Heritage subpoenas Keller school board’s attorney for records over split scheme
Attorneys for Heritage homeowners who are suing the Keller school board are subpoenaing board attorney Tim Davis to testify at a deposition and provide documents related to the board’s efforts to split the school district.
The split plan, which was roundly criticized by residents, was ultimately called off on March 14. However, lawsuits against the board stemming from the proposal are still pending, including the one to which the Heritage residents are a party.
The Heritage neighborhood is along Heritage Trace Parkway in far north Fort Worth, close to the Alliance shopping center. Heritage and other neighborhoods west of U.S. 377, mostly in far north Fort Worth and part of Watauga, would have been split off from Keller ISD.
The controversy shook the community, creating bitter divides between neighbors.
According to court records, Davis, an attorney at Fort Worth-based Jackson Walker LLP, will receive a subpoena duces tecum, which requires the recipient to attend a scheduled hearing and produce requested documents.
Those documents include:
- All communications Davis has had regarding the Keller school district since May 2022;
- Records of all services Davis has performed on behalf of the district since May 2022;
- Any documents Davis or other Jackson Walker attorneys have prepared regarding the district or sections of the Texas Education Code since May 2022;
- All communications between Davis and Patriot Mobile Action, the conservative Christian political action committee that has supported multiple Keller school board members, including those accused of trying to split the district;
- Presentations that Davis or other Jackson Walker attorneys have prepared regarding school board governance, the Texas Open Meetings Act or the Texas Education Code;
- Engagement correspondence between Davis and other Texas school districts.
The deposition that Davis is required to attend is scheduled for May 5 at the offices of Kelly Hart and Hallman LLP, the firm representing the Heritage homeowners. Davis must produce the documents no later than May 28.
Should Davis refuse to testify at the hearing or provide the documents, he could be found in contempt of court and “punished by fine or confinement, or both,” according to the subpoena notice.
Keller ISD lawsuits
Keller parent Matthew Mucker originally filed the lawsuit against the Keller board in Tarrant County District Court in January, alleging that board trustees violated the Texas Open Meetings Act by discussing the spit behind closed doors. The Heritage homeowners group joined that suit as intervenors in March, bringing in Kelly Hart and Hallman as counsel.
The lawsuit requests that the judge in the case remove the five board members largely believed to be behind the split plan — President Charles Randklev and members Heather Washington, John Birt, Chris Coker and Micah Young — for “incompetency and official misconduct.”
The board members have denied wrongdoing and have requested the lawsuit be dismissed while questioning the motivations behind it.
The two Keller school board members who represent constituents in Fort Worth — Chelsea Kelly and Joni Shaw Smith — have been vocal opponents of the split and are not defendants in the Heritage suit.