October 2023

NBC dropped their much anticipated podcast about GCISD October 4. There are six episodes in total. Mike Hixenbaugh and Antonia Hylton created the podcast, after winning a Peabody Award for their Southlake podcast.

Listen
Our Episode Summaries:
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
​Episode 6
An important message from the teacher featured in the podcast:

As some of you know, I left what was supposed to be my dream job recently. I’d dreamed of working in GCISD’s ASPIRE program since I was 19, and I had planned to spend my professional life at that school and even retire from there. However, that became untenable this year after a parent took to the news and accused me of indoctrinating her child into being trans and then the community took to the internet calling for me to be fired, to be jailed, and to get monkeypox and die. They called me “filth” and a groomer. They posted my contact information in their Facebook groups and signed me up for porn lists. I had pamphlets saying I’d been marked by the devil shoved in my flower pots and started receiving hate mail in my mailbox.

All of the anger and lies directed towards me made me become half of the person I was. I isolated myself. I became a bad teacher, a bad friend, a bad partner, a bad child to my parents. Their actions made me begin to hate myself, made me become small and voiceless. I couldn’t speak without crying and either couldn’t sleep or slept too much. I didn’t know how to ask for help or even tell anyone what was happening as I was told at work that this was my fault and what I needed to expect as a public servant.

Over the past three years I experienced consistent harassment by the GCISD community in regards to my curriculum, my teaching, and my personhood—all because I did my job as an English teacher, which amounts to presenting students with texts from a variety of perspectives and encouraging students to read. At least that’s what I like to tell myself, but, really, the reason they did all this is because I’m queer, and even though I’ve always been careful to avoid telling students that, these parents saw me, thought I looked a little too gay, and got scared.

Before GCISD, I knew students made assumptions in regards to my sexuality based upon my hair, my clothes, my lack of make-up and so on. In particular, they always clocked my pants as being both quirky and queer, which used to bring me a lot of joy. And frankly, I was okay with being seen as queer because I’d always believed and been taught that students deserved the chance to see themselves reflected in their teachers and the adults around them. I had a student in one of the first classes I ever worked with write me a letter at the end of the term in which she said, “until now, I never had a queer role model to look up to.” She told me she had never met an adult happy queer person before and she thought that meant that she would never be able to be happy, that she was destined to a life of sadness and an eventual lonely death, as that’s all she’d ever seen.

Even still, I was terrified to ever come out to students, in part cause I like some healthy distance from the kids and in part cause I was terrified of the repercussions of being openly out--I’d seen too many teachers threatened and too many teachers fired, too many. I’d been told my whole life to keep that private.

So, when I first got to GCISD, I pretended to be straight, but I still looked a little gay—at least according to others. I was told, in fact, that I didn’t look like a GCISD teacher: I didn’t have the hair, the outfits, the eyelashes, and, in particular, the nails—something that many women within the district either get them done at the same salons or start side businesses selling press-on nails to one another to supplement their inadequate teaching salaries. I couldn’t help it; I looked different than the rest of the teachers without meaning to or trying to.

When I was in graduate school, I had the opportunity to help work on a collection of papers written by Dr. Edra Bogle, one of the first three openly gay professors in the state of Texas. In that collection there was a letter that Dr. Bogle wrote to a local newspaper editor in 1977: “Last winter I was walking down the hall at work. No one was around. I realized I was feeling very relaxed because no one was watching, and I didn’t have to be careful how I walked or what I looked at. “How wonderful it would be,” I thought, “To feel this way all the time.” Can you imagine being guarded all the time, choosing your clothes for how well they will delude other people, and watching your conversation nearly every minute of your life?…I’m sick of feeling watched and judged every minute!”

The longer I worked in GCISD, the more watched I felt, and I changed as a result. I can see the change in my yearbook photos as my hair grew out, my clothes became more feminine, and my eyes got more tired. At some point, I stopped recognizing myself both in those photos and in the mirror.

