Parent tells Richardson ISD board Dolby Pre-K lacked light and running water during recent outage

During the public-comment portion of the March meeting, Stephanie Plancarte — an RISD alumna and parent of a Dolby Pre-K student — urged the board to address conditions at her child’s campus after a recent electrical failure. Plancarte told trustees the classroom operated “all day without light or running water,” and she called the situation “a clear case of medical negligence, amongst other things.”

Plancarte said the outage interfered with students’ access to refrigerated medications, special dietary needs and those with vision issues, and she described staff responses she considered insufficient. She said district staff member Mike Evans told her only that he was “sorry that you feel that way,” and she characterized that response as showing a lack of accountability.

Plancarte said district staff had informed her that seven schools experienced some form of electrical failure on the same day and that campus staff supplied bottled water and hand sanitizer to Dolby Pre-K students. She asked trustees to press district staff to investigate and correct problems affecting marginalized students and said she attended the meeting with family members to hold the district accountable.

Board members did not take immediate board action on the public comment but the concerns raised were recorded in the meeting and will be part of official minutes. Trustees did not identify a specific follow-up at the time of the comments.