Family Upset With District's Expenditures

HOUSTON - A few miles from the Texas capitol, you will find Eanes Independent School District, a system serving one of the wealthiest populations in the state.

Fifth grader Claire Fries, who uses a walker or wheel chair to get around, is among the district's 7,000 students.

"If she can get to it, she's going to do it, " says Claire's mother, Cheryl Fries.

There in lies what has become a heart-rending rub for the Fries family.

They claim that for five years, Claire has been consistently cut-off from classmates and prevented from going everywhere they go.

The Fries say that's because Eanes ISD has just as consistently refused to provide the safe access federal law demands, enhancements as simple as paved pathways to playgrounds.

"If they say to themselves, if my child were forced to sit on the sidelines at recess every day for lack of a $10,000 sidewalk, I'd fight too,"Cheryl says of her advocacy.

"I can sure understand there's frustration with it, there's frustration from our end in terms of resources both time and money for us to accomplish what we'd like to accomplish," says EISD Superintendent Nola Wellman.

Wellman concedes her district isn't yet close to compliance, even though the American's With Disabilities Act has been the law of the land for nearly two decades.

"Are we there? Absolutely not, we are still working hard every day to accomplish the ideal of a law that's very valuable for our nation," Wellman insists.

The sincerity of Wellman's commitment has come into question. Three years ago Eanes I.S.D. taxpayers passed a $53 million bond issue. Pat and Cheryl Fries say they were told improving access would be a priority.

"Instead, I watched as that $53 million bond was spent on luxuries and no new ramps, no accessible playgrounds," Cheryl Fries says.

What was funded was a pair of football practice fields equipped with the latest artificial turf at a reported cost of $3 million. Another $1 million was reportedly spent for artificial turf at the team's stadium and $400,000 for a batting cage.

"Last month they decided to buy $700,000 worth of state-of- the-art high definition video cameras for the football team," says Pat Fries, Claire's father.

Citing renovations at the high school and performing arts center Wellman claims Eanes I.S.D. will eventually spend more than $7 million of the bond issue proceeds on improving accessibility.

"I would love for it to be faster, but we can't because you know there's only so much time in a day to get projects accomplished," Wellman says.

Fearing procrastination and more broken promises the Fries family has filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court alleging discrimination against Claire and other students with disabilities.

"Someone has to hold them accountable," says Cheryl Fries.