The Eanes ISD $210 Million Dumpster Fire: A Board Trading Gold for Lawsuits

Scandal Deepens as Attorney General Tapped for Help by Eanes Parents Seeking Answers

Westlake Hills, Texas – April 21, 2025  

By Aaron Silva

Eanes ISD—Texas’ elite, top-5 U.S. school district—is hemorrhaging: $7 million down now, $11 million next year, with Valley View and Eanes elementaries slated for closure and Spanish Immersion gutted. Enter Jeff Buch, a Westlake legend who rallied 100+ local citizens and parents to bankroll the $6.9 million Westlake Athletic & Community Center (WACC)—no taxpayer dime spent, likely 1 million kids served. His pitch? A $210 million 40 year endowment, potentially Texas’ biggest school donation ever. The Eanes Board of Trustees’ move? Dodge, dither, and—brace for it—axe Buch’s contracts on April 8, 2025, claiming “educational” needs for WACC and shoddy upkeep for the Aquatic Center. Now they’re staring down $2.2 million owed to Buch’s investors and a legal brawl that could cost millions more, all while spurning a fortune and begging attention from the Texas AG. This isn’t a misstep; it’s a bureaucratic arson spree, torched in emails clawed out by parent Freedom of Information requests. Snag the fetid stack of email here and gag.

Scene One: The Gym Guy Gets Ghosted

April 2, 2024 (yes, 1 year ago) —Buch emails Trustee Heather Sheffield: “I was hoping to meet to discuss the WACC and the Eanes Aquatic Center.” A polite invitation from the guy whose WACC is Westlake’s pulse. April 11: “Please let me know if you have time to meet.” Eight months of silence from Heather.

November 12, 2024—Buch meets Superintendent Jeff Arnett, CFO Chris Scott, and Trustee Kim McMath (Sheffield’s AWOL). He drops a bombshell: turn WAC, LLC into a nonprofit endowment, funneling WACC and Aquatic Center profits—$1.1M and $500K yearly—for 40 years, plus $500K–$1M from rentals and $75K in labor savings. Total after 5% annual growth: $210 million, a lifeboat for a district sinking $18M. Thirty-three days later, December 15, he emails Sheffield: “I proposed… revenue generating ideas… $500,000 per year… probably closer to $1 million… [plus] $1.5 million per year.” Twenty-two days crawl by; Sheffield yawns, January 6, 2025: “If you want to send your proposal via email, I’m sure the board would take a look at it.” Sure, Heather, when the deficit hits $20M.

Scene Two: The Open Meeting Blood Bath

January 14, 2025—imagine a boardroom packed with weeping parents and kids, 40 voices pleading to save Valley View and Spanish Immersion, offering a $915,000 real-time pledge to keep the language program alive for 700 students. The BOT, faces like granite, votes to shutter Valley View and kill Spanish Immersion. Hidden in their back pocket? Buch’s $210M offer—$50–$60M in profits, $500K–$1M rentals, enough to save schools and programs. Not a whisper. Parents stagger out, crushed; the BOT’s secret stays buried.

Scene Three: The Paperwork Priesthood Rises

January 24, the January 11 wounds still raw, Buch pushes back on Sheffield’s email: “I am somewhat confused as to why the board president would need to respond… It seems odd.” In our neighborly elite bubble, it’s not odd—it’s a middle finger to the guy who built your gym. January 25, Sheffield channels a 12th-century scribe: “I won’t be able to bring your proposal back to the board in a meaningful way unless you either hand deliver a written proposal to me or send it via email.” Hand deliver? Is she waiting for a carrier pigeon? Buch, unbowed, fires back January 26: “Similar to the WACC, which took 3½ years of meetings… there was no formal proposal first… That was the way to do business.” The 2012–2016 BOT, with real business mojo, spun talks into a $6.9M win for 1M+ athletes across Texas. Today’s crew? They’re too busy sanctifying their rulebook—self-forged, not state law—to save Eanes.

Inside the bunker, it’s a coma. January 26, 11:48 AM, President James Spradley to Arnett: “Remind me where we are with Jeff Buch… right?” Nine minutes later, Arnett: “I told him as recently as Jan. 14… no further discussion… until we receive something in writing.” Forty-nine minutes limp by; Spradley: “He’s working multiple angles.” Buch lays it out, January 27, 10:08 AM: “..upwards of $50 - $60 million is a large donation.” At 1:11 PM: “the donation… would be $50-$60 million.” Spradley to Arnett, 3:21 PM: “I don’t see any need to respond.” 

