By Shimon Prokupecz, Matthew J. Friedman, Leigh Waldman and Rachel Clarke, CNN

(CNN) — Maintenance records still being withheld by the Uvalde school district show entry doors at Robb Elementary School had repeated problems before the May 2022 massacre, CNN can reveal.

On April 18, 2022, a complaint was submitted that “West door not closing right,” in unreleased records obtained by CNN. Although the work order was reported complete the following day, the next month a teenager armed with an assault rifle opened that very door and walked into the school where he killed 19 fourth graders and two teachers.

The work orders are part of public documents requested for years by CNN and other media organizations. The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (UCISD) agreed to produce them after a court order — upheld on appeal — that they must do so. Last month some 3,547 pages of material were released through the district’s lawyers, Walsh Gallegos. After CNN reported that documents were being withheld and lawyers for the media coalition complained, Walsh Gallegos admitted it had made a mistake and Uvalde’s governing school board again voted to release all records related to the massacre and its aftermath.

Eight subsequent releases totaling 25,120 pages were made as of Wednesday night — a deadline set by Walsh Gallegos for full transparency, which has long been demanded by survivors and the families of victims.

But glaring holes remain.

Apart from the door, records are known to exist regarding phone calls to and from Pete Arredondo, the school police chief at the center of the failed law enforcement response that took 77 minutes to challenge the gunman after he walked in the school, even though officers were in the building within just three minutes. And still not released are files on what led up to Arredondo’s firing, as well as warnings about unlocked classroom doors, that CNN has already reported on.

Walsh Gallegos did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday. The school district said it was continuing to work with the law firm to make sure all relevant information was made available. A source with knowledge of the matter said that included a personal reachout to the law firm from UCISD superintendent Ashley Chohlis after she was informed of CNN’s inquiry.

‘Door is not closing’

CNN has obtained the Robb Elementary maintenance records for the 2020/21 and 2021/22 academic years showing repeated issues in the West building targeted by the gunman. On the day of the massacre, he opened and walked through the west door with no hindrance, though it had been pulled shut by a teacher. Arriving police officers were also able to open that door, and two other entrance doors, with no key and no problem.

“The back entrance door locks but its (sic) staying open from the door frame,” read a note about the West building in September 2020. “West side door slams loud, needs an adjustment to the door closer,” was reported in March 2021. “The south side entrance door frame has a piece of metal sticking out,” was said to be addressed in September 2021.

In December 2021 it was reported, “South entrance door not closing from the door closer. Stays open gotta slam it close for it to close.” The south door was a problem again the next month: “Door is not closing from the door closer need to slam it for it to close.” And again, the very next month: “South entrance door is not closing from the door closer need to close it manually or it (will) stay wide open.

Issues were also noted with the classroom doors in the West building that housed the fourth grade: “door will not lock/key does not work” for Classroom 123 in January 2021; “Key is broken in door will not come out … Can not lock door,” was said about Classroom 104 in August 2021; “The door will not shut close you have to actually slam it close to hopefully get it to close,” was reported for Classroom 110 in September 2021. Arnie Reyes, the teacher of Classroom 111 — one of those entered by the gunman — also reported problems with his door lock, according to an interview then-Principal Mandy Gutierrez gave to investigators, but that is not mentioned in the work orders.

“I was doing my job of telling Mandy ‘Hey, this is not working. This is not safe,’” Reyes told CNN in an interview following Wednesday’s UCISD final release of documents. “What I’ve been looking for in those emails is do they not have a log or anything from the school police department saying ‘Hey, these doors were open’?”

When asked about how long he was concerned about the doors not locking or latching at Robb Elementary, Reyes said “three or four years out of the time I was there.”

Amy Franco had started working at Robb Elementary the month before the shooting. She said the door of the classroom she shared with another teacher “wouldn’t close all the way.”

Franco also shared she was surprised to learn that exterior doors on the school’s campus were frequently left unsecured. “All three doors on that campus are always open, always unlocked,” Franco said. “I couldn’t believe that.”

There is no evidence the doors to either of the connected classrooms 111 and 112 entered by the gunman were locked on May 24, 2022. And despite a lockdown being ordered, surveillance video and investigation records studied by CNN show at least three other classroom doors in that hallway were unsecured too. But officers never tried to open the doors to where the shooter was holed up with his victims, dead and alive, until the final breach, instead waiting for keys or tools to break in.

The maintenance records were requested in a lawsuit filed by CNN and other media outlets for public information. That 2022 lawsuit demanded, among other material: “Any and all maintenance records, maintenance record requests, and/or work orders for door locks at Robb Elementary School over the past five years” and “All work orders for classrooms 111 and 112 at Robb Elementary School over the past five years.”

