El Paso Independent School District Trustee Charles Roark resigned abruptly with a letter to school board president David Dodge Tuesday night.
Read the letter via the link below. Click here to read the ABC-7 KVIA report.
In his letter, Roark wrote that he sold his house and was moving out of the district.
Roark, who was appointed to serve the unexpired term of Robert L. Benson in 1995, has served as trustee for 12 years, including a term as board president.
“It has been my privilege to serve as Trustee for the El Paso Independent School District,” Roark wrote. “During that period, we have seen significant improvement in student achievement as measured by test scores; significant improvement in facilities through construction of new schools and the modernization of many campuses; a restructured budget process resulting in better reporting and a more effective overall operation; better management of our healthcare and worker’s compensation benefits program; improvement in employee attitudes and job satisfaction; and a marked improvement in meeting the needs of children requiring extra assistance.”
The school board has been through much change in the last year. Two other trustees, Carlos Cordova and Sal Mena, left the board about a year ago, citing health concenrs.
Cordova pleaded guilty to corruption charges in November.
Roarke has been connected to the corruption case by the government, which named him as a potential target of the investigation when the government tried to get Roark's lawyer, Mary Stillinger, disqualified from representing more than one client. Stillinger prevailed, and in the process, expressed concern that her clients, never charged, had been linked to the investigation.
-- Judge Disqualifies Stillinger from Representation, Posted on July 27, 2007: "Lawyer Mary Stillinger cannot represent three clients who the government has called “targets” of an ongoing investigation by the FBI into government corruption, U.S. District Court Judge Frank Montalvo ruled. Stillinger almost immediately requested a clarification, saying the ruling made it unclear as to whether she is even able to discuss a possible with her clients, among other issues."
-- Fifth Circuit: No charges, no jurisdiction -- corruption court cannot order lawyer off cases, Posted on August 7, 2008: "The opinion held that while the Fifth Circuit understood Montalvo's 'laudable concern about potential conflicts of interest in an ongoing criminal investigation,' there was no legal authority to keep Mary Stillinger from representing three men identified as potential targets."
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