Round Rock ISD nearly fails to pass budget after 2 trustees walk out of meeting

Round Rock ISD nearly fails to pass budget after 2 board members walk out of meeting

The board had to wait for another member to join the meeting virtually.

ROUND ROCK, Texas - Round Rock ISD nearly failed to pass their budget after two board members walked out of the meeting leaving them without quorum. The move caused the meeting to be cut short as the board waited for another member who was attending virtually to show up in person.

The two trustees who walked out were Danielle Weston and Mary Bone.

"Tonight it is very important that we pass a budget, if we don’t pass a budget tonight we cannot pay our employees from July 1 and that’s not fair to the almost 7000 employees that work the school district," said Board President Amber Feller during Thursday’s board meeting.

Thursday’s school board meeting at Round Rock ISD began how it normally would as the two trustees who walked out were present for the Pledge of Allegiance and stuck around for the student and staff recognition segment. It wasn’t until the meeting was moving toward public comment when trustee Weston could be seen walking out behind Board President Feller. Trustee Bone also left the meeting resulting in quorum being broken.

Danielle Weston released this statement to FOX 7 Austin:

"Bone and Weston both firmly believe that COVID positive individuals who are inside of the CDC’s recommended 5-day quarantine period (which mirrors RRISD policy) or those experiencing symptoms should not attend public settings as a common-sense safety precaution. Doctors generally agree that sick individuals should stay home."

Both Weston and Bone released a longer statement on their campaign Facebook pages.

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For quorum to be met four board members need to be attending the meeting in person. During the meeting one board member, Amy Weir, was attending the meeting virtually as she was quarantining for COVID-19. In order for the board to pass the budget, adjustments were made for Weir to attend.

A clip from the meeting shows the trustee isolated behind plexiglass while wearing a mask. She released this statement following the walkout from the other members.

"I find it hypocritical that the two Trustees who were against masks, said they were illegal, who stated numerous times that the district’s COVID protocol did not apply to Trustees, used COVID to excuse their behavior. I had no intention of coming unless my presence was necessary due to their absence. President Feller and I did what was necessary to protect the staff of the district by ensuring the budget passed and they would receive their paycheck in July,"

This isn’t the first time Weston and Bone walked out of a meeting as they did so back in September. The board moved to censure the two trustees following that meeting however they filed a lawsuit against the board. They’ve been in a legal battle ever since.

President Feller told FOX 7 Austin she had a feeling the two would walk out during Thursday's meeting, which is why they were able to accommodate for trustee Weir quickly.

The board eventually was able to pass the budget and moved to end the meeting early.

"I think I’d first like to say my apologies to everybody whose in here who came. This is your one chance a month to speak the items that are not on the agenda, but because we are ending our meeting early tonight. You were losing that opportunity. And I sincerely regret that," said Feller.