My apologies for the sniffles in the video, the moment was a beautiful one and I did my best to hold back my tears.

The video above is from the August 14 Regularly Called Board Meetin, found on the district’s website.. The video was run through the transcript generator in Substack, which you as the reader now have access to.

This reporting is part of our GPISD channel, in which we discuss all things GPISD. To support this channel, subscribe for free below or reach out to facesofgrandprairie@gmail.com if you’re interested in being a financial sponsor.

Correction, Aug. 25: An earlier version of this article stated that Trustee Terry Brooks was absent when the board returned from closed session on Aug. 14. In fact, Brooks was present, meaning the board still had a quorum. Two trustees — Gloria Carillo and Nancy Bridges — did not return. This correction has been reflected in the article.

n Part One, we examined the upcoming vote on Disaster Pennies and its short-term financial implications. Yet in this school-choice era, GPISD’s biggest budget threat isn’t taxes — it’s enrollment. According to the district’s District Improvement Plan released in May 2025, recruitment and retention of students is the district’s number-one challenge, embedded under its core value to “Grow, attract, and retain students and staff through high-quality programming.” Every student who leaves GPISD annually represents a loss of approximately $15,000 in state funding. That’s not a theoretical figure but cold, hard cash — and it means each trustee’s behavior creates a real-time risk, or opportunity, to stabilize or shrink the district’s bottom line. And yet, in the District Improvement Plan, trustee behavior — which in practice functions as the district’s most public-facing form of public relations — is nowhere to be found.

Nepotism and Personal Agendas

There’s always a concern with nepotism and personal agendas shaping and influencing leadership decisions, particularly at struggling campuses, and this isn’t new to any school board. When trustees are related to campus administrators and it’s as obvious as sharing a last name, and that school isn’t doing well and nothing happens, it becomes difficult to ignore. Families watching from the sidelines see the same pattern repeated: poor results, little accountability, and leaders moved around instead of replaced. Parents who lose faith in accountability do not simply wait for change; they enroll their children elsewhere. And each departure costs GPISD another $15,000.

Racial Representation and Fairness

A flashpoint has been the approach of a few trustees who have been public about campaigning on platforms that prioritize one racial group — which, in GPISD, is also the majority population. But true inclusivity means ensuring that all families feel represented, not just the majority. When trustees appear or directly say they’d like to elevate the needs of one group at the expense of others, it is not inclusivity — it is exclusivity. That perception leaves many families feeling alienated and undermines trust.

It’s worth noting that Grand Prairie as a city is more diverse than GPISD’s student population itself. That gap suggests that many families — particularly from underrepresented groups — are choosing other options such as charter schools, private schools, or homeschooling. In that context, any appearance of favoritism by trustees only deepens the challenge of attracting and retaining a balanced, representative student body.

One Trustee’s Conduct Toward the Public

One trustee’s conduct toward the public has been especially troubling. David Espinosa has used his official GPISD Trustee Facebook account in ways that violate the expected conduct of a public officer — insulting the alumni of an entire high school and antagonizing residents, amongst other problematic posts that should probably be covered in detail in a separate article. Beyond his own words, the content he chooses to promote also sends a message, such as sharing books that refer to “handling gringos” on his profile. These are not minor slips — they are public statements and signals by an elected official, visible to parents, taxpayers, and alumni. Other trustees took notice and added this behavior to the August 14 closed session agenda.

However, Espinosa chose to avoid this meeting, which was the second meeting in a row that he missed — showing he was not ill or unable to attend, but simply chose not to. This is a clear sign that he doesn’t respect his colleagues, the process, or his constituents. That kind of avoidance not only sidesteps accountability, it undermines the board’s ability to follow its own governing procedures and model the standards it expects from district staff.

Lack of Respect for Procedure

And Espinosa was not the only concern. At the August 14 meeting, Trustees Gloria Carillo and Nancy Bridges went into closed session with the rest of the board but did not return when the session ended. Trustee Terry Brooks, originally reported as absent, was in fact present, meaning the board still had a quorum. Even so, no vote was taken on the items listed, despite the agenda indicating that an action item could follow. What was missing was any acknowledgement from President Amber Moffitt or the board about why a vote did not occur, or why two trustees chose not to return from closed session.

Unfortunately, this isn’t an isolated problem. For the past couple of years, a lack of respect for procedure has underlined board business itself. Even if people can’t pinpoint exactly where Robert’s Rules of Order are not being followed, the entire thing has simply become “messy.” The behavior and conduct is just messy — and people don’t want to deal with messy when they have the choice to go somewhere not messy. In a competitive school-choice environment, that kind of instability is enough to push parents to look elsewhere.

