Don't Expect A Fair Process If You File a Grievance in Alief ISD
ACTIONS WARRANTING GRIEVANCE
March 02, 2021 at 6:30pm
· Alief ISD School Board Trustee Enrique “Rick” Moreno stated on the record that the board intentionally violates the open meetings act by engaging in walking quorums via text messages when he stated, “And we’re like well we hear from ours probably like every three days. Were some, you know, at least every week we get some updates and so forth. So, this is not just new news for us, and so especially for when you hear huh patron presentations uhm talking about, you know, we are not holding people accountable. We are not getting into the weeds; we are not doing this. There is a lot of it behind the scenes that we do that is just not out there in the, in there that we get, we get texts every week, we get texts multiple, multiple times from uhm HD, and through his staff to give us information like this. So maybe that’s why we don’t ask so many questions because we are already informed.”
March 26, 2021 at 2:03pm
· Alief ISD Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn provided Mr. Barone with a late response regarding his March 03, 2021 open records/public information request for 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.
· Alief ISD Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn provided Mr. Barone with an incomplete, inaccurate, and false copy of the school boards text messages and represented the partial documents as a full and complete copy of the boards text message communications.
o Alief ISD Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn admitted to intentionally violating Mr. Barone’s request by consolidating text messages in an alleged effort of Mr. Eichhorn to “save Mr. Barone some time”. Mr. Eichhorn also stated, “But out of respect for your time, I know that you are a busy person. We paired them down, you know not Trustee Key on this one, Trustee. The most appropriate response to each question instead of multiple duplicates.”
· Alief ISD Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn, and the district intentionally do not treat Damon Barone’s open record/public information request uniformly as required by Texas law.
· Alief ISD Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn has explicitly expressed to Damon Barone that he only does what Alief ISD administrators advise him to do, even if the directives he receives from district administrators violates the training he receives from the Texas Office of Attorney General (OAG) Ken Paxton, or if the directives he receives from district administrators violates Alief ISD school board policies.
April 05, 2021 at 3:30pm
Alief ISD Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn presided as the Level One Hearing Officer of Mr. Barone’s grievance for his March 03, 2021 open records/public information request for 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, which Alief ISD Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn provided Mr. Barone with an incomplete, inaccurate, and false production of documents.
TIMELINE OF EVENTS
1. March 02, 2021 at 6:30pm
Alief ISD School Board Trustee Enrique “Rick” Moreno stated on the record “And we’re like well we hear from ours probably like every three days. Were some, you know, at least every week we get some updates and so forth. So, this is not just new news for us, and so especially for when you hear huh patron presentations uhm talking about, you know, we are not holding people accountable. We are not getting into the weeds; we are not doing this. There is a lot of it behind the scenes that we do that is just not out there in the, in there that we get, we get texts every week, we get texts multiple, multiple times from uhm HD, and through his staff to give us information like this. So maybe that’s why we don’t ask so many questions because we are already informed.”
2. March 03, 2021 at 12:20am
Damon Barone submitted an open records/public information request via email to Alief ISD Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn for 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.
3. March 23, 2021 at 7:13pm
Mr. Barone made an Open Meetings Act complaint to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for Alief ISD School Boards walking quorums via text message communications between the school board members and Alief ISD Superintendent Henry David Chambers Jr.
4. March 24, 2021 at 3:49pm
Alief ISD Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn stated that additional time is needed to produce public information responsive to Mr. Barone’s March 03, 2021 request for 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.
5. March 26, 2021 at 2:03pm
Alief ISD Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn provided Mr. Barone with an incomplete copy of the school boards text messages and represented the partial documents as a full and complete copy of the boards text message communications.
6. March 29, 2021 12:28pm
Mr. Barone made an informal complaint via email to Alief ISD Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn for Mr. Eichhorn’s incomplete and late response regarding his March 03, 2021 open records/public information request for 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.
7. March 29, 2021 at 3:05pm
Damon Barone filed a Level One Grievance regarding his March 03, 2021 open records/public information request for 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.
8. April 05, 2021 at 3:30pm
Alief ISD Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn and Damon Barone held a Level One Grievance Hearing with Mr. Barone regarding his March 03, 2021 open records/public information request for 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.
9. April 13, 2021 at 11:03pm
Damon Barone made a follow up complaint to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton regarding his March 03, 2021 open records/public information request for 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. This OAG complaint was in response to Alief ISD Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn inaccurate and false documents he provided to Mr. Barone on March 26, 2021.
10. April 19, 2021 at 3:37pm
Alief ISD Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn emailed Mr. Barone his written response to their April 05, 2021 Level One Grievance Hearing regarding his March 03, 2021 open records/public information request for 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.
11. April 20, 2021 at 4:23pm
Damon Barone filed a Level Two Grievance for his March 03, 2021 open records/public information request for 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.
