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Letters to the Editor
Criticism of poll of Eanes district residents unfounded
Thursday, May 20, 2010
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To the Editor:
I would like to address statements by Eanes school board member Clint Sayers in the May 13 article about a presentation to the board of poll findings concerning a proposed bond election by the Eanes Independent School District.
The article states Sayers had concerns about the reliability of the results because the board did not commission the poll. He then suggested that because the entire survey was not presented at that meeting the presenters were hiding something. None of that is true. To suggest that data could only be reliable if the board paid for it is laughable. This statement questions the integrity of the polling firm, Baselice and Associates, who have conducted numerous surveys for commercial and political clients nationwide as was presented to the board for verification of their qualifications.
Because of time considerations an executive summary of the poll results were presented to the board. The critical factors were the results from testing different sizes of a proposed bond package and certain elements that might gain approval from voters. All this information is valuable to the board in developing a bond which will be supported and passed by the voters. David Perkins has given countless volunteer hours leading the Citizen’s Bond Advisory Committee and now has donated his money to see the best way forward for our district to have exemplary facilities to support our exemplary academic programs. To question his motivation is uncharitable and rude.
These comments are my own and may not represent any other board member.
Jim Strickland,
president, EISD Board of Trustees
and hoping for a simple and public response, Mr. Strickland.
Why do the survey if you are unwilling to share hard copies of ALL the results with the Board of Trustees and Eanes taxpayers?
Do you truly expect us to believe your ‘time consideration’ explanation?
Take the time. It’s important. If you don’t have the time, perhaps you should relinquish your seat on the board. Allow those of us who are interested, to spend our time reviewing the entire survey and results by providing easy access. Perhaps Dr. Wellman could direct her vastly improved and expanded internet technology department to post the results on the Eanes website!
David Perkins and WHS Football Coach Darren Allman are business partners in a sports venture, Coach Concepts, LLC. Jim Strickland’s business is sports promotion.
They are all prioritizing and promoting more athletic facilities for this new bond.
Jim Strickland is just quibbling.
Please ask Mr. Strickland for his copy of the entire Bond Survey results- obviously he has seen them.
I listened to the audio recording of the Eanes board meeting when David Perkins released a portion of the bond survey results. Mr. Perkins was asked by board members if they could have a copy of the entire survey report. Mr. Perkins declined. It appears Clint Sayers hit the nail on the head. Mr. Perkins is hiding the results. Why is that? And why is Jim Strickland attacking a fellow board member who asked a legitimate and responsible question?
1. First the superintendent appoints David Perkins (Chap Club board member) to chair the “Community” Bond Advisory Committee which clears the way for him to review district information that he otherwise could not access … information that is hidden from the public.
2. Following the review, Mr. Perkins conducts a “phone survey” about the bond and claims that it is “private” thereby controlling the timing and extent of disclosure … all of this during a bond election. Now the public and even the elected officials are kept in the dark.
3. Finally, a ten minute Internet search (by KeepEanesInformed) turns up a business partnership between Perkins and WHS head coach Darren Allman. (Coach Concept, LLC created April 6, 2010 and phone survey conducted April 12, 2010)
4. Now we have Jim Strickland (EISD board president and sports promotion salesman) jumping to the defense of this whole plan (doesn’t he seem to CARE an awful lot?) … even kicking the one board member who dares to speak up for the public’s right to know.
Mr. Strickland, do you remember your failure to complete and sign conflict of interest forms as required by law? Back in 2004?
Mr. Strickland, you took the time to write this Letter to the Editor, make excuses, and even slam the longest-serving board member. Can you find the time to ask Mr. Perkins (Chair of the Bond Committee, Chap Club board member) to hand over the results (all of the results and the documents used to create the survey) and then ask the superintendent to post them on the district website? Along with the Power Point presentation that he presented at the board meeting on May 10? Oddly, the district claims that Mr. Perkins didn’t leave a copy of that PP presentation … with anyone in the district, including you, Mr. Strickland. Is that true?
I also believe the board should consider local policy to require disclosure when the Head Football Coach/Athletic Director (or any employee in a supervisory role) is involved in a business venture with booster club board members.
More information here:
http://www.keepeanesinformed.com/coach_concepts,_llc.htm
http://www.keepeanesinformed.com/cbac_-_proposed_bond_2010.htm
Thank you to Clint Sayers for being a Trustee of the interests of taxpayers and parents. Mr. Strickland’s bizarre personal attack on his fellow board member simply for asking legitimate questions reeks of cronyism.
I have some questions about EISD Board President Strickland’s sports promotion business.
1. Is it true that Mr. Strickland sells the advertising on the plastic stadium cups distributed through the concession stand at Chap football home games?
2. What amount of money, if any, have those advertising sales generated for the Chap Club?
3. Has the Chap Club received any money from the sale of the advertising?
4. Has the Chaps Club or EISD administration ever audited or accounted for the net proceeds generated by Mr. Strickland’s sales of stadium cups?
5. Is there any other individual who sells advertising and collects advertising revenues at our football stadium in the same way that Mr. Strickland does?