Teachers Deserve Better

The sad part is that inside classrooms, GPISD teachers and staff are doing their very best. Every day they work to serve students, support families, and uphold academic standards in the face of shifting policies and limited resources. They deserve mature representation at the board level — leadership that follows procedures, exercises self-restraint, sets high expectations for administrators, and shows fairness to every student who walks through a campus door.

It’s also not fair to the district’s new superintendent, who chose to come to GPISD in the spring because he loves this community and believes in its potential. Instead of being fully empowered to lead, he is forced to deal with poor trustee conduct, which leads to unnecessary roadblocks to improvement. And since the board is technically over the superintendent, this isn’t something he can fix. This is something the board must fix — and something voters must ultimately address when it comes time to choose better representatives.

The Bottom Line

The reality is simple: board behavior is not just about perception — it is dollars and cents. Each student who leaves represents roughly $15,000 drained from the budget every year. In a district already fighting to balance its books, GPISD cannot afford trustees whose actions drive families away. What’s most concerning is that the trustees are not operating in a way that reflects an understanding that they exist in a school-choice environment, where parents can and will take their children elsewhere if they lose trust. If the board is serious about solving its enrollment crisis, it must begin with accountability, respect, and fairness. Anything less risks not only the district’s finances, but its very future.

In Part Three of our reporting, we’ll focus on how decisions by the city — particularly around apartment ownership — have affected the operating budget of GPISD in major ways.

This reporting is part of our GPISD channel, in which we discuss all things GPISD. To support this channel, subscribe for free below or reach out to facesofgrandprairie@gmail.com if you’re interested in being a financial sponsor.

Grand Prairie ISD is staring at a projected $21 million budget shortfall for the coming year. One option now on the table: adding 3.17 “disaster pennies” to the tax rate, thanks to a state provision triggered when Dallas County was under a disaster declaration in 2024.

On paper, it sounds simple enough. The district frames it as “just $12–$15 a year on a $300,000 home.” Superintendent Dr. Gabe Trujillo was careful to emphasize this isn’t a solution — just a strategy worth considering as trustees work through the budget crisis. But as with most things in Texas school finance, the reality is more complicated.

Texas law allows districts in disaster-declared counties to add up to 3.17 cents to their Maintenance & Operations (M&O) rate for one year without voter approval. For GPISD, that would generate about $5.14 million in new revenue. (For reference, this declaration was issued after high winds and hail in Dallas County in May 2024 — see City of Dallas emergency report.) The complication is that GPISD itself sustained little direct damage from those storms, which is why some trustees question whether it’s ethical to lean on this provision as a financial strategy. (Video below is a clip of Trustee Emily Liles’ concern of ethics).

Other districts (Cy-Fair, Judson, Fort Bend) have used disaster pennies too, often to fund raises or cover shortfalls — but all still faced big deficits the following year. One trustee argued that indirect costs like skyrocketing insurance premiums still count as “disaster-related” expenses. But the optics of using a loophole when GPISD itself had little direct damage remain hard to ignore.

The district’s “$12–$15” talking point is based on a statewide average $300K home. But in Grand Prairie, actual homeowners will pay a bit more. We pulled 2025 ISD taxable values randomly from real homes across all trustee districts. Here’s what the 3.17 disaster pennies (remember: it’s a percentage, not actual “pennies”) would actually add to their annual tax bill:

Trustee District 2025 ISD Taxable Value Added Tax from Disaster Pennies

District 1 $198,510 $62.93

District 2 $241,460 $76.54

District 3 (At-Large) $377,913 $119.80

District 4 $41,810 $13.25

District 5 $77,316 $24.51

District 6 $331,990 $105.24

District 7 (At-Large) $377,913 $119.80

Average across the city: $74.58 per home, on average.

Dr. Trujillo stressed to trustees that disaster pennies are only a strategy to consider:

“This was a strategy to look at — just entertain some information about this and see what and how this can benefit the process. All I’m asking is for us to be open to the full discussion of it, and then you have time to make a decision… it’s five million dollars, and then we are going to look at seventeen million dollars to figure out what’s the next phase as we move forward.”

In other words: disaster pennies are not the fix — they are one tool, and the board must decide if it’s worth using. Even if disaster pennies pass they cover just one quarter of the shortfall. That leaves GPISD scrambling for another $16–$17 million.

Disaster pennies aren’t free money — they’re a temporary tax increase that shifts more burden onto homeowners without fixing systemic problems. Yes, they could buy GPISD some time, and in normal circumstances my instinct is that few taxpayers would make much fuss if it meant helping the district. But this district — and this board specifically — has not been without trust issues in the public eye, especially over the past 12 months.