When I was working on Dr. Bogle’s collection, I also found a collection of newspaper articles from the 70s that called for the firing of gay teachers by different superintendents in the DFW area. It read like a horror story, a witch-hunt for anyone who even looked a little bit gay. When I was working on the collection, I struggled to believe that that had happened because I couldn’t imagine people doing that today.

Yet, last summer, one of the GCISD school board trustees, Tammy Nakamura, attended a Republican school board forum at which she publicly said that she has a list of teachers who need to be removed from the classroom because they're "poison" to the district. Nakamura suggested the reason these teachers were “poison” was because they were “activists,” but in reality, it was just that they are different from her and the picture GCISD likes to paint of its teachers--the one of teachers who dress a certain way, wear their nails and hair a certain way, vote a certain way, and practice religion a certain way.

I had numerous conversations with colleagues, and administrators about how likely it was that I was on this list because I was different, because I looked a little gay, because I taught students to think critically, because I taught a variety of books, because I didn’t fit into their mold. It’s funny in some ways that the history I studied in grad school has become my own horrific reality.

When that article came out about me last year, someone left a comment on the newspaper’s website saying that one of the things they learned in my class was the value of considering and incorporating multiple different perspectives in their writing. They said you can’t have a successful argument without considering multiple different sides. In the same vein, we can’t have a good society without having multiple different kinds of people. Without differences, we become a hateful and stagnant echo chamber.

In graduate school, I also learned how the places we come from, the things we believe in, and the identities we claim influence how we engage with the world, our content, and our students. This laid the basis for my teaching philosophy, writing philosophy, and, funnily enough, my writing bios. I used to write that I was a “queer activist-teacher-scholar-poet” when publishing poetry because those were all parts of me that informed my writing. It was that bit of my bio that that article quoted as evidence that I was indoctrinating students.

The reason I listed “activist,” however, had little to do with my teaching (though I am a staunch advocate for my students’ right to an education). In fact, it had to do a lot more with my mom. She raised me to stand up for what I believe is right, even when it is terrifying to do so. She even took me to my first protest when I was in middle school because I had a firm belief in something and she wanted to help me share my voice.

Growing up during the fight around Prop 8 in California & Amendment 1 in North Carolina shaped who I was. I saw first hand how much people hated queer people. These people hated my mom, the woman who loved her dogs almost more than me and always took me for 7/11 slushies when it was too hot out or when I was having a bad day. They hated my mom because of the fact that she was a lesbian, something that was just a part of her. And, I couldn’t get behind people hating my mom or her friends just because of who they were.

I became an “activist” because I got scared that one day I would get a call saying my mom had been murdered by some guys who were scared of gay people. Of course, that fear of someone getting hurt or killed because they’re queer or trans has now grown to include myself, other family members, my friends, my colleagues, and even some of my students--anyone I know who is LGBTQIA+. If you attend enough Trans Day of Remembrance events, it’s hard for that fear to ever go away.
However, I kept that activism outside the classroom. After all, an activist, according to the dictionary, is “a person who campaigns to bring about political or social change,” and I wasn’t doing any campaigning in the classroom in GCISD. In fact, all I was doing was teaching and teaching my heart out at that.

During my time at GCISD, I did everything they wanted me to from getting students published in a book with the New York Times, to helping students get into Harvard, to getting high test scores (including a 90% 5 rate for one of my AP courses), to helping 40+ students win awards with the Scholastic Art and Writing program, to even winning a teaching award from the Church of the Latter Day Saints for being a student’s most influential educator.

All the while, the district continued to change and ban my curriculum and move the goalposts, making teaching ever more difficult. There were days students showed up that I didn’t even have an approved curriculum to teach from. On a book approval form, a parent left a note about me, saying that some teachers just shouldn’t be allowed to teach certain books, and then that book, House on Mango Street, disappeared from my class without the district giving any reason or acknowledgement as to why it was removed.

