Irion County ISD Meeting August 19 2025

Agenda Analysis | Meeting Review | Meeting Documents | Commentary | Last Meeting

Demolition of the old elementary building is pretty much done but for the cleanup.

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IC ISD Meeting Agenda

A. Agenda Analysis

1. Workshop...What? This agenda has been labeled "Workshop Notice/Agenda". "Workshop" is a term of art used for meetings where the governmental body is studying something in particular, but not taking up a full plate of business. It does connote that the body is conducting public business, though, and since a quorum will be present it has to be posted. The term "workshop" is not found in the Open Meetings Act.

2. Discuss/view elementary plans and designs, item 2: I don't have any particular details here, but as you can see from the above photo the relevant portions of the school are demolished. My guess is the Board and Supt. Moore, possibly with Gallagher Construction and Parkhill present, will be tossing around design options.

3. What else can they do? This is a great example of a 1 issue agenda. They are limited to the elementary designs and plans, and that is the sole issue. As a practical matter, boards regularly stray from their agendas and discuss other matters. They shouldn't, but they do. That's one reason why I stress that the public should be present at every public meeting. Without the public present, the agenda becomes meaningless and the governmental body fails to function for the public's interest. Lastly, it's up for debate under the wording of this agenda whether they can do a formal vote. I won't bore you with the arguments at this point.

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Aerial of the new transportation building. There's lots of jack hammering going on there this week. All the noise caused a flashback of just a few years ago when excavation for City Gym took weeks and weeks...and cost the District over $500,000. This building is on a much smaller scale, but it is still jackhammering into solid limestone.

B. Meeting Review This meeting was for the purpose of having the Parkhill representatives advise the Board about the plans and designs already agreed upon by them and IC ISD administration and staff. While the Board perhaps could have exercised some veto power, at this stage of the process, Parkhill was clearly trying to not open up any plan or design changes. Parkhill's folks attended via zoom.

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This meeting verified that IC ISD has saved and will be using the 3 steles I blogged about earlier. Those steles have me stele curious, and I am finding them elsewhere. Here's a stele from the old Genetics Building on the Texas A&M campus in College Station...

C. Commentary This review of the plans for the new elementary reminded me that IC ISD is about to enter the modern era in terms of state mandated safety plans and features intended to minimize the impact of a school shooter. I continue to have some reservations about these sort of safety designs because the cost statewide is literally in the billions of dollars. I don't think folks have fully realized that the vast majority of those dollars are being collected through local ad valorem taxation that wasn't put up for a vote. Moreover, these costs are going to be ongoing. All the while, the state Legislature and Governor Abbott have done nothing of substance to implement gun control. Our state should do both. We should implement both safety design changes and better gun control.

...and here is a stele from the Ag Building at the Iowa State University campus in Ames, IA. My read of the words behind the skull is "Dedicated to Education".

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Copyright 2025 G. Noelke