In my research, Trustee Emily Liles has proven to be the the only consistent public voice of accountability on the board of trustees, willing to stick her neck out despite pushback from colleagues, none of whom have shown much interest in making public communication or transparency a priority in their public relations leadership strategies. You can find her regular recap of meetings here. To reach out to your Board Trustee Representative about this vote or any issue, you can visit https://www.gpisd.org/board to find their contact information. Grand Prairie district boundaries can be found below.

The Disaster Pennies vote will be on the agenda for a vote on August 28.

In Part Two scheduled to be released tomorrow, we’ll look at what’s missing from every strategy to increase enrollment: GPISD Board Trustee behavior. Notably absent from the August 14 meeting was District 4 Trustee David Espinosa, who has now made skipping meetings a consistent habit. He was even slated to be discussed on a closed-session agenda item (“10.A.2 — the evaluation, duties, and discipline of a public officer,”) widely assumed to be tied to his recent antagonistic and unprofessional posts on his official District Facebook page), but chose not to attend.

Many of you might recognize this distinguished group of Zavala Elementary teachers, faculty, and parents. I can spot four of the six teachers I had at Zavala, and my mom right there on the back row.

This 10th Annual breakfast has become a tradition for the group, who taught together for years and shared countless first days of school side by side. Many still sub or tutor part-time for the district and love working with K–5 students, but they don’t miss the stress of lesson plans, Back-to-School nights, or early mornings in the carline.

These teachers represent the heart of so many childhoods in Zavala Elementary and Grand Prairie, and their influence on our lives cannot be overstated. I learned my ABCs in Mrs. Gilbreath’s kindergarten class by listening to Letter People records and welcoming the characters into our classroom with songs. We celebrated Dinosaur Day in first grade, took science field trips in second grade, and marked every season with Thanksgiving feasts, Christmas parties, and Valentine’s parties.

Because this was also my mom’s friend group, my childhood included camping trips, slumber parties, and long summer days spent swimming at many of their homes. Even now, at 45, I still find it hard to call any of them by their first name.

I love seeing this group together, celebrating a lifetime of educating so many of our youth in Grand Prairie. Happy Back-to-School Breakfast, Retired Teachers! And to the teachers starting their first day tomorrow — take it all in. One day, you’ll look back and miss the First Day of School and the joy of welcoming a new class of eager young learners.

In this episode of the Face of Grand Prairie GPISD podcast, host Jenna Pecor interviews Dubiski HS Graduates Christian Perry and Trevor Glenn about their experiences in the 2025 SkillsUSA Robotics Urban Search and Rescue competition.

They discuss the journey of building their robot, Jebediah Townhouse, the challenges faced during competitions, and the technical aspects of their design.

The conversation also touches on the importance of teamwork, perseverance, and the educational pathways available for aspiring engineers. The students share their future aspirations and offer advice for younger students interested in robotics.

After many community requests, GPISD Board Member Emily Liles announced through a Facebook post on Friday that she will be recapping Board meetings on her website for any Grand Prairie citizen interested in keeping up with news from the district. The Faces of Grand Prairie will be sharing these recaps, the first of which came from the June 12, 2025 meeting.

The GPISD Board of Trustees meets monthly at the GPISD Ed Center, located at 2602 S. Belt Line Road. Any member of the public is welcome to attend and agendas for each meeting must be posted for the public 72 hours prior to the meeting on the GPISD website. Full recordings of every meeting can also be found at the GPISD website and a full upcoming schedule of meeting dates can be found there, as well.

A Couple GPISD Board Meeting Fast Facts:

• According to the Texas Open Meetings Act, school boards are required to allow time for the public to speak directly to the board for a period of 3 minutes or less. Any member of the public who’d like to address the board during a meeting is required to fill out the OPEN FORUM PARTICIPATION REQUEST prior to the start of the meeting. Citizens are allowed to speak to the board regarding business matters which are or are not on the agenda, though comments should have some relevance to board business or conduct. Board members are not to respond to the public after they’ve spoken at a meeting; they can respond to comments publicly at the next meeting, should they add it on the agenda.

• Board business is conducted following Robert’s Rules of Order, a parliamentary procedure manual created in 1876 by Henry Martyn Robert to address the lack of efficiency and decorum in meetings. GPISD also maintains the Grand Prairie ISD Board Operating Procedures, which elaborates Robert’s Rules and applies them specifically to their board meetings.

Join Jenna and co-hosts Emily Aquino and Cadence Williams from Dubiski High School as we get to know our new GPISD Superintendent! Emily and Cadence are student leaders from the Media Technology Pathway. They prepared the questions for today's episode, and it was wonderful hearing how Dr. Trujillo answered them! This episode is full of advice and wisdom from our new superintendent and it was a pleasure to have a full studio today! Special thanks to the following people for making today's episode happen!

