Brad Allen Resigns as School Board Member Two Days After Taking Office

Superintendent Damron pushes for immediate replacement so Allen’s brother can be hired by CISD

Link to Recording of School Board Meeting

June 19, 2007
Copyright by Micki Nellis

In what appears to some to be an attempt to subvert the election process, Brad Allen submitted his resignation just two days after taking office, leaving the school board free to appoint anyone they like as his replacement.

Here’s the timeline of events:

May 12 - CISD School Board election. Incumbent Brad Allen won. The only opponent, Pat Linkenhoger, got 45% of the votes. In the other race, Brad Mead won, but Teresa Blackwell got 45% of the votes

May 12 evening - ALL school board members gathered at the polling place to hear election results. By reading the law, it appears that this constituted an illegal meeting in violation of the Open Meetings Law. All school board members clapped and cheered when it was announced that incumbents Brad Allen and Brad Mead had won.

June 11 - New school board members sworn in at the regular meeting of
the CISD school board.

June 13 - Brad Allen submitted his resignation, after serving two days.

June 14, 15 and 16 - School board members attended a training convention in San Antonio, spending three days together. Brad Allen did not go. It is not known whether a reservation was ever made for him.

June 15 - Four days after Brad Allen was sworn in, and two days after receiving his resignation, Superintendent Robert Damron called a special meeting of the school board. Agenda items included accepting the resignation of Brad Allen and appointing a replacement. Damron specified that NO PUBLIC COMMENT would be allowed.

June 18 morning - The Cleburne Times Review incorrectly reported the time of the special called board meeting. They reported it as being at 7 p.m. when in reality it was at 5:30 p.m.

June 18 morning- Superintendent Damron's secretary, Sally Smith, informed Alden Nellis that NO PUBLIC COMMENT would be allowed at the meeting. The law allows it but it is not required at called meetings. CISD chose not to allow public comment.

June 18 afternoon - Shane Hopkins contacted board member Jennifer Dugger. She was surprised to learn that no public comments would be accepted, and said she had been looking forward to hearing them. Ms. Dugger contacted Superintendent Damron and Board president Stu Madison. She called Shane and told him that public comments would be accepted.

June 18 5:30 p.m. - Times Review reporter Phillip Navarette showed up on time for the meeting. When asked about the error in reporting, he said he had turned in the time correctly, but it had been changed in editing.

Star Telegram reporter Martha Deller attended the meeting. See her story at http://www.star-telegram.com/news/story/141919.html

The board accepted Allen's resignation, and after discussion, tabled the appointment of a new board member until Monday, June 25 at 5:30 p.m.

Summary of School Board Meeting

Superintendent Damron instructed the board that they had to appoint a replacement immediately so that Brad Allen's brother, Bill Allen, could be hired. He disputed Shane Hopkins statement that the board had 180 days to either appoint a replacement or call a special election, according to CISD policy published online at
http://www.tasb.org/policy/pol/private/126903/pol.cfm?DisplayPage=BBC(LEGAL).pdf

Alden Nellis addressed the board and asked them to appoint Pat Linkenhoger, who was the only other person to run for that office and who got 45% of the votes. Nellis said it was the only moral thing to do.

Shane Hopkins addressed the board and asked the board to either appoint one of the other candidates in the May election (Pat Linkenhoger or Teresa Blackwell) or to call a special election.

Superintendent Damron attempted to take control of the meeting from President Madison when Shane Hopkins raised a “point of order” from the audience. President Madison regained control. (Damron tried several other times to take control.) Madison told Shane that for future reference, he could not accept a point of order from the audience.

New board president Stu Madison polled the board members on their choice of replacement. Board members in general mentioned names that had been mentioned to them or people from whom they had received calls offering to serve.

Teddy Martyniuk mentioned Woody Matthews, Scooter Calloway (sp?), Belinda Buckingham, and included Alden Nellis' recommendation of Pat Linkenhoger.

Donna Boles mentioned Woody Matthews, Belinda Buckingham, Tommy Webb, and Dean Woodruff.

Jennifer Dugger said she wanted to add in addition to those names Julie Roberts, Teresa Blackwell, Sandra Gilliland and Judy Smith.

Brad Mead stated that he wanted to concentrate on former board members since they were already experienced. Superintendent Damron spoke and said that no board training would be available until next June. (Not true. TASB offers online board training. See website at http://www.tasb.org/services/lts/training/online_learning/index.aspx
Donna Boles said there was a learning curve and she too thought a former board member would be a good choice.

