SMCISD Board Of Trustees Votes To Keep All Student Health Advisory Council Members

The San Marcos CISD Board of Trustees heard ten speakers during public comments and received over thirty emails with concerns regarding SHAC membership.

**Corridor News has reached out to SMCISD’s Executive Director of Communications for copies of the statements Trustee Hasley and Trustee Hansen made during last night’s meeting. Corridor News was told the following:

“We do not transcribe everything that is said at each of the board meetings. The minutes kept are detailed notes on the board meeting and those are not made public until they are approved by the board.”

Corridor News has placed an official public information request for copies of the statements. This story will updated when we receive requested information from SMCISD and/or when new information is available.**

Last night, San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District’s Board of Trustees discussed and voted on the fate of the Student Health Advisory Council.

On Oct. 9, Naomi Narvaiz, a member of SHAC and the City of San Marcos’s ethics commission, came under scrutiny by the community for her controversial retweeting of Neo-Nazi content.

Mano Amiga, a local activist group, started a campaign calling for SMCISD’s Board of Trustees to remove Narvaiz from SHAC due to her “extremist beliefs.”

Narvaiz’s tweeted things such as “Deport All Illegals, including DREAMers” and content from a controversial, Neo-Nazi group, Patriot Front.

Mano Amiga and members of their campaign asked the SMCISD Board of Trustees to “Reset & Re-vet,” which would require the board to dissolve the 23-member council and start over with the application process.

“The board has discussed the membership of the SHAC committee twice before tonight,” Trustee Kathy Hansen said. “I’m concerned that the board spends times going over and over and over the same decisions because some board members don’t get the vote they want. We need to devote our time to providing policy and resources that will ensure the quality education all of our students deserve.”

Hansen clarified that the SHAC was an advisory group that provides the board with information and makes no policies themselves.

Trustee Miguel Arrendondo said his motion to remove all current members of SHAC, re-open applications and vetting because he felt that the district’s system for vetting applicants was broken.

The board voted 5-2 to keep the 23 members they voted onto the Student Health Advisory Council in September; trustees Arrendondo and Anne Halsey voted against.

However, Trustee Halsey proposed a motion for the president and legal counsel “to draft a resolution to disallow any hateful or bigoted speech by Ms. Narvaiz and any other member of the SHAC or the district.”

Trustee Arrendondo seconded, and the board passed the motion 6-1 with council member Hansen voting against.