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Dallas School Board Member Files Complaint Against Superintendent

Bill Zeeble
/
KERA News
Dallas school board members will start holding open discussions on policies designed to head off heightened trustee-superintendent confrontations. More than 2 weeks ago, Mike Miles ordered officers to remove trustee Bernadette Nutall from a school

Another jab in the Bernadette Nutall-Mike Miles tussle today: The Dallas school board member filed an “official oppression” complaint against the superintendent with the Dallas County District Attorney’s office. D.A. Craig Watkins hasn’t decided whether to proceed.

More than two weeks ago, Dallas Superintendent Mike Miles was in Dade Middle School early in the morning for a meeting about leadership changes he had just ordered at the campus. Trustee Nutall was there too. Miles says she shouldn’t have been, was trespassing, and ordered officers to remove her. Here’s how she described it last week:

“I’ve never been manhandled by police before. My offense is getting a speeding ticket and taking defensive driving. I’ve never been manhandled by a policeman.”

School board President Miguel Solis thought this had been diffused after a closed meeting last week. His plan? A series of open meetings to create policies that would head off future confrontations. Today, he was surprised Nutall filed the complaint, but is sticking to his plan.

“We have an opportunity, I believe, next week to have an open and honest conversation as a board at large as it relates to big issues like governance and management,” Solis said.

The D.A.’s office is reviewing Nutall’s complaint to see if it fits the “official oppression” category, a Class A misdemeanor. If so, it would go to a grand jury, which would decide whether to bring charges. Nutall didn’t respond to a request for comment today. 

Bill Zeeble has been a full-time reporter at KERA since 1992, covering everything from medicine to the Mavericks and education to environmental issues.