January 2023

January's regular school board meeting caused some drama that is lingering.

1. We learned that the district has a deficit of over $6 million dollars. The interim CFO was clear that our initial budget was aggressive. Thus, there is no surprise the budget was never realistically balanced. Tammy and Shannon pointed out that their training told them budgets should be balanced. They seem to not realize no one is upset about the idea of a balanced budget but the way they went about it. How about talking about increasing revenue? Instead, we see slashes to budgets which are hurting kids and teachers.

2. A number of volunteers from a local PAC that supports the board majority spoke about helping to unpack new curriculum at Timberline Elementary. Some held up pictures from their time volunteering. This is the same PAC whose leader called GCISD "Grooming Children ISD." Another leader spoke about a list of teachers that the district needs to get rid of. And the (former?) treasurer of the PAC is none other than Scott Western, who spewed extremely inappropriate vulgarities at a former board meeting without being stopped.

Many PTA parents wondered why they had never heard of this opportunity. It was later revealed that many of these volunteers came into the schools without a background check, which is supposed to be required of all volunteers on campus. It was also later revealed that Kathy Spradley called a GCISD administrator to tell them that she would take care of getting volunteers for this need at Timberline. This is inappropriate because trustees are not supposed to interfere in the daily operation of the district. In addition, she made a statement saying all security procedures were followed. This does not appear to be the case. 

3. A speaker in public comment made a good point about the hypocrisy of the board majority. When Kathy accused a board member of something she did not do, she cited an ethical standard from board policy local BFF that trustees will tell the truth. Another standard from the same document says that trustees "will encourage expressions of different opinions and listen with an open mind to others' ideas." The board majority's stifling of trustee discussion via suspending Robert's Rules is clearly unethical. It's also probably illegal.

Superintendent Search Update

The search firm Leasor Crass released their executive summary of the community survey and focus groups. The full executive summary is below. A sole finalist for the job is expected to be announced on March 2. 

Almost 1,300 respondents took the survey. Here are some key takeaways:

• About 55% of respondents were parents
• About 25% of respondents were employees
• Recruitment/Retention of Quality Staff is the highest priority district need, followed by Technology and Public Relations
• Attracting and Retaining Quality Staff is by far the most important priority of the new Superintendent
• Board Relations is the most important ability/experience of the new Superintendent, followed by Qualifications
• The most popular stakeholder vision for GCISD is "Grapevine-Colleyville ISD educates the whole child by preparing students socially and emotionally, as well as academically."
• 65% of respondents disagree or strongly disagree that "Grapevine-Colleyville ISD is headed in the right direction."

December 2022

December's regular school board meeting was fairly uncontroversial, relatively speaking. There were 19 speakers, who got 1 minute each. Since 30 minutes is allocated to public comment, speakers should have gotten 1 minute and 30 seconds.

The majority of speakers spoke out against the current board and their created chaos. Several spoke about the stifling of trustee discussion via the questionably legal suspension of Robert's Rules. This shady maneuver is definitely not transparent, it's unethical, and an attempt to keep more knowledgeable trustees from sharing information.

The other side decided they would be positive and talk about things they like for a change. The irony is that recently one of them said parents who want their kids to be able to read controversial books recommended by librarians are part of "Team Pedophilia," one of them talked about, on a podcast, the list of teachers that need to go, and one of them leads a group whose other leader called GCISD Grooming Children ISD. 

A few highlights from the rest of the meeting:

• Now that we've gotten rid of Latin and Mandarin, we offer three foreign languages (not including sign language), fewer than any surrounding districts.
• A settlement was approved with Dr. Kaye Rogers of iUniversity Prep.
• On 12/6 a safety auditor went to CHHS and gained access to the building. A door had a latch problem. 3 other schools have been audited. A corrective action plan was implemented within 3 days.

