More than 100 local districts have placed a combined $16 billion in property tax-backed debt on the May 7 ballot.
In one San Antonio-area school district, employees are being pressured and intimidated into supporting a massive $992 million bond.
According to leaked emails obtained by Corey DeAngelis, the national director of research at the American Federation for Children, a principal at a Northside ISD elementary school emailed teachers last month ahead of early voting, telling them that “all employees will be expected [by the superintendent] to vote for this Bond.”
The school and principal’s names were redacted.
Additionally, the email pointed out that only 7 percent of NISD employees voted during the last bond election, calling it “unacceptable.”
The leaked documents from the pricipal at the San Antonio public school suggest the superintendent found it "unacceptable" that "only 7% of NISD employees voted during our last NISD Bond" and that "all employees will be expected to vote for this year's Bond" pic.twitter.com/1GJ6rvFXEz
— Corey A. DeAngelis (@DeAngelisCorey) May 7, 2022
A followup email obtained by DeAngelis showed the same principal saying that only seven out of 49 employees had voted, noting that he had a list and would monitor their status.
An April 28th email to the whistleblower shows the principal pointing out that "7 out of 49 employees have voted from our campus" and that "an updated list will be provided to me again next week" pic.twitter.com/SQVcRccCfW
— Corey A. DeAngelis (@DeAngelisCorey) May 7, 2022
Additionally, a weekly newsletter from the school’s superintendent, Brian Woods, also stressed the important of getting employees to vote in the bond election, saying, “As many of you have heard in the staff presentations, we need to do much better with employee voter participation.”
In a notable turn of events, the American Federation of Teacher’s Union chapter for Northside ISD said in an email to its members that it had heard complaints from teachers about electioneering from district staff.
“Many employees have felt threatened and feel intimidated to vote for this bond. We want to be clear that telling employee voters how to vote, or forcing them to vote, is unlawful. We have addressed this with the district and are awaiting communication,” Northside AFT said in an email.
The union also emailed the employee (April 20th): "We recently received documentation from multiple campuses that indicate to us that district leadership is openly telling people how to vote in this bond, and telling employees that the district will be tracking employees' votes." pic.twitter.com/LsZZ3Y7rKz
— Corey A. DeAngelis (@DeAngelisCorey) May 7, 2022
It is a violation of the Texas Education Code for school districts to use taxpayer resources to distribute messages to their staff and the public advocating for or against political candidates and measures.
Following the release, Gov. Greg Abbott said he spoke with Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath, who confirmed that the communication (if verified) is likely a crime, and pledged to work with the Attorney General’s Office on investigation the matter.
I have spoken with Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath about this.
He confirms that IF these posts are verified, then it is likely a crime.
The Education Commissioner with work with the Attorney General's Office to investigate and, if appropriate, prosecute this matter. https://t.co/FxXdQgeLlG
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) May 7, 2022
