A new state law allows Texas school districts to seek exemption from certain regulations in the Texas Education Code, including hiring educators who are not certified.

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Districts taking an interest in becoming a District of Innovation, or DOI, say allowing industry professionals to teach certain subjects could increase students’ career and college readiness. But classroom teachers argue the new law is too far-reaching, and it puts teacher job security at risk.

Besides exemption from teacher certifications, a DOI designation could allow flexibility in the school calendar, higher class-size caps and lower mandatory attendance rates, said Robbin Gesch, Round Rock ISD chief of teaching and learning.

Gesch first proposed exploring DOI status at the RRISD board of trustees’ May 19 meeting. The seven-member board voted unanimously to move forward with the idea.

Leander ISD’s board of trustees discussed exploring the DOI option in fall 2015 and authorized school administration to research DOI designation and report back to the board.

Veronica Sopher, assistant superintendent of community and governmental relations, said the board has not discussed DOI designation since because it has been searching for a new superintendent.

The LISD board approved Kerrville ISD Superintendent Dan Troxell as the lone finalist in the superintendent search in July.

Troxell said DOI status would likely be “too radical” to pursue immediately in LISD. He said he would spend his first few months as its superintendent learning about the districts before deciding to pursue any plans or actions.

Kendall Pace, president of Austin ISD board of trustees, said the board directed staffers to explore DOI designation in March, and it could receive an update from staff at its Aug. 15 meeting. Pflugerville ISD Communications Officer Steve Scheffler said his district is also looking into the DOI process. Neither AISD nor PfISD has yet resolved to develop a local innovation plan.

DOI designation was created by Texas House Bill 1842, which state lawmakers passed in 2015. The bill allows traditional school districts to adopt a local innovation plan that allows for more flexible operating models, including some exemptions from state regulations previously offered only to charter schools.

Other states have passed similar bills in recent years, including Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee and West Virginia.

The road to innovation RRISD is one of many districts in Texas that are considering or have passed resolutions to become DOIs.The Texas Education Agency must now adopt rules to define the process. TEA Spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said public comments surrounding the rules were still under review, as of  press day August 12. Once the rules are adopted, they will take effect in 20 days, she said. Interested school districts are using the TEA’s proposed rules to get started on the process.

A district can become a DOI only after it develops a local innovation plan with public input and approval from an elected district-level committee and the school board.

RRISD board of trustees voted unanimously to form a committee to develop an innovation plan after a public hearing at its June 23 meeting, during which only one member of the public spoke.

The 15-member, board-appointed committee will create an innovation plan that outlines which education code exemptions RRISD is seeking.

In August the appointed committee will likely present the local innovation plan to RRISD’s elected district-level committee.

By September or October, RRISD trustees could vote on the final innovation plan, Gesch said. If RRISD’s district-level committee and its board of trustees approve the innovation plan, it would last five years and require annual updates, Gesch said.

Teacher contract concerns Chapter 21 of the Texas Education Code governs teacher contracts and mandates that teachers must hold a certificate issued by the State Board for Educator Certification.

But a DOI could choose to exempt itself from teacher contracts and benefits, similar to public charter schools.

“That would mean that teachers would be at-will employees,” said Lonnie Hollingsworth, general counsel for Austin-based nonprofit Texas Classroom Teachers Association. “The district could basically let them go for any reason at all at any time.”

Hollingsworth said TCTA, which represents 50,000 educators throughout the state, opposed HB 1842 because DOI designation could infringe on the rights of both teachers and parents, such as a teacher removing a disruptive student from the classroom or a parent receiving notice of a student’s unsatisfactory grades.

He said paid time for lesson planning and preparation could also be taken from teachers in a DOI.

Hollingsworth said many districts are interested in altering the school start date and exempting from the teacher appraisal system, which beginning in school year 2017-18 will rate teachers based in part on student performance. TCTA opposes the appraisal system, but Hollingsworth argued a change should be addressed statewide.

The DOI process also gives more authority to district-level committees, Hollingsworth said.

“In the past, this committee has been pretty much a paper tiger,” he said. “All of the sudden this committee … becomes a huge safeguard to avoid potential losses in rights and benefits.”

Hollingsworth said it is important for classroom teachers to get involved in the DOI process and ensure the district-level committee is an elected body that includes teacher representatives.

Gesch and Corey Ryan, executive director of communications and community relations, said RRISD is not interested in skirting certification requirements for teachers of core subjects.

“We need certified teachers. We need teacher contracts in 99 percent of instances,” Ryan said.

RRISD is interested in hiring uncertified educators to teach world language classes—a field in which teachers are hard to find—and in some technical education classes in which an industry professional with real-world experience would be more valuable than a certified educator with no experience in the field, Ryan said.

More flexibility David Dunn, executive director of Austin-based Texas Charter Schools Association, said exemption from the Texas Education Code allows charter schools in Texas many freedoms not afforded to ISDs.

Because charter schools are not bound by state contract provisions, faculty and administrators are largely at-will employees, which enables more hiring freedom and the ability to let go of faculty members who fail to meet the needs of students, Dunn said.

Many teachers in charter schools enjoy the flexibility of not having a contract, even though the pay is less than many public school teachers receive, he said. Charter school teachers are also free to adjust the curriculum as needed to ensure students are learning the material, he said.

Dunn said lack of state regulations provides charter schools more flexibility with the school calendar, such as aligning early college high school students with a partnering community college’s schedule or offering night classes to students who must work to support their families.

“We’ve got a number of charter schools focused on kids who’ve dropped out,” Dunn said.

He said the association supports DOI designation because it could improve educational outcomes for students.

Charter schools and ISDs receive state funds based on the average daily attendance of students, but charter schools in Texas do not receive funds from local tax revenue or state facilities funding. If public schools no longer have to adhere to state regulations, charter schools should be eligible for the same state funding DOI schools receive, Dunn said.