Superintendent Search Progress

The board hired search firm Leasor Crass to help find a new Superintendent. Only two search firms made presentations. We are guessing some search firms did not submit proposals due to the toxic nature of the board. Leasor Crass was the cheapest option, but did not come across as the most competent and professional of the two.

Leasor Crass released a survey for the community to give input and had a community focus group. While they did hold a teacher focus group, teachers were given less than 24 hours notice. They were notified after work hours the day before that a forum would be held the following evening.

The following are some highlights of the community focus group meeting:

1. The survey is being re-opened until January 3. As of now, there is no Spanish version. Leasor Crass will "try" to release a Spanish version. They claimed no one has ever asked them to translate a survey into Spanish.
2. We can't expect to see all of the results of the survey. Some summary information may be released. 
3. The search firm says no Superintendent will want to take the job unless the board votes 7-0 to hire them. Trying to get that kind of consensus should be interesting.
4. No one but the board will know who has applied (unless the applicant shares it).
5. A sole finalist will be announced when the board knows who it expects to hire.
6. If you hear that someone has applied and you want to put in a good word for them, or a definite no, or you want to recommend someone, then you can email the search firm (rhonda@leasorcrass.com and taylor@leasorcrass.com).

We obviously cannot expect the survey results to be respresentative given there was only an English version at the start and that anyone can take the survey multiple times. At one point, the search firm said: If someone wants to game the system, more power to them! Not impressive.

There are also some survey design issues. Most ranking questions ask us to rank items on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being most important. One question asks to rank things in order of importance, implying but not stating that 1 means most important.

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November 2022

Before November's regular school board meeting, we learned another beloved teacher is leaving mid-year due to the new policies. Several speakers, students and parents, made statements in public comment about what a loss this is for the district and the ASPIRE program.

An item was on the agenda to discuss sanctions against this teacher for leaving mid-year "without cause." Casey takes them into executive session to discuss. Upon return, Shannon makes a motion to suspend Robert's Rules and have no discussion, and Kathy seconds. The four vote to have no discussion. Becky says you need 2/3 vote to suspend. Casey ignores her. Then they vote to seek sanctions against the teacher that left due to their harmful policies.

This is the fourth time they have limited trustee discussion, which appears to be illegal, but is definitely unethical and petty. Here is why this is likely not legal.

We learned that GCISD's long-time CFO DaiAnn Mooney is retiring. Yet another big loss for us.

We learned the extent to which the new policies are having an anti-literacy effect and making it very difficult to donate books:

• United for GCISD organized a community Scholastic Book Fair, since GCISD will not allow them to have book fairs anymore, and over $10,000 in books could not be donated to the district. Instead, the books were donated to GRACE.
• Protect GCISD wanted to distribute about 1,000 new and gently used books at the GCISD Commuity Health Fair, but this was not allowed due to the new book policy. Instead, we worked with the Grapevine Community Outreach center to get these in the hands of families that need them the most.
• The Grapevine Garden Club has for many years provided presentations and a book relating to Arbor Day to some 3rd grade classes. This year the Garden Club had difficulty getting this year's book about trees approved by the district. 
• A speaker at the school board meeting has been corresponding with the head of the English department at a district comparable to ours. She remarked that their list of books is astounding, and our students are being severely limited
• Librarians continue to weed books without much direction given we still do not have a head librarian. There are reportedly closets of pulled books that have not been put in a "parental consent area." No list of weeded books has been produced to our knowledge.

In November we also learned that GCISD is no longer a Top 100 Place to Work, according to the Dallas Morning News survey of employees. This is a rare honor for school districts, one that we had received for a number of years running. At least 80% of our employees took the survey.

Last, look what Shannon let slip at the board meeting. So much for that fake "balanced" budget and ignoring other trustees who wanted to talk about how to increase revenue.

Media coverage:
North Texas School Districts Make Book Donations Difficult

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October 2022

The most intersting information to come out in October was this Texas Monthly article:

Inside the Secret Plan to Bring Private School Vouchers to Texas

​This must-read article describes how two key players in the push for vouchers in Texas are Aaron Harris and Monty Bennett.

