By Edmond Ortiz
Elected leaders of the Judson Independent School District remain the target of community criticism and even litigation while they prepare to vote to possibly fire their superintendent.
Special meeting scheduled
The JISD board will have a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 4 where trustees are due to have a closed session discussion before going into open session to consider the proposed termination of Superintendent Milton Fields.
According to the meeting agenda, board members will consider ending Fields’ “employment contract during the contract period for good cause.” The school board will also mull appointing an interim superintendent.
Public anger and action
Many community members and a few board members say they are upset with the potential removal of Fields, who they claim is being unfairly criticized by a board majority for not doing enough or failing to take specific steps to address a budget deficit.
The board voted Jan. 10 to suspend Fields, and to have Assistant Superintendent Lacey Gosch serve as acting superintendent for the time being.
Trustees have alluded to an investigation of Fields regarding suspected financial mismanagement, but no information about such an investigation has been shared with the public.
The trustees’ action prompted a community member to create an online petition, calling for the ouster of school board President Monica Ryan. The petition has garnered nearly 1,100 signatures as of Feb. 2.
Judson ISD now faces a lawsuit, which community member Lisa Butler filed Jan. 23 in Bexar County 166th District Court.
In the suit, where JISD and Ryan are listed as defendants, Butler alleges that because the Jan. 10 board meeting agenda did not specifically cover the termination or suspension of the superintendent, any action taken at that meeting is voidable.
Butler also claimed that Ryan used her position as board president to force JISD teachers to create a Spanish course solely for Ryan’s daughter — a class where the youngster was the lone student, according to the suit.
Additionally, Butler claimed that discussions leading up to the Jan. 10 vote to suspend Fields involved trustees bypassing three individuals of color and appointing a white individual as acting superintendent. Butler alleged this decision took place immediately after the open session vote to suspend Fields, and was improperly conducted.
District officials have not responded to either the lawsuit or the online petition targeting Ryan.
