(Texas Scorecard) \u2013 Plano Independent School District is being sued for failing to disclose information about known mold hazards in its schools.<\/p>\n
Plaintiff Shannon Ayres filed a\u00a0petition for a writ of mandamus<\/a>\u2014a court order compelling a governmental body to perform a legal duty\u2014on December 5, after Plano ISD failed to respond to a public information request for nearly two months.<\/p>\n State law requires governmental bodies to respond in writing to public information requests within 10 business days.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a straightforward Public Information Act mandamus suit,\u201d Ayres\u2019 petition reads. \u201cOn October 8, 2025, Plaintiff submitted a written request for records concerning mold hazards in Plano ISD schools. PISD has provided no written response whatsoever in the ensuing fifty-plus days\u2014no documents, no cost estimate, no clarification request, and no Attorney-General opinion request.\u201d<\/p>\n Following Plano ISD\u2019s failure to respond to her October 8 request, Ayres filed a complaint with the Texas Attorney General\u2019s Open Records Division on November 13, then contacted the district again on November 26, but still received no response.<\/p>\n Ayres is the Texas education director for the grassroots advocacy group\u00a0Citizens Defending Freedom<\/a>\u00a0USA. The Collin County mom has been an outspoken advocate for parental rights at school board meetings across the state and in the Texas Legislature.<\/p>\n \u201cAs part of our mission to enforce accountability and transparency for the benefit of the general public, we filed a mandamus to force Plano ISD to meet their statutory requirements under the Public Information Act,\u201d Ayres told Texas Scorecard. \u201cThere\u2019s obviously a lot of public interest in this issue, and the citizens deserve answers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo school district gets to completely ignore a citizen\u2019s request for public information that they are entitled to, and Plano ISD is no exception,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Ayres\u2019 petition asked the court to compel Plano ISD to provide the requested records no later than 10 business days after a court order, and requested an expedited hearing because \u201cchildren and staff continue to attend PISD facilities with documented mold issues.\u201d<\/p>\n A statement from Plano ISD\u2019s Chief Communications Officer Lesley Range-Stanton indicated that the district \u201cdid not receive the original public information request because it was quarantined by Microsoft Outlook\u2019s security protocols.\u201d<\/p>\n The district also did not receive any acknowledgment from the Office of the Attorney General regarding a complaint related to that request. Plano ISD only became aware of the request through the mandamus filing we received on December 9, 2025. The district is now in receipt of the request and it is currently being processed.<\/p>\n \u201cPlano ISD consistently complies with the Texas Public Information Act and will continue to do so,\u201d the statement concluded. \u201cIf a requestor does not receive the district\u2019s standard confirmation email, we encourage them to follow up using our online platform or by emailing\u00a0openrecords@pisd.edu.\u201d<\/p>\n Moldy Murphy Middle School<\/p>\n At the start of the school year, students and staff at Murphy Middle School complained of visible mold, bad smells, and possible mold-related health issues.<\/p>\n On October 6,\u00a0Plano ISD\u00a0closed Murphy<\/a>\u00a0for \u201cenhanced\u201d mold mitigation\u2014less than two weeks after\u00a0telling concerned families<\/a>\u00a0the school posed \u201cno health concerns\u201d related to mold.<\/p>\n The district then spent two weeks, including the week of Fall Break that followed the unexpected campus closure, tackling the mold and moisture problems at Murphy: replacing carpet, cleaning HVAC ductwork, resealing windows, disinfecting surfaces, and repairing roof leaks.<\/p>\n During that time, parents also spotted remediation crews at two other Plano ISD middle schools, Renner and Schimelpfenig.<\/p>\n Plano ISD mom Meghan Vecchio was one of the first to publicly raise concerns about the mold issues at Murphy, where her child attended school. Vecchio told\u00a0Texas Scorecard\u00a0that she and others have made multiple open records requests about mold, mold remediation, and mold test reports.<\/p>\n The district has sent all of the requests to the AG\u2019s office for review.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are items that were paid for with our tax dollars, but the district refuses to release the records,\u201d said Vecchio. \u201cThe district has put parents in the position of having to hire attorneys to attempt to get records that should be readily available.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cParents should have the right to know what was in the mold test results that caused the Murphy Middle School building to close,\u201d she added. \u201cParents should also have a right to know that the building was, as declared, safe after cleanup. We should be able to see these documents for ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n Ongoing Issues<\/p>\n New problems arose at Murphy Middle School in November, when a roof leak caused more water damage inside the building.<\/p>\n During a\u00a0school board meeting<\/a>\u00a0Tuesday night, Plano ISD trustees voted to spend\u00a0$594,500<\/a>\u00a0to replace flooring at the middle school.<\/p>\n In addition to ongoing maintenance issues and potential health hazards inside Murphy, Plano ISD is also under\u00a0federal<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0state<\/a>\u00a0investigations for its alleged failure to address antisemitic behavior by students and staff.<\/p>\n Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn\u00a0met with Plano ISD families<\/a>\u00a0over the weekend to talk about antisemitic incidents and how Jewish students are being treated in the district\u2019s schools.<\/p>\n Many in Plano ISD are also still fuming about trustees\u2019 5-2 vote in August to\u00a0limit public comments at board meetings<\/a>\u00a0to agenda items only.<\/p>\n Concerned families can contact Plano ISD\u00a0trustees<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0administrators<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Texas Scorecard) \u2013 Plano Independent School District is being sued for failing to disclose information about known mold…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[160,162,161],"class_list":{"0":"post-84386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-plano","8":"tag-plano","9":"tag-plano-headlines","10":"tag-plano-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}