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Letter to the Eanes ISD board of trustees:
September 1, 2007
From:
Dianna Pharr [mailto:dpharr@austin.rr.com] Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2007 7:10 PM To: 'trustees@eanes.k12.tx.us' Cc: 'Nola Wellman' Subject: History of Eanes ISD's Refusal to Provide 2003 ADA Facilities
Assessment Review to the Public
September 1, 2007
To: Eanes ISD Board Members
Reference: History of Eanes ISD's
Refusal to Provide 2003 ADA Facilities Assessment Review to the Public
Beginning seven
years ago, Eanes ISD taxpayers funded several facilities assessment reviews and
reports including but not limited to the 2003 ADA SHW Facilities Assessment
Review outlining specific ADA violations.
September 2005
Eanes ISD ignored requested access to public
information that included reports funded by our tax dollars and related to
district facility access for children with disabilities. Eanes ISD
administration failed to produce responsive documents, a violation of the Texas
Public Information Act.
January 2006
The Eanes ISD superintendent refused a second
request for the same information, failing to produce even a single page of
responsive documents although many of the documents were super-public according
to state law.
Instead the district requested an opinion ruling
from the Office of the Attorney to withhold every responsive document including
but not limited to the 2003 ADA SHW Facilities Assessment Review.
April 2006
The State of Texas Office of the Attorney General
ruled that Eanes ISD must produce the requested public information.
Eanes ISD administration continued to withhold
the documents.
August 2006
A taxpayer complaint was submitted to the Travis
County Attorney David Escamilla.
December 2006
Subsequent to the intervention of the Travis
County Attorney, Eanes ISD administration produced responsive documents
including but not limited to the 2003 SHW ADA Facilities Assessment Review.
February 2007
Eanes ISD parents offered to work with Eanes ISD
on an ADA Task Force to identify ADA violations and create a list of priorities
for the current bond.
April 2007
District representative Bill Bechtol convened the
ADA Task Force. When one member informed the group that the ADA reports
existed, the entire Task Force specifically requested data, including the most
recent ADA facility assessment report, in order to begin their work.
May 2007
At the second of two meetings, District
representative Bill Bechtol informed the ADA Task Force that each committee
member must pay $90.00 to receive a copy of one report, the 2003 SHW ADA
Facilities Assessment Review. A taxpayer submitted a $90.00 check to Eanes ISD
the following day. His check was never cashed and he did not receive the
report.
Fact
The 2003 SHW ADA Facilities Report provides
detailed lists of ADA compliance problems at every Eanes ISD school. The report
includes specific information regarding emergency egress problems, playground
and recreational field barriers, restroom barriers, and numerous other ADA
violations.
To date, Eanes ISD has not provided the 2003 SHW
ADA Facilities Assessment Review to the ADA Task Force.
Fact
Eanes administrators have actively and repeatedly
withheld this report from stakeholders, and now have paid more consultants to
generate more reports.
Comment
As district superintendent, Nola Wellman has an
absolute responsibility to the board, the community, and our children to insure
that all children can access district programs and facilities including those
children with disabilities. Eanes ISD superintendent fought disclosure of this
information in every way possible including the expenditure of our education tax
dollars with no limit to retain and fund attorneys to battle against
taxpayer rights to access this public information and use it to advocate for the
children in our district. This denial of information was a denial of our right
to be informed and protect the rights of children in our community and district.
I have watched this district repeatedly deny
the needs and rights of children with both invisible and visible disabilities.
There are many children with disabilities in our school that have been forced
into private school because they cannot attend Eanes ISD. Nola Wellman has a
responsibility to comply fully with board policy as well as state and federal
laws that govern our school district. I allege that she has failed to do so.
Further, I am very concerned that Nola Wellman is misrepresenting fact in
response to direct questions by board members and witnessed by the public during
more than one board meeting.
Request
I request that the Eanes ISD board of trustees
consider carefully the actions of Nola Wellman and the resulting denial of
children’s rights, community involvement, and spiraling legal costs. Please
also consider Texas Administrative Code Title 19, Part 7, Chapter 247 requiring
Eanes ISD administrators to comply with certain requirements including the
following:
Standard 1.1. The educator shall not
knowingly engage in deceptive practices regarding official policies of the
school district or educational institution.
Standard 1.7. The educator shall comply
with state regulations, written local school board policies, and other
applicable state and federal laws.
Standard 3.2. The educator shall not
knowingly treat a student in a manner that adversely affects the student's
learning, physical health, mental health, or safety.
Standard 3.3. The educator shall not
deliberately or knowingly misrepresent facts regarding a student.
Standard 3.4. The educator shall not
exclude a student from participation in a program, deny benefits to a student,
or grant an advantage to a student on the basis of race, color, sex, disability,
national origin, religion, or family status.
Published
September 12, 2007 - Letter to the Editor - Westlake Picayune newspaper
Dear
Editor,
On
August 29th, parent volunteers of the Eanes ISD ADA Task Force asked the
Board of Trustees to appoint a member to serve on a Task Force to work
positively and effectively with the district to remove architectural
barriers and eliminate ADA compliance violations dating back to the
1990's.
In a statement during Open Forum, the
Task Force spokesperson told the Board of Trustees that many serious and
urgent access problems exist across Eanes facilities, including but not
limited to children in wheelchairs not evacuated during fire drills,
children blocked from recreational fields, and children excluded from
recess due to architecture and that eight months of attempts to work
with the Superintendent had been unsuccessful, as administrators had
refused to provide the Task Force with documents, refused to schedule
meetings, and reneged on the mutually agreed upon deadline.
Trustee Robert Durkee asked
Superintendent Nola Wellman if this was true, and she said, "no."
Brick and mortar facts say otherwise, as
does the 2003 SHW Facilities Assessment Review (available on
www.keepeanesinformed.com.) The district fought hard
to withhold this report, and released it only after formal complaints to
the Attorney General and County Attorney. In this study, ADA violations
at every Eanes school were outlined in detail and budgeted for repair.
Why five years have passed without them being addressed is another
question.
Removing
barriers that segregate children
should be the highest and most urgent priority for the current $53
million bond, as it is an issue of safety, legal compliance, and direct
instructional/curricular support.Parents and taxpayers should not accept anything less than Exemplary
status when it comes to providing access for all children. These
problems have gone decades without being fixed and real children have
been affected by them for far too long. The time is here. And so is the
money.
Your action is needed! Please email (or
call) trustees at www.trustees.eanes.k12.us and tell them you support
the ADA Task Force and Eanes ADA compliance as an urgent priority and
attend the Board of Trustees Work Study Session September 17 at 6:30
p.m., during which this issue and the bond in general will be addressed
