Board Approves Sprinklers for Lewisville High School, Power Line Relocation for Flower Mound
Blogs Posted by WhosPlayinon 2009/11/16 20:00:00 (547 reads)
Wow, what an interesting LISD Board meeting tonight. Lewisville had to fight to get LISD to do the right thing and agree to fire sprinklers for Lewisville High School, while Flower Mound apparently decided that it would only allow the same improvements to the Flower Mound HS campus if the district would agree to spend a half million dollars to relocate power lines that the district says do not even power its campus.
The Colony City Councilman Allen Harris argued during the open comments session that the district should not use district funds for what is essentially a "beautification project" for Flower Mound.
Several citizens, including myself, spoke up about the need to make LISD's meetings and records more open. I spoke to the board about their retreat meeting a couple of weeks ago being an illegal meeting under the Texas Open Meetings Act, and the fact that it took a couple of days just to get an agenda for this meeting.
Another item of note, although the exact meaning of the item was never made explicit by the Board, even when citizen Julie Malcom of Lewisville thanked them for considering it, the board did pass the item on its agenda that we all thought and had heard through back channels relates to fire sprinklers for Lewisville High School. That item was left in the consent agenda and passed without further comment.
Board members argued for 20 minutes or so over whether to give in to Flower Mound's demands that LISD bury power lines that had been installed a few years earlier by Oncor, and supposedly feed a nearby subdivision. In the end the item was approved for construction, with just Amber Fulton and Tom Ferguson dissenting, all other board members voting in favor, though all expressed anger over having their hands forced in the matter. Vernell Gregg voted aye, but "under protest" as she said. Board President Carol Kyer also expressed great frustration at the issue, having personally appeared before the Council to talk about the issue.
Video: I need to make a bit of a disclaimer: The video was shot by our intern (my 10 year old son) who was quite interested in zoom and pan features, and more than once had to adjust the tripod. We're not responsible if the video makes you dizzy and you fall out of your chair.
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Anonymous
Posted: 2009/11/16 21:51 Updated: 2009/11/17 7:22
Re: Board Approves Sprinklers for Lewisville High School,...
It is great that so many Lewisville people are speaking up at LISD meetings. What happened tonight regarding the power lines is inexcusable, but not surprising. This shows just how badly LISD needs to change to single member districts (each member represents a different area of the district). If we didn't have a Board with five of seven members from the FMHS or MHS attendance zones, Flower Mound would not have the audacity to ask LISD to fix its own half million dollar mistake. We must demand fiscal accountability and fairness. I only hope that on Election Day voters will remember who voted to approve this ridiculous expediture.
By the way, I was impressed by Julie Malcom's comments tonight. She might make a good LISD School Board member. Do you know if she has any interest in running?
Thanks for all your efforts to help raise awareness of LISD decisions that affect all of us in Lewisville.
Re: Board Approves Sprinklers for Lewisville High School,...
All other board members voting in favor, though all expressed anger over having their hands forced in the matter
I am very new to following what goes on at the ISD, so I apologize in advance for what might be an ignorant comment... If they are so angry about having to vote yes, then why didn't they vote no?
I totally agree with Allen Harris that the ISD should not be spending money on a beautification project. Surely there is some better way to spend half a million dollars. Not all of our ISD schools are rated "expemplary", after all.
Re: Board Approves Sprinklers for Lewisville High School,...
Likewise, I'm kind of new to following this too, but here's what I gathered: - There was a bid on the table for this project, and it would have expired before the board would have been able to meet again. It would have required going out to bid again. - They felt it was urgent to get facilities improved so that the kids could have locker room facilities where they wouldn't trip over each other because of the crowding. - Although the district had not exhausted all appeals, the lawyers for the district felt that they had little chance of winning the argument if it went to district court, whether it was right or wrong.
I agree with you on the opportunity cost of that money.
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Anonymous
Posted: 2009/11/17 22:49 Updated: 2009/11/18 6:54
Re: Board Approves Sprinklers for Lewisville High School,...
If you are reading this, please send an email to all of your friends that live within the LISD boundaries and ask them to read this article, watch or listen to the video, read the articles in the newspapers about the happenings of LISD. Attend a few LISD board meetings. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE get involved.
Re: Board Approves Sprinklers for Lewisville High School,...
Anonymous is right. Its very important that the community keep an eye on things and continue to demand more transparency from the district. LISD has been operating in near secrecy, with little accountability demanded by the taxpayers. The board agenda is laughable; you can learn next to nothing by reading it so you're forced to file an open records request to get more information. By the time the request is filled, ten days have gone by, the board meeting is over, and once again LISD has done whatever it is they want to do.
I'm pleased that the board has agreed to video tape the meetings, and air the videos on the website. That's a step in the right direction.
I wanted to pass along this clarification from Karen Permetti, LISD's Public Information Officer:
"Yes, on Monday late afternoon there was a link posted regarding streaming video and was removed on Tuesday. This was based upon some miscommunication. On Monday, we tested our video equipment and our network. There were some folks within the technology group managing the testing that thought everything was to go live simultaneously. The district is in the process of testing specific equipment to determine what will work best to air/record Board meetings."
WhosPlayin will continue to record and post video in the interim at our expense.
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Wow, what an interesting LISD Board meeting tonight. Lewisville had to fight to get LISD to do the right thing and agree to 
Dallas Morning News Story about FMHS Project Approval
