The suit, filed by Place 2 Trustee Mary Bone in the Williamson County 425th District Court, alleges that Superintendent Hafedh Azaiez carried out an unauthorized investigation of emails shared by Place 7 Trustee Danielle Weston.
In December, the board approved the hiring of attorneys to examine a set of Weston's emails to determine if they required further investigation, the suit states. The suit clarifies that the measure would not have authorized an investigation of Weston, just a selection of emails determined by the board.
Bone's suit alleges that the district has received additional invoices totaling $25,000 from the firm Waddell Serafino, the firm contracted to examine Weston's emails, showing it is billing for an investigation. The suit states that the invoices, which Bone discovered through an inspection of district records, were heavily redacted.
In a statement to Community Impact Newspaper, Bone said the goal of her suit is to gain access to documentation of these expenditures. She also said additional invoices have brought the total to $42,000.
"On May 4, I formally requested the documentation in my official capacity to ensure the tax money intended for children was being spent with board authorization," Bone said. "The district administration continues to refuse to release this information to me as a trustee. Therefore, I have been forced to file a lawsuit to obtain the information I am legally entitled to view."
Regarding the suit, which includes her emails, Weston told Community Impact that trustees are entitled by law to review information routinely.
"I speak only for myself, not the board," Weston said. "Students and families rely on school district employees to understand and follow all laws in the government code, administrative code, education code and all other relevant [statutes]. Trustees are entitled by law to review information, including confidential documents, all the time as a matter of routine business. Stonewalling, ignoring the will of the board and failure to comply with statutes is never prudent, especially not at a time when so many eyes are watching RRISD.”
Community Impact Newspaper has reached out to RRISD and representation for Azaiez regarding the suit, although no parties have been served, according to the district court docket. This is an ongoing story and will be updated as additional information becomes available.
