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. Both pointed out that state statute allows for documenting executive sessions by manual note taking.
In a text Thursday, Garcia said the Texas Open Meetings Act allows school districts to certify the agenda and then either take notes or audio record executive session meetings.
“At this time the board elected to continue to audio record executive session meetings,” he wrote.
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.”
Staff attorney Miguel Salinas said in the 30 lawsuits he’s handled for the district, it’s become an issue in three.
“More and more, juries are expecting things to be recorded. This is the video age. Everything’s recorded. Everybody has a cell phone. … If juries don’t hear it, if it’s not recorded they tend to discount it. It’s a very small percentage (of cases) but it has been an effective tool for us.”
Brown said she had talked to numerous attorneys, who all said they preferred recordings.
“There’s really no lawyer who’s going to tell you that they don’t want things recorded, and it’s just obvious why. … When we move from recording to notes and memory, and I do understand why we would want to, it’s a little terrifying.”
Pena said having a recording protects the district. Gonzalez said as public officials, board members should own up to what they say, whether in public or in private.
The board also voted unanimously to guarantee bus drivers 40 hours of work per week. Prior to the pandemic, the drivers were guaranteed 35 hours and received assignments, which often stretched into overtime, to drive students to extracurricular events like athletic contests and other UIL events based on seniority.
Due to the pandemic there are few such events, leaving the drivers short on hours.
Superintendent Rene Gutierrez said he did not want the change to mean drivers would work 35 hours and get paid for 40. “It has to be hour for hour,” he said, noting that bus drivers have helped out in other areas during the pandemic.