Harris and Bennett are puppet masters of the new GCISD "majority." Monty Bennett donated $5,000.00 in April 2022 to get Tammy Nakamura elected to the GCISD Board of Trustees. In October 2020, Aaron Harris donated $15,000 to a PAC supporting Casey Ford. Bennett's paper publishes op-eds by Shannon Braun.

Tammy Nakamura mentioned Harris in her speech at a victory party (video in comments), and he was at the board meeting when Nakamura and Spradley were sworn in.
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Bennett sued Steven Monacelli, a GCISD grad and Rolling Stone reporter who sometimes attends our board meetings. Bennett lost.

Kalese Whitehurst, also a player mentioned in the article, had a meeting with Mayor Richard Newton regarding a proposal for Colleyville charter school campus.

Here are some highlights of October's regular school board meeting:

• A handful of exremists made it clear that they are coming for library books next. They all read from the same script but chose to pick a different library book to object to.

 

• We learned about the corrupt abuse of taxpayer funds. The board majority has wasted $99K on an extra law firm. All bills are redacted and hidden from even other trustees. 

 

• The board previously approved a 2% pay raise for teachers. Inflation is 8%. The raises approved this year are 20th out of 20 surrounding districts who already paid more. In addition, some teachers' net salary went down due to increases in health insurance. 30-40% of teachers have a second job.

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• Dr. Brad Schnautz is approved as Interim Superintendent when Dr. Ryans steps down at the end of the year. Due to budget cuts, looks like he'll be doing three jobs.

 

• There was an update about the implementation of the new policies regarding classroom and library materials. Some trustees are rightly concerned about the chilling effect on discussing important issues and using outside materials, as teachers must now have them approved. A lot of this seems anti-literacy and anti-critical thinking. The district did not seem to have good anwers for preventing a chilling effect. Students will be allowed to read above grade level if parents sign a form in Skyward

The below testimonies are worth the watch:

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September 2022

Dr. Robin Ryan announced he is retiring. The current board will choose his replacement.

Tammy Nakamura recently lost the Region 11 TASB leadership position vote by a very wide margin after the board voted to remove Becky from the position, and Tammy did not even show up for her TASB interiew or the TASB conference. It seems like her goal is to start severing ties with TASB, a member services organization, despite her claim that she wanted to represent GCISD. It is a major loss for the district not to have Becky in a TASB leadership position.

At the September board meeting, Casey Ford put Becky St. John on the agenda without telling her why. She asked him prior to the meeting, but he would not tell her. She asked for the discussion to be held in public. The four extremists accused her of calling a trustee an expletive at the last board meeting and for lying about the Cantey Hanger lawyer sleeping at board meetings. She patently denied calling anyone an expletive, and we all saw the lawyer snoozing two meetings ago. A picture is below. Because the lawyer was dozing for a lot of the meeting in July, Jorge asked Casey to seat him elsewhere fot the August meeting since it's not a good look for the district. Yet, he apparently slept for much of that meeting too. Despite this, the "board majority," which some of them have taken to calling themselves, voted to keep the lawyer as their representation. For about 1.5 months, this legal firm charged GCISD over $43,000. By now, the bill must be much larger. We the taxpayers will be footing the bill for the defense of coming lawsuits against the new GCISD policies.

Meanwhile, speakers read an email from a parent to the board talking about the parent's experience sitting behind Tammy Nakamura at a baseball game, in which the parent says Tammy called Becky an expletive, said she was working to get Dr. Ryan fired, said she couldn't do anything about the teachers leaving, and was callous and rude to said parent.

​Casey & crew once again stifled discussion of trustees, and he threw many people out of the boardroom for supposedly violating decorum. But it was clear there is a pattern of accusing people of things they did not do.

