El Paso ISD, Leander ISD & Pflugerville ISD
Coverage of El Paso ISD, Leander ISD and Pflugerville ISD, week of Oct. 4-8, 2021
El Paso ISD suspends mask mandate
El Paso ISD suspended their mask mandate at a special-called meeting on Oct. 4, in a 5-2 vote, with El Paso ISD Board Vice President Leah Hanany and Trustee Josh Acevado voting against the motion.
The motion stated the Board would suspend the current mask mandate, but continue to follow local health authority orders and guidelines for Covid-19 protocols and precautions. The order also stated El Paso ISD Interim Superintendent Vince Sheffield could resume a mask mandate if required by local health authority orders.
The Board also recommended the wearing of face masks for students and employees and Covid-19 vaccines for those eligible, despite the suspension of the mandate.
Leander ISD appoints Sade Fashokun to the Board’s vacant Place 5 seat
The Leander ISD Board of Trustees appointed Sade Fashokun to fill former Place 5 Trustee Jim MacKay’s vacant seat, at their Oct. 7 meeting.
In a 4-1 vote, Leander ISD Trustee Aaron Johnson voted against the appointment of Fashokun, while Board Secretary Elexis Grimes abstained from the vote.
Leander ISD Board Vice President Gloria Gonzalez-Dholakia said Fashokun’s participation on District committees as well her service in leadership PTA roles make her a great candidate for the appointment.
Fashokun will be sworn in at the next meeting, Leander ISD Board President Trish Bode said.
Earlier in the meeting, former Leander ISD Trustee Jim MacKay spoke to the Board during Citzens’ Comments. A radicalized MacKay said the community wants a special election rather than an appointment because they do not trust the Board.
When he emailed the Board, MacKay said only Trustee Aaron Johnson responded. MacKay thanked Johnson, who voted against Fashokun’s appointment later in the meeting.
MacKay’s comments reverted back to his usual issue as of late, about books he has previously deemed “pornographic.”
“People are coming up here, they’re talking about the books,” MacKay said. “They’re from the Far Left or they’re from the Far Right. The Board owns the books. The Board has the ability to issue a resolution.”
After more comments and accusations, MacKay said he would be back to speak at future meetings “as these things crop up.”
“Please don’t think this is a personal attack,” he said. “I consider you my colleagues, if not friends, in many cases. I’m just changing where I bring this from.”
Pflugerville ISD Trustee Jean Mayer advocates for better approaches to discipline
Pflugerville ISD Trustee Jean Mayer advocated for better intervention techniques to prevent or mitigate behaviors that lead to disciplinary action, at a meeting on Oct. 7.
The District reported 70 incidents of fighting/assaults during the first three months of the 2020-21 school year, as compared to 39 during the first three months of 2019-20. The report also provided vague intervention strategies the District has implemented to mitigate violence before it occurs.
Prior to Mayer advocating for better mitigation techniques, Pflugerville ISD Superintendent Dr. Douglas Killian said law enforcement officers do a lot of the community outreach with students in Pflugerville ISD schools.
“We have one of the more robust ISD police departments in the area, too,” Killian added.
Mayer suggested Pflugerville ISD should employ Board Certified Behavior Analysts to help with behavior issues within the District.
“Why are we not expediting BCBAs to help come in and diffuse this right away?” Mayer said. “We’re going to do all this training for being trauma-informed, which I am completely on board for, but being trauma-informed is not teaching our staff how to de-escalate, and get ahead of a behavior, and to recognize something before it actually happens.”
Mayer said staff have not been properly trained to de-escalate situations.
“A lot of times, their responses actually escalate the students more, and then we have assault,” Mayer said. “We have way too many staff now pressing charges against special education students, and we’re having way too many special education students being put into containment.”
Pflugerville ISD could have less potential of those kinds of outcomes, if they employed BCBAs, Mayer said.
“That is also what Board Certified Behavior Analysts do, they train our staff how to not get assaulted,” Mayer said.
Mayer said Pflugerville ISD’s law enforcement also needs the same training.
“I don’t care for some of the photos that I have seen where we have law enforcement on top of students,” Mayer said. “We cannot be doing that to our students.”
Mayer said she feels like there has been an uptick or over-exercise of law enforcement on school campuses, with students suffering the dire consequences of those kinds of disciplinary actions on students.
“There’s a stigmatization that happens when children see that they’re being disciplined by the police officers, instead of in their schools,” she said.
Mayer said other school districts employ BCBAs, while Pflugerville ISD does not. She also highlighted that most of the District’s vacant positions are in behavioral support.
When the administration was asked if they had a response to Mayer’s comments, Killian said, “No, that wasn’t what the action item was for,” stating it was not the information that was requested --- an obvious attempt at deflection.
Killian then claims he understands Mayer’s points, and even texted someone about getting staff certified during the meeting.
“So, we’ve already had that discussion, and she’s already looking into that,” Killian said.
Mayer then mentioned a meeting between members of the administration and Pflugerville ISD Board President Renae Mitchell that she had not been notified about beforehand.
Mitchell claimed the meeting was with a company she learned about through her church called Life Anew, a faith-based restorative justice program. She said it was just a research meeting “to see if this company could even provide or help” the District.
Upon the reveal of this information, the Board went into Closed Session.