Information is currency for democracy.
- Thomas Jefferson
A day without sunshine is like, you know,
night. -
Steve Martin
Education is unique among consumer products;
when it fails to work as advertised, it's the customer that gets labeled as
defective. - Kevin
Killion
Please
download for best results in using
this website.
Courage is the most important of all
the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other
virtues consistently. You can't be consistently kind or fair or
humane or generous, not without courage, because if you don't have
it, sooner or later you will stop and say, "The threat is too much.
The difficulty is ...too high. The challenge is too great. ~ Maya
Angelou
Eanes ISD Board of Trustees
Eanes ISD refuses to post
board agenda items with specificity.
Texas Attorney General
rules on vague agenda items.
Link here
Eanes ISD
Posts Board Information Online - November 2006
Archived Eanes ISD board
information is available only on KeepEanesInformed.com
(see below).
From:
Dianna Pharr Sent: Wednesday, November 01, 2006 6:53 PM To: 'trustees@eanes.k12.tx.us'; 'nwellman@eanes.k12.tx.us' Subject: Thank you!
November 1, 2006
Dear Eanes ISD
Board of Trustees and Superintendent Wellman,
I am truly pleased
to acknowledge the board’s recent decision to post relevant board
meeting information on the Eanes ISD website using Board Book. This
approach will not only facilitate open government for those who attend
board meetings but will also serve to help inform those who cannot
attend the meetings.
As you know, I
have requested this online provision of public information for over
three years because I recognize the importance of easy access to this
information (see attachments).
Additionally, this approach negates the
need to request this public information. I expended much time and
energy gathering Eanes ISD handouts and posting those to my website,
www.keepeanesinformed.com. Now,
the information is readily accessible on the Eanes ISD official website!
I have also
repeatedly requested the online posting of the Eanes ISD check
register. I am aware that Board Book has the capability at no extra
expense apparently to provide the district’s check register online.
Please consider this option as well.
Again, thank you
for this decision to facilitate open government.
Sincerely,
Dianna Pharr
Eanes ISD Board Meetings
Eanes ISD Regular
Board Meetings are held on the last Wednesday of each month. The Eanes ISD
Board "Study Session" meetings and attended by full board have replaced the previous EISD Board
Committee Meetings. Study Sessions are usually held early on weekday
mornings in the Board Room of the Central Administration Building. Often,
the board discussion that occurs during "study sessions" and "special meetings"
is more informative and comprehensive than the discussion in regular board
meeting. Unfortunately, the early morning schedule of these meetings can
limit the participation of the public including parents, teachers, and students.
When the
Keep Eanes Informed effort began, the district
did not post any board-related information
online. In fact, the required notice and
agenda of the board meeting was simply tacked to
the front door of the Eanes ISD Central
Administration Building. The Texas Open
Meetings Act requires governmental bodies to
post a notice of board meetings 72 hours in
advance. Until Eanes ISD agreed to
post agenda notice online, those notices were
posted on KeepEanesInformed.com. Then, as
now, parents and taxpayers seldom attend board
meetings and as a result, all board business
was essentially conducted without
any public oversight. Most
parents and taxpayers had not even heard of the Texas
Open Meetings Act or Texas Public Information
Act.
In those
days, the board hand-outs (documents viewed by
board members during the meetings) were also
closed to the public. Imagine trying to follow
along in an open meeting when the board members
and superintendent discussed the "blue shaded area and
lines 87-93"; without a handout, the public
could not participate.
With no means of following the meeting issues, the public was
functionally excluded from the "open" meeting.
Dianna Pharr remembers attending a 2004 board
meeting
and asking for a copy of the handout so that she could follow along and
an board member
responded "We're not ready to give those out to
the public." She continued to
attend board meetings, collect and post
handouts, and push for transparency. Eventually the
public information was provided at board meeting and now
they are online in advance of the meeting.
The following links
are archived information gathered by Keep Eanes
Informed and only available here:
Eanes ISD Board Meeting Handouts (obtained through open records and by attending meetings)
* Consider the Proposed Termination of the Term Contract of the Executive
Director of Facilities Planning and Operations (Update: The board voted to
terminate this contract.)
The agenda (unavailable)
indicates a closed session meeting for the purpose of discussing "Personnel
Matters", specifically to consider selection of an EISD Public Information
Officer.
August 9, 2004 Study Session
Topics discussed:
1. Budget Revisions
2. Building Rental Policy (note: see link to facilities *public information*
below)
*These links provide a sample of the
facilities open records obtained through the Texas Public Information Act. These
documents will provide a context and overview of the polices as well as
the "practices" in our school district. If you desire complete and
additional information in this regard, please contact the Eanes Independent
School District.
The rental of EISD facilities is a
current board study session issue. Please visit the "Board of
Trustees" page or "Open Records" page of this site for more information.
Key
members of the nation’s policy making community reflect on their elementary and
secondary school years, and how those experiences have affected their opinions
on public education.
This webpage is devoted to
the Texas Open Meetings Act. It is written for the lay person, not
attorneys. I have set it up in the hope that it will be of use to
individuals who are interested in seeing that governmental decisions are
made in the open, where all those affected by them can see what is going
on.
"The philosophy of the schoolhouse in one generation," Abraham Lincoln
warned, "will be the philosophy of the government in the next."
