San Marcos CISD construction set to begin in October, officials say

Also at the June 10 meeting, trustees met in closed session for more than two hours before voting 4-2 to hire a new assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction and accountability. Board members David Castillo and John Crowley cast the two votes not to hire Dr. Howell Wright, who spent four years as the superintendent of Rockdale ISD before resigning March 28.

In addition, the board voted unanimously to renew Eads' contract for one year. Board member Lupe Costilla left during the closed session and did not vote on the personnel decisions.

Before entering closed session, board members also voted 4-3 to not set an Aug. 19 deadline to respond to an offer by the city of San Marcos that would allow the San Marcos CISD board to meet in City Council chambers. Castillo, Crowley and Costilla cast the dissenting votes.

"All we're trying to do is get more of the public to see our board meetings, but all of a sudden it seems like we're making it more difficult when it's very simple," Castillo said.

City Council members had offered the use of the chambers so board meetings could be televised.

Eads said the district needed to address legal and policy considerations before providing video of board meetings.

"At the point in time when we're ready to videotape, we need to do it here [at a district facility]. We don't want to be going off-site to have our meetings," Eads said. "I'm totally comfortable videotaping. Transparency has never been the issue."

He suggested that board members wait until January to decide whether to provide video of meetings, after completion of 14 months' training provided by the national Center for Reform of School Systems. The training is intended to instruct trustees on policy-level roles and responsibilities of school board members and superintendents.

"My recommendation is for us to go through the complete training and make sure we represent our community and our school district, and we do a good job of it. The community has entrusted us with passing of the bonds, and we need to look and act the best we can and make sure we have everything in place," he said. "We've not ever had them videotaped, so we can wait a little longer before we go and do that."