39° F
Schools
EISD board member questions district’s legal representation
Thursday, October 1, 2009
|
|
20
A motion for approval of legal representatives was pulled from the Eanes school board consent agenda during the Sept. 23 meeting after board member Clint Sayers expressed concerns about one Houston firm – Feldman, Rogers, Morris and Grover.
Sayers said he felt the firm was slow in advising board members of important information slow in responding to questions and incurred unnecessary travel expenses. He suggested replacing the firm with local attorneys.
“I found out through the grapevine that we had violations of FERPA [Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act],” Sayers said. “I feel like we should have been informed by our attorneys. I think that it is important that we get timely information from our lawyers in matters in which they are representing. They don’t seem to be acting promptly. Their client is the board. I feel like if there is a violation by the district, we as board members need to know about it. The board is their client.”
Sayers also pointed out that the district was paying travel expenses for the Houston attorneys to travel to and stay in Austin.
“There are hundreds of good firms in this city,” Sayers said.
Board member James Kallison asked Wellman about the rates charged to the district by the firms on the list proposed.
“In looking at (information on) what law firms cost, some law firms indicated they don’t charge districts their ‘A’ rates,” Kallison said. “Do all firms on the list give us discounts from their ‘A’ rate?”
Wellman responded that the district paid hourly legal fees averaging $230-$250 per hour. She said she assumed those were not the firms’ higher rates.
In the end, all six proposed law firms were approved by a vote of six to one, with Sayers voting against approval. The other approved firms were Bracewell and Giuliani; McGinnis, Lochridge and Kilgore; Thomson and Horton; Vinson and Elkins; and Walsh, Anderson, Brown, Schulze and Aldridge.
Thanks so much, Clint! Keep up the good work.
More information on this issue here:
http://www.keepeanesinformed.com/private_lawfirms.htm
Dr. Wellman ‘assumes’ the district is not paying the ‘A’ rate? With that many law firms on retainer, why can’t she give a definitive answer to what seems to be a pretty basic and direct question? In addition to the expanding number of law firms retained under the current administration, Dr. Wellman has also added an in house attorney to the Eanes payroll. What does she do? Law firms retained by the district report directly to Superintendent Wellman. Assuming that is correct, it stands to reason that our superintendent has not been diligent in reporting items like FERPA noncompliance to the Trustees. It’s impossible for the Trustees to make informed decisions when they can’t access this very basic information.
Mr. Sayers should be commended for questioning the status quo. More importantly, we should all applaud and support his efforts to improve transparency in our school district. Thank you for voting NO! There are better ways to be spending our education dollars.
Isn’t that a lot of lawyers for a small school district?
Good for Clint Sayers and James Kallison for asking the questions that Trustees should be asking. Nice to see two members remembering that they are Trustees for the public.
Not with the types of parents that typically post on this web-site. I’m surprised the school district does not require more to beat back the “You weren’t fair to my darling child” crowd…
“Survery Says” – You have reviewed the legal invoices? You understand the issues? You have personal experience with these attorneys and their strategies against children and parents? Or are you simply spouting the district spin — no evidence, critical thinking or empathy required? Speak to the issue(s) and you may find it is more challenging than simply attacking those who have an experience and/or perspective that is different from yours.
Feldman & Rogers is the law firm that Nola Wellman retained when she directed the district to submit a complaint against Dan Harper’s teaching certification. Here’s a link that includes a copy of the legal invoices ($8,000 dollars and counting) related to that complaint: http://www.keepeanesinformed.com/teachers.htm
Clint Sayers was the ONLY board member to oppose the October 24, 207 board action to “terminate” Mr. Dan Harper, an award-winning physics teacher who served Eanes ISD well for many years. Mr. Sayers also stated “I think going full-bore after the certification was the goal, and that’s exactly what we heard from our ATTORNEY the consequence could be.”
It used to be the Eanes district leadership focused their complaining on legal expenses associated with open records. Now that the community is questioning some of the facts uncovered, the number of law firms on retainer have gone through the roof. I’m guessing our rising legal expenses have more to do with administrative mismanagement than individual parents and their darling children.
Thank you Mr Sayers!! There are plenty of local law firms that would do an outstanding job. And, I like to think we’d support those firms that are closer to home!