Scene Four: The Knife and the Cover-Up

Buch’s emails—December 15, January 27—serve as a “written draft” by any standard, not hand delivered to Sheffield by courier but enough: $500K–$1M rentals, $50–60M donation. It’s right there, enough for a dinner chat or pancakes at Honey Ham. February 6, Spradley bolts the gate: “individual meetings… are not necessary.” February 11, Buch tosses a $30K Aquatic Center profit-sharing check, per contract, and repeats the $50M+ vision: “I would love to meet with any of you individually.” Zilch.

March 25, 2025— my story detonates, exposing Buch’s $210M offer. Westlake gasps; nobody knew. Sheffield, up for re-election, scrambles, encouraging the public to seek emails between BOT and Buch. Parents dive in, finding a swamp of delays and disdain (attached). But when they dig deeper for more exchanges, Eanes ISD’s legal team locks the vault, punting the FOI request forcing parents to tap the Texas Attorney General for immediate help. Parents assume the BOT was foreshadowing a legal fight to come and therefore shut down access to additional correspondence - we can’t know for sure.  FOI laws demand a 10-day response, but AG reviews drag 30+ days—past the May 3 election. A slick dodge potentially designed to shield Sheffield, leaving Eanes voters blind while the scandal rots.

April 8, 2025—the BOT swings the axe, terminating Buch’s WACC and Aquatic Center contracts. For WACC, they dust off a contract clause buried deeper than a politician’s conscience, claiming “educational uses” (health sciences, career-tech) to repossess it. Yet, not one BOT agenda—ever—mentions expanding Eanes’ curriculum to the WACC; they’re too busy axing Spanish Immersion. Whispered speculation: did the BOT cook up “educational purposes” as a sly dodge to strong-arm Buch and his 100+ local investors out, betting they could rake in more than his 100% net profit offer by running it themselves—maybe with student interns or a cut-rate outfit? The move bans ALL athletics—hundreds of Westlake High athletes, cheer, band, drill team, plus youth basketball, soccer, football, and volleyball lose their hub, per Buch’s April letter calling it “callous indifference.” Simple math: the WACC’s $6.9M asset, 10 years into a 15-year depreciation, sticks Eanes with a ~$2.2M bill to Buch’s investors. For the Aquatic Center, Eanes taxpayers—not Buch—funded it via the 2019 bond; he just manages it. Yet, the BOT slaps him with years-old gripes (mold in 2020, propped doors in 2023), issues Eanes likely owned, fixed eons ago. Why? Payback for Buch’s $210M offer making a BOT pants-dropper? An election-eve flex to help Sheffield? A greedy grab for profit? Nobody knows exactly because there has been zero transparency from the Board of Trustees on this major situation affecting so many.

Scene Five: The TOMA Charade

The BOT wields the Texas Open Meetings Act (TOMA) like a tin badge (January 27, 3:47 PM: “trustees… cannot discuss spontaneous proposals without… a public agenda”). Hogwash. TOMA triggers at a quorum (4 of 7); 1–3 trustees could’ve had a beer or a slumber party with Buch—no notice, no crime (Tex. Gov’t Code §551.001). Closed sessions for gifts? Kosher (§551.073). Their “protocols” (February 6: “President will acknowledge all emails”) are self-imposed shackles—handy for dodging parents, suicidal for a $210M savior.

The Bust: A Board Betting on Lawsuits Over Lifelines

The 2012–2016 BOT turned talks into a $6.9M WACC coup. Today’s BOT—facing $18M deficits—knifes the guy who risked $7M when nobody flinched, spurning a historic gift for a $2.2M bill and a legal quagmire. Why would a broke district swap $210M for millions in payouts and lawyer fees? Eanes ISD, elite and busted, needs trustees with spine, and sharp business sense not drones who misread TOMA, block emails, and torch gold. Download the emails here. May 3 election’s coming—Eanes voters can swap this circus for smarts without torching the town.

Aaron Silva, for Eanes ISD’s fed-up taxpayers.

aaronmsilva@gmail.com