The Brownsville Independent School District Board of Trustees narrowly decided Tuesday to continue electronically recording executive sessions rather than manually taking notes to document the proceedings. The board also voted to guarantee bus drivers 40 hours of work per week.
The vote on recording executive sessions was 4-3, with board President Eddie Garcia and Trustees Prisci Roca Tipton and Daniela Lopez Valdez voting to go to note-taking and Trustees Drue Brown, Denise Garza, Jessica Gonzalez and Minerva Pena voting against. The measure would have left recording Level III grievances as standard procedure but ended electronic recording of executive sessions, and a board member would have had to do the note-taking as provided for in the statute.
Garcia placed the item on the agenda, with support from Lopez Valdez.
Board Attorney Baltazar Salazar recommended continuing to record, adding that when BISD has gotten sued the recordings have proven invaluable.
“The three or four times that we’ve been ordered to transcribe these executive sessions, every single time we’ve won in court and the reason is because anybody can make an accusation but if it’s not on the recording it’s not on the recording. It’s been a very positive thing. From a legal point of view it’s been a source of documentation and that’s what we’re all about.”