It’s not as easy as snagging a “local” law firm to do an “outstanding” job. The trustees need to take a very hard look at not only Feldman & Rogers (the Houston firm) but also at Walsh, Anderson, Brown, Aldridge and Gallegos (WABAG formerly WABSA) and others as well — all located right here in Austin. There is so much that this community does not know about the mission of these law firms and our district “leaders” …
Cost is one metric used to evaluate a lawyer, though personally, a lawyer who charges twice as much per hour but gets me to the answer in 25% of the time is a woman I would want to work with. Instead, it seems to me that the board may want to evaluate (a) the need for 6 law firms in the first place and (b) the quality of their work. Consider this: having 6 firms ready to go might contribute to that what appears to be an increased influence of outside attorneys within EISD. I’m told by several trustees and members of the administration that we simply live in a litigious place, where parents sue frivolously, and therefore we have to protect ourselves. But really, is the Westbank populated with people with so much money that they sue for sport? My daddy taught me that when I see smoke I better find the fuel feeding the fire. Shouldn’t the trustees be asking why EISD finds itself a party to so many lawsuits in the first place? What is it that makes EISD a litigation magnet? With respect to Feldman & Rogers in particular one would have to question the quality of the advice the board is getting. At the Sept 14th study session, F&R advised the board that EISD should tell its employees that prospective visits by parents to a classroom is against the law (FERPA), even though in answering direct questions from the board and me the F&R attorney had to clarify that FERPA (a) had never been held to apply to people as opposed to records, (b)does not in its plain language address parental visits at all and (c) has never been interpreted by a court here or anywhere else in the country to restrict visits and (d) therefore may not apply to parent visits at all. While opinions can vary, it’s my opinion that advising its client to mislead its teachers is justification enough to consider another law firm.
“Sue happy parents” is a smokescreen that eventually becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. These law firms have business because they make themselves “necessary” by their maintenance of conflict between school districts and parents. Superintendents like it because it helps them clean house in this era of accountability. Everyone in the education industry knows this. The legislators know it. The state education agency knows it. The media knows it. The feds know it. But because the lawyers lobby and fund candidates, they all pass it on to “local control,” so the only, repeat only, people who can stop it are school board members. Hats off to Clint Sayers for trying and boo to the rest of the board for spending all this money on lawyers instead of teachers.
So, if (as this article states) the district was found by the U.S. Department of Education to have violated FERPA law — precisely who is the Eanes ISD employee who disclosed confidential student information? The board owes it to the community to tell us. Maybe that will explain why the administration and the private law firm withheld this information from the board? The Westlake Picayune should do a follow-up story and include these facts!
Wait a minute, someone at EISD released confidential information about a student again? Why haven’t we read about it in this paper? When is the Picayune going to start honestly covering the goings-on in this school district?
Yes, and guess who released the confidential student information? And more than once. Hint: Start at the top.
Then why hasn’t anything happened? I’m assuming that you’re saying that Nola Wellman released confidential information about a special ed student. Has anyone confronted her about it? Have you gone to the Statesman seeing as how the Picayune simply isn’t going to cover school district misconduct?
The Eanes Trustees have this information. Clint Sayers is quoted in this article as questioning the legal counsel on this very issue. This taxpayer wants to know why the board keeps renewing the contracts for the law firms and administrators involved.
First, FERPA law applies to all students, not just “special education” students so the disclosures at issue may relate to any child in Eanes ISD including both regular and special education students. The U.S. Department of Education has found Eanes ISD out of compliance with FERPA (the federal law that protects the confidential records of students) repeatedly since Nola Wellman began as superintendent and more complaints are pending. This community is not aware — and the most disturbing details of misconduct cannot be covered by media because parents often choose to protect their child’s private information from further disclosure by staying silent about the violations, and then either moving from the district or placing their child in private school. Meanwhile, the superintendent makes her rounds, smiles, tells the “Good Things Happen Every Day” message, and asks us to write yet another check. Call the Picayune, call the Statesman, ask the media to cover these important issues. Ask the media to question further and then report: Why didn’t the Eanes ISD superintendent (or the private law firms involved) tell the Board of Trustees about the U.S. Department of Education findings against the district? Why did the board learn through the “grapevine”? Who disclosed the confidential student information? Nola Wellman knows but do you?: Public school districts that do not comply with FERPA law are not eligible for federal funding.
…everywhere a lawsuit.
I agree with Mr. Shepherd’s post,
“My daddy taught me that when I see smoke I better find the fuel feeding the fire. Shouldn’t the trustees be asking why EISD finds itself a party to so many lawsuits in the first place? ”
We should be wondering why the enormous increase in lawsuit filings under Dr. Wellman’s leadership. Let’s also take a look at the variety of lawsuits our district has paid to defend. They involve allegations of ADA non-conpliance, open records violations, actions taken by the district against an exemplary physics teacher, and non compliance with FERPA. Apparently the board voted yesterday to approve a settlement offer responding to a recent special education filing. We’re not hearing any reports of district administrators taking action that will reduce the incidence of these filings. Maybe we should be focusing more time, attention and money on fixing the problems, rather than spending money to defend the indefensible. We should also be asking the obvious question: Is Dr. Wellman fueling these fires when she should be taking steps to prevent their occurrence?