Shawn Leege – Place 5

Q: Why are you running for school board? 

A: I’m running for school board in general because I think that we’ve been ill-served, so “we” meaning the community that put our kids in public school and that have fiduciaries representing our tax dollars in the past. We’ve had candidates that run and offer common sense things that they say. But once they get on the school board, they seem to turn and support a lot of liberal ideology, which I’m against.

Q: And what kind of past experiences makes you qualified to be a school board member?

A: Well, I’ve run multiple companies. I currently own three medical companies here in Leander, and I have hundreds of employees. And it really comes down to managing revenue, expenses and personalities. At the end of the day, if someone doesn’t do their job well, they need to be, you know, told of what the expectations are and look to do what the community expects, which is to do better than 52% of our children reading on-grade level. At that level, we basically are giving the current school board an F. They have failed.

Q: What is your stance on Proposition A and why?

A: Proposition A, only from what the current school board has told us and the current superintendent, as an outsider in the community, we are limited to the mechanism and how they’ve shared recapture. Proposition A, meaning just the recapture in which we repay the state of Texas, is one of five different ways to repay. I understand it, but I don’t necessarily trust that we are currently in recapture. Recapture basically involves the trigger mechanism, Proposition A, the mechanism at which we pay is only done if, in fact, we choose to self-impose a tax increase of 35% increase to our budget. That’s against Proposition B, but Proposition A doesn’t come into play unless we impose on ourselves a $99.1 million tax increase. And so if, in fact, we have to pay it, then I am ok with it. But I’m not certain that we do because the Proposition B has not been triggered. And so, Robin Hood comes into play if, in fact, you have a community that has so much additional money and that they’re taxed at the max, which is currently the rate that the school board recommends, the highest maximum rate, at which then it would trigger the mechanism needing to be chosen. We have not passed Proposition B yet, thereby we do not have an extra $99.1 million. Thereby, it’s a moot subject as to whether we repay, recapture or not and what.

Q: Going off of that, what is your stance on Proposition B and why?

A: Proposition B is a tax increase. It’s a tax increase of $99.1 million in the middle of a recession, and low-income and medium-income families will be hardest hit by a tax increase. We have seen an unbelievable increase in property values in Austin, Texas, over the last two years. To add a pillow top of additional 35% increase to the budget, which is derived from property taxes, is, in my opinion, not fair to the voters. I don’t think that in this time of a recession, we should be asking the general public to add an extra $99 million and increase their property taxes for a system, the current LISD system which is failing our students, failing in that only 52% can read on grade level. And the STAAR test says that half of the general population in LISD is less than on grade level from math as well. So why should we add more spending when we’re currently not doing a great job educating our students? I disagree with that.

Q: Going off of that, should Prop B not pass and the district needs to cut over $32 million from the budget next school year, what specifically will be the top three places you suggest for those cuts to come from?

A: The administration. We’ve seen an increase in student population growth; since 2015, we’ve seen an increase of 12% of our student population over those years, whereas general administration has increased by 49% in those years. Health and Human Services has increased by over 88%. The debt payment and the debt burden has increased by over 110%. We’re not on pace with the current student growth, and so we need to take that into consideration. The fact that Superintendent Gearing once brought on – he added an extra 68 personnel to the administration that earn over $150,000 a year. Boy, that’s not very fair to the current teachers that have only received a 5% increase in their pay, which doesn’t keep up with 8% inflation. These teachers are busting their tail, and they’re overworked and they’re underpaid. Yet we’ve added an extra 68 individuals in the administration that make over $150,000 apiece. That’s not fair. I mean, it’s fine for someone in their ivory tower that makes $333,000 a year as a superintendent to tell us that we need to add more spending. Maybe we need to cut his administration.

Q: Are you satisfied with Dr. Gearing’s job as a superintendent or not?

A: I’m not. I think that, as I analyze any employee that works for me, it has to do with what the expectations are in their department. And so we look to a superintendent to keep us on track in academics. Obviously, by the figures I’ve stated, we’re failing. 52% of the current students can read on grade level. I mean, he has not led us as a leader. He’s the top leader of great academic achievement in LISD. That’s very sad. I don’t like to quote that statistic, but it’s true.

Furthermore, I don’t agree with the sexual content in the books that he’s allowed in. He did the same thing at Dripping Springs. That’s why they ran him out of town. That’s why they fired him. And if you don’t take care of the budget, right, it puts a hole in the dollars that are spent for students like you. And so if we’re not careful with this wasteful spending, right, we’re going to be in a real bad lurch. I’m not in favor of the particular ways in which he’s led. Now, once on the board, I would give him an opportunity to turn that around, focus more on academics, pay the teachers fairly. And if he does so, that’s fine. But like any employee, if they’re not, in fact, doing the job that they were hired to do, then I would give him an F as well.

Q: One of the questions we hear in the school and community is why the district is in this financial situation to begin with. Why do we have so much debt? How would you respond to that?

A: Well, it’s because we’ve not had prudent leaders on the school board over the last ten years that act as a true fiduciary. There’s a lot of responsibility being on the school board. You’re one of seven people that are a fiduciary of the tax dollars of every parent in the district. There’s over 42,000 kids in our current district, and so we have a budget of over $400 million. That’s a lot of money, right? And so we need to manage that appropriately. We’ve not looked to spending cuts in the way that we manage our affairs. We keep adding on and adding on, thinking that we’re kids in the candy store and we can have every little perk we want for our schools. Used to be we could build a school for $45 or $50 million, we now build it for $180 million? And there’s no checks and balances on that? How about an open-bid process to see if we can lower the amount of how much it costs to build a school? How about we look at some of the expenditures and not just add more spending?

At some point a business – and this is a business, the district – we need to look at expenses and cutting expenses as well. So to answer your question, we’re in this because nobody has been cutting expenses. We add more and more spending on the backs of moms and dads that are barely getting by. And we think we can just stick it to those parents and ask them for more and more money every year. And then they’ll give us a blank check. I think that’s a bridge too far. And to say that we should accept $2.6 billion in debt as if we’re Washington, D.C. and it’s funny money? It’s not funny money. That lands on Leander ISD parents that are making $50, $60, $70,000 a year and barely getting by. The number gets to be so big that everybody thinks that’s not going to affect me and my family. Oh, no –  when those bonds come due, your property taxes are going to jump and you may or may not be able to get out of that house that you thought was going to stay at the same tax rate. And when those bills come due, that’s going to be a travesty for our community. That will happen. It’s 100%.

Q: And so to kind of jump topics, do you have any of your own children that go to LISD? What do they do? 

A: Yeah, I’ve got a daughter here at CPHS and she’s a freshman here and she plays softball and she’s a student like you. All right here at the school.

Q: Awesome, now to jump topics. In the last two years, election integrity has become a hot topic in politics. Do you believe there are problems in our election system locally or nationally?

A: I do, yeah. I think that there needs to be more community oversight. So, in my opinion, there needs to be both a Republican and a Democrat that are managing every aspect of chain of custody when it comes to the voters getting a fair shake. As long as we get more people involved in the process, perhaps we could have checks and balances that would make the general populace feel more comfortable.

Q: And then, finally, would you accept the outcome of the election if you lose?

A: I will, yeah. I mean, I’ll do everything I need to do to check to make sure it was fair. I think that’s the prudent and wise thing to do off anybody that’s running for public office, and I will go through anything and everything to make sure that that was fair at the end of the process. But I anticipate it to be fair. And so to answer your question, I believe so, yes.