Thread by @DeAngelisCorey

SCOOP: A Texas public school principal notified "all employees [that they] will be expected [by the superintendent] to vote for this Bond" to increase school funding by $992 million and that "Central Office will be monitoring"

I've obtained whistleblower documents 👇🧵

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"

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"

internet archive shows the superintendent's weekly newsletter "strongly encourage" staff to vote

"We have got to focus on increasing turnout in the bond election"

"As many of you have heard in the staff presentations, we need to do much better with employee voter participation"

The bond proposal for the district is $992 million. Election Day is today, May 7th.

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."

More from the union email: "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"

UPDATE: An email to staff (4/21) indicates the superintendent found previous low staff turnout "perplexing" and "a shame"

"If bond funds .. are not available to us, we will still have maintenance repairs .. To set aside millions .. would require budget cuts in our general fund."

UPDATE: A school employee reported that he and the principal registered students to vote and "we will also be running a shuttle from campus during early voting to take staff and/or students"

"Our early voting shuttles will happen 1st through 7th periods on Wednesday April 27"

UPDATE:
ksat.com/news/local/202…

UPDATE: It now appears that the school newsletter has been removed from the website.

However, a copy of the newsletter was saved to the internet archive saying "As per Dr. Woods, all employees will be expected to vote for this year's Bond."

UPDATE: "the teachers’ union for the district, said it brought the messaging up to the district’s leadership after several members brought it to their attention"

Union rep: "We are not totally sure how these issues have been addressed at a district level"
kxan.com/news/texas-pol…

UPDATE: District communications conveyed that the $992 million bond would have "NO TAX RATE INCREASE"

However, this claim does not mean your *taxes* will not increase, and it is apparently based on their projections based on assumptions.

UPDATE:
washingtonexaminer.com/policy/school-…

UPDATE: A teacher in the district (4/26 board meeting): "You care about us so much you are essentially threatening to reduce our current salary or go years without a raise if the current bond proposal doesn't pass.. you're pressuring our principals to try to get us to vote"