December 10, 2021

The Independent Community Review Committee jumped right into business, Tuesday, during the first of four meetings.

The ICRC is composed of more than 30 committee members including parents, students, and community members. These members were randomly selected from more than 300 volunteers as well as students from different campuses to provide a broad representation of the District.

“The purpose of doing that was to ensure we had a balanced representation of all interested parties from our community. We have 16 women and 14 men on the committee along with male and female student representatives,” said Cecelia Jones, director for Communications. “Based on what I heard at the first meeting, our student volunteers provided a valuable new perspective to the issues the committee has discussed.”

Attorney Dennis Eichelbaum, a partner in the firm of Eichelbaum, Wardell, Hansen, Powell, and Munoz Law Firm, has been asked to chair the committee. Eichelbaum, whose firm represents the District, was selected because of his expertise in the various federal and state laws, such as Title IX governing the issues the committee is considering. 

The ICRC’s first hour was spent learning about the evolution of Title IX, a federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or other education program that receives federal money.

Then the committee broke into four smaller groups and worked on ways of providing notices of the policies to parents, students, and faculty. Ideas ranged from video training, posters, texts, email blasts, and making this information more accessible on the District website.

Over the next several meetings, the ICRC will examine Little Elm ISD’s policies, practices, and procedures for dealing with issues involving sexual misconduct and related issues at the District. The committee will be drafting a proposed Action Plan for proposed enhancements of current policies or policy changes to be presented to the District administration and the school board.

More information can be found on the District’s website using this friendly URL link:  www.littleelmisd.net/icrc