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"A day without sunshine is like, you know, night." - Steve Martin

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Information is currency for democracy.

-Thomas Jefferson

The best protection of the Texas Public Information Act is enforcement of the Texas Public Information Act.

- Dianna Pharr

It's about power and money and the law firms who control and run the school districts.

- K. Yeaman, Mom

Click here: Animator vs. Animation

To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.

- Albert Einstein

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

If you aren’t completely appalled, you haven’t been paying attention.

My vision for Eanes can't be seen on a Jumbotron ...

- Eanes ISD parent

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

Judge each day not by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

All children deserve an equal playing field.

- Ed Allen, Westlake Picayune April 2008

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

- Albert Einstein

"Education is unique among consumer products;

when it fails to work as advertised, it's the customer that gets labeled as defective." - Kevin Killion

Welcome to Keep Eanes Informed. Information is essential to public participation and open government. This site, created in 2003, is maintained by parent volunteers as a community service and is a repository of public information, education news and community resources. The ability of a community to participate in the operation of their local public schools is directly dependent upon that community's ability to glean information from their school administration.   Present laws provide limited recourse for citizens who come up against barriers in their search for details about their schools. This site offers taxpayers/parents the opportunity to combine their energies in productive pursuit of understanding. More about this site here.

Questions and comments are welcome: Dianna Pharr at keepeanesinformed@gmail.com - Keep Eanes Informed - In the News

Four from the Austin Area to Receive “Defender of the American Dream” Awards ...

Dianna Pharr wins Defender of the American Dream Watchdog Website of the Year Award.

Nanci Wilson of KEYE News wins Defender of the American Dream Media Award.

Why does the Eanes ISD leadership continue to discriminate against children with disabilities?

More about Cindy Martin, Nola Wellman and Bill Bechtol ...

    Does your child have $chool $pirit?

Why does Eanes ISD refuse to comply with the Texas Open Meetings Act?

Let's get specific.

Vague agenda items keeps public in the dark.

   Should we "blindly" trust our public school educators?   As recently as 2006, Annette Griffin was an SBEC board member. The State Board of Certification decides "ethics complaints" against educators for matters such as drunk driving, and sexual abuse of children.

BREAKING GOOD NEWS!

October 2008 - ONE STEP FORWARD IN TRANSPARENCY: Eanes ISD now posts check register online.

Update posted here: It's our check register. Why does Eanes ISD refuse to post it on the district website?

Does Eanes ISD exclude children with disabilities?   Updated October 19, 2008

   When you donate to EEF, the district can continue hiring private attorneys ... instead of teachers. Follow the money.

   Interested in air quality in your child's school? This public information is available only on KeepEanesInformed.

$318,000 for a softball batting cage?

SPORTS GONE WILD ... Bond money is funded by taxpayers. Voters did not approve this out-of-control athletic spending.

Parents want to know:

Did Eanes ISD prioritize artificial turf and batting cages over identified security needs such as fencing at our elementary schools?

Have you been converted?

A continuing stream of money, provided through EEF, simply facilitates the district's priority on wish-lists and its intentional refusal to be transparent and accountable to taxpayers, teachers, parents and children.

The wait is over.

45 days and two requests later, the Eanes ISD salary and stipend information for 08-09 is finally available.

Why is Nola Wellman using voice mail to communicate with Eanes ISD board members?

How many hoops will we need to jump through to obain Eanes ISD salary and stipend public information?

Texas Education Agency (TEA) refers to Eanes ISD private law firm as demonstrating "RECKLESS BEHAVIOR?"

Who uses our district facilities? And why are we passing out keys like candy?

Eanes ISD Jumbotron public information transformed into Chap Club private information?

Is our district playing "hide the ball?"

Have you reviewed the 2005 Eanes ISD "Safety and Security Report?"

   21st century accounting? Adequate recordkeeping? Open government? You decide.

Are you seeking a school where your intellectually gifted child can thrive?

Why is our district rating dropping? What happens when Eanes ISD must educate 54 economically disadvantaged students?

Does our district teach "fuzzy" math? Eanes ISD adopts "Everyday Math" after State Board of Education rejects the program.

Are you ready to financially maintain Eanes ISD as a sports magnet? More "facility improvements" that voters did not approve.

Why didn't Eanes ISD superintendent Nola Wellman pay her fair share of taxes?

Why did Eanes ISD punish the award-winning physics teachers? Are school administrators the biggest bullies of all?

Attention Eanes ISD taxpayers: Do you approve of this expenditure?

When you donate money to EEF, your donations allow the district to spend money like this ...

Have you reviewed the Eanes ISD construction audit?

Why does Eanes ISD refuse to provide detailed bond expenditure information to the public? What is the district's priority?

No left turns for "slow readers" into the Eanes ISD elementary campus?

Why do Eanes ISD children with special needs spend their learning days in portables?

Wondering who is behind the public school curtain?

Who "partners" with school district administrators and financially benefits from adversarial relationships with parents?

Is drug and alcohol use escalating in Eanes ISD? How long has Nola Wellman known about this problem?

Are there guns on your child's campus?

Why didn't Eanes ISD release this information to the public? What is being done to prevent a tragedy?

Are you aware of abuse allegations in Eanes ISD? Do you think the public has a right to know who preys on our children?

Want to learn more about the lobbyists who profit so mightily from our school tax dollars?

Are you trying to transfer your child into Eanes ISD?

Is your child's class size expanding?

Why is Eanes ISD board presidentJim Strickland confused?

Why is Nola Wellman whining?

Does Nola Wellman really care about at-risk children?

A message from an Eanes ISD principal to the Poor and Common?

   Is your child's confidential information safe with Eanes ISD?

Are you informed about the discrimination in Eanes ISD?

   What is PEIMS?

Why does Eanes ISD leadership fight so hard to hide (not provide) public information?

   Want to learn more about the Texas Public Information Act?

An Educational Video

Public Accountability Missing in Education Oct. 2008 - Public education is a bureaucracy, however, and on the whole, bureaucracies tend to be impermeable and self-serving. In public education, the "public" has been purposefully blocked from the process. The establishment spends billions of dollars each year studying students, teachers, schools and families – dutifully reporting its picked-over version of reality and probably cutting down an entire rain forest of trees to publish the results. All the while, it fails to tell the public it's in a dark place where high-school students drop out or require extensive remedial help before moving forward with their lives.

Questions and comments are welcome. Contact: Dianna Pharr keepeanesinformed@gmail.com

FAIR USE NOTICE
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of education issues vital to a democracy. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information click here. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Thank you.

© Copyright 2003 Dianna Pharr - Keep Eanes Informed - All Rights Reserved

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