On June 8, 2022, the Walsh Gallegos law firm instructed UCISD then-superintendent Hal Harrell and the then-school board president to preserve all evidence related to the shooting, as part of its requirements for representing UCISD. It attached a list of material to be saved, including surveillance videos, communications during the massacre, all emails and computer files containing information about the attack or its investigation, texts sent by the district and even the door where the shooter entered.

Correspondence that was released by the district shows district staff set up a shared drive to collect some electronic documents on June 10, and records of what appears to be collections of emails were uploaded later in June.

The maintenance records were also supplied in an email to Texas Rangers, who used a yellow highlighter to mark up the work orders about the doors.

In response to questions about the missing maintenance records, the school district’s communications chief told CNN, “We acknowledge your allegations that certain maintenance records have not been released.” The statement continued to say the district is working with its law firm to “make sure that all relevant documents are made available in a timely manner.”

Principals told to stop calling police chief

There was so much chaos in the minutes after the gunman entered the classrooms and massacred the children and teachers inside that school police chief Arredondo called the district’s communication chief for help.

As he stood in the school hallway littered with rifle cartridges and with gunsmoke still in the air, Arredondo only had his cellphone to communicate, having ditched his school and police radios outside.

He told investigators he ignored his phone once “everybody in the world” started calling, but CNN now has information that some of those people were his school principals.

In an email sent to Texas Rangers on June 2, 2022, by then-UCISD executive director for communications and marketing Anne Marie Espinoza, she said she received: “A phone call from Chief Arredondo asking to inform principals to stop calling him — he is in a stand-off with a shooter inside the building.”

The timeline — again not produced to CNN and others as a public record covered by the lawsuit, but obtained through sources — showed she sent that message to principals at 11:49 a.m.

The call records for the phone used by Arredondo on May 24, 2022, were also part of the lawsuit. They have not been supplied.

Arredondo has since been charged and is awaiting trial on charges of endangering children, and his texts and call records would give insight into his decision making that day. Arredondo has pleaded not guilty.

$1m payout referenced for Arredondo

CNN reported exclusively last month that documents were being withheld by the district, including some that referenced school security and a “settlement offer” for Arredondo.

CNN can now report that 48 pages of correspondence relating to Arredondo’s termination referenced a possible million-dollar pay out after he was placed on leave for the botched response. School board members raised concerns over the optics of such a large settlement in messages to former district superintendent Harrell and other school administrators, according to multiple sources who have reviewed the file. Details of why the settlement discussion began were not clear, and there has been no indication Arredondo received any payment.

A 99-page file on then-Principal Gutierrez was readied but marked “do not release.” It contains an email where Gutierrez lists several instances when she flagged both security and maintenance concerns at Robb Elementary and claims the school district’s communications with state investigators examining the shooting “lacks some information that is pertinent.”

It appears that none of these records have yet been released.

At the school board meeting on August 25, Robb D. Decker of Walsh Gallegos told the board and the audience it was human error that caused too few records to be prepared for release in the weeks after a district court and then an appeals court ruled for openness.

“We are not in any way trying to hide anything. We are not in any way trying to not release things,” he said. “It was truly an error on our side, for reasons that are our firm’s business, but it is our error.”

School board members, who had voted unanimously weeks earlier to release all the information, appeared emotional and angry. Another motion was proposed by school board member Jesse Rizo, the uncle of Jackie Cazares, one of the children killed.

“I move to authorize the superintendent and council to release all documents related to the shooting at Robb Elementary, with the exception of any safety plans. This includes the release of all attorney-client privileged information.” The measure passed unanimously.

CNN has also learned that over 500 pages of the school administration’s communications with its attorneys have been prepared but have also not yet been released, according to a source with direct knowledge. Speaking with CNN Thursday about the unreleased documents, a clearly frustrated Rizo called the situation “pathetic.”

“We’re looking at data that should have already been released,” Rizo said. “We voted twice on it.”

Both Franco and Reyes, who are still dealing with health issues related to the tragedy at Robb Elementary, feel this fight for information is stunting their healing.

“As survivors, we shouldn’t have to be chasing down our own truth,” Franco said Wednesday.

Reyes added: “I wish they would put themselves in our shoes, for these three years or for the rest of our lifetime, all of the information that they’re withholding.”

An emergency school board meeting has now been scheduled for Monday. Its agenda covers getting new lawyers and addressing “legal issues related to the release of information regarding the tragedy at Robb Elementary.”

The first release of UCISD material on August 11 comprised 3,547 pages of material, categorized by the relevant person or subject.

There have been eight releases since Walsh Gallegos admitted their error, totaling 25,120 pages. These are uncategorized and have included duplicate emails.

In all the releases, much of the material is unrelated to the shooting and its aftermath, including marketing email from a woodworking company and discussion between a wife and her husband about a new washing machine.

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