08/20/2026
Dr. Womack, talks about being transparent multiple times in this video. In my experience, people who have to tell you they are transparent, usually are not.
Dr. Womack said he welcomed questions. If that is the truth, why did he turn comments off on this and his other posts on Facebook? Sounds like he is talking out of both sides of his mouth…
Dr. Womack has denied the existence of documents I requested since the day I first met him on Sept. 22, 2025. As one of many examples, I asked for “Any contracts or proposals the board has received or approved relating to the proposed bond election for this year, (2025), relating to construction, architecture, costs and/or estimates, enrollment, and financing.” He noted that on his copy of my request and told me the same verbally, which I confirmed to him in an email later that day. When I later found most of them in emails and board minutes, he acted a little offended that I called him on it.
Dr. Womack acts like I have been withholding the complete memo from the public so he is doing us all a service by making it available. The truth is that he and the VVISD Board have been ducking the memo since I gave him a paper copy of it with my analysis on Sept. 22, 2025. He told me he would review it and get it back to me in a few days, it would not be long. It’s been 11 months and counting. Maybe this video is his idea of getting back to me. Ignoring it has not worked so now they want to put their spin on it.
I posted the entire Stokes Aug. 20, 2010, memo on Facebook on October 28, 2025, after giving Dr. Womack ample time to review it and get back to me. At the time, I thought that was the courteous thing to do vs. go public with it first. I also gave copies to Alan Kassen and Eric Vann in Sept. 2025, asking them to get back to me after they reviewed it. They treated it like a hot potato, Mr. Vann said Dr. Womack would get back to me on it, he never did. I gave them more than a month before I posted it on Facebook to see if they wanted to provide some context. They all chose not to get back to me. I also posted the full memo on Facebook on “The Valley View Voice” on June 8, 2026. You don’t have to take my word for it, it is still there.
Dr. Womack talks in this video like I am only providing snippets of the letter and taking it out of context. Another FALSE MISREPRESENTATION. He said he wanted voters to know the context of the letter. The truth that he chose to exclude in his video is VVISD voters voted down a 2009 M&O Tax rate increase by a margin of 202 to 102. The VVISD Board and Superintendent Stokes wanted to raise VVISD M&O revenue. After the 2009 election failed by a 2-1 margin, they came up with the idea of raising the M&O tax rate by 8 cents with a corresponding 8 cent reduction in the debt, (I&S), rate. They said it would cost taxpayers nothing but because the state had a better match rate for M&O taxes vs. I&S taxes, the District would gain $195,000 a year at no cost to the taxpayer.
It did not pass the smell test to me, hence I wrote the email to Board President Alan Kassen and Superintendent Stokes. Superintendent Stokes responded with the Aug. 20, 2010, memo on VVISD letterhead. I was not an attorney at the time but based on the language in the letter, I thought parts had been written by or reviewed by an attorney as it was expressing legal opinions. I know one Board member wants to discredit some of the damaging statements as Mr. Stoke’s opinion, not a statement of VVISD. If that was the case, why didn’t he respond by email vs. put it on VVISD letterhead and have it reviewed by an attorney?
True to form, Dr. Womack is very selective with parts of the truth that are helpful to his argument, ignoring the rest. He calls it putting it in context. He acts like the memo talked about future boards could legally break the “sure promise”. That is correct, because I asked what would prevent a future board, not party to the promise, from going back on it and taxing the 8 cents on both rates. Mr. Stokes said: “Legally a future board could choose to reinstate an I&S levy; however, to do so without a corresponding reduction in the M&O rate would probably eliminate any possibility the public would ever approve any future referendums such as bond elections. That would be too great a risk for any board to be party to.”
Four years later Mr. Stokes and at least five of the board members who voted for that “sure promise” voted to break that promise, costing the average homeowner about $2,000 to date.
Dr. Womack sets up several straw arguments saying the memo never promised:
1. Never to seek another VATRE,
2. District’s M&O rate could never change again, and,
3. A future board could never levy I&S.
I agree the memo does not say those things and I never said it did. It does say a future board would never break the “sure promise” because if it did, they would never pass a bond issue or any other referendum, such as a VATRE.
Last year Dr. Womack & Mr. Vann along with other board members and community members told us that the $65 Million Bond package was urgent. There was no time to propose a smaller package. If it did not pass we’d have a bunch of ugly portables and other things of the nature the sky would fall if the bond did not pass.
Yesterday, Mr. Vann said in one of his Facebook posts asking about the next bond proposal, he said: “Not even being discussed and we have no plans to roll one out.” He said they would address the need later if one arose.
Last year Dr. Womack and Mr. Vann said it was urgent that the bond issue pass or the school district would be in terrible shape. Now they are not even talking about it. Were they lying then or lying now? Keep that in mind as you hear similar arguments about the VATRE and how dire they will make it sound if it doesn’t pass.
There is more to say, especially Dr. Womack’s selective misrepresentations about the I&S tax rate and overall tax rate reduction, but I’ll save that for another post.
Steve Ga***rd, Concerned VVISD Taxpayer.
NOT