@christackett71 At the Grapevine-Colleyville ISD school board meeting agenda for September 26th, there was an item on the agenda that was simply a trustees name. This is part one of the public dialogue. #txed #grapevinecolleyvilleisd #gcisdboardoftrustees ♬ original sound - Chris Tackett

@christackett71 On the Grapevine-Colleyville ISD school board meeting agenda for September 26th, there was an item on the agenda that was simply a trustee’s name. This is part three of the public dialogue. #txed #grapevinecolleyvilleisd #gcisdboardoftrustees ♬ original sound - Chris Tackett

@christackett71 On the Grapevine-Colleyville ISD school board meeting agenda for September 26th, there was an item on the agenda that was simply a trustee’s name. This is part five of the public dialogue, and closes out the series. #txed #grapevinecolleyvilleisd #gcisdboardoftrustees ♬ original sound - Chris Tackett

@christackett71 On the Grapevine-Colleyville ISD school board meeting agenda for September 26th, there was an item on the agenda that was simply a trustee’s name. This is part two of the public dialogue. #txed #grapevinecolleyvilleisd #gcisdboardoftrustees ♬ original sound - Chris Tackett

@christackett71 On the Grapevine-Colleyville ISD school board meeting agenda for September 26th, there was an item on the agenda that was simply a trustee’s name. This is part four of the public dialogue. #txed #grapevinecolleyvilleisd #gcisdboardoftrustees ♬ original sound - Chris Tackett

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August 2022

At the August 22 school board meeting, almost 200 people spoke in public forum. There were about 115 who spoke against the proposed policies, and about 75 who spoke in favor.

Despite the overwhelming concern in the community, the school board passed the harmful policies without getting community input beyond one minute per person, for those who could be there to speak.

Here are the important points to know from the meeting:

• The school board passed policies that are harmful to students and the district, dumbing down their education, putting a huge burden on teachers, instilling even more fear in teachers, and further marginalizing already marginalized students.
• Casey & crew would not allow trustees to discuss these issues, beyond three minutes per trustee. They did this three times in one meeting! Didn't they run on transparency?
• The board also passed a change in election rules for school board elections. Now the candidate with the most votes wins, even when there are more than two candidates in a race. A majority is not required. This means no more run-offs. So, in a three-way or more race, a candidate can get elected with less than 50% of the vote. This appears to be an attempt to hold on to power. It would not have passed if they didn't think it would benefit them. Casey & crew also would not allow discussion on this. Each trustee got only one minute.
• Dr. Ryan cannot assure anyone that GCISD will not be sued. In fact, this is almost a certainty, as the new policy appears to include civil rights violations.

In addition, we learned that GCISD will no longer have Scholastic Book Fairs anymore, purportedly because Scholastic cannot provide a list of books beforehand in a timely fashion.

Watch Public Comment Highlights

Media coverage:
Texas Tribune - A North Texas school district now lets teachers reject children’s pronouns — even if parents approve of them
​WFAA Channel 8 - Grapevine-Colleyville ISD bans CRT, implements new policy on books, use of pronouns
Texas Observer - ‘DON’T SAY TRANS’ POLICY PASSES IN NORTH TEXAS SCHOOL DISTRICT
NBC DFW -  GCISD Passes Policies on Pronoun Usage, Books and Classroom Discussions
Dallas Morning News - ​Grapevine-Colleyville passes limits on CRT, books and bathrooms
Dallas Observer - Grapevine/Colleyville ISD's Witch Hunt Against Books Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg
Washington Post - ‘Don’t say trans’: Texas school board’s new policies spark an outcry
NBC News - How a far-right, Christian cellphone company ‘took over’ four Texas school boards
Dallas Observer - A Parent Went on a Wild Rant While Speaking Before the Grapevine/Colleyville ISD School Board
My San Antonio - ​Christian cell phone company, Patriot Mobile, backed Texas 'Don't Say Trans’ school board
Axios - ​A Christian cell phone company plans to take over Texas school boards