School Board Trustee Emily Liles

Gay Lynn Broom, GPISD Communications

Director Aniska Douglas, Chief of Career & Technical Education and Innovative Programs

Tyler Case, Dubiski Teacher, Media Technology

Meghan Wiggins with The Epic was our Production Engineer for today's episode.

Episode TimeStamps

00:00Legacy of Ruthie Jackson and Community Archives

02:59Personal Journey and Family Values

06:08Career Path and Educational Philosophy

08:46Student Engagement and Media Pathways

11:58Celebrating Student Achievements

14:47The Role of Educators in Shaping Futures

18:05Visionary Leadership in Education

20:51Community and Family in Education

24:13Innovative Educational Practices

27:14Defining Student Success

33:59Engaging Students Through Passion Projects

40:34The Importance of Slow Change in Education

50:25Career and Technical Education: Shaping Futures

57:08Building Community and Opportunities for Students

Earlier today, the Faces of Grand Prairie wrote an article titled “Political Intimidation in Grand Prairie Elections, Part Two,” telling the story behind the May 2023 GPISD School Board and City Council Elections. In our story we reported the story of Dr. Wendy Nguyen-Anaya, who filed to run for GPISD School Board:

“According to his video, after Dr. Nguyen-Anaya (who was pregnant at the time) had filed to run, she was approached for a meeting with Mr. Lopez and Mr. Del Bosque, in which the two men, acting in their capacity as city councilmen, convinced her not to run against Mr. Parra and instead, pressured her to run for the at-large seat that was held by Jeff Copeland at the time. They informed her that they would pay for any costs associated with filing to remove herself from the school board race.”

“Dr. Nguyen-Anaya also shared with me that the plan in the 2023 election was to split the vote in Bessye Adam’s favor, to get Jeff Copeland unseated (to my knowledge, Ms. Adams was ignorant of this plan and had nothing to do with these schemes).”

“The New American PAC has sent divisive mailers and text messages to Grand Prairie voters in multiple election cycles for different candidates, most recently in the May 2025 school board election of Veronica Lopez and incumbent Emily Liles, which was the subject of our article titled Mudslinging Tactics in Grand Prairie School Board Elections. The mailers are not always negative, as was the case when the PAC sent out mailers to voters in the 2023 election cycle, grouping Gloria Carrillo and Bryan Parra (running for school board), and David Espinosa (running for city council) on one mailer. David Espinosa was serving as a Board Trustee at the time, but decided to run for city council in this election….the same race Dr. Wendy Nguyen-Anaya was coerced into running for as well.”

We now know why David Espinosa ran in that race, after he shared a post on his official GPISD Trustee Facebook page earlier this evening, admitting “The whole reason I ran against Jeff is to get him out of office, which I strategically got him out,” ending with a strong arm emoji, brown heart emoji and 100 emoji, right before he accuses Jeff of participating in a “thuggish way of doing politics.” In the same post, he makes unsubstantiated and unproven accusations regarding a private citizen engaging in bribery.

In a series of comments on the post, disgraced former GPISD Superintendent Jorge Arredando apparently liked what Mr. Espinosa had to say.

In a May 23, 2025 article titled “Public Documents Released on Dr. Jorge Arredondo's Termination,” we reported David Espinosa’s response to Dr. Arredondo’s comments to WFAA, again posted to his official GPISD Trustee Facebook page. He said:

“Moving forward, it is imperative that all trustees commit to fulfilling our legal and ethical responsibilities by participating in board governance training and adhering to Effective School Board Governance standards as outlined by state law and the EISO (Enhancing Instructional and Student Outcomes) framework.”

Mr. Espinosa is referring to the TEA’s Framework for School Board Development. One of the points in the framework states: “The Board Recognizes each individual trustee’s duty as a trustee and fiduciary for the entire district.”

To the GPISD Board of Trustees: what are the “legal and ethical responsibilities” of trustees when using their official ISD social media account? Are there consequences for a trustee who admits to intentionally interfering with a city council election on their ISD social media account? Does Mr. Espinosa even understand that he’s acting as a “trustee and fiduciary for the entire district” when he posts on social media? It is not clear whether Mr. Espinosa read our article before posting, or whether Mr. Espinosa realizes that he even did anything controversial. Why would anyone admit this willingly, and on their official ISD page, no less? The last paragraph of our article begins: “Behavior shows these elected officials appear less and less concerned about whether the rules of behavior and engagement for everyone else, applies to them.”

Whether or not the board can bring any consequences upon Mr. Espinosa for his impulsive and damaging public behavior remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure…with every post like this, not only is Mr. Espinosa embarrassing himself, he’s embarrassing the entire Board of Trustees and the Grand Prairie ISD as well.