FORT DAVIS — Graydon Hicks — Fort Davis ISD’s superintendent placed on paid administrative leave on March 9 — said Friday after a special school board meeting that the statement the board members gave for why they put him on leave violated the law by revealing information from the board’s executive sessions. He added that the focus of those closed meetings was the board asking him to do something illegal, and he refused.
After meeting in a Friday executive session — not open to the public — for about two and a half hours, school board members emerged and issued a statement, which they read out loud to members of the public at the meeting. The statement said board members had met with Hicks in closed meetings in the past in which he refused to follow board directives.
“ In two of those meetings, Mr. Hicks said he was resigning and walked out of one of the meetings,” the board’s statement said. “The board wanted to meet again with Mr. Hicks on March 9, but instead of coming to the board and trying again to work through those issues, he insisted on having that conversation in open session. The board knew that any conversation with Mr. Hicks should have been open and frank and could also include discussion of other personnel and confidential information. Based on his continuing unwillingness to work in good faith with the board, we placed him on administrative leave.” The statement also said, “We want to be clear as well that at this time the board has no knowledge of any illegal activities.”
Hicks then asked to speak, but School Board President James Weaver told Hicks he should have made comments at the beginning of the meeting during the public comments time. The board then adjourned and went to a room behind the meeting and did not exit to the district administration building’s parking lot where about 20 parents, school staff and Fort Davis residents gathered to discuss what happened.
Hicks said after the meeting that the board members’ assertion that he did not follow their directives is correct, but he refused because it did not “follow district policy” and was not legal. “So, I can tell you I disagreed with what they were asking me to do because what they were asking me to do was not consistent with the law,” he said in the parking lot surrounded by supporters.
Hicks said he can’t be specific about what he disagreed with and what law it may violate because of executive session confidentiality and more broadly because the board told him he was not allowed to speak about the subject. “They have given me a written statement saying I cannot speak, and if I do, it will be grounds for termination,” Hicks said. The board, however, violated the law in Friday’s meeting with their statement, he said. “They just revealed closed session information about discussions with me in closed session,” he said.
Hicks has been in limbo for nearly three weeks on paid administrative leave. At the March 9 meeting, the board appointed Junior High and High School Principal Selena Martin as the acting superintendent “during any time that the superintendent is on leave, or until further modification by the board.” The board had then declined to comment on the issue until its statement at Friday’s meeting.
Hicks said because he was not terminated, he can’t defend himself. If terminated, Texas law would allow him to have a hearing on the merits of the firing, and if he lost in that process, he could appeal to the Texas commissioner of education. If he lost the Texas Education Agency appeal, he would then have the option of a lawsuit.
“So, my options are very limited,” Hicks said. “I can’t talk. I can’t tell you what they were asking me to do. I can’t fight. I can’t defend myself.”
Hicks’ supporters, however, did defend him in public comments and described him as someone who has given his life’s work to the district, everything from “cleaning up vomit in the hallway” to watering sports fields to painting an elementary school’s fence.
“I moved here in 1979, went to high school with Graydon, known him for a long, long time,” Matt Blackman told the board. “Have I always gotten along with Graydon? No. Is he the kind of person I want to go hang out with? No. But I’ve never, ever not known him to have honesty and integrity. … I’ve never seen him break the rules. So, whatever’s going on here … I think it’s time that the community knows.”
The hearsay in the community is damaging Hicks’ reputation and that of board members, Blackman said. “Clarity is important, and it’s time for everybody to come clean and tell us what’s going on,” he said.
Jason Corbin, a parent of past and present district students, told the board it was also important for people to realize another side of Hicks. “I’m just giving you character witness from my end,” he said. “There was a time and a place when I believed in Mr. Hicks that vanished a long time ago last year with the way he treated my son and the way that he treated another student in the same situation.”
Last week, Corbin provided The Big Bend Sentinel with a letter he sent to the board last spring detailing what he called the bullying of his son and another student for having long hair at their graduation ceremonies. The letter states that Hicks “verbally assaulted” them with the intent to “dress down a couple of young men on their graduation day and steal this precious moment from them.”
It’s unclear whether the board took any action regarding his complaint, but Corbin said in his letter that after he confronted Hicks at the ceremony criticizing his actions, the next day, then- Jeff Davis County Deputy King Merritt showed up on his doorstep. Corbin wrote that the deputy said that Corbin would not be allowed on Fort Davis ISD property — other than to drop off or pick up his daughter — and would be arrested on criminal trespass charges if he did. That prohibition is no longer in effect, Corbin said.
“And that’s the way that he’s conducted himself with many staff members, parents and also students,” Corbin told the board. “I’m sure many of us have heard about these things. If you haven’t, you will. … I understand Mr. Hicks has a lot of supporters, but I also want everyone to know you can’t just paint a picture of this man that makes him glorious because he is not. My family has seen a very different side.”
On Monday, Michelle Barron, the parent of the other child confronted about his long hair at graduation, confirmed Corbin’s account of the incident with The Sentinel. “I was about to walk out of that school because of what he did to my son,” she said.
Barron said her son is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and that she showed school officials proof of that status. “I gave the blue [nation registration] card to the school and let them know that he is a Native American,” she said. “[Long hair] is part of his religion, his heritage. I’m not cutting my son’s hair. The school was perfectly fine with it. They had no problem with it.”
In a phone call Saturday, Hicks said the students in question were violating the district dress code with their hair length and had been warned before. That code states: “Boys’ hair may not extend below the eyebrows, may not extend below the collar of a shirt and may not wear hair in any type of ponytail or updo.”
Hicks said he felt his actions toward the two boys were appropriate and that Corbin was not there to witness the conversation. Hick said he briefed board members on the incident. He confirmed that a trespassing notice was served by the sheriff’s office and said it was a precaution because Corbin had threatened him by saying he would “take me down.” The warning was lifted after last summer so that Corbin could pick up his child from school, Hicks said.
Corbin said he only asked the board to replace Hicks.
Weaver could not immediately be reached for comment, but he and other board members have declined to comment in the past citing the confidentiality required of actions around personnel issues. The board statement made in the meeting was not made available in writing by The Sentinel press time.
In the only other action item on the agenda, board members voted unanimously (Pene Ferguson was absent) to contract with J&P Advisory Group. Weaver said the consultant would assist with financial and policy issues for the district. No contract amount was stated before the vote, and no other information on the contract was available online.
The board’s next regular meeting is scheduled for April 14.
This story was updated on April 2 to reflect Barron’s comments.