Carroll school board votes to settle parent lawsuit alleging open meetings violations
Carroll school trustees voted to settle a lawsuit that a parent filed against the district and several board members following an executive session that lasted almost two hours.
Monday night’s vote was not unanimous with trustees Hannah Smith, Andrew Yeager, Cam Bryan and board president Eric Lannen voting in favor of the settlement. Sheri Mills voted against the motion, and trustees Michelle Moore and Todd Carlton abstained.
After the vote, trustees did not provide details of the settlement involving the suit that Kristin Garcia filed in September 2020, and they moved to the next agenda item that was the president’s and committee reports.
Garcia, a parent in the Carroll school district, sued the district and Moore, who was board president at the time, along with current trustees Sheri Mills and Todd Carlton soon after administrators presented a draft of the Cultural Competence Action Plan or CCAP.
The plan caused an uproar among parents who said they were never informed about the 34-page document. They were concerned about policing and disciplining students over intended and unintended “microaggressions.”
The parents also felt that the plan did not adhere to the Christian values their children learned at home.
But others said the plan was needed to address ongoing incidents of discrimination and bullying among students of color and those who are LGBTQ.
Garcia’s suit alleged that the trustees sent text messages to discuss the plan before it was presented at a called board meeting.
The suit also alleged that Moore created a “walking quorum” when communicating with the trustees outside of a regularly called meeting, which violates the Texas Open Meetings Act.
Garcia’s suit also alleged that Moore did not include Lannen and another former board member, Matt Bryant, in the text message discussions about the plan.
The Cultural Competence Plan, which was almost two years in the making, was a result of meetings with the school district’s diversity council after videos surfaced of Carroll High School students repeating a racial slur.