Judson ISD trustee Jose Macias was censured amid claims of coercion, but he argues it’s retaliation for reporting transparency issues.
SAN ANTONIO — Judson ISD’s longest-serving trustee was censured and sanctioned by fellow board members last week for what Board President Monica Ryan referred to as coercion, intimidation and abuse of official capacity.
But Jose Macias, first elected in 2010, says Ryan’s push itself amounted to an act of retaliation after he reported what he viewed as a lack of transparency and possible violations of law to the Texas Education Agency and Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office.
As he puts it, he just wanted to the keep the board accountable after the controversial ousting of Superintendent Milton Fields III.
“It’s vindictive, it’s retaliatory, it’s mean,” Macias said. “And unfortunately, it’s caused a lot of fraction and division in our district.”
Macias now says he would welcome TEA intervention in the form of a monitor, saying “governance is not working, the community is not being heard.”
The issue is rooted in the circumstances surrounding Fields initially being placed on leave before his contract was terminated last week, following an investigation in which Ryan said there was evidence to support numerous claims, including fiscal management, failure of academic leadership, failure to report possible child abuse and bringing alcohol to campus.
But Macias and two other senior board members – Laura Stanford and Suzanne Kenoyer – repeatedly blasted the process as it was unfolding. When the board initially voted 4-3 to recommend Fields’ firing, one trustee said she was “extremely disturbed” by how it had played out.
Macias previously said it amounted to the “most toxic behavior” that he’s seen in his time on the board.
The contention stretches back to Jan. 10, when the board met and voted – by that same 4-3 line – to put Fields on adminstrative leave pending an investigation. Macias, Stanford and Kenoyer all expressed surprise that that motion was even on the table, but Ryan referred to is as a “continuation” of an earlier meeting.
That trio continued to criticize the efforts to oust Fields, later claiming there had been a “walking quorum”—accusing Ryan, as well as Trustees Amanda Poteet, Lesley Lee and Stephanie Jones, of discussing business outside of the public meeting setting.
That would constitute a violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act.
“You have to ask yourself why, and I do believe that the political games being played were designed to bring the outcomes that Ms. Ryan wanted to see,” Macias told KENS 5.
Later, in a Feb. 16 meeting in which the board voted to close Judson Middle School – one of four JISD schools that will shut down at the end of the year in an effort to address a budget deficit – Ryan said publicly that the district was investigating complaints submitted by more than two dozen teachers against Fields, who has served as superintendent since Ma 2023.
Come April 22, Ryan spent more than six minutes reading the list of general investigative findings against Fields, adding that Judson ISD attorneys had compiled more than 3,000 pages of evidence against him. Thee board later decided to fire him.
That vote: 4-3, along the same lines as previous decisions on the matter.
But Macias asserts every one of the claims for which Ryan said Fields should be fired can be disputed.
“They are all exaggerations,” said Macias, who previously argued the allegations hadn’t been heard by a hearing officer after Fields decided to pull his request for an independent hearing.
Macias said he eventually discovered it wasn’t dozens of complaints that were filed, but just two.
A day after the meeting where Fields’ firing was finalized, Macias was censured by the board. While the censure itself is symbolic, he was also slapped with sanctions preventing him from being on campuses and traveling for education conferences, among other things.
Macias said he would work to potentially bring a censure vote against Ryan at a future meeting.
A legal challenge
In the meantime, a new lawsuit filed by JISD alumna Lisa Butler also alleges Open Meetings Act violations. The suit claims a notice for the Jan. 10 board meeting in which Fields was placed on leave wasn’t property posted, accusing Ryan of “using her position to bypass the rules and post the agenda.”
The lawsuit also claims there was evidence of a walking quorum.
“The evidence reveals that at the meeting in question, Ryan and another board member already had, in front of them, fully typewritten motions,” the suit states. “It is also clear from the evidence that four of the board members were aware of and prepared to immediately vote on the motions.”
The lawsuit also points to statements Ryan previously made to news outlets that no vote would be taken on Fields’ employment and the fact that the agenda language is limited to “discussion and possible action regarding the Superintendent’s employment and duties,” not specifically his termination.
The suit seeks to “reverse” the Texas Open Meetings Act violation, effectively voiding Fields’ removal.
Kenneth Grubbs, Butler’s attorney, said a judge couldn’t definitely determine that the board broke the rules. But he said he plans to bring the lawsuit back before the judge with new evidence.
In a statement, Butler also said she was compelled to sue “because of the demeaning way that Ms. Ryan has treated members of the Judson ISD community in general, and specifically the demeaning way she has treated minority members of the community.”
‘Starting to look… like additional threats’
In a lengthy statement responding to the lawsuit, Ryan said it was “disappointing that someone who does not reside in our district continues to use the court system in a way that diverts time, money and resources away from the students.”
“This continuous rehashing of something that has already been ruled on by the court by a few members of our board is disheartening and is showing the community that a portion of our board is not focused on student outcomes and moving this district forward,” Ryan continued.
The JISD board head went on to say that no trustees objected to when the Jan. 10 agenda item had apparently first appeared on an agenda for Dec. 9.
That agenda item: “Consider and take possible action regarding the employment, evaluation, and duties of the Superintendent.”
Ryan said preparing draft motions for meetings was “standard practice” and that the investigating findings against Fields “met the standard of good cause for termination under the Texas Education Code.”
“This is starting to look increasingly like additional threats meant to intimidate or coerce public officials, which Mr. Jose Macias was just censured for after an extensive investigation into his conduct,” Ryan said.