Residents press Keller ISD board on $200,000 in outside legal fees, call for audits and pay transparency
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Summary
During public comment at Keller ISD's June 26 special meeting, multiple residents criticized large legal expenditures for outside counsel and urged the board to redirect funds to classrooms, to reinstate procurement thresholds for legal work and to publish invoices.
Several residents used the audience-comment period at the Keller ISD special meeting on June 26 to criticize the district’s spending on outside legal counsel and to press for greater transparency and for redirecting funds to classrooms.
Cassie Thomason, a 12-year district employee who currently works as an educational diagnostician, told trustees that assessment and support staff are leaving primarily because of pay and described diagnostic work as chronically understaffed and overworked. Thomason said pay comparisons show assessment staff lagging behind neighboring districts and asked trustees to consider pay parity for assessment staff.
Stuart Rennie criticized the previous board’s spending decisions and asked the district to make legal invoices public. “Unredact the invoices. Let the public see what we got for our money,” Rennie said, arguing that more transparency is needed to determine whether spending was appropriate.
Scott Bruce urged investments beyond one-time pay raises to retain staff, including formal mentorship and career-path programs, and cited declining enrollment that he said underscores the need for strategic retention and engagement work.
Rachel Jenkins focused on the district’s use of outside counsel, identifying the firm Jackson Walker and attorney Tim Davis by name and saying the district spent “almost $200,000” on his services from mid-December to mid-March. Jenkins told trustees the expenditure represented money that could have paid multiple classroom positions and urged the board to reconsider thresholds for approving attorney spending and to pursue a forensic audit of last year’s spending.
Jenkins also invoked statutory accountability, citing “Texas education code 11.1511 b” and the Texas Open Meetings Act (government code chapter 551) while urging transparency about legal work and any policy or political actions tied to outside counsel.
No formal board action on legal counsel, procurement thresholds or a forensic audit took place during the meeting; those requests were raised as public-comment items only. Trustees proceeded to the scheduled budget public hearing and later approved the 2025–26 budget.
