Melissa Davis hoped to celebrate her son’s athletic accomplishments at Tuesday’s Killeen ISD board meeting. Instead, she was shocked to find herself locked out of the building.
“When we got here, the doors are locked for nobody to go in, so that was a big shocker, because, you know, it is a public school building. So to get here and being told that you could come in at a certain time, and the doors will be locked, is kind of shocking,” Davis explained.
Davis’ experience raises questions about KISD’s handling of public meetings, with some wondering whether the district violated open meeting laws. Former Travis County Judge and Austin-based government transparency expert Bill Aleshire believes the move might qualify as a violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act.
“If they locked the public out, it is the most fundamental kind of violation to the Open Meetings Act,” Aleshire said. “The only legal way for them to have locked the doors—the president of the school board or whoever’s presiding over the meeting—must publicly announce, for the record, that they’re going to meet in executive session, what they’re going to meet about, and what legal provision they’re relying on as their reason to meet.”
According to the agenda for the April 8 board meeting, the meeting was scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. The agenda lists executive session breaks for three items, but does not include an extended recess. Aleshire noted that even if locking the doors was not a formal violation, the practice is concerning.
“It’s rude, and undemocratic, to lock the public out of a meeting without an explanation of what’s going on. We need to know why—why did that happen?” he added.
KISD spokesperson Karen Rudolph responded via email, explaining the board’s schedule that evening. “The meeting was formally recessed at 4:45 p.m. with the announcement that it would reconvene at 6 p.m.,” Rudolph stated.
She also clarified that the decision to lock the doors was part of routine procedures. “During the recess, at 5 p.m., a staff member locked the front entrance doors as part of our typical routine for standard board meeting start times. No board business or discussion took place while the doors were secured,” she explained.
Despite the district’s response, Aleshire called the practice “very unusual,” noting that officials did not clarify why the recess was necessary or whether a quorum of the board was present during the lockdown period. “They did not explain why they recessed the meeting or what they were doing during the lockdown time,” he said.
For Davis, the experience has left her with concerns about how the district handles transparency. “The doors are always wide open. They usually have them propped wide open so that people can walk straight in,” she said.
As the conversation around KISD’s governance and transparency continues, community members are left asking whether more public accountability is needed.
