Laws, Polices, and Procedures DO NOT Apply in Alief ISD
Alief Parent Damon Barone’s original open records request was sent via email on March 03, 2021 at 12:20am.
The district, namely Alief Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn, did not provide Mr. Barone the information which he requested within 10 days (by March 16, 2021), as required by law. Instead, Mr. Barone received Mr. Eichhorn’s self-imposed/district filtered documents at 2:03pm on March 26, 2021.
On March 29, 2021 at 12:28pm Damon Barone sent a follow up email requesting all text message communications for the month of February 2021 from the seven school board trustees and one superintendent as expressed in his original request on March 03, 2021.
Alief Parent Damon Barone having received no response to his March 29th friendly reminder, to Alief Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn or the district, Mr. Barone filed a level one grievance at 3:06pm on March 29, 2021; which Alief Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Elizabeth Andrea Veloz Powell appointed Alief Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn to preside as the grievance hearing officer, against Mr. Barone’s strong opposition to the appointment of Mr. Eichhorn.
Alief ISD has allowed their Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn to violate the districts policies and procedures, then appointed Mr. Eichhorn to serve as the proverbial judge, prosecutor, defense, and juror of Mr. Barone’s level one grievance process.
Subsequently Mr. Eichhorn and Mr. Barone had a level one hearing at 3:30pm on April 04, 2021, which Mr. Barone continued to strongly object to Mr. Eichhorn presiding as the hearing officer. Alief Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn’s response to the incomplete open records request which he provided to Mr. Barone was to say,
“No Sir and that is on us. We did not think that you would want 8 different people saying, “yes, oh yes sounds good, yes. Out of respect for your time, I know that you are a busy person, we paired them down. You know, not Trustee Key, oh this one is Trustee Key. The most appropriate response to each question instead of multiple googling’s”.
In short, Mr. Eichhorn alleged that he and the district deliberately censored the response to Mr. Barone’s open records request because they were trying to save Mr. Barone some time, which is NOT a part of Mr. Eichhorn’s Public Information Act training from the Texas Office of Attorney General.
Alief ISD and Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn willfully and intentionally violated/violates the Alief ISD’s grievance policies and procedures, as well as violated/violates the Alief ISD’s open records/public information policies and procedures; specifically, as they relate to Alief parent Damon Barone and his family.
ORIGINAL MARCH 03, 2021 OPEN RECORDS / PUBLIC INFORMATION REQUEST:
Dear Mr. Eichhorn:
I (Damon Barone, Alief Parent, Alief Taxpayer) would like to request copies of any and all text messages between Superintendent Henry David Chambers Jr. and any and all Alief School Board Members, as well as text messages between school board members (Annie Joseph Williams, Darlene Elizabeth Breaux, Lily Truong, Enrique “Rick” Moreno, Jennifer Diane Key, Giang D. “John” Nguyen, Natasha Butler), during the days of February 01, 2021 through March 02, 2021.