That suburban in the background is Superintendent DeSpain's. It is impossible to deny the flooding caused by City Gym.
Here is the audio of the Irion County ISD special board meeting on April 26, 2023.
In time after this site gains momentum (a sure thing because the destructive force of storm water will make my case), the Board may realize that it is more to their advantage to follow their policies and post their own audio on their website rather than allow me to upstage them on Government In The Sun. Until such time, I will be posting what will seem to most to be mundane audio, but to the trained ear speaks volumes.
Here's some analysis of this meeting.
There's no discussion during the meeting that Superintendent DeSpain is leaving for Giddings ISD.
The Vice President, Maegin Carlile, is presiding. Where's the president, Vicente Flores ("Junior" in the audio at the ping)? He's on vacation and has "permanently checked out" according to statements from Superintendent DeSpain to Ms. Carlile before the meeting started. But, as of this posting, there is nothing in the public record showing that Mr. Flores has resigned.
They don't state the pledges to our flags, an easy symbolic win for good and patriotic leadership, as I have discussed before.
Open forum? None. I'm the only member of the public present.
And, speaking of public, it's been raised on this site and elsewhere that both DeSpain and Flores are headed out the door. A significant sign of disfunction of the board and administration in this meeting is that no one in the community is present to ask about it or show an ounce of concern. The District is truly disengaged from parents and stakeholders in the worst way.
Background noise? You won't hear much. The only staff present was Chief Financial Officer Robert Helms. And, at one point during the Executive Session both DeSpain and Helms left the building. A sure sign of a board improperly conducting business in an executive session is when staff is absent.
A two hour and ten minute executive session for a "private consultation with Board attorney" and "Personnel Discussion" is highly suspect. Both areas under the Open Meetings Act are thick with pitfalls and traps.
The Board came out of executive session and took no action. Again, this lends itself to questioning what decisions, particularly financial decisions since the CFO was present, were made in private.
The board came out of executive session improperly. (Listen for the ping in the audio.) Because it must document its executive sessions, it should read a script each time it goes back into open session and when the public is present. Their lawyer should have provided them a script to read; reading from a script at the conclusion of executive session and beginning of open is common practice. Generally, once in open session again they should be stating when executive session concluded, when open session is beginning AND an affirmative statement that no action was taken by the board in executive session. Calling for a motion to adjourn as was done in this meeting fails to create this record.
There was no lawyer present in the meeting, nor was one piped in on their video equipment or from what I could tell during open session on call by phone. Frankly, were I a school board member handling the kind of money and issues they regularly handle, I wouldn't serve on the board without having a lawyer physically present in the room or always on the line. State agencies handle meetings with lawyers always present, and it does a lot for keeping board members out of the weeds and subject to the kind of problems I have seen this board get into. This school district can certainly afford to pay for more legal guidance.