This May I won an award for being one of the top 12 best humanities teachers in the state of Texas, but this didn’t matter to the district, its parents, or even its students.

A lot of people have told me I brought all of this upon myself by choosing to be a teacher or choosing to be queer to choosing to exist at all. I was told this is what it means to be a public servant and that I couldn’t complain for as long as I was on.

So I quit.
And now I can finally speak out.

This is not me trying to defame the district or say that people shouldn’t work there (though I do fear for those queer and trans teachers who remain there). Rather this is simply an acknowledgement of what happened and what teachers across the country are facing.

I have a lot of people in my circles who either do not stay up to date with what’s going on in education (and other political things) or simply choose not to vote or get otherwise involved in their community. I get the desire to do both; it’s exhausting to keep up with what is going on in the world and voting often feels pointless. After all, I held a socratic seminar with my juniors last year and with an overwhelming majority, they said that voting doesn’t accomplish anything.

Yet, elections are ending up with smaller and smaller margins. One of the GCISD board members won only by 499 votes with a majority of those eligible to vote abstaining from doing so. And, to be frank, we cannot afford people to not try. When you don’t try to get involved, people like me suffer.

I had so many parents reach out when things were going on to vocalize their support in private, but who refused to acknowledge anything in public. I had other parents tell me they knew I was too much of a professional to ever acknowledge what had happened, something that felt more and more like a threat with each new event. Those parents remained safe and silent while I was threatened and forced into leaving my dream job before it killed me.

This past year, I have often been reminded of Elie Wiesel’s 1986 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech: “And then I explained to him how naive we were, that the world did know and remain silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.”

I do not think many of my students or their parents are overly familiar with the speech given how minimally the Holocaust is taught currently given that teachers have been told to teach “both sides” of the Holocaust. But his words still resonate with me as actions, even silence, have consequences.

I allowed myself to stay silent for far too long, and even when I ended up in the news, I was still too scared to acknowledge it. However, this community took away my ability to not have my name attached to any of this. They thrust me in the limelight as a part of their political maneuvering and took away my safety and my love of teaching. I’ll never be able to go back; my life is irrevocably changed.

Just before ending the letter I mentioned above, Dr. Bogle wrote that “It is not in the best interests of society in general, let alone of these young people to make them feel they must be less than their potential allows.”

I’ve always tried to help my students reach their potential, regardless of if they are gay or straight, Christian, Buddhist, or Agnostic, interested in STEM or interested in English, on their phone during class or attentive, annoying or kind. The removal of LGBTQIA+ teachers will only prevent students from reaching their potential as it’s not just going to drive queer and trans people out of education. Other people will and are leaving under the broader demonization of educators as radicals and groomers.

One of my students spoke at the recent board meeting to tell the board to “Be better, [and] do better.” Those words hold a striking similarity to ones I heard at the memorial service for Dr. Katie McWain, one of my graduate professors. A student said that Dr. McWain had taught her to “Be good and do good.”

I try to embody both mentalities as a way to honor the teacher I lost, the students who have come into my classroom for however short a time, and to be the kind of person my mom is proud of. I never wanted to teach students to be queer, be trans, be straight, be cisgender, be a Democrat, be a Republican or anything but how to read and how to write, and maybe the importance of being good, doing good, and always striving to do better— whatever that meant to them and their families.

When that article came out, I had a student send me an email saying that I taught him it was okay to ask for help and that it was his turn to tell me that it was okay to ask for help.
So this is me asking for help: your teacher friends can’t keep going on like this, your queer and trans friends can’t keep going on like this.

I’ve known too many people, teachers and LGBTQIA+ folk alike, who have left the education profession, who have fled the state, who have fled the country, who have died by suicide, who have died by violence--all due to the harassment and fear they’re experiencing for who they are.
​
We need people to stop being silent and start doing something.

