LIVE OAK, Texas – The Judson Independent School District School Board voted to propose termination of the employment contract for superintendent Milton ‘Rob’ Fields III on Wednesday evening.
The vote comes after months of debate between board members, including at least four agenda items over the last year, on whether to terminate Fields due to an ongoing, closed-door investigation.
“This is bad timing,” trustee Laura Stanford said. “I don’t feel it’s responsible for us to take this action.”
The proposal was decided on a 4-3 split, with trustees Suzanne Kenoyer, Jose Macias Jr. and Stanford being a vocal minority against Board President Monica Ryan and the other three board members.
Fields will remain on administrative leave with pay. Mary Duhart-Toppen, the district’s deputy superintendent of teaching and learning, will serve as the interim superintendent.
Despite public calls for transparency, Ryan said she can not share any parts of the investigation.
“With any employee in our district, or any student or any family, we don’t share things when they’re ongoing,” Ryan said, “and that’s out of privacy.”
But an hour later, during public comment, Ryan said the concerns impacted “student safety.”
After months of deliberating on Fields’ role within the district, homeowner Laura Butler told board members she is filing a lawsuit against the district.
“Us taxpayers, we deserve to know the truth,” Butler said. “We deserve truth, we deserve representation and we deserve for there not to be a conspiracy theory against the one man who is us, who was raised in Judson ISD, graduated, came back after serving 20+ years in the military, retired and came back,” Butler continued. “He is us, and we stand behind him.”
Trustee Suzanne Kenoyer doubled down on the allegations.
“There was a walking quorum, which is a violation of the Open Meetings Act,” Kenoyer said during the meeting, “which is a misdemeanor with a fine and jail time.”
Trustee Jose Macias Jr. also said there was no criminal activity or “misconduct that meant to be at the level where someone would be fired,” regarding the investigation into Fields.
“This was inter-office politics,” Macias Jr. said.
Ryan said that she agrees the community deserves transparency in an interview with KSAT, and said she looks forward to sharing details with the community.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect that the board “proposed” to terminate Fields during their Feb. 4 meeting.
KSAT has been following Judson ISD’s multiple attempts to terminate Fields. Read more of our reporting below: