Bonham, Texas --  This is the second in a series of question-and-answer sessions with Dr. Lance Hamlin, Bonham ISD Superintendent. In this segment, Dr. Hamlin addresses the provisions of Texas Education Code §21.057, and the district's hiring practices and background checks.

Response Regarding Texas Education Code §21.057 and Parental Notification

To fully understand the situation, it is important to look at the operational framework Bonham ISD has used for the last few years.

The History of Our District of Innovation (DOI) Plan 

In 2022, facing a severe statewide teacher shortage, Bonham ISD joined hundreds of school districts across Texas in adopting a District of Innovation (DOI) Plan. Under Texas education law, a DOI plan allows local districts to claim exemptions from certain state mandates. One of the primary exemptions we utilized was the ability to hire uncertified educators to ensure we had an adult in every classroom. Furthermore, under our original DOI plan, the standard state requirement to notify parents of an uncertified teacher's placement was legally exempted.

The 2025–2026 School Year Standard 

Despite those previous exemptions, Bonham ISD should have sent out notification letters to parents during the 2025–2026 school year. As the Superintendent of Bonham ISD, the buck stops with me. It was my direct responsibility to ensure that these notifications were processed and delivered to our families, and that did not happen. I want to be entirely clear with our community: the lack of notification was not part of an elaborate plan to withhold information or keep our parents in the dark. It was simply a lack of administrative follow-through on our part during a chaotic hiring season.

Shifting Our Focus to Results 

While we stumbled on the paperwork, our team was completely focused on solving the root cause of the problem: drastically reducing our reliance on non-certified staff. We chose to put our energy into recruiting, retaining, and supporting fully certified professionals.

Our strategic efforts have yielded definitive results:

• At our peak during this teacher shortage, Bonham ISD employed 39 DOI uncertified educators.

• Through aggressive recruitment, a Board-approved $5,000 local pay raise above the state minimum, and mandating that principals prioritize certified applicants, we have successfully slashed that number to less than 10 DOI educators.

• Any remaining uncertified instructors are now strictly required via contract addendums to be actively enrolled in an alternative certification pathway.

Moving forward, our internal tracking has been streamlined to ensure that compliance and communication happen simultaneously. We owe our parents both a high-quality educator in the classroom and timely communication at home. We are correcting this administrative oversight immediately to ensure it never happens again, and we appreciate our community holding us to that standard.

Response Regarding Hiring Practices, Background Checks, and Vetting Procedures

I want to be entirely straightforward with our community: I cannot answer for the hiring practices or personnel decisions made by previous district leadership.

However, I can speak definitively to the standards of our current administration. Since May of 2025, Bonham ISD has absolutely and strictly followed the rigid hiring practices and compliance standards set forth by the Texas Education Agency (TEA), utilizing ongoing guidance from the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB).

Today, Bonham ISD comprehensively vets every single applicant through a multi-layered review process before they are permitted to step into a classroom:

• Rigorous Interview and Screening: Every candidate undergoes a structured interview process designed to evaluate both their instructional capability and their suitability to work with children.
• Comprehensive Reference Checks: Our human resources team conducts thorough professional reference verifications to confirm past employment performance, character, and reliability.
• State-Governed Background Checks: Without exception, all potential employees must successfully clear the robust biometric fingerprinting and criminal history clearinghouse mandated by the state of Texas. This ensures continuous, real-time monitoring through the state registry.
• Ongoing Internal Audits: Since May 2025, our Human Resource Department has systematically monitored our personnel files/certifications to ensure that all active staff, educational aides, and substitutes are fully vetted and that their state certifications are currently active. During this process, we are in communication with campus administration regarding the status of our educators that are working towards their certification.

We understand that past events have caused anxiety among our parents, and we take that feedback very seriously. While we cannot rewrite the past, we are completely dedicated to safeguarding the present and future of Bonham ISD. Every hiring decision made by this administration will continue to prioritize student safety above all else.

We do not view these questions as a hurdle, but rather as an essential mechanism of community accountability. Bonham ISD is actively correcting administrative oversights, tightening our compliance guardrails, and working diligently to earn back the full confidence of our parents and taxpayers.

Sincerely,

Dr. Lance Hamlin

Bonham ISD Superintendent