September 2023

At the September board meeting, there was a presentation by the self-proclaimed alternative to TASB, the Texas Association of School Boards. TASB is a member services organization. They are anti-voucher, so extremist school board candidates don't like them. This "alternative" is called Texans for Excellence in Education (TEE). It's a sketchy far-right organization that endorses Patriot Mobile candidates and in fact sent out mailers for the GCISD Patriot Mobile candidates in May.

How ironic given that TASB detractors like Shannon Braun accuse TASB of indoctrination and being too political. When has TASB ever endorsed a school board candidate? Spoiler: Never.

At the board meeting, the presenter could not answer simple questions about TEE, like who is on its board of directors. TEE is offering its services for "free" for a year while they help districts ease out of TASB membership. It's not really free, because using them would make our district look even more unethical and incompetent.

The address this organization has listed on their website is not a physical address. They were incorporated in Delaware, and the address listed on certain financial documents is a residential apartment in Dallas. The occupant of the apartment owns bars and has nothing to do with the education industry. It turns out that this person has strong ties to Monty Benett, supporter of our school board majority. He lets the extremist trustees write op-eds in his paper the Dallas Express. Aaron Harris, another supporter of our school board majority, also worked for TEE. TEE now has an almost word-for-word copy of GCISD's harmful policies on their website, touted as a model for Texas districts. If you think Aaron Harris wrote the policies, you are probably right.

August 2023

In August we learned that the ACLU filed a complaint against GCISD's new policies that discriminate against already marginalized students. The ACLU decided to file against Keller ISD. They passed essentially the same policies as GCISD passed first. GCISD is a pawn in a larger political game, with the same handful of people trying to control all North Texas districts.

ACLU of Texas files Title IX complaints against FWAFA, Keller ISD

During August's board meeting, Shannon Braun voted against using TASB insurance with no explanation, despite it being BY FAR the most affordable and best value of the options.

July 2023

In July we learned that some GCISD students did not walk across the stage for graduation because the district will only call out their birth name during graduation. They preferred not to walk instead of being called by their dead name. The ACLU released a statement explaining why districts should call non-binary and transgender students by their preferred first name.

We continue to learn of resignations, including one 15-year GCISD veteran who made the decision not to return due to the issues created by the school board.

We learn at a board meeting from HR that employees provided more information on the Gallup Engagement Survey than they have in the past. We looked at the Gallup survey comments, and there are hundreds calling out the board majority specifically and its detrimental effect on work culture and student learning.

At the Strategic Planning Workshop, we learn the following: Senior leadership represents the tactical role in GCISD. The board represents  the strategic role in GCISD. The board works ON the system, not IN the system. The admin delivers on that the board says is important.

We learn that Shannon wants to enact a policy where it's at the board president's discretion whether an item can be put on the agenda again. Becky tells her that's an abuse of power. Note: Currently two trustees must agree that something belongs on the agenda for it to be put there.

The is a special board meeting regarding the cancellation of the two-way dual language program. Dual language parents requested the discussion be in public view, but the district denied the request. One public commenter expresses the following sentiment: Chicanery is the word of the day. Chicanery is what you used to decide to cancel the dual language program. You have board policies and state laws you need to follow. You expect others to follow rules, but you set the expectation of not following the rules. Shannon and Tammy, you need to stop the mean girl antics towards Becky.

Here is what a dual language parent posted publicly:
Though the crux of our grievance is that the administration violated the law in the manner in which they cancelled the program. Under TEC 11.251 if a committee is formed to evaluate a major classroom instructional program it is REQUIRED to be formed in manner that includes 1) parents who are not also paid employees of a district, 2.) community members, and 3.) 2/3 of the participants MUST be in classroom teachers. None of these guidelines were followed. Our district formed a "Dual Language Advisory Committee" and stated based on their decision they were phasing out two-way dual.

Then it snowballed from there... two trustees added this matter for discussion, using appropriate board protocol, without consent to have it tabled or removed, and yet, it has never been discussed. Policy requires it to be discussed if the proper channels are followed, which they were. Violating your own board policy, is ALSO a violation of the law in the state of Texas. More laws being broken.

The two-way dual language program, which they "phased out", meaning it is no longer an offering for incoming students IS written into the district policy, BY NAME (not just dual language, but "two-way dual language") as a program offering in our district. In order to change policy, the board is REQUIRED to vote, yet they refuse to. Another violation of the law.

Lastly, upon going through this grievance process, we have obtained dozens of documents from the district. Many of which revealed that much of what was presented about the program at the ONLY board meeting in which is was discussed, on March 27, was a lie. The list of lies is too long for me to type. But, to me, the most significant is that teachers "overwhelmingly" agree with the decision to phase out the two-way dual language program. The district actually provided us with the vote. There were 7 teachers on the committee, and the vote was 5 -2 in FAVOR of keeping the two-way dual language program. 71.5% of teachers voted to KEEP two-way dual, completely opposite of what the district administration presented. According to the TEA, lying, misrepresenting and disseminating false information to the board is ALSO a violation of the law. The violations just keep coming.

16 parents filed a TEA grievance to report these violations of the law. The TEA sent us a letter stating it was the only time on record that more than one complainant has filed on the same issue in our district. And, while, I hear most TEA grievances are thrown out, ours was not. On June 9, all who filed were sent letters stating that our complaint was being escalated. The complaint was sent to the Office of Compliance and Governance, and arm of the TEA which, according to their website, investigates claims of discrimination and misuse of public funds (as dual language programs receive bilingual education allotments funds under HB 3 - our district has received over $2 million in the past 4 years just to run this very program). So, no matter what happens tomorrow, the district still has quite a mess on their hands.

As parents, we firmly believe that when the district/board fail to follow the laws set forth to protect the parents, teachers and students they are hired and elected to serve, they truly DO fail ALL the parents, students and teachers.
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Also, we DID request the grievance meeting to be open to the public. The district denied our request. We would have loved the public to be privy to the information presented, by both sides.

June 2023

In June we continued to hear of resignations, including the CHHS Principal and two significant resignations in ASPIRE. Dr. Cheryl Taliaferro, ASPIRE District Liaison, is leaving GCISD for a job with Baylor University’s Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development. Dr. Taliaferro has been instrumental in the development of ASPIRE, from teacher training, curricular cohesion, and student support for ASPIRE for 6 years. She received the 2022 NAGC Gifted Coordinator Award and is widely known for her book “Personalized Learning in Gifted Education.”

Also leaving is Dr. Julie Leslie, former Director of Advanced Academics who was promoted to GCISD Executive Director of Learning (curriculum) in the past year. The district did not fill the Director of Advanced Academics position after promoting Dr. Leslie.

Momentum and Roadblocks for GCISD GT and ASPIRE in 2023: A Message from SAGE to our Community

About 35 teachers and staff are resigning from CHHS alone. There are about 300 resignations overall in the district, which is much more than normal. The results of a Gallup teacher poll were released, and there were many negative comments about the board from teachers.

A student receiving an award at the regular school board meeting, presented by Kathy Spradley, was wearing a shirt that said "Ban Bigots, Not Books. #ProtectGCISD"

St. Martin in the Fields Episcopal Church in Keller gave a sermon this week about standing up for all people, specifically those hurt by the school board policies in Keller, Southlake, and GCISD. And, yes, the sermon mentioned the hurtful policies being implemented in these districts.

May 2023

On May 6, Dianna Sager, Mary Humphrey, and AJ Pontillo won the school board election. The downside is that we will have an extremist school board majority for two years. The upside is that, despite about $300,000 of outside money being spent on the Patriot Mobile candidates, none of them got a majority of the votes. Richard Newton lost outright, and Sergio Harris and Kimberly Phoenix would have won in two-way races. Together, Texas Nonpartisan PAC, Protect GCISD, and United for GCISD had a huge impact on this election. The other good news is that most Patriot Mobile candidates in other disticts did not do so well.
May 12 Special School Board Meeting

The topic of interest at the special school board meeting was the settlement reached with Mitchell Ryan several months ago. Mitchell Ryan sued the district over not being able to mention employee names during public comment. A speaker at the April meeting pointed out that a vote on this settlement was being held off until after the election. There seem to be a number of questionable things going on related to this settlement.

