Brownwood ISD officials responded Tuesday to a nepotism accusation directed to the school board after the November 6th school board trustee election.
Former Place 4 BISD school board candidate Stanley Walker, Jr. accused the winner of that race Eric Evans of nepotism after Walker discovered that Evan’s niece was hired by the district earlier in the school year as a teacher’s aide.
BISD Superintendent Reece Blincoe said in an email that Evans’ niece was hired by the staff at Northwest Elementary and not the school board. After the policy violation was discovered, Blincoe said that the district moved to correct the issue.
“This will be resolved immediately, with my understanding being that she will resign,” Blincoe said in the email.
Blincoe further said that since the issue was immediately addressed, the district’s attorneys stated that there would be no fine or reprimand imposed.
Walker addressed the school board members Monday night calling for Evans to resign over the situation.
“So I am curious about the time that lies between when the niece was hired, when Mr. Evans filed for his candidacy knowing the nepotism laws, and where we are tonight,” Walker told the board. “It is unfortunate because Mr. Evans should resign so the children can have a qualified teacher’s aide working with them.”Evans said after the meeting that although the district was out of compliance, once it was discovered, was quickly corrected.
“Once you notice that you are out of compliance, you have to take care of it immediately,” Evans said. “And there are no ramifications.”
Evans said that his niece resigned from the aide position and will continue to work as a substitute teacher which is allowable under the nepotism laws.
“She and I talked about this, she loves her kids, and she was loved by the faculty at Northwest,” Evans said. “We are a spiritual family and so we really looked at all of the ramifications and the impact that we feel as though we can make and where we make that, and she felt very confident that I made a strong impact where I am on the school board.”
Brownwood ISD issued a press release regarding the situation on Tuesday morning which said the following:
Brownwood ISD has policies in place, which we strictly follow, dealing with nepotism in the workplace. The policies we follow, though, are difficult at best in interpreting, even as noted in by Attorney General Opinion No. GA-0794, which was issued in response to the confusing nature of the provision.
Recent allegations were made against a board member about violating District Policy regarding the hiring of a relative. No board member has violated any policy regarding the district’s nepotism policy; however, the degree of their relationship did result in the employee being ineligible for employment with Brownwood ISD. With this said, Brownwood ISD did not intentionally violate its nepotism policy, but immediately rectified the situation as soon as it was brought to our administration’s attention of the ineligible hiring a board member’s relative. Under 11.1513(g) of the Texas Education Code, a superintendent may hire a board member’s relative if the school board has delegated to him the final authority to select district personnel and the district is located in a county with a population of less than 35,000. The Attorney General’s opinion explains that this practice is prohibited under 11.1513(f) because each member of the board remains subject to Chapter 573 despite the delegation in districts located in counties with populations of at least 35,000.
Citing the “lack of clarity in these provisions”, the Attorney General refrained from concluding that a superintendent to whom final selection of personnel is delegated could be subject to the penalties imposed by Chapter 573 for hiring a board member’s relative. Similarly, the Attorney General refrained from concluding that the penalties would apply to board members who had delegated final selection of personnel to the superintendent and did not appoint, confirm or vote for the appointment or confirmation of as individual who was prohibited from being employed by the district. This is the exact case in this recent account, in the fact that the accused board member did not appoint, confirm, or vote for the related persons hiring.
This oversight has helped Brownwood ISD revise some operating procedures so that the nepotism policies will not be violated in the future. The human resources department will continue to screen every application of “at-will” employees to check for possible relationships to board members and assure that they are not considered for employment. When this violation of the board policy was brought to the attention of the Superintendent, it was quickly remediated by the immediate resignation of the employee.
