More Three Wokemigos Shenanigans

Becky St. John has been a member of the GCISD board of trustees for more than 13 years. She has often claimed to be a conservative, as has fellow board member Jorge Rodriguez.

The switch from classroom to remote learning during the height of the pandemic exposed many GCISD parents to the content schools were requiring students to consume.

Some of that content was alarming.

As debate grew over mask mandates and when to reopen classrooms, parents uncovered more and more questionable learning materials on other subjects. They discovered Ted Talk videos featuring prominent Critical Race Theory proponents and library books filled with graphic sex act descriptions that had nothing to do with reproductive biology.

Parents were astonished and enraged at what had transpired at the schools in the years since they themselves had graduated and moved on to have children of their own.

This triggered the formation of concerned parent groups like GCISDParents.com which were instrumental in recent elections of Casey Ford, Shannon Braun, Tammy Nakamura, and Kathy Spradley to the board. Those elections shifted the board to a solid conservative majority and put St. John, Canter, and Rodriguez in the minority.

The thirteen year long progressive majority thus ended.

Since that majority shift, Becky St. John and Jorge Rodriguez have campaigned from the dais with Coley Canter dutifully echoing their public attempts to discredit the rest of the board with no regard for the reputation and well being of the school district and the cities it serves.

In so doing the three minority members have also exposed their own progressive ideologies, belying St. John and Rodriguez’ past claims of being conservatives.

The board voted a few meetings back to hire a law firm to represent the board. This is not a unique or wasteful expense. Months prior to Nakamura and Spradley’s elections, St. John and Rodriguez spearheaded an effort in coordination with the district’s attorney to strip Ford and Braun of their right to legal counsel. When board president Casey Ford requested legal counsel from the law firm hired to represent GCISD he was told that that firm does not represent the board, it only represents the school district.

At this point it became apparent the district attorneys did not represent the board, even in spirit.

Ford, recognizing that motive, and being informed directly that he and the other board members had no legal counsel, immediately took action after the conservative majority was elected to rectify the void by hiring a law firm to represent the board.

This was voted on and approved publicly by the board in a vote of 4 to 3.

In each subsequent board meeting St. John, Rodriguez, and Canter have repeatedly put the board representation law firm on the agenda.

They know it will result in a 4 to 3 vote each time, but by putting on the agenda each time they are able to continually remark on it publicly and use it for campaigning from the dais.

The August 22, 2022 board meeting included several hours of public speakers along with board member comments and debate over new policies that were adopted, again, by a 4 to 3 vote. Those policies affirmed the rights of teachers and parents.

They ensured that teachers would not be forced to use “personal” pronouns, without prohibiting teachers from using them if they so desired.

They ensured that parents would be able to chose whether or not their children were exposed to controversial sex and gender fluidity material, rather than having those materials pushed into their children’s view.

They ensured alignment between GCISD policy and Texas State law.

St. John, Rodriguez, and Canter voted against these policies.

In previous meetings St. John had been practically filibustering on every board agenda item she contested, asking rhetorical questions, bloviating, and making veiled accusations against the four majority members.

Shannon Braun and Kathy Spradley began making and seconding motions to suspend Robert’s Rules of Order and limit all board member’s comments to 3 minutes or less on some agenda items. This resulted in mitigation of the obnoxiously prolonged meeting length being caused by St. John and reduced opportunities for any board member to campaign from the dais.

St. John, Rodriguez, and Canter all vehemently disagreed with this. Rodriguez even stated publicly that he was voting against an agenda item that he thought was a good idea simply out of protest that his time to talk about other items was limited.

GCISD has attracted national attention over the last two years, beginning with the controversy over activist James Whitfield and his resignation agreement with GCISD prior to the new board majority being elected.

Becky St. John has signaled the media multiple times from the dais with statements that she has information she will share with them. She has obviously put her own ego and her progressive agenda above the reputation of the district and the well being of its students.

Bitter at their loss of power, St. John and the other two members of her progressive cadre have embraced a scorched earth approach to district governance spiced up with St. John’s passive aggressive body language and questionable antics like mouthing what appear to many to be derogatory expletives toward another board member during a public meeting. St. John denied calling Spradley a “f*ing b*”. But it’s apparent from the video she said something, and she wasn’t wearing the facial expression of a happy trustee when she said it.