Mitchell Ryan is the same person who Shannon Braun called on to answer questions for her for the Dallas Morning News school board candidate questionnaire. He is also the person who years ago went to a Dove Elementary open house, took pictures of children's work, and posted them on social media claiming that their then-IB curriculum was teaching kids that white people are evil. He has also publicly threatened a black member of the community, warning him about what might happen if he continues to anger the white men of the community.
At May's regular school board meeting, Shannon Braun was elected President of the Board of Trustees. It would have been Richard Newton had he won the election. While we think Braun is an awful candidate for President given her motions to shut down trustee discussion, we aren't sure that she's worse than Newton would have been.

In fact, Shannon continues to shut down discussion during this meeting by tabling three items that are on the agenda, including the dual language item. She ignores and shuts down Becky when Becky questions doing this given an item makes it to the agenda when there are two trustees who want it there.

We hear from a number of parents during public comment speak on the cancellation of the two-way dual language program. A dozen families have filed TEA complaints due to violations during the process.

We hear from ASPIRE teacher Em Ramser on why she and others teachers are leaving. She is leaving because a part of the community has continually harrassed her for two years and lied about her teaching and curriculum. The district refused to say anything to support her publicly, even though she was cleared of wrongdoing. However, restrictions the district put in place are hampering her teaching.

Several students spoke in support of Ms. Ramser, calling out the increasingly radicalized school board and administration. One even said they has won awards for an essay about being bullied by other teachers, and that no other teachers they'd had compare to Ms. Ramser. One recent GHS grad said they have decided not to pursue education because of the way some GCISD teachers have been treated.

Teachers are given a 4% pay increase. Any increase is great, but this will still not make our teacher pay competitive with surrounding districts. In fact, a couple of teachers spoke about this during public comment. One high school teacher mentioned this is not enough to compensate for the increased workload given the change to a regular 8-period schedule with less preparation time.

Dr. Schanutz hires Leasor Crass as the district law firm, getting rid of Brackett & Ellis. Leasor Crass is the same firm hired to conduct the Superintendent search.

April 2023

April's regular board meeting is the last full meeting for Casey, Jorge, and Coley. We can't say we will miss Casey as President. His bullying was on full display this night. 

Jorge and Becky asked to put some items on the agenda, which they are entitled to as long as they meet the deadline (they did). Casey refused to add the items. Jorge announced this during the meeting. Below is what happened (the video was not working), and you cannot hear Casey storm off after abruptly calling for a 5-minute recess. Following that is Jorge's subsequently-released explanation.

Jorge's Explanation

Here are some other meeting highlights:
  • All but 2 of 26 speakers during public comment were anti-school board majority. Plenty of thanks for Coley and Jorge during their last full meeting.
  • One speaker talked about how the phonics company the district recently purchased materials from, and the extremists are over the moon about, has a fabulous pro - social justice DEI policy. This is interesting since the board has removed vendors for similar statements.
  • There seems to be a long delay in approving books, 6 months with no new approvals
  • We learned several dyslexia staff positions are being cut. Shannon claimed these were positions that were added after Covid. However, the last time we had only 23 of these positions (the number we are cutting back to now) was back in 2016. The facts are that we took 3 literacy positions that had previously been paid for under payroll and moved them under ESSER funds (temporary funds during Covid), as we did with many custodial and other positions, when trying to "balance" the budget. And, we have more students identified with dyslexia today than we had in 2016.

