Former Bryan ISD superintendent Christie Whitbeck, who left in 2021 to take the superintendent’s job at Fort Bend ISD in Sugar Land (FBISD), is leaving following an unidentified conflict.
Whitbeck said she was “blindsided” by the undisclosed issue, which she said occurred 19 hours after the November election where a VATRE…a voter approved tax ratification election…was adopted.
During Monday’s (December 4) FBISD board meeting, member Kristen Malone was blocked by board president Judy Dae from providing details about the issues that led to a vote to approve what was described as a “voluntary retirement agreement” that includes paying Whitbeck $491,000 dollars.
Malone said the issue “boils down to personality conflicts between our president, our secretary, and perhaps another” board member.
Whitbeck said in her 38 year career in public education, she has never done anything illegal, immoral, or improper. She added that any insinuation that she did anything illegal, immoral or improper amounts to slander and defamation of character.
Dae, who witnessed Whitbeck receive a standing ovation from four board members and most of the audience in attendance, said “you don’t have to agree or you don’t have to believe” and “a lot of time on the surface is not the same as the truth.”
Malone listed Whitbeck’s accomplishments the last two years in FBISD, which included growing enrollment from the worst to the best in the district’s history, passing a $1.2 billion dollar bond issue in May 2023, and eliminating a $47 million dollar budget deficit.
Malone also brought up the FBISD board last July extending Whitbeck’s contract, which was originally scheduled to end in October of 2024, through the end of 2026.
Whitbeck returned to FBISD in October 2021. She was a FBISD assistant superintendent before going to Bryan ISD in April 2017. Whitbeck said at Monday’s FBISD board meeting that she “gave up a great job with a wonderful board and great kids” (in Bryan) because she “love these kids (and) I love this (FBISD) community”.
A FBISD spokeswoman told WTAW News that the retirement agreement was not available because it “may not have been officially executed by the board of trustees attorney yet”.
Click below to hear comments from the December 4, 2023 Fort Bend ISD school board meeting.