I was going to talk about the how the board dealt with Annette Griffin, however, after

getting the legal bills associated with her “settlement” and notice of termination I was

just dumb-founded. It really made me start to feel sorry for her and wonder what the

board knew and when they knew it, and better yet, if they lied about it. For example, Dr.

Griffin was arrested on August 21st, and we were led to believe the board knew nothing

about it until October 15th when the newspaper first reported it. However, Bob Lunaʼs

firm began working on “personnel issues” related to her the day after her arrested.

Then he spent Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday of the following week again on those

“issues.” Then on October 2nd at the board meeting, John Tepper said, “For the record,

Dr. Annette Griffin is at a conference.” Funny, because that meeting was cited as

grounds for her termination. There was also a motion to accept the superintendentʼs

evaluation. The following day, the lawyer was reviewing the Texas Open Meetings Act,

public votes, and the exceptions used at the October 2nd Board Meeting, could there be

a problem with how the board acted? There is more, so I did a timeline, something I

learned to do in this school district.

On October 30th 2008, Ms. Ingram stood before the board and stated about Dr. Griffinʼs

actions I quote, “I believe that not holding her accountable will open a fierce and vicious

can of worms that has the potential of bringing our school district down.” Mr. Shor

concluded the meeting by making a motion to put the employment of Dr. Griffin on the

agenda for the next meeting, November 13th. So, the first question is “who done it, and

when did they do it?” As a body corporate you must act as a body, instead on

November 10 the boardʼs attorney through Dr. Griffinʼs attorney delivered a settlement
agreement to Dr. Griffin of 100,000 dollars. It was at that time the board decided to

allow her to ride off into the sunset on December 31st giving her an additional $45,000

in paid leave. Why is this significant, because unlike what you stated to the media and

therefore to the public, you hadnʼt decided to fire her. Her notice was sent November

17th a full 7 days after her $160,000 gift. That didnʼt stop you though, because on

December 2nd, I believe Mr. Luna and the former president mislead the public into

believing that Dr. Griffin had filed an appeal. Whatʼs funny about this is the board was

the only body aware of this appeal, apparently Dr. Griffin wasnʼt because she had

already signed her settlement and TEA wasnʼt because they donʼt confirm receipt until

the day after she had signed the settlement. So my question to you is, what exactly

were you doing in executive session, with opposing counsel Griffin Collie, in violation of

the open meetings act and voiding attorney client privilege, with a settlement agreement

that had already been signed? And thank you, Mr. Shor for sending an email that

specifically couched that payment as a settlement for a legal dispute.

Had you held Dr. Griffin accountable you probably would not have lost the 2 incumbents

last May, yet still you would not listen and decided to conspire to overturn a self-

proclaimed legally held election. For those that just take the media release of this

district as gospel it might seem like you say. But for those of us who know Mr. Cantrellʼs

office address, when you had Bob Luna begin looking at disqualification of candidates

and the hiring of a PR firm of spin doctors we can not buy the bull.
I want to read you the preamble to Texas Open government laws that is codified into

§552 of the Texas Government Code, it says, “Under the fundamental philosophy of the

American constitutional form of representative government that adheres to the principle

that government is the servant and not the master of the people, it is the policy of this

state that each person is entitled, unless otherwise expressly provided by law, at all

times to complete information about the affairs of government and the official acts of

public officials and employees. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their

public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not

good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain

control over the instruments they have created. The provisions of this chapter shall be

liberally construed to implement this policy.”

You are called trustees not because you only represent the people you were elected by,

but because you are entrusted with something more precious then our Freedom and

that is our Future.