A rebellious school board

The Daily Texan

A rebellious school board

By Douglas Luippold
Daily Texan Columnist
Published: Thursday, September 24, 2009
Updated: Thursday, September 24, 2009

Political intrigue has arisen in the Carrollton-Farmer’s Branch Independent School District in Dallas. During a school board election in May, tax adviser Richard Fleming received 52 percent of the vote and defeated school board president John Tepper to become the first African-American elected to the C-FBISD School Board of Trustees. Five months and two lawsuits later, Fleming has still not been seated on the board.

That politics are at play during something as theoretically ingenuous as a school board election is troubling, disrespectful to voters and speaks to greater concerns about elected officials’ treatment of public education in Texas.

The trouble began in C-FBISD when a resident of the district filed a lawsuit to prevent Fleming from assuming the position to which he was elected. The lawsuit claimed that Fleming did not reside within the district and was therefore ineligible for a place on the school board. It was quickly dismissed on a technicality and Fleming took the oath of office.

But before he was seated, the new board president, Lynn Chaffin, issued a “formal declaration of ineligibility” against Fleming and prevented him from taking his place on the board. She, like the lawsuit, cited a land survey performed after the election finding that Fleming lived 17 feet outside the district, according to The Dallas Morning News.

Fleming subsequently sued the school district. On Sept. 21, State District Judge Ken Molberg ruled in his favor. The judge ordered the C-FBISD school board to immediately seat Fleming. In his decision, Molberg deemed Fleming to have lived within boundary lines at the time of the election. Court documents also state that Fleming pays local taxes and that nieces and nephews who lived with him all attended C-FBISD schools.

The school board, which has demonstrated no guise of impartiality, responded to the judge’s explicit decision by issuing a statement saying it is “reviewing the judge’s order” and consulting with its attorneys.

Throughout the litigation, the board engaged in a series of political maneuvers that grossly undermined voters. School Board President Chaffin served as vice president of the board under then-President John Tepper. When Tepper lost the election, he nominated Chaffin to replace him as president and the board elected her. She then invalidated the election Tepper lost and called for a November special election for the seat. The school board subsequently appointed Tepper to retain the seat from which he was ousted until the special election commenced. This type of discord sets a bad example for students and hurts public schools. The board has failed to uphold a standard that students should strive for, essentially saying through its actions that ignoring an authority’s decision simply because it does not mirror its own is appropriate conduct. Is a school board that brazenly disregards voters and a district judge in a position to reprimand students for disobedience toward educators?

To be sure, it is unlikely that a ninth grader will argue “But the school board did it!” as an excuse for insubordination. That said, it is hypocritical for the leaders of an institution as hierarchical as a school district to ignore their superiors while expecting deference from teachers and principals.

This issue has implications for education in Texas that extend beyond C-FBISD. Public education has become extremely politicized in Texas in recent years. This election issue, the controversy over social studies textbook content and the debate over sex education serve as examples of leaders using schools to advance ideological or personal ambitions.

Hopefully, this is an isolated incident, because public schools certainly have enough educational problems without the injection of this type of power politics.

Luippold is a government junior.