Fort Worth school’s ‘special committee’ begins work on new ethics policy

The Fort Worth school board’s much-maligned ethics policy will be discussed Monday evening during the first meeting of the newly created Special Board Policy Committee.

The special committee is tasked with creating a new ethics policy by Dec. 12, which is the next regular meeting of the full school board. This committee is made of the same trustees and staff who are on an existing Board Policy Committee and which created a comprehensive policy that was approved in April. Once an ethics policy is completed, the special committee is expected to dissolve, according to the district.

The policy approved in April was rescinded in August, for reasons that remain murky.

The six-page policy approved in April had replaced a generic, one-paragraph policy that had been in place since 2007. The new policy outlined strict rules regarding campaign contributions from entities that are “financially interested in the outcome of a contract,” guidelines on what constitutes a conflict of interest for board members and their families, and limitations on gifts for board members.

In August, the school board voted to rescind the policy as part of a consent agenda. Later, some trustees discovered they had unwittingly rescinded and started to push for it to be reinstated.

Before the Thanksgiving Day break, the first committee held a meeting. At that time, trustees Ashley Paz and Norm Robbins met with district staff to discuss events leading up to the Aug. 15 vote. Several residents attended that meeting and were able to ask questions of the staff.

This report contains material from the Star-Telegram archives.

This story was originally published November 24, 2017 at 4:54 PM with the headline "Fort Worth school’s ‘special committee’ begins work on new ethics policy."