How a political action committee disrupted the status quo within North East ISD

SAN ANTONIO – Late final month, North East Independent School District’s fractured board of trustees interviewed its best 4 applicants to exchange the overdue Terri Williams as trustee for Single Member District 2.

Williams gave up the ghost in August following a lengthy sickness. The fight to fill her seat has despatched NEISD’s board into a tailspin, as trustees have squabbled in public conferences over who will have to fill Williams’ seat.

Three of the trustees: Steve Hilliard, Marsha Landry and Diane Villarreal, have voiced their toughen for Jacqueline Klein, who misplaced to Williams in the May 2022 election by way of fewer than 75 votes.

But, a candidate wishes a minimum of 4 votes for the appointment to enter impact.

Oct. 27, 5 separate motions to nominate one in all the 4 finalists or to put the spot on the poll subsequent 12 months had been all unsuccessful.

Campaign finance stories acquired by way of Investigates from the Texas Ethics Commission display that Hilliard, Landry, Villarreal and Klein all have ties to a socially conservative political action committee (PAC) referred to as Parents United for Freedom.

PUFF

Parents United for Freedom, which makes use of the acronym PUFF, touts itself as a “non-partisan grassroots effort” protective parental rights in faculties and “fighting indoctrination in the classrooms.”

PUFF’s web page does now not point out NEISD by way of title, alternatively, may just to find no document that the PAC has tried to wield affect in every other faculty district in the San Antonio space.

Last 12 months, the PAC spent 1000’s of bucks on block strolling, texting services and products and radio commercials to be able to spice up the respective campaigns of Landry, Villarreal and Klein.

Each candidate additionally won $500 donations from the PAC weeks ahead of the May 2022 election came about, TEC information display.

Landry and Villarreal had been in the end elected to the board, whilst Klein got here up simply brief.

Klein rebuked Trustee David Beyer all the way through her public interview on Oct. 23, when he requested whether or not she had solicited price range from PUFF forward of final 12 months’s election.

“With regard to your allegation that I have solicited anything from any group, that’s false. You need to know,” mentioned Klein, who additionally denied all the way through the interview that she, Landry and Villarreal had run as a slate of applicants.

PUFF’s monetary toughen of Klein’s marketing campaign, which additionally incorporated paying for a web page for 2 months, totaled $6,775.32, a vital quantity of investment for a faculty board race.

Shortly after Klein’s interview, whilst the assembly used to be in a transient recess, tried to invite Klein about her ties to PUFF.

“So can you clarify if you accepted their money but didn’t solicit their money?” a reporter requested Klein.

“Do you understand politics? I mean clearly you don’t,” mentioned Klein as she walked away.

But the ties between PUFF and NEISD lengthen way past the 3 faculty board applicants the PAC aided final 12 months.

Crystal Keen, the spouse of a convicted Capitol rioter, used to be appointed assistant marketing campaign treasurer for PUFF in February 2022, TEC information display.

Keen, who has additionally donated to the PAC, is indexed as each a contribution and expenditure decisionmaker for PUFF.

Keen used to be selected by way of Landry for a seat on NEISD’s School Health Advisory Council previous this 12 months. Keen now serves on the council’s vitamin committee, in keeping with NEISD information.

Landry and Keen didn’t reply to emails soliciting for an interview on their ties to PUFF.

PUFF’s different contribution and expenditure decisionmaker, Ashlee S. Broome, is, in keeping with public information, the spouse of Brandon Broome.

Brandon Broome is one in all Hilliard’s appointees to SHAC, and these days serves on its secure and wholesome faculties committee, information display.

Additionally, Hilliard’s spouse Paula donated $200 to PUFF in March 2022, TEC information display.

PUFF’s indexed marketing campaign treasurer, Melanie Hutzler, didn’t reply to a telephone name or textual content message in quest of remark for this tale.

“We’ve seen a growing focus, political focus on school boards across the country. And that’s also happened here in Texas. North Texas has been a particular hotbed for this kind of activity,” mentioned Patrick Svitek, number one political correspondent for the Texas Tribune.

“In the past few years there’s been this kind of perfect storm, largely on the political right, around school board issues,” added Svitek.

Questioning of Klein results in bickering amongst trustees

The board’s public interview of Klein sparked controversy in its speedy aftermath after Trustee Sandy Hughey wondered Klein’s ties to Moms for Liberty, an activist group that states it’s status up for parental rights in any respect ranges of presidency.

Klein has posted pictures on social media dressed in a title badge figuring out her as the bankruptcy chair of Moms for Liberty – Bexar County and she or he is indexed as one in all the directors for the native bankruptcy’s Facebook web page.

The nationwide staff used to be labeled this summer by way of the Southern Poverty Law Center as an “extremist group,” after SPLC decided Moms for Liberty “use their multiple social media platforms to target teachers and school officials, advocate for the abolition of the Department of Education, advance a conspiracy propaganda, and spread hateful imagery and rhetoric against the LGBTQ community.”

An Indiana bankruptcy of Moms for Liberty apologized this summer after the use of a quote from Nazi chief Adolf Hitler in its inaugural e-newsletter.

Hughey requested Klein about her political association with Moms for Liberty all the way through the interview, pronouncing it’s been outlined as a “hate group.”

A clip of the interplay won vital traction on social media after the assembly, and resulted in a demanding argument between Hughey and Villarreal at the board’s subsequent assembly days later.

Villarreal at one level wondered whether or not Hughey used to be have compatibility to vote in the trustee appointment procedure transferring ahead. Hughey then wondered whether or not the board had accrued to toughen any individual for the vacant seat or to participate in a non-public assault on a fellow trustee.

A lady who responded the telephone when referred to as Villarreal’s publicly indexed telephone quantity final month hung up when a reporter known himself.

Klein’s previous social media posts and feedback, which incorporated calling for NEISD Board President Shannon Grona to be recalled and for the complete board “to be shown the door,” have additionally seemed to draw the ire of a number of trustees she hopes to now paintings along.

At one level all the way through the board interview, Klein denied that she had “cleaned up” her social media forward of making use of for the vacant trustee place.

“I seem to hear everybody else talking about political things, but I’m focused on student success,” mentioned Klein.

A investigation final month printed that Klein is being sued by way of NEISD for failing to pay assets taxes in 2019 and 2020.

Klein informed by way of textual content message her taxes “are 100% paid.”

She used to be effectively served with the lawsuit as of October 31 and the go well with stays pending, Bexar County court docket information display.