Divided NEISD board cancels interviews
The North East Independent School District board, in its latest display of division over how to fill its vacant District 2 seat, canceled a second round of interviews with applicants for the position over arguments about whether to conduct them in public.
It was a step backward for the board, which broke a deadlock last week by agreeing to reduce the applicant pool to four finalists after a repeated 3-3 stalemate at its Sept. 13 meeting, when conservative trustees tried to put the matter to a special election and then sought the immediate appointment of their favored applicant, Jacqueline Klein.
The finalists include Klein and Rhonda Rowland, who both challenged incumbent Terri Williams during the May 2022 board election and applied to replace Williams when she died last summer after a long illness. The others are Tracie Shelton and Nan Burley Richie.
All four arrived at a special board meeting Monday evening expecting to make their case, but they were sent home after the board canceled the interviews by a 4-2 vote.
The motion came from trustee Steve Hilliard, who expressed concerns that Shannon Grona, the board president, scheduled the interviews for a closed session rather than before the public, as Hilliard had proposed a week earlier. It wasn’t included in the motion they unanimously approved, but board members had seemed OK with open interviews, clashing only over how many finalists to name and how many each trustee could vote for.
Grona said she sent an email last week informing trustees that the interviews would be in executive session after consulting with the school district’s lawyer and receiving a call from state Rep. Barbara Gervin-hawkins.
“She asked how we’ve done it in the past, and I said we’ve always done it in closed (session), and she said that if we change the process then we run the risk of the entire process being challenged and up for litigation,” said Grona, adding that the district’s lawyer agreed.
“We should have had an agenda to discuss that first,” Hilliard replied. “I have a huge concern with how we have this structured tonight.”
Hilliard also said his request for an agenda item, addressing the conduct of a board member he didn’t name but believes has “negatively affected, perhaps damaged this whole process,” was purposefully ignored.
Trustee Diane Sciba Villarreal accused Grona of violating board policy by sending all the trustees an email to discuss board business without a publicly posted meeting agenda. She said Grona had “tainted the process” and “undermined the board,” and said she should not deliberate or vote on Williams’ successor because of a “personal conflict of interest.”
“I think it’s time for you to recuse yourself,” Villarreal said.
“Well, I don’t feel like I need to recuse myself,” Grona replied.
Trustee Sandy Hughey pointed out that Grona, as board president, has the authority to set meeting agendas. The board’s conservative faction has made “a lot of accusations and insinuations” and it threatened the outcome of the interviews, Hughey said.
Grona said in an email Tuesday that notifying board members by email doesn’t constitute a meeting, adding, “I have sent emails before and I don’t recall that being raised previously.”
The board has interviewed eight applicants to replace Williams, whose death has left it evenly split between veteran members Grona, Hughey and David Beyer, and the conservatives.
Villarreal and Marsha Landry campaigned on a “parents’ rights” slate with Klein in 2022 and formed a voting bloc with Hilliard, helping steer an overhaul of NEISD’S sex education curriculum.
Landry said interviewing the finalists in public was only fair to the community and whoever the board appoints will be under public scrutiny and questioning.
“They are not personnel,” Landry said. “We are not hiring people; we are looking for someone to fill a public position, and I feel that at this stage, with so many disagreements and so many things back and forth, anything that we do in closed session is going to be highly suspect and something that we are not going to be able to talk about or defend ourselves.”
There has been “all kinds of talk about racial issues and equity,” she added.
At its previous meeting, a community member asked the board to consider a person of color for the seat to reflect the diversity of District 2.
Landry, Villarreal, Hilliard and Beyer voted to cancel the interviews and reschedule them after consulting with the district’s legal team. Hughey and Grona voted against it.