Stu Madison mentioned Tommy Webb, Scooter Calloway, Belinda Buckingham, Pat Linkenhoger, Maurio Rendon, and previous board members Elaine Wilmore, Julie Roberts, Mike Brand and Dean Woodruff.

Madison suggested tabling the item. Brad Mead motioned to table it until 5:30 p.m. June 25.

Carolyn Cody recommended hiring several new people, read their qualifications, and the board voted to hire them. Brad Allen's brother was not on the list.

Myths put forward by Superintendent Damron

The board must appoint a replacement immediately. NOT TRUE. CISD's policy manual at http://www.tasb.org/policy/pol/private/126903/pol.cfm?DisplayPage=BBC(LEGAL).pdf clearly says they have 180 days to replace him, either by appointment or by calling a special election in November. The Board is only required to replace Allen immediately if they want to hire his brother. Hiring his brother before Allen is replaced would constitute nepotism.

Question: Has the decision already been made to hire Brad Allen's brother? If so, when was it made, and by whom? It has never come before the board.

Myth: A new board member can not receive training until next June.
Fact: TASB offers online training for new board members. See at http://www.tasb.org/services/lts/training/online_learning/index.aspx

Our Analysis

Superintendent Damron has done everything he can to rush through an appointment of Allen's replacement. We find fault with several things. First, he specifically excluded public comment. Second, the time of the meeting was misreported by the Times Review. (Damron is on the Athletic Booster Club committee with TR editor Dale Gosser.) Third, Damron told the school board they must replace Allen immediately. That is simply not true. What is true is that if they want to hire Allen's brother, then they must replace him immediately. This was not clearly explained to the school board.

Just because Brad Allen resigned does not mean the school board is obligated to replace him immediately and hire his brother. Shane Hopkins had a good analysis of this. He said "If they don't want one of those persons {Teresa Blackwell or Pat Linkenhoger}, then they need to pass on Mr. Allen's brother, leave the seat vacant and have a special election in November," Hopkins said.
Alden Nellis said “The only right thing to do is to appoint one of the two candidates in the May election who got 45% of the votes - Pat Linkenhoger or Teresa Blackwell, or call a special election in November. The whole situation smacks of a deliberate attempt to subvert the election process. We cannot imagine that Brad Allen did not know before he was sworn in that he planned to resign.”

Problems with the Appointment Process

There are problems with the appointment process. First of all, the only remnant of democracy hinges on the public being able to express their choices to the school board. Information on how to contact the school board members is not readily available. It is not posted on the CISD site. Several have unlisted numbers. There is no public way to search for their email addresses. Board member Jennifer Dugger was surprised that this information was not available. She suggested we ask the CISD administration office. We did. Sally Smith, Superintendent Damron’s secretary, emailed us a list of board members names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. One email address was wrong.

The general public has no way to obtain this info. That means the school board is being contacted by their friends who already have their phone numbers and email addresses. This perpetuates the good old boy club.

If you have an opinion on who should be appointed or whether a special election should be called, the only way the school board is going to hear it is if you contact them personally.

Below is a corrected list of school board members contact info:

CISD BOARD OF TRUSTEES

PLACE 1

Donna Boles
1021 Janehaven Lakes
Cleburne, Texas 76033
817-641-4513 – home
dearboles@yahoo.com

PLACE 2

Stu Madison, Board President
212 Forrest Ave
Cleburne, Texas 76033
817-556-6330 – work
817-641-1337 – home
procqter@swbell.net
stu@johnsoncountytx.org

PLACE 3

Jennifer Dugger, Board Secretary
1200 Center Ct.
Cleburne, Texas 76033
817-645-8779 – home
jenniferdugger@yahoo.com

PLACE 4

Brent Easdon
1205 Westlake
Cleburne, TX 76033
817-648-1755 – home/cell
easdon.k@digitex.net
brene@cleburne.net

PLACE 5

Teddy Martyniuk
1503 Baystone Rd.
Cleburne, TX 76033
817-798-2334 – work
817-641-5254 – home
Viporcon22@aol.com

PLACE 6

Brad Allen
1510 Clear Creek Dr.
Cleburne, Texas 76033
817-641-4465 – work
817-558-6753 – home
brad.allen@compassbank.com

PLACE 7

Brad Mead, Vice-President
1612 Shelley Ln.
Cleburne, Texas 76033
817-556-9476 – home
817-556-4057 – work
jacketmail@gmail.com