March 2023

In March we learned that GCISD's two-way dual language program is being cut. This follows cuts to the Gifted & Talented program at CHHS and the Latin program. We are losing about 26 positions at the high school due to attrition, and these will not be replaced. High schools are also moving to a regular 8 period schedule from a modified block schedule because of this. Teachers will lose a planning period and have to teach 7 out of 8 periods instead of 6 out of 8. The administration presented some of the positives of moving to an 8 period schedule but none of the drawbacks.

Tammy Nakamura publicly ridiculed the Christian charity GRACE Grapevine because its leader said they were supporting non-Patriot Mobile candidates in a private forum, as a private citizen. You can DONATE money or goods to GRACE Grapevine. If donating money, you can even send a note to Tammy letting her know you donated in her honor.

Those who of late claim they support teachers are the same ones ridiculing them not long ago:
Here are a few highlights of March's regular board meeting. A big theme of the meeting was lack of parental input before big decisions are made. This includes the decision to phase out dual language, the decision to move away from a modified block schedule at the high schools, and decisions made around the budget.
  • Becky questioned why speakers only get one minute for public comment if we allot 30 minutes to speaker comment and there are 11 speakers. This seems to be a trend at the last few meetings. Casey refused to answer and said Becky is violating decorum.
Dual Language
  • ​Many parents spoke out about their anger and frustration with the two-way dual languange program being phased out. The committee to evaluate this program was supposed to include parents who are not employees, and it did not.​
  • Several parents are planning to leave the district due to this decision
  • The administration presented incomplete data, all including covid years. A third party consultant of GCISD found we need greater resources and training to make it more successful.
  • Those currently in the program can continue as it's phased out. The program will be improved for those remaining while it's being phased out. Trustees and parents questioned why the program will be improved but not continue.
  • Shannon says if we want to compete with surrounding areas, we need to win in the classroom. Getting rid of this program is one good step to winning in the classroom.
  • ​Becky says that parents see this as a school of choice. It was never the intent to serve a large number of students through dual language. Demand is increasing across the state for acquisition of another language. Speakers told us students are leaving because of this cut. How do we stem the flight from GCISD? Not by cutting programs. We cannot afford to lose students to other districts.
Budget Deficit
  • We could have up to a $7.5 million deficit roll forward
  • We will save about $2.5 million due to teachers leaving and not being replaced. Other non-personnel reductions need to be made.
  • Becky said the crux of the problem is that last time we were in a large deficit, the district convened a group of stakeholders to consider options and that's not happening now. Looks like other options such as how to increase revenue were not considered.
Book Fairs
  • Despite the change to Literati and them providing a list of books ahead of time, books still "needed" to be pulled. We've ended up with a smaller selection of books for our students. The district could not answer how Literati book prices compare to those of Scholastic and how they compare in terms of donations and credits given to schools.

February 2023

In February we learned that former CHHS principal James Whitfield is suing Tammy Nakamura and GCISD for violating the terms of their settlement agreement.
Former principal files defamation lawsuit against Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, trustee


There were two special board meetings (1, 2) and the regular board meeting in February. Here are the highlights:
  • Dr. Brad Schnautz will be the next Superintendent
  • Each high school will be losing 12-14 teaching positions next year. As a result, the high schools will be moving away from block scheduling
  • GCISD's deficit is growing to 9m+
  • The interim CFO said you've dug a hole and need to get more kids in special programs or use golden pennies in the future
  • Property values are up overall, overall tax rate has gone down. Overall tax revenue has gone up, but recapture has increased, so district retained tax revenue has gone down.
  • Our savings are down, as is state funding
  • GCISD removed opposition to vouchers from its legistlative priorities
    • Becky: A trustee that does not oppose vouchers is not upholding their oath to the constitution. With a $9m deficit, we should be advocating against anything that takes money away from us.
  • The board "majority" continues to unethically stifle discussion by other trustees
  • Teacher salaries are falling behind even more. TASB recommends increasing pay to align with market

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 ([email protected] and [email protected]).

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.

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

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.
​
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:

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

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

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.
​
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

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

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