Listen to the tape of the last board meeting and make note of how silent Jim Strickland was. No leadership from the President’s chair–Paul Stone even called him out on his lack of leadership. No ideas. Nothing but whining about how he’s been through all these line items. How we’ve already discussed 5 vs 6 schools. How the master plan says X and Y and Z. No recognition of reality.
He also appears to be ignoring the motivations of a private citizen who funds what by all appearances had to be a very, very, very expensive phone survey. Clint Sayers is saying what many of us who are closely observing this situation would say: if the man won’t disclose the full survey–and he won’t, by the way–then it is completely useless. Useless. And not worth the time the trustees spent listening to it.
Clint, you’re my new hero. Thank you, thank you, thank you for doing what you were elected to do.
As Paul Harvey would say, now let’s hear “The rest of the story.” There appears to be a personal reason that Clint Sayers “turned” on the superintendent about 2 years ago, and it has nothing to do with fiscal responsiblity. In truth, two of the candidates were used for his own agenda……. ask around.
It is way past time to tell the “rest of the story”, past time to bust the district’s PR spin. This district (and the so-called “friends of the district”) will marginalize and vilify anyone, yes, even the board member who has served the longest, in an attempt to silence those who dare to speak up about what’s really going on behind the Eanes ISD curtain. There’s a good reason that the superintendent doesn’t want to work with board members who will ask questions, speak up and represent the public.
Hey Rex the Dog — I see that you’re the VP of Promotional Products for the Chap Club. Stadium cups would fall under your jurisdiction. Did Jim Strickland ever pay the Chap Club the money that he collected from selling the advertising on the cups?
I have known and backed Clint Sayers since his first run for office. I have professional, as well as personal, reasons to keep reasonably close tabs on what goes on in EISD. I know several of the board members, not just Clint.
There is no “personal” reason and there’s been no “turning” on the superintendent. Clint may not agree with some of our directions–like playing everything so close to the vest–but he has always expressed respect for Dr. Wellman. No one running for the board was promoting “his” agenda, nor was Dr. Wellman an issue. Actually, many EISD residents from different perspectives have come to common conclusions about changes that are needed in our district–our current financial crisis being the most immediate one. Clint has listened and tried to voice those concerns on the board, like school board members should. Stone, after facing an election challenge, seems to have begun to start raising logical questions and doing the due diligence we expect. Several of the others have been disappointing in not providing the leadership and direction to administration about the kind of governance our community wants and respects. A few had that capability and initiative when elected, but no longer utilize it. “Ask around”? We’re very fortunate that two brave souls braved the attempts to coerce them not to run or to run against each other to give us a voice on the board. The changes that are needed are not personal to the superintendent or the incumbent board member. It’s common sense governance that has become sorely lacking in this district. Those trustees already there need to find that voice or a better use of their time–”ask around”! (and check out how many voters exercised their option not to vote “for” Balthazar even though she faced no opponent!)
Maybe Mr. Sayers finally woke up?? Maybe Mr. Sayers wasn’t walking in line as he had always been. Maybe Mr. Sayers for once disagreed with what Dr. Wellman was saying or doing which caused him to lose favor amongst the Board. Maybe Mr. Sayers was tired of just sitting back and voting and instead decided to start doing him homework and making informed decisions.
If Ellen B was doing this there never would have been an ADA lawsuit. If the rest of the Board was actually asking questions maybe we wouldn’t have some of the conflicts of interests that have arisen recently. Maybe the Board is finally standing up and doing their job.
How many of the current job listings for Eanes ISD middle and high school require coaching commitments?
https://eanes.schoolrecruiter.net/index.aspx
The stadium cup advertising dollars should go to the PTO, not the Chap Club. Until last year, a board member’s wife (known for her proficiency at circulating emails) was the chair of concessions for the PTO. She had been the chair for years and years. It would have been up to her to report Jim Strickland’s practice of collecting advertising dollars that rightfully belong to the PTO. So, there you have it.
At last evenings study session of the board of trustees, it was acknowledged that superintendent Wellman solicited 5k donations from community members to underwrite the cost of the bond survey. If that is the case, we are left wondering why David Perkins claimed to have personally shouldered the costs during his presentation. It seems obvious that the intent to fund this privately was nothing more than a strategy to keep the survey documents exempt from public disclosure. We also learned that Eanes board president Jim Strickland helped to write the survey questions. Why didn’t our district leaders come clean with these alliances prior to the school board election?
OUCH!! Why wouldn’t Dr. Wellman fund the survey through the District?? To avoid public records or a possible negative survey?? Who else helped fund the survey?? And why would a Superintendent request this type of thing. Listen to some of the early study sessions in April when the survey was first brought up- see what Dr. Wellman has to say about it then and compare it to now.
Since the survey was done during an election it could be looked at as a push poll- a poll to get people to vote one way or the other. The only people who have talked about actually being polled have been people from the Eanes Elem and Cuernavaca areas- were other areas not polled?? If not, why these two areas??