Round Rock ISD candidates talk district challenges at election forum

Round Rock ISD trustee candidates Mason Moses and Tony A. Pitts touched on several issues affecting the district during a candidate forum Tuesday at Walsh Middle School, including growth management, middle school attendance boundaries and private school vouchers. The candidates are running for Place 7 on the trustee board, which is the only contested race in the RRISD election this year. Place 7 Trustee Pauline Law, who serves as the board’s vice president, chose not to run for re-election. Trustees Nikki Gonzales, elected in 2014, and Charles “Chad” Chadwell, who has served as a trustee since 2008, are running unopposed. Moses, an investment associate, has never run for public office before. Pitts, a civil litigation and probate lawyer, returns to the ballot after unsuccessfully running for a spot on the board in 2014. Both candidates served on RRISD's strategic plan design team and are part of RRISD's District of Innovation Committee. Moses also serves on the district's bond oversight committee. Moses previously worked for a Texas school district for the Regional Education Service Centers. Pitts has been a volunteer and mentor at RRISD and is a former substitute teacher and hall monitor at Stony Point High School 9th Grade Center. Both live in Round Rock and have children attending RRISD schools. The forum was hosted by the Round Rock ISD Council of Parent-Teacher Associations and moderated by council board member Ron Buffum. Questions were submitted beforehand by parents and community members. Another forum is scheduled from 7-8 p.m. tonight at Cedar Ridge High School. Here are the takeaways from Tuesday's event: Introductions

• Pitts said he is running to add diversity to the trustee board, something he believes the board lacks. He said he would encourage trustees to use a "top-down approach" to ensure all of RRISD's demographic communities are able to have a say in the district's future. "We have to show that by having a board that reflects the diversity of our community," he said.
• Moses said RRISD is at its best when parents and community members are involved in district business and said he would work to engage parents. He said a trustee should be active and present, noting that he's made it a goal during his campaign to attend as many school functions as possible. "Great things are happening at Round Rock ISD. It's a special place," he said.

New qualities they would bring to the trustee board

• Pitts said as an attorney he considers himself a professional listener and problem solver, adding that he has a passion for serving the district. He said he has nine years of experience serving on boards of directors, including for his homeowners association and the Samaritan Center in Austin. "I know how boards function and I know how boards should function," he said.
• Moses highlighted his experience on RRISD committees as well as his time interacting with Texas state lawmakers while he worked for the Regional Education Service Centers. Moses said he can bring a unique voice to the trustee board as a parent of two of the district's next generation of students, noting that he has young children just getting started in RRISD schools. "For the next 16 years, they're going to be enrolled in the schools here at Round Rock [ISD]," he said.

Making RRISD a "destination district" for teachers

• Pitts praised RRISD's teachers and said he would encourage more parent and community involvement with their children's education. He said he would like to organize events during which teachers and parents could meet face-to-face with trustees to foster communication on a more personal level.
• Moses also applauded RRISD teachers and said he would work to make sure teachers know they are valued by their trustees. He said RRISD faces competition from other districts to hire and retain skilled teachers, and trustees should provide support to ensure the district does not lose talent.

RRISD's top challenges

• Pitts said managing the growth of the district will be a major challenge for trustees. "That's a good problem to have for the city and the district, but that is a problem that we have to mindful of and we have to plan for," he said. Pitts said the district needs to create more community involvement and ensure students continue to be adequately challenged in class.
• Moses agreed that handling growth is a major challenge and said the district will need to regularly update its long-term growth objectives in order to keep from getting complacent. He said the district should explore new ways to communicate with parents and mentioned the recent confusion and controversy over a plan to redraw attendance boundaries at several middle schools.

Handling concerns about boundary changes Buffum included a question that referenced RRISD's recent plan to change some attendance boundaries ahead of the August 2017 opening of Pearson Ranch Middle School, asking the candidates how they would respond to parents who felt their child was being redistricted into an inferior school.

• Pitts said he doesn't believe RRISD has inferior schools. He said more community outreach and conversation between principals, teachers and parents could help the situation. "This is a joint effort," he said. "We're all in this together."
• Moses said he would like to see open houses at campuses of schools under consideration for boundary changes to allow parents to visit with teachers and school administrators. He said in the future information could be given to parents earlier in the process to alleviate confusion or misunderstandings. "We have to make sure we are engaging parents and informing them well beforehand," he said.

Private school vouchers

• Pitts said he opposes school vouchers and does not want public money going to private schools. "I'm not in favor of that happening in Round Rock," he said. "It's going to take away from public schools. It's not going to make them better."
• Mason said he would never fault parents for choosing to send their children to private schools, but he opposes taxpayer money being used to do so. He said vouchers could erode the strength of public schools and said parents and community members need to urge lawmakers to provide adequate funding for education.