Trustees in the Celina Independent School District extended Superintendent Tom Maglisceau’s contract, voting 5-2 during a school board meeting on Monday to keep the embattled administrator.
The board’s divided vote of confidence came despite a spate of scandals that have rocked the district under Maglisceau’s leadership and led to calls from the community for the superintendent to resign.
Trustees Jennifer Driver and Michael Wagoner voted no.
Driver is up for re-election in May. Board President Tom Gravley’s seat is also on the May ballot, but he withdrew his candidacy.
Gravley voted to extend Maglisceau’s contract, along with Trustees Jarratt Calvert, Chuck Hansen, Tracy Balsamo, and Kelly Juergens.
District spokeswoman Nancy Alvarez told Texas Scorecard on Thursday that she does not yet have a copy of Maglisceau’s new contract to share.
Celina ISD trustees hired Maglisceau as the district’s top administrator in 2019.
He previously held various teaching/coaching and administrative positions in Highland Park, Dallas, and Rockwall ISDs.
In his latest year at Celina ISD, Maglisceau has faced a series of scandals, along with criticism from families about “The Celina Way”—district administrators operating as a “good old boy” network rife with cronyism and conflicts of interest.
The biggest scandal involved the October arrest of Moore Middle School teacher/coach Caleb Elliott on charges of secretly recording students in the boys’ locker room.
His arrest shocked the community and also raised questions about whether his father and boss—since-retired athletic director and famed football coach Bill Elliott—had hushed up past misconduct by Caleb.
The scandal also spawned seven civil lawsuits against the district that collectively represent almost all of the nearly 40 boys targeted by Caleb Elliott.
Then in March, Bill Elliott had his teaching certificate permanently revoked by the state in response to recent allegations that he raped a Celina ISD student 30 years ago.
In addition, two Celina ISD teachers were charged with child endangerment for being “impaired” while in class. One allegedly drove drunk with a student in her car while her blood alcohol concentration was more than twice the legal limit.
During the Superintendent’s Report delivered prior to Monday night’s vote on his contract, Maglisceau spent several minutes talking about “community.”
He said “some people in our community” and some “who don’t even live in our community” are “tearing into one another” and “telling us what we need to think and what we need to do and how we need to act as a community.”
Maglisceau invited people to come to him “in community” to resolve issues.
He said the father of one student “directly impacted by the events of October,” who has been “a part of this community for quite some time,” told him privately that “the constant social media posts and public statements from state leaders are making it harder and harder for his family to heal.”
The lawsuits on behalf of a combined 37 boys impacted by Caleb Elliott’s locker room recordings are currently pending in the 471st District Court in Collin County, presided over by Judge Bryan Gantt.
Celina ISD has not yet responded to a request for copies of Superintendent Maglisceau’s current contract or the district’s separation agreement with Bill Elliott. According to the most recent data published by the Texas Education Agency, Maglisceau’s current base salary is $209,000.
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