@christackett71 Replying to @dayinthelifeofafatchic Did she say it? That’s the question asked over and over. Here is the section of the board meeting from 8/22/2022 in question. Tell me what you think. #txed ♬ original sound - Chris Tackett

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July 2022

In July, we also learned that GCISD's newly hired Chief Communications Officer left after a few months due to the toxic climate. Apparently his whole team left too, and now GCISD is looking to hire someone whose main job will be responding to those "weaponized" Freedom of Information requests.
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At July's regular school board meeting, dozens of parents spoke out. Some read anonymous teacher comments, and some asked fo the resignation of Trustee Nakamura. At the end of public comment and when Trustee Namamura spoke, many attendees and Protect GCISD members held up "RESIGN" signs.

We learned that Casey Ford hired the law firm Cantey Hanger (also general counseld for Tarrant County GOP & some neighboring districts) with Dr. Ryan's permission to spend up to $25,000, supposedly to represent the board. Since they are quickly approaching that amount, the board voted to keep them on as counsel past the $25,000. Tim Davis, one of the lawyers, can be seen in the school board meeting video mostly slumped over in his chair. We the taxpayers are paying $400 per hour for that.

We also learned in public comment that Cantey Hanger is defending the business entity associated with Casey Ford's biggest campaign contributor, who contributed $15,000 to a PAC to help him get elected.

This firm is supposed to represent the school board, but from the questions from Becky St. John, it appears it's really representing part of the board. Keep in mind we are still paying for Brackett & Ellis to represent the district. Bracket & Ellis wrote the 48-page response to Shannon Braun and Casey Ford's extremely problematic CSEL policy.

Casey refuses to answer the other board member's questions about the hiring of Cantey Hanger, instead having them direct questions to Dr. Ryan, who doesn't know all the answers. The lack of transparency continues. He also is once again rude to two trustees, not allowing them to speak.

None of this looks very good in light of all the budget cuts, which have resulted in elimination of teacher positions, among other things. Despite elimination of positions, the number of teachers and staff who have left appears to be higher than normal. Exact numbers are pending. In addition, as Becky St. John said, it costs GCISD to train new hires. And that would be in addition to the hard-to-measure cost of losing so much experience and human capital. In order to "balance" the budget, GCISD has to fill vacant teacher positions with less experienced ones than in the past, 5 years on average instead of 15 years.

Also, the "balanced budget" is no longer balanced. The new budget methodology serves to delay repairs to GCISD facilities, as there is no budget flexibility. Trustees must wait until the next board meeting rolls around to approve any repairs or other expenses.

Trustee Nakamura decided to speak at an RNC event and appears to have violated the settlement agreement between GCISD and Dr. James Whitfield. She also says she has a list of 30 activist teachers who are "poison" and need to be removed.

On July 18, a special school board meeting was called. Besides the public forum speakers, some of whom called for Trustee Nakamura to resign, the rest of the meeting occurred in executive session. The meeting agenda was vague, so it's not clear what was discussed.

This controversy made local and national headlines: 
​School Board Member Says Black Principal's Activism 'Got Him Fired' From School

Grapevine-Colleyville school board member says former principal lost job because of activism

​Grapevine-Colleyville sets special meeting after board member discusses firing of principal

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June 2022

Despite 1,200 signatures on a petition to have the GCISD school board follow Dr. Ryan's recommendation to nominate Becky St. John to TASB leadership, Trustees Ford, Braun, Spradley, and Nakamura did not listen to the community and once again voted to allow Tammy Nakamura to seek TASB leadership. The chances of her being elected to the TASB Board are about zero, so GCISD will no longer have representation on TASB leadership.

​In addition to this unfortunate outcome, we learned several other things during June's board meeting:

• Trustees Ford, Braun, Spradley, and Nakamura voted against an equitable 2% raise for all GCISD employees. Teachers got a 2% raise, while everyone else got a 1% raise. Special ed teachers are not included in the 2% raise! 
• Trustees Ford, Braun, Spradley, and Nakamura are touting that they are passing a “balanced budget,” when in reality they know we will need to cover over $4 million more in expenditures in the coming year; moreover, class sizes are going up due to teachers not being replaced and several foreign languages are being cut entirely from GCISD due to budget cuts.
• Trustee Ford has reconstituted the committee on the CSEL policy. The old committee consisted of Trustees Ford, St. John, and Canter. The new one consists of Trustees Ford, Braun, and Spradley.
• Trustee Ford still shows a lack of transparency regarding his and Trustee Braun’s largely illegal and discriminatory CSEL policy and would not answer additional questions about it. One question was about what legal counsel the new committee is using. Rather than answer a specific questions about the meeting so that the community could hear, he took the board into executive session to answer.

Media Coverage: Grapevine-Colleyville trustee ousted from school board group

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May 2022

During May's school board meeting, Trustees Ford, Braun, Spradley, and Nakamura voted to remove Becky St. John from Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) leadership. They nominated Tammy Nakamura to run for the TASB board, knowing full well she would not be chosen to serve on the TASB board.

GCISD nominates a representative, along with other Region 11 districts, to serve on the TASB Board. Districts vote to decide who will serve on the TASB Board. Becky St. John has served on the TASB Board for a number of years, and it takes years to build the knowledge, reputation, and network that she has in order to win a seat on the TASB Board.

The GCISD Board did not replace Becky on the TASB Board with another Trustee. As the chances of Ms. Nakamura winning the seat are basically zero, in part because TASB Board members are expected to have school board experience, our Board just decided not to have GCISD represented at the TASB Board of Directors.

The same vote that occurred at the GCISD May school board meeting will happen again on Monday, June 20, due to a procedural violation.

TASB is a member services organization, not a lobbying organization.

• TASB is the member organization for all 1,000+ school districts in Texas. A few members of the Governmental Relations staff are required by law to register as "lobbyists" due to the Texas Ethics Commission rules. It is not a lobbying organization or a political PAC.

TASB saves us money.

• ​TASB licenses the purchasing cooperative BuyBoard. It has saved members (including GCISD and the Cities of Grapevine, Euless, and Colleyville) around $60K per year

TASB provides valuable services.

• Legislative Tracking & Policy Updates. On average, around 2,000 education-related bills are filed every legislative session. It is impossible, unless local taxpayers want to hire administrative staff for the school district, for school districts and volunteer, unpaid trustees to track all of those bills as they move through the legislature. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the Attorney General also impose significant policy mandates on school districts.
• Legal Services
• ​Risk Management Services. Think hail storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, bus wrecks, cyber security etc.
• Training. There are over 7,000 trustees in Texas, ALL of whom are required to complete hours of state-mandated training every year. Trustees are the only elected officials to have this level of mandated training, including Team of 8, cybersecurity, sex trafficking, and school safety/security

Advocacy with TASB has resulted in:

• reduced Robin Hood payments
• lowered tax rate
• increased funding for teacher pay
• elimination of wasteful and unnecessary End of Course Exams
• increased Special Education funding
• reduction of STAAR testing to more developmentally appropriate levels
• outright elimination of some unnecessary STAAR tests
• increased safety for students playing sports
• more local control of school calendars
• support for teacher insurance plans and teacher retirement

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April 2022

At the April GCISD School Board meeting, just prior to the election, Trustees Ford and Braun put forth a proposed policy, some of it redundant to state law, and much of it illegal and/or discriminatory. Despite putting this on the agenda, the trustees refused to discuss it or answer questions about it. They would not even reveal who wrote it. They also opposed that the public be privy to a 48-page response written by GCISD lawyers.

Media Coverage: ​Grapevine - Colleyville ISD proposal would change how history and sex ed are taught