A contentious board meeting resulting in the forced retirement of Fort Bend Independent School District Superintendent Dr. Christie Whitbeck has a lot of parents in Fort Bend County asking questions.
So, what is going on?
This all stems from comments made by Sonya Jones during the portion of the meeting dealing with Whitbeck’s forced retirement.
“To be respectful, to protect her integrity if we went one-by-one on what was talked about closed session, number one she would never be able to work in education again,” said Jones as the crowd erupted.
RELATED: Fort Bend ISD board approves retirement of superintendent Dr. Christie Whitbeck
Seconds later Jones added, “She has crossed many boundaries” but specifics were not provided.
On Friday morning, KPRC 2 Investigates sent multiple emails to Jones and all the Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustees asking specific questions directly tied to her comments.
Jones responded in an email stating, “I appreciate your concerns. According to board policy and procedures, I am not allowed to discuss matters relating to Fort Bend ISD with the media. Please reach out to our board president Judy Dae for comment.”
Ms. Jones said she could not respond. Neither did any other members of the board, including Board President Judy Dae.
Whitbeck has been with the district for two years and received a contract extension and raise this past July. However, in October offered teachers an opportunity to wear jeans if they voted in the November elections.
Whitbeck admitted to KPRC 2 investigates, “We had some jeans incentives.”
Any incentive being offered in exchange for a vote is a violation of law according to state officials.
“A school district can’t offer a jeans day for employees to vote, everybody knows this,” said State Senator Paul Bettencourt who also serves on the Senate Committee on Education.
RELATED: Blue jeans at center of controversy involving Fort Bend ISD at the polls
However, on the night of our report in October, Whitbeck told every parent in the district via email the claims of potential illegality were not true.
“I want you to know those claims are false, and I set the record straight today in media interviews,” said Whitbeck in an email to parents.
Whitbeck also included an interview showing her being interviewed. However, Whitbeck failed to inform parents the interview provided was not a professional news organization’s interview but rather an internal interview was done between Whitbeck and FBISD’s Communications Director Sherry Williams.
However, Jones says the superintendent crossed “many boundaries” and since Whitbeck was in charge of the state’s sixth largest school district -- with over 80,000 children – we asked Jones about the boards’ silence, specifically asking, “if there was such wrongdoing as you referenced, why wouldn’t FBISD want to take such action and make parents aware for safety reasons – especially since children are involved?”
In the midst of all of this, Whitbeck received a payout of over $490,000 from the board for retiring. As a result of this, we also asked, “If Dr. Whitbeck’s actions crossed the lines to the point that ‘she would never be able to work in education again’ then why did the board allow her to resign with a payout?”
On Friday at 7:46 p.m., KPRC 2 received the following statement from Jones: