Tax money fueling school board food fights

Trying to unravel the Fort Worth school board’s most recent brawl is like attempting to sort out the childish finger-pointing after a playground fracas.

On second thought, it’s worse — since school kids don’t lawyer-up the way the Fort Worth school board does.

After a costly outside investigation involving multiple attorneys, trustees voted 5-3 Jan. 8 to censure fellow board member Ashley Paz for allegedly disparaging and attempting to oust the principal at Daggett Montessori School.

The censure has no legal effect whatsoever. So the board spent over $50,000 to publicly flog a colleague with a meaningless gesture for her over-involvement in school affairs — something that untold numbers of school board members could be accused of doing over the years.

They’re picking childish fights with each other and leaving taxpayers holding the substantial bill.

Certainly if the outside investigator’s report is accurate, Paz might have overstepped her bounds with loose lips. But a five-minute conversation could’ve remedied that easily and inexpensively, and far short of lawyers and reports and public hearings and censures.

But board members can’t help themselves, except to your pocketbook. They’ve even retained their own outside counsel the past year or so, despite the fact that taxpayers are already paying for in-house lawyers. Why? Do the trustees’ interests so often conflict with those of the district that they’re elected to serve? If so, that may be the source of this entire problem.

Odder still is the fact that this investigation was launched with no discernible vote of the board. Apparently no vote is needed for board members to expend up to $50,000 in tax dollars on surplus legal help and nonessential investigations aimed at embarrassing each other.

Are our schools so flush with money that the school board can throw it away like this?

And let’s face it: While Paz’s conduct may have warranted trimming back — though that’s still a matter of disagreement — the board majority’s over-the-top reaction was far more than what was needed. It smacks of retribution for Paz’s earlier advocacy for stricter ethics policies that didn’t sit well with some on the board.

Paz was among a minority of board members in 2017 who favored a former ethics policy that included stringent limits on gifts and contributions from contractors doing business with the district. You have to wonder if she is now paying the price for it.

That former strong ethics policy — strangely abandoned on a lightning-quick “consent agenda” vote, absent discussion or debate, in August 2017 — was modeled after one in Houston. That policy, in part, required disclosure of contributions and gifts of over $500 from any vendor, and prohibited board members from voting on district contracts with that vendor. What’s so hard about that?

These folks we elect to oversee Fort Worth Independent School District should be mindful of the kinds of role models they are, particularly for the district’s students. As such, they ought to aspire to the highest ethics — both in their dealings with political contributors and with each other.

How would you grade them at this point? And would you check the box that says “works well with others”?