12. May 05, 2021 at 9:23am
Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Elizabeth Andrea Veloz-Powell notified Mr. Barone via email that the District elected to allow time to expire for issuing a Level Two Grievance decision regarding Mr. Barone’s April 20, 2021 appeal, thus upholding the Level One decision by Alief ISD Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn, and that the district elevated Mr. Barone’s Level Two Grievance to a Level Three Grievance for consideration by the Alief ISD School Board during their 6:30pm, May 18, 2021 school board meeting.
13. May 18, 2021 at 4:11pm
Alief ISD Attorney Jon Erik Nichols sent Damon Barone an email stating “Mr. Barone, Reaching out to you regarding item 10 tonight. As you can see from materials you picked up it’s two distinct grievances for consideration pursuant GF (local); the posting gives the impression it’s one but the intent is to consider the two grievances. If you do not want the Board to consider both tonight the second one can be considered at a future meeting. Please let me know.”
14. May 18, 2021 at 6:30pm
During the Alief ISD Regular School Board Meeting, Alief School Board Trustees Annie Joseph Williams, Darlene Elizabeth Breaux, Jennifer Diane Key, Enrique “Rick” Moreno, Lily Truong, Giang D. “John” Nguyen voted 6-0 not to hear Damon Barone’s Level Three Grievance and upheld the Level One Hearing Decision by Public Relation Specialist Craig Eichhorn regarding Mr. Barone’s March 03, 2021 open records/public information request for 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.
GRIEVANCE PROCESS
April 05, 2021 at 3:30pm Level One Grievance Hearing:
During this Level One Grievance Hearing regarding Mr. Barone’s Public Information Request for a copy of the Text Messages of Alief ISD School Board Members and Alief’s Superintendent from February 01, 2021 through March 02, 2021, Mr. Barone adamantly expressed concerns with Alief ISD Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn being selected, by Alief ISD Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Elizabeth Andrea Veloz-Powell, to serve as the hearing officer for a grievance which centered around the actions, or lack thereof of Mr. Eichhorn. In essence Mr. Eichhorn is unfairly serving as the judge, jury, prosecution, and defense of a district grievance process that is supposed to be fair and equitable for the grieving party. Alief ISD Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn responded to Mr. Barone’s objections by stating that he only does what district administrators tell him to do.
· Public Information Request/Open Records Request are explicitly and exclusively handled by Alief ISD Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn.
· Alief ISD Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn has explicitly expressed to Damon Barone that he only does what Alief ISD administrators advise him to do, even if the directives he receives from district administrators violates the training he receives from the Texas Office of Attorney General (OAG) Ken Paxton, or if the directives he receives from district administrators violates Alief ISD school board policies.
· Because of Alief ISD Public Relations Specialist Craig Alan Eichhorn’s willfulness to follow directives from Alief ISD administrators knowing full well that the directives violate his OAG training and also violates Alief ISD school board policies, Mr. Eichhorn cannot be trusted to provide a fair and equitable ruling on any grievance which explicitly and exclusively concerns his actions or lack thereof, or any grievance for that matter.
· Any Alief ISD Level Two Hearing Officer whom subsequently comes after Mr. Eichhorn’s unfair and inequitable Level One Hearing decisions merely attempts to insulate themselves from overt liability of an inequitable grievance process by upholding the Level One Hearing Officers decision, and not providing an individual investigation or an independent decision of the grievance itself.
· During the Level Three Hearing Appeals Alief ISD School Board Trustees Annie Joseph Williams, Enrique “Rick” Moreno, Jennifer Diane Key, Darlene Elizabeth Breaux, Lily Truong, and Giang D. “John” Nguyen merely attempt to insulate themselves from overt liability of an inequitable grievance process, as well as protect district administrators from being found at fault of violating district policies and procedures, by upholding the Level Two Hearing Officers decisions, which was merely a ruling by the Level Two Hearing Officer to uphold the unfair and inequitable Level One Hearing Officers decisions; in short, Alief ISD’s School Board simply votes not to grant the grieving party, Mr. Barone, a public hearing as requested, ending the local grievance process. District administrators, and district attorneys are allowed to communicate and prejudice school board members as a whole or individually throughout the entire grievance process (Level One through Level Three) while the grieving party is denied access or communication to the board and district administrators in any manner.
· During Level Four Grievance Appeals to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) regarding the Level Three Grievance Decisions by Alief ISD’s School Board, Alief ISD Attorneys Jon Erik Nichols, Charles Cory Rush, Kirk Allen Agee, and Holly Ann Sherman personally and professionally benefit from the district administrator’s willingness to use an endless amount of taxpayer’s funds to defend Alief ISD’s unfair and inequitable grievance processes.
o The grieving parties are held to the same standards as a Texas State Bar Certified Attorney when filing complaints, appeals, responding to correspondences, and interpreting laws.
o Often times the grieving party loses their appeal to TEA on mere technicalities alone (timely filing etc.), runs out of funds to continue paying their legal representation for an unfair and inequitable grievance process, are provided a lack of jurisdiction decision by TEA with no further guidance or instructions, or the grieving party simply becomes exhausted and gives up.