Uvalde CISD: Beleaguered School Board attempts to plow forward with school business items: No action on district police personnel

 Amid unrelenting criticism received during the citizen comment portion of Monday night’s school board meeting, The Uvalde CISD school board tackles a long list of regular school business items. 

   After several school board meetings held at the larger John Harrell auditorium, the school district moved back to the Benson Board room for Monday night’s meeting.  Once the meeting stated the room was packed with about a dozen citizens and reporters having to stand as all the seats were taken. 

  Following the call to order several speakers spoke to the school board members from the audience podium. 

   One of the first to speak was Gilbert Limones, who defended the actions of Arredondo and other police officers who responded to the Robb School massacre.

  “Mindless finger pointing  blame will not help our children. CYA won’t help out children.  Any false narratives will not help our children,” Limones said.

  “After consulting with police officers and people trained…”  Limones may have been quoting a report from a third party drawing a conclusion about the officer’s actions.

  “Our conclusion is that Chief Arredondo and other officers took extreme caution and did actions necessary they believed…the equipment available to them. These officers were thrown into an unprecedented situation, They did not run away. In fact, they ran toward the sound of gunfire as shown in the video. You didn’t hear that from the media,” Limones said.  He went on to say,  “The officers did the best they could with information (they) had at that time.”

Jesus Rizo spoke after Gilbert Limones. 

“I understand forgiveness but there is also accountability. Seventy Seven minutes is an awfully long time,” Rizo said.

“I ask Dr. Harrell if the District could do an independent investigation like the city. Have someone else look into it,” He said.

Diana Karau who had spoken at previous school board meetings spoke at Monday night’s meeting. 

“We won’t be done till there is accountability. Many people believe in their hearts that if the officers had followed their training,” Karau said.

 “When you sit there and tell us you’re waiting for the results of the s criminal investigation… that’s an excuse.

You have policies in place and you have the ability and authority to discipline your employees.

Here we are, almost another month later and you are not planning to act; it’s been 3 months,” she said. 

It’s been 3 months. It’s very disappointing to us we come back over and over and you have no answers,” said said

Mr. Rosenberg Riza followed Diana Karau and spoke. 

 He brought up the new security fencing being installed at Dalton Elementary School and asked about other campus’ fencing and the single point of entry plans. 

“At the last school board it was a large amount of money that was being spent. I hope someone is keeping track of it,” Riza said.

  Among the action items, the board approved the donation from  New Braunfels to Uvalde Organization items of Division of Curriculum and Instruction partaking to the donation of $5000 for outdoor projects for Dalton Elementary

   The 2022-2023  School property tax rate and School budget for 2022-2023 was discussed with further action needed to adopt the recommendations presented to the school board.

According to the information provided to the board a speaker stated that starting teacher pay which is currently $47,000 was proposed to increase to $50,000 per year. Also regarding proposed property tax rate changes, a special board meeting was scheduled to approve the new tax rate.

Other agenda items discussed were 

 Uvalde CISD virtual academy asynchronous learning plan in addition to a donation of $5000 given to the district by New Braunfels for Dalton Elementary outdoor projects. The board approved an optional flexible school day.