Anderson-Shiro CISD Fighting Transparency In School Bond Election
When we say we are having to fight ASCISD for transparency, we've had to take that fight all the way to Ken Paxton's office.
Members of our community have requested information directly related to the $60 million bond proposal under the Public Information Act. After 10 business days the district ignored our request and it continued to be ignored until we submitted a complaint to Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office.
The district was sent 2 letters from the Office of the Attorney General, Ken Paxton, demanding they adhere to it. Instead of releasing the information requested and being transparent with ASCISD staff, parents and taxpayers, they are playing politics with an out-of-town law firm in San Antonio (that can’t be cheap) that is using the “confidential” and “attorney-client privilege” delay tactic to defer our request to Ken Paxton’s office to review the information being requested.
They could have immediately tried to make this argument when they received our request on August 16th but it wasn’t until Attorney General Paxton got involved that our request was taken seriously. This is nothing more than a delay tactic to try to get the bond passed before disclosing this information to taxpayers. By then it will be too late to question it.
PUBLIC INFORMATION REQUEST SUBMITTED TO ASCISD
• Why is ASCISD claiming to be transparent and then ignoring requests for information?
• Why is ASCISD frivolously wasting taxpayer dollars to hire an out-of-town attorney to delay information?
• Why is it necessary to involve the State of Texas for ASCISD to respond to these requests and release public information taxpayers are entitled to?
Asking taxpayers to fund $60 million is a process that should be met with cooperation, not resistance or “lawyer up” actions you generally see from someone who is trying to hide wrongdoing.
Our committee is made up of taxpayers who live, serve and raise their families in ASCISD. Members of our committee currently have children attending ASCISD. We care about our community and believe we can plan for the future without strapping taxpayers with a $107 million burden ($60 million bond + interest).
We aren't here to fight against progress, our school or community....
We are fighting against:
• wasteful spending
• overspending
• a lack of transparency
• placing high tax burdens on hard working families
We are fighting to ensure taxpayers have ALL the information which so far ASCISD has been unwilling to provide. Our nation is suffering from debt, inflation and corruption. We are here fighting to keep these issues from burdening our local community but the district is not acting in good faith with cooperation or transparency.
Voting AGAINST PROP A doesn't mean you are voting against supporting your school, it means you are voting AGAINST:
• overspending
• perpetual debt
• having the highest tax rate in Grimes County
• lack of transparency
We need better more affordable options to meet the growth for our school district. We aren't a 5A school district in Austin with a high tax base, we are a rural 3A school district. We believe we can meet our needs without putting our school district $133,000,000 in debt (total bond debt owed by ASCISD if PROP A passes to include current bond debt of $22 million owed + current 60 million bond proposal ($107 million total including interest).
