What is WISD’s O’Guin trying to hide?

This is not the column I wanted to write. This is a column I feel I have to write.

In the year that I’ve been here I’ve been juggling polarizing perspectives on the Wharton Independent School District. If you ask most people around town, they’ll tell you the district is a dumpster fire. Low test scores, a mismanaged bond program, student violence, disciplinary problems, teachers and students leaving in droves for other districts, etc. There is a long list of problems within WISD. There are also those who say WISD is a great district with a bad rap.

In the past I have come out in defense of Superintendent Dr. Michael O’Guin Sr. When it seems the world is against him, he soldiers on and does what he feels is in the best interest of the students and the district to right this ship. He inherited this hot mess two and a half years ago and then had to struggle through the COVID-19 pandemic just as he was starting.

He is not in an enviable position, but I do believe the district is slowly making progress under his leadership. That’s one of the reasons this column is so hard to write. Although we generally get along, he and I have been at loggerheads over public information and public’s right to know what’s going on in the district.

I cringe every time I hear him say he tries to be as “open and transparent” as he can be – and he says that a lot. My experience says that is absolutely not true. In my 35 years in this business, I have dealt with many school districts and even more superintendents across four states and when it comes to disclosing public information, he is one of the worst. This is especially true when it comes to anything that can be perceived as negative information.

From the locker room fight in 2021 to the Wharton High School stabbing this year and a handful of incidences in between, O’Guin has issued vague “press releases” in which he usually concludes that the district “will refrain from commenting further.” When a public official refuses to comment, that usually means he or she has something to hide. That is always a red flag to a journalist that information is being withheld and it’s time to start digging.

The most recent incident came last week when news broke about the arrest of Donna Plunkett, a teacher’s aide at Sivells Elementary School who was fired by the district and arrested for allegedly abusing special needs students. In his statement about the case, O’Guin said another teacher has been fired and that an arrest was pending. He never gave names, dates or even allegations. A statement would not have been given at all had a TV journalist not brought it to light.

I had a lot of questions about the case and emailed them to O’Guin and WISD Police Chief Landy Williams. I also called and left a message for Chief Williams. So far he has not called back nor replied to my emails. Dr. O’Guin and I did have an email exchange in which he adamantly refused to answer any of my questions. That prompted me to make a formal Freedom of Information Act request for Plunkett’s arrest record and that of anyone else involved in the case.

An arrest record is indisputably a public record and should be made immediately available. O’Guin replied that he has 10 business days in which to respond, which, by law, he does. Assuming he takes all 10 days, I should be getting the records on Dec. 22. That is utterly ridiculous.

I don’t know what he hopes to gain by withholding public records, but it only makes him look bad and, when one story would have been enough, it will now result in two or more stories spread out over several weeks as I’m forced to dig into this. That just keeps it in the news that much longer and casts a suspicious shadow across himself and the district.

Another disagreement we have is over the use of the consent agenda at school board meetings. A consent agenda is the grouping of routine, non-controversial board actions – such as the approval of minutes, paying bills, accepting reports, etc. – for one vote. It’s my opinion that the consent agendas he and board president Curtis Evans put together are used to hide things they don’t want to discuss in an open forum.

O’Guin has placed things like teacher pay incentives, the district improvement plan, approval of new course offerings at the high school, and much more on the consent agenda. My experience says those things are not routine and should be discussed by the board in an open meeting.

The trustees caught him once when he placed the purchase of a new video scoreboard at the football stadium using bond funds to pay for it in the consent agenda. They pulled it out and voted it down. This Thursday board members requested two items to be pulled for separate action.

Frequently whenever a board member requests that something be pulled for discussion, he admonishes them saying that they discussed it in private or could have discussed it privately rather than taking time to do it in the meeting.

When O’Guin and I discussed the consent agenda, he said more and more things will be added to it. That’s because of the Lone Star Governance program, through which a certain percent of the board meeting time is to be spent working on student outcomes. While that’s a noble goal, you can’t just gloss over the use of taxpayer money for the sake of time spent at a meeting. There needs to be public scrutiny and accountability.

These are not the actions of someone who is truly “open and transparent.” True openness involves sharing information and inviting questions. It means freely providing public information regardless if it’s perceived as good, bad, or indifferent.

Like I said, I like Dr. O’Guin and it pains me to have to write this but his actions need to come to light.

Another reason I don’t want to write this is because today (Saturday) is my anniversary and I was originally planning to brag about my wonderful wife and the great marriage we have.

Happy anniversary, Sandy! I love you!

Joe Southern is the managing editor of the Wharton Journal-Spectator and the East Bernard Express. He can be reached at news@journal-spectator.com.