Tornillo School Board Vote On TEA Audit Ends In Deadlock

The Tornillo Independent School District’s school board held a special meeting Sunday evening in response to a preliminary audit surrounding Superintendent Paul Vranish’s alleged mishandling of district funds.

After a closed-session meeting, the school board members emerged to vote on whether or not to approve the preliminary audit by the Texas Education Agency that alleges Vranish used his position with the school district to benefit personally.

The vote was a three-to-three deadlock. A school board member said the next step is to vote again when the TEA releases its final audit. The TISD school board will meet tonight and the same item to approve the preliminary TEA audit is on the agenda again.

Vranish was originally set to respond to the TEA’s preliminary report by the end of March but requested and was granted an extension.

ABC-7 attempted to ask Vranish for comment at Sunday night’s meeting but a person blocked access to Vranish. ABC-7 also sought comment from members of the school board about the process of approving the audit but were told they were advised not to speak to ABC-7.