The details
Trustees received the breakdown during the board’s Feb. 18 meeting—roughly one week after Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath denied Fagen’s final appeal of her firing through the TEA.
The fees related to the Title IX investigations and Fagen's appeals, according to the cost analysis, are shown in the chart below.
How we got here
In April, trustees voted to release a report detailing the findings of the Title IX investigation launched against Kite.
Fagen married Kite in 2023 after disclosing their relationship to the board in March 2022, district officials said. Fagen said she recused herself from the Title IX investigation in May 2023.
Trustees initially voted to propose the termination of Fagen’s contract in July. Fagen appealed the board’s decision to the TEA, which resulted in a three-day hearing spanning more than 30 hours over Oct. 31, Nov. 1 and Nov. 6.
After losing the initial appeal, Fagen appealed the board’s decision directly to Morath in late December.
What they're saying
Among the chief arguments presented by board members for Fagen’s firing was the notion that the district was forced to hire an outside legal firm to investigate the original Title IX complaint filed against Kite due to his relationship with Fagen.
In his Feb. 4 decision, Morath sided with the district in its claim that obtaining outside legal counsel was necessary to conduct the investigation.
- “Because Kite was both a complainant and a subject of Title IX investigations, [the district] could not oversee those investigations,” Morath said. “This required [the district] to hire outside counsel and investigators.”
- “A great deal of criticism has been leveled, at least at some members of the board, asserting the expenditures were unnecessary and grossly irresponsible,” Scarfo said. “I want the public to know when they read those reports ... that you had two administrative law judges and the independent decision maker telling us the actual reason why we incurred over $1.8 million in expenses that we should not have had to [spend].”
- “When we hired Walsh Gallegos, we were told [the investigation would] take four to six weeks and probably cost between $35,000-$40,000,” Sitton said. “Fast forward nearly two years, nearly $1.9 million, to get a finding of what was admitted to roughly two months after the process started. Someone is going to have to really convince me that we needed to spend $1.9 million to find out what we already knew.”
- “That was the tip of the iceberg,” Scarfo said. “So much was found out over that time that we didn't know when ... that very first report was issued. ... It’s all there. It's in these three reports.”
While Fagen still has the option to appeal Morath’s decision to a district court, representatives from O'Hanlon, Demerath & Castillo—the legal firm representing Fagen—have not confirmed whether Fagen intends to pursue that option as of press time.
If she moves forward, Fagen will be required to file her appeal by March 6.
