Harlandale ISD continues to fight open records request
News // Education
District doesn't want to release construction needs assessment
Maria Luisa Cesar Dec. 8, 2014 Updated: Dec. 8, 2014 11:02 p.m.
The Harlandale Independent School District is fighting an attorney general's ruling in court rather than make public a construction needs assessment produced by its longtime bond project manager, Jasmine Engineering.
The school district filed a lawsuit last week in state district court in Travis County to appeal the ruling, which the district had sought in response to a San Antonio Express-News request for a copy of the study.
Attorney Tony Resendez, who represents the school district, said Monday that Superintendent Rey Madrigal and Board President Velma Ybarra agreed to his recommendation that the district appeal the ruling while it had time before a deadline expired so the school board could decide how to respond when it meets Dec. 15.
"If they choose not to appeal then we'll dismiss it and release (the information) and move forward," Resendez said.
The district has fought to keep the report private because of an ongoing lawsuit it is pursuing against Trane Inc. over the firm's heating and air conditioning systems in district facilities, including two schools covered in the needs assessment, he said.
The attorney general's ruling did not allow an exemption for pending litigation to cover the entire report, noting the district could have redacted portions of it. Harlandale spokeswoman Leslie Garza said Monday that district officials sought the ruling to give them time to read the report.
"It bought us time to look through the report and see what was in it and assess what impact it would have," she said. "If there is a sense of stalling, it's not to withhold information that the public needs to know but to review information before sharing it with the public."
The Express-News first asked for a copy of the needs assessment on Aug. 20. Jasmine Engineering, which was paid $78,000 to compile it, delivered it to the district three days before the board was slated to vote on a possible November bond election. Trustees unanimously voted to postpone the decision.
Prior to the vote, Harlandale officials had declined to release a list of cost estimates for projects that might be covered by a bond. They have since released estimates for some of the proposed bond projects and said a final list of projects would be selected with community input.
The Attorney General's office issued about 24,000 open records request rulings in fiscal year 2014 and fewer than half of 1 percent were challenged, agency spokeswoman Lauren Bean said in an email.
mcesar@express-news.net
Twitter: @mlcesar
Maria Luisa Cesar
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Maria Luisa Cesar graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin in 2009. She began working in the editorial department of the San Antonio Express-News in May 2011. Her job was to connect with readers and help edit letters for the Letters to the Editor section.
After chasing a lead she found buried in the handwritten letter of an 87-year-old woman, she unofficially began carving out a beat for herself and kept gently reminding editors that she was hungry for experience and wanted to report full time.
She was offered a promotion in November 2011 and has been covering education since then, focusing on accountability and early childhood education. She also covers the San Antonio, Alamo Heights, Southside and Southwest independent school districts.
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