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A Texas school board is accused of attempting to censure two of their conservative colleagues.
It’s been described as a “political hit job” by conservatives who say the school is involved in illegal activities.
Amy Weir, who is the president of the Round Rock Independent School District (ISD) Board of Trustees, has agreed to consider two different moves to censure resolutions against her colleagues.
Mary Bone and Danielle Weston have complained that the school district had violated the Texas Open Meetings Act by keeping members of the public out of a contentious school board meeting on Sept. 14th.
Danielle Weston told Fox News, “The vicious censure resolutions to strip Trustee Mary Bone and me of the powers and duties bestowed upon us by the voters is a naked political hit job.”
“The majority on the board are diverting taxpayer dollars and manpower away from students and teachers to destroy our reputations and inflict financial pain,” she added.
The school board is accused of refusing to let the public enter the meetings.
The school board restricts entry by only setting up 18 chairs in a large auditorium.
During the same time period, images have surfaced that show the large auditorium packed with students.
More than 50,000 students attend the dozens of schools in the Round Rock district. This includes some of the largest high schools in Texas.
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“The Texas Open Meetings Act states that the public must have full access to board meetings,” Weston previously told Fox News. “I peacefully left the 14 Sep 2021 RRISD board meeting because the school police were used to prevent members of the public from entering our meeting.”
According to footage of the board meeting, the public shouted, “Let us in!” Bone told Fox News that “there were children crying in the hallway.” After Bone and Weston walked out of the meeting in protest, the remaining board members went on to vote on a tax increase. Dustin Clark, a father of four children in public schools, raised his voice in protest and Weir directed school board police to escort him out.
On Sept. 17, sheriff’s deputies arrested Clark and another father (who resides in the district but whose kids go to school outside it), Jeremy Story, on the charge of hindering proceedings by disorderly conduct. Both men told Fox News they had yet to receive a court date.
Mary Bone told Fox News she suspected the censure resolutions formed part of a “coordinated attack” to silence critics of the school board and administration.
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“When they arrested Jeremy and Dustin, that was Friday. They put our censures on the agenda on Saturday. This was a coordinated attack on us and what they call our supporters,” Bone said. “I totally believe that it was a coordinated attack, to reverse the election, and to silence anybody that has a voice that’s similar to ours.”
The resolutions cited numerous laws, claiming Bone and Weston violated them by raising objections to the limited seating capacity on Sept. 14. Weston sent Fox News a response to each of the claims…
The censure resolutions also faulted Weston for demanding “that the District provide information on an accelerated or shortened timeframe” on Sept. 13 and 16. Weston told Fox News that this referred to her requests to know specific information that was relevant for board meetings. “They are literally grasping at straws here to come up with something,” she said.
In light of these alleged violations, the censure resolutions claimed Bone and Weston “will be referred to as ‘Censured Trustee’… on all District communication, and on the Round Rock ISD website,” and that they will be prohibited from “visiting all Round Rock ISD properties in [their] official [capacities] as a Trustee without Board approval with the exception of Board Meetings,” among other things.
