Lancaster ISD superintendent placed on admin leave

by PegNews wire

At 11:11 P.M. Tuesday night, the Lancaster ISD Board of Trustees voted 4-3 to place Superintendent Larry Lewis on administrative leave, with pay. No term was specified. The only reason offered was "for the good of the district."

Earlier in the meeting, Dr. Lewis discussed the less-than-expected enrollment in the district. Down by over 200 students, the decrease in enrollment and therefore attendance was forecast to result in a budget shortfall of at least $1.1 million. Other concerns included rapidly increasing legal fees and risks of failed banks being unable to pay taxes on foreclosed properties. Trustees requested a Saturday meeting with staff to review proposed cost-cutting measures, with action on those proposals to be considered Monday.

The decision to put the superintendent on administrative leave resulted after a two-hour long deliberation by the board in executive session. That session had been convened to discuss the superintendent's annual performance, and proposed goals and "evaluation instrument" for the coming year. The action to consider that evaluation had been scheduled for the middle of the board meeting but was deliberately moved to the last part of the agenda. The board quickly adjourned after voting on the superintendent's administrative leave.

The four favoring the action were Irene Mejia, Debi Miller, Joe Kana and board president Carolyn Morris; those voting against were Ed Kirkland, Marie Elliott and Marjorie King.

Posted by Alex B.

Staff
Verified User
Anonymous

Mike Orren, says:

See commentary on this:

http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2008/...

Staff

1 year, 1 month ago
Link to this comment | Suggest removal

jefmelch, says:

Actually, a comment over there

http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2008/...

is most pertinent here.

RemoneD reports

" ...the current suspension did not come about as a result of his 'performance evaluation' yet rather as a result of a parental complaint behind an incident that occurred at the Lancaster / Ennis football game. "

RemoneD has been careful and truthful about his reporting. Whether it's his personal experience, his attending meetings where LISD adminstrators have presented, or reports from mainstream media, he correctly and accurately cites sources -- and double checks and corrects when necessary. Thanks Remone!

But I have not seen the source for the report regarding the football game. I was at the meeting where the boy's mom, then his aunt, made the accusation. I've also seen the local board policy which puts citizens complaining about the superintendent straight into what they call a "level two" hearing. That means they present straight to the board in executive session.

I don't know if the mom, aunt, or other family members were there for the 14th October meeting. I haven't seen any reports about it after the meeting. So I'm hopeful Remone will straighten me out. Presuming he hasn't had a confidential briefing from a source who doesn't want to be identified, of course.

The background of TAKS scores and financial weaknesses would, of course, influence any board considering any complaint against any superintendent, I'd think. A clearly successful leader would be able to get past one mistake. A clearly deficient leader sooner or later comes to "the last straw" -- the bit that breaks the camels back even though the box of rocks that came before did not.

It's not clear to me that the football game incident -- if Remone reports correctly -- falls into the "last straw" category or the "cheap convenient excuse to do whatever we want" category. I would hope he would, and invite him to, share his source and expand upon the news a bit.

While we're at it, an anonymous blogger elsewhere has an interesting report.

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blo...

BestSouthWestBlog.com infers that Lancaster Mayor Marcus Knight has so little confidence in Larry Lewis's schools the mayor sends his own kids to private school in DeSoto.

So two of the 203 kids Lewis expected this year may have been Knight's. And they didn't come.

Leading up to his mayorial run, Mayor Knight was an active participant in many local boards and committees. He served on the Lancaster ISD bond committee, for instance. Mayor Knight's mother, Mavis Knight, is a trustee of the Texas Board of Education. Lancaster's mayor can be assumed to be a fervent supporter of public schools in general. I can't help but wonder how closely his concerns about the Lancaster schools parallel my own.

Remone, who is well-wired into the Lancaster communications networks, may be able to provide us some insight on that, as well.

Anonymous

1 year, 1 month ago
Link to this comment | Suggest removal

interestedcitizen, says:

If Remone is so well informed and accurately reports the facts, why is he still trying to make the community believe it is not true that the TEA sent a conservator here primarily because of the results of the TEA audit, and not under pressure from the community? Why is he credible when he cites a newspaper as a source of information.

Following is a link to a newspaper article that covered the meeting where Ron Rowell announced that the conservator is here for financial reasons http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2008/...