audio recordation of all open meetings of the board available to the public.  Unfortunately, Eanes has no records for at least eighteen such meetings (see list of dates below).

WHAT THE LAW SAYS:  The Texas Open Meetings Act (Texas Government Code Chapter 551) is the state law governing the public meetings of governmental bodies, including all open meetings of the EISD Board of Trustees which is defined as a governmental body.  Further, the Texas Government Code* states that records for all open meetings of governmental bodies such as our school board must be maintained and made available for public inspection.

I submitted a request to view the records of board meetings held after May 2004,** and upon review of the documents provided by the district realized that records from several board study sessions were missing, all of them "board study sessions."  Open board meetings, board study sessions are posted and open to the public--and must be recorded.  The study sessions are important because our trustees deliberate on topics important to our children and to our community during these meetings.  The dates for those eighteen meetings with the missing minutes are:

    - 6/14/04

    - 6/17/04

    - 8/9/04

    - 8/23/04

    - 9/13/04

    - 10/18/04

    - 11/8/04

    - 12/6/04

    - 12/13/04

    - 1/10/05

    - 1/18/05

    - 2/7/05

    - 2/15/05

    - 3/7/05

    - 3/30/05

    - 4/18/05

    - 4/25/05

On May 17, 2005 I sent a correspondence to Dr. Wellman expressing my concern that these records were not available for public inspection. When she failed to respond, I sent a follow-up letter dated June 1, 2005. Our superintendent continued to ignore my request. Fearing that the district's failure to maintain public meeting records (written and/or audio to include deliberations) may be a prosecutable violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act, I addressed my concerns directly to the EISD Board of Trustees on June 24, 2005.***  It's now been at least nine months--and still no response.

Questions for consideration 

    - Why weren't records kept for any of these open public meetings?

    - Why hasn't Eanes responded to these three separate formal written concerns sent nine and ten months ago?

    - As failure to maintain records of these public open meetings violates the Texas Open Meetings Act (Government Code 551) and Eanes board policy BE (LEGAL) , what can we do to ensure                    that Eanes is in compliance with both? 

There are many parents, community members and teachers who are unable to attend thedistrict's open meetings because of conflicting work and school schedules.  I encourage Eanes ISD to insure that all open board meetings including study sessions are recorded as required by the Texas Open Meetings Act-- and made readily available to the public on the Eanes ISD website.  As we are fortunate to already have an "Open Government" page on our district's website, this would seem the easiest and most logical place to put such information. 

I also encourage the Eanes ISD Superintendent and/or Board of Trustees to enact a policy and/or procedure that directs posting of all official public meeting records on the district website within a reasonably defined time period following each meeting.  Eanes ISD administrative employee Dale Whitaker is Director of Communications.  In addition to her work on the district website, she generates EISD press releases to the news media (see attachment RESPONSE PLEASE)****.  Increasing the public's access to the records of all our school board's meetings, deliberations and actions taken will  provide a better understanding of our district's priorities, policies, and fiscal decisions, and indicate a good faith effort on the part of our administrative staff and governing body to comply with the laws governing the Texas Open Meetings Act.

Wishing all the best for our students, our parents, our teachers and our taxpayers,

Susan Bushart

EANES ISD CONTACT INFORMATION:

Dale Whitaker, Director of Communications:  dwhitake@eanes.k12.tx.us       phone: (512)732-9002

Nola Wellman, Superintendent:  nwellman@eanes.k12.tx.us    phone: (512)732-9001  fax: (512)732-9005

Board of Trustees:   trustees@eanes.k12.tx.us

________________________________________________________________

*       See attached excerpts from the Texas Government Code.

**     Identified by EISD as ORR #1097.

***   See all three attached correspondences.

**** See attachment "RESPONSE PLEASE."

[ Home ] [ Up ]