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Stacey Lewis Jr. -
Kevin Reece -
The stadium formerly known as Beaumont ISD Carol A. 'Butch' Thomas Educational Sport Center. The name was changed in 2018 to the BISD Memorial Stadium
After avoiding the agenda for a full year, the proposition of renaming Beaumont Independent School District’s (BISD) Memorial Stadium – a controversy-conjuring conversation – appeared once again on trustees’ list of action items at the board’s Jan. 20 meeting.
The oft-discussed action item last reared its head for vote in trustees’ January 2021 meeting, where Trustees Denise Wallace-Spooner, Matilda Hickman, Robert Dunn, along with two former board members, voted against changing the name from “Memorial Stadium” to once again honor retired Superintendent Carrol A. ‘Butch’ Thomas.
According to previous reporting by The Examiner, trustees elected to alter the stadium name to BISD Memorial Stadium in 2018 from Beaumont ISD Carrol A. ‘Butch’ Thomas Educational Suport Center. That was after an investigation by The Examiner – and, subsequently, state officials – unveiled corruption dating back to Thomas’ tenure. According to BISD, the name alteration was made “in an effort to bridge divisions with the Beaumont community.”
A state-installed Board of Managers, tasked with the district’s recovery post-Thomas, voted to remove the name from the stadium that greets all who enter Beaumont from the west on Interstate 10.
Dunn, current board president, said many citizens were in favor of removing Thomas’ name at the time because the removal was privately funded. It cost about $28,000 to remove both signs in 2018.
According to information from BISD, District 2 Trustee Stacey Lewis Jr. and District 4 Trustee Kevin Reece requested the item be placed on the agenda for Jan. 20. Neither could be reached for comment by phone, but Lewis told The Examiner via email that district policy states that media inquiries should be directed to the board president, not individual trustees.
Dunn denied any such policy exists and said trustees are allowed to opine on board matters, including items they bring before trustees for consideration.
Speaking for himself the last time trustees discussed that matter during the first meeting of 2021, Dunn said, “I don’t understand why we’re still doing this in 2021. Why? This is insanity.”
“I’m not sure how I feel right now,” Dunn said ahead of the Jan. 20 meeting.
The board president believes the matter needs to be resolved one way or another. However, he maintains his position that the district shouldn’t spend a penny on renaming the stadium.
“In fact, I actually received a letter from some lawyer saying that one of his clients paid for it. I’m not sure who that is; I wasn’t a part of that; I wasn’t even on the board then,” he said. “They are threatening litigation against the district if it’s approved for the name ‘Carrol Thomas’ to be put back up there.”
According to Dunn, the attorney’s unnamed client purportedly agreed to “make a considerable donation” to the district if they permanently renamed the stadium. Dunn told The Examiner the district has no evidence such an agreement exists.
“So far, what we found is that it isn’t true that they had a deal for it not to come down; I don’t have anything on that,” said Dunn.
The last time the matter was up for vote, then-President Thomas Sigee and former Trustee Darrell Antwine Sr. joined the “no” votes, with the latter forgoing the prospect of another term as trustee over the constant renaming discussion. Since then, the board has lost two trustees who voted “no” and one who voted in favor.
Among the three new trustees yet to cast a vote in the matter are Lewis, who was one of the two trustees who brought the matter up for discussion; Woodrow Reece, whose son, fellow trustee Kevin Reece, joined Lewis to place the item on the agenda; and recently elected Trustee Joe Evans.
“Everytime the district changes hands, we cannot go back and forth renaming the stadium,” Sigee said in a December 2020 meeting. “We, as a community, got to do better.”