Divided EPISD board to hire auditor to review allegations against trustee
The El Paso Independent School Board has agreed to hire an external auditor to determine whether Susie Byrd has a conflict of interest being the campaign manager for congressional candidate Veronica Escobar while serving on the school board of trustees.
The vote was 4-2, with Byrd abstaining. Trustees Diane Dye, Chuck Taylor, Trent Hatch and Mickey Loweree voted yes. Trustees Al Velarde and Bob Geske voted no.
“We’re at a moment where it feels like it’s irreparable,” Byrd said, speaking to her fellow board members about their relationship. “But we have to listen to each other” and communicate, she said.
One of Escobar’s opponents, Dori Fenenbock, who sat on the EPISD board until last August when she stepped down to run for Congress, has taken up the issue as part of her campaign, alleging corruption.
“We’ve made so many steps forward as a district we can’t take this major step backward. So conducting the audit will allow the community know that the board is committed to full transparency,” Fenenbock said.
Byrd denies any wrongdoing.
“To date no one has brought any particular examples or evidence forward to actually corroborate these concerns,” Byrd told ABC-7. “We’ve had the attorneys weigh in that there is no conflict of interest, so I’m a little bit at a loss for words as why the board would proceed.
“I’m glad to have them take a look at it. I’ve always been an open book.”
As ABC-7 first reported in early February, trustee Mickey Loweree raised concerns that Byrd did not disclose to the board that she worked for Escobar’s campaign. Byrd told ABC-7 she didn’t think it was a secret.
“I think anybody who knows me, who reads the paper, knows that I’ve been the campaign manager since the beginning of the campaign,” she said.
Loweree and trustee Diane Dye — who called for an audit on Byrd — said they believe Byrd’s position on the board could have made it possible for her to secure endorsements and campaign donations from EPISD vendors or employees on behalf of Escobar.
During Tuesday’s meeting, trustees repeated a theme of transparency and emphasized the work the district has done to emerge from a cheating scandal that ravaged it for years.
“We’re going down a slippery slope,” said trustee Al Velarde. He warned personal disputes will damage the work the board has done to establish trust and integrity, and all those efforts “will go down the tube because we’re playing like children in the playground.”
He urged the board to be cautious in casting their vote because “we would be expending public funds to effect an election and it’s called electioneering.”
