GISD SLAPP-suit Opposition Growing: See this KISDWatchDogs Letter To The GISD Board & Media!

October, 2007


Galveston Independent School District
P.O. Box 660
Galveston, TX 77553-0660

Attention: The GISD Board Of Trustees & GISD School Superintendent

RE: An Open Letter To The GISD Board Of Trustees & GISD School Superintendent

Dear GISD Board of Trustees & GISD School Superintendent:

Let me begin by introducing myself. My name is Christopher E. Cottrell and I am the Co-Founder of a taxpayer watchdog group in Katy, Texas known as “The Katy Citizen Watchdog$”. Ms. Sandra J. Tetley, with GISD Watch, has been sharing with me some recent developments in your school district. Specifically, I am referring to the apparent threat of legal action against GISD Watch by your school district in what the district perceives as statements of a slanderous nature. As a fellow citizen watchdog I felt compelled to comment on the current flap.

I guess I should preface my remarks/opinions by saying that I am not a lawyer, nor do I profess to be an expert on anything, but I will say, as a fellow concerned taxpayer, that I am appalled that your school district considers anything on the GISD site as slander. I have looked at the site, and while I haven’t studied the site in detail, I personally do not see anything that could be considered slanderous. There is certainly a great deal of critical commentary on the site, but I do believe that commentary and slander are not one in the same. In addition, I saw district news and district facts but once again I am having trouble as a layperson understanding how any of that could be considered slanderous. What am I missing? The folks at GISD Watch want the same thing that the Katy Dogs want; that being a board, superintendent and school district that are both transparent and accountable to those of us that are paying the freight. Believe me, I didn’t come up with this theme; there were some very smart men several hundred years ago that believed so strongly in that concept that they fought a revolution over it.

Please try and not take this the wrong way when I say, is it possible that all of you should get a thicker skin? How is it that the word “dissent” has become a four-letter word? Why have some of us lost our natural distrust of government? When did school districts and elected official become exempt from public criticism? Are school districts and trustees always right in everything they do?

When did having a differing view warrant legal action? When did school board trustees and superintendents forget that they report to the voters? When did school districts decide that they have some divine right to rule an area as a fiefdom? Do you believe that tax dollars represent some kind of entitlement program? When did government become supreme in this nation? When did it become ok for government to believe that they don’t need to be accountable or transparent to taxpayers? What happened to taxation with representation? How did the term “grassroots activist” get twisted to mean “educational terrorist”?

Like it or not Texas has become “ground zero” of a taxpayer revolt that is catching on nationwide. The Watchdog movement in Texas has been leading this effort. Watchdogs have found the internet to be a very powerful tool for those of us that have become very, very concerned about the state of public education and the way in which our hard-earned tax dollars are being managed and spent by those school trustees and superintendents that have been entrusted with the oversight of those dollars. The Katy Dog web sites have received both statewide and national attention. I have personally spoken to folks in California, Florida, Missouri, Nevada, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and earlier this year I went to Boulder, Colorado where I addressed a new watchdog group and their board of trustees. I have also had the opportunity to visit with people in various districts in Houston. We are also very proud to say that the folks over at GISD Watch had been monitoring our site for some time before contacting us. We have also visited with concerned taxpayers in Columbus ISD and just last summer we helped the Cy-Fair Citizens kick-off their fight against taxpayer waste and abuse in their district. With the help of Americans For Prosperity in Austin, the Katy Watchdog$ organized the first-ever Texas Watchdog Summit this past April. This was the first meeting of citizen watchdog groups from around the state; a chance for all of us to figure out how we can become more powerful in Austin and how we can all help each other in our individual battles with our local school districts.

I dare say that the folks over at GISD Watch share many of the same beliefs and goals as we do. Those being:

· We are people who want the very best education for our children, but at the same time we don’t believe that you have to break the bank doing it.

· We believe in putting more money in the classroom and less into administration and “Taj Mahal” school construction projects. In other words, we believe that teachers should come FIRST, not administrators, superintendents, school trustees, building contractors or architects. After all it won’t be any of those individuals that secure our children’s college admissions. It will be the teachers that accomplish that task.

· We believe that an education will be the only thing we will ever give our kids that will ever be worth anything in their lives.

· We are concerned that that education is not the first priority of school districts.

Let me clue all of you into something; taxpayers in this state are angry and they are getting angrier every single day. Our ranks are growing daily as more and more taxpayers begin to come out of their apathetic stupor and begin to realize what is REALLY going on in their school districts. We are tired of wasteful, irresponsible and sometimes fraudulent school district spending. We are sick of “blank check” bond initiatives that only encourage wasteful, irresponsible and sometimes fraudulent school spending. We’re tired of school districts operating deficit budgets. But most of all we are really weary of school districts “passing the hat” before they have made absolutely sure that their own economic house is in order.

Folks, it’s really quite simple. We have got to begin changing our ways. All school districts need to realize that we cannot continue down the path that we have been on. We cannot continue spending money like it’s going out of style. We need to learn how to build smarter and cheaper. We need to understand that we can’t have it all and realize what is really important in providing a quality education and what is not important to that effort. Priorities need to be shifted so that education becomes the first and only priority.

Face it, test scores are down all over this state and nation. Public education in Texas and in the U.S. is in trouble and it has been in trouble for quite awhile. We all need to work together to try and find answers. Suing grassroots activists isn’t going to accomplish anything other than wasting additional tax dollars that could be spent more constructively on education.

I am urging you all to take the lead and immediately open a dialogue with GISD Watch. Listen to what their concerns are and try and set aside any personal bias and work with them in trying to find common ground on issues facing your district. Please, and I can’t emphasis this enough, don’t take the adversarial approach our Board took when we announced our formation in August of 2005. Sandra and her group are taxpayers just like all of you. What they want is hopefully you want; that being a quality education at a reasonable and fair price.

Sincerely,

Christopher E. Cottrell
Co-Founder/Katy Citizen Watchdog$

/cec

P.S. I also want to let each of you know that my letter will be forwarded to the press and will be posted on the Katy Watchdog web sites and on the GISD Watch web site.

cc: GISD Watch
Members of the Press