On Feb. 4, the Judson ISD board of trustees voted to propose terminating Superintendent Milton “Rob” Fields III’s employment contract and have him remain on administrative leave with pay, appointing Mary Duhart-Toppen to serve as interim superintendent. The decision came after the board spent nearly four hours in closed session.
Duhart-Toppen currently serves as the district’s deputy superintendent of teaching and learning, according to the district’s website.
What you need to know
Board Vice President Amanda Poteet made the motion to propose the termination, which was seconded by board President Monica Ryan. Poteet’s motion passed 4-3, with trustees Suzanne Kenoyer, José Macias Jr. and Laura Stanford dissenting.
Kenoyer motioned to appoint Duhart-Toppen to serve as interim superintendent, and Stanford seconded that motion. Kenoyer’s motion passed 5-2, with Ryan and Poteet dissenting.
How it happened
Before going into closed session, Macias moved to reinstate Fields as superintendent, which had been seconded by Kenoyer.
If the board voted, Macias said he had letters to the attorney general, district attorney and Texas Ethics Commission to file a violation of the Open Meetings Act.
“This behavior that happened, happened with three of us being uninformed about specifics about this investigation,” Macias said. “If an employee has a complaint, they file a grievance, and the accused is allowed to address the accuser. None of that happened today. All that happened was an email was sent, with allegations that could not be disproved because the other party—Dr. Fields—did not have an opportunity to rebut those accusations.”
Stanford said her position in supporting Fields was based on maintaining sustainability in the district.
“I think the timing of this action is very serious, and it is causing instability and turbulence, and guess who suffers from that? The students do. And our scores are going to reflect it,” Stanford said.
Kenoyer said she was “extremely disturbed” by the way everything was handled.
“There was a meeting that was called for Jan. 10. Three of us were not pulled as to whether we were even available for that meeting. We were not notified about anything about that meeting until the agenda was posted. Our attorneys did not know about that meeting. There was no closed session on the meeting to discuss and bring the three of us up to date,” Kenoyer said.
Four board members showed up prepared to take action during the Jan. 10 special meeting, and trustee Lesley Lee read a prepared motion that Ryan had a copy of, Kenoyer said.
“For this to have happened means that there was a walking quorum, which is a violation of the Open Meetings Act, which is a misdemeanor with a fine and jail time. And actions that happen during a meeting that violates the Open Meetings Act can be rescinded,” Kenoyer said.
Ryan thanked the “more than two dozen employees” who had come forward with their complaints.
“There were serious concerns that rose to the level of legal good cause,” Ryan said. “There was also additional serious concerns, some of those impacting student safety. So I personally would like to hear those additional findings from our legal counsel.”
Some background
Fields has been on paid administrative leave since Jan. 10, following a five-hour special board meeting in which trustees voted to place Fields on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into reported concerns. The board had also appointed Lacey Gosh to serve as the district’s acting superintendent, as previously reported by Community Impact.