The Texas Education Agency is reviewing a complaint about how signatures were gathered for petitions to close Burnet and Webb middle schools, the agency told Community Impact on Oct. 26. The two petitions aim to keep the state from taking over Austin ISD.
Burnet and Webb each received a fifth consecutive failing rating Aug. 14, which requires the commissioner to close the campuses or replace the elected board, per earlier Community Impact reporting. Parents had until Oct. 15 to submit petitions.
If the petitions are valid, TEA Commissioner Mike Morath is required to order the closures, per TEA’s guidance. Under the agency’s rule, other interventions could still be implemented, including a conservator, a state appointee who oversees the district and can direct decisions by the school board and superintendent, or a board of managers, a group of state appointees who replace the elected school board entirely.
What we know
A complaint was filed by The Webb Middle School PTA and is under review, TEA officials said. The agency reviews each complaint "to determine what next steps, if any, are necessary," and did not say whether it has a role in reviewing how signatures were gathered or whether the review could affect AISD’s Dec. 1 deadline.
The Webb Middle School PTA alleges the Webb petition was "not initiated by Webb parents" and that outside individuals pressured some families to sign without understanding it, according to a formal complaint the PTA posted on Facebook. The complaint, signed by PTA President Vanessa Gámez and communications representative Valeria Gonzales, asks TEA to find out who organized the effort and collected signatures. It also asks that questioned signatures be reviewed before they are counted.
The PTA also raised concerns that families’ private information may have been shared with people outside AISD. It asked TEA to review how the information was collected, accessed and protected.
Initial counts show signatures at both schools reached the threshold of more than 50% of currently enrolled students, Superintendent Matias Segura said in an Oct. 19 letter to families. Neither AISD nor the Austin Council of PTAs has released signature totals.
Parents of more than half of each school’s enrolled students must sign, per TEA’s petition guidance. The state sets that number using Oct. 30 enrollment, and signatures don’t count for students who withdraw before then. AISD must validate the petitions and submit them to TEA by Dec. 1.
What ACPTA is saying
The complaint says Webb PTA parents did not authorize or request involvement from the ACPTA as a way to close the school. It also says an AISD executive director assigned to Webb and ACPTA’s president attended meetings with groups of students without a teacher present, and asks who authorized the meetings.
The meetings were lunch-and-learn sessions on advocacy, ACPTA President Crystal Brothwell Hernandez told Community Impact. She did not say whether teachers were present or who authorized the sessions.
ACPTA’s role was to share information about the petition and a possible TEA takeover, she said, and the decision to sign "belonged to each family." ACPTA has not taken a position for or against the petitions, according to an Oct. 11 Facebook post, and the PTAs at both schools voted to request its support in sharing information.
ACPTA’s website links families to the Parents’ Choice AISD petition site, which says it is independent and not run by AISD or TEA.
What the district is saying
"Our leadership team remains 100% focused on supporting our classrooms, students, and educators at Burnet and Webb throughout this school year, ensuring instructional continuity and stability," Segura said in the Oct. 19 letter.
AISD will review how signatures were collected as part of validation, Segura said in the Oct. 19 letter.
ACPTA received directory information through a standing partnership and information-sharing agreement, Cristina Nguyen, the district’s executive director of communications and community engagement, told Community Impact. Families can opt in to sharing contact information with PTAs and booster clubs during enrollment, she said, and directory information is available through open records to individuals or groups with an educational purpose. Sharing the information to educate or inform families fits the definition of an educational purpose, Nguyen said.
District teams got more involved to share information, not to advocate, an AISD spokesperson told Community Impact on Oct. 15. The district said leaders heard from confused families at four community meetings and "could not stand by with information and not share it with the families."
Petition work was done by volunteers or staff "outside of contract hours," the spokesperson said. AISD officials said the district did not authorize or direct teachers to hand petitions to students and would review any reports.
Segura previously said AISD would not gather signatures or advocate for the petition. The district did not respond by press time to questions about the complaint or the student meetings.
What parents should know
Whether a valid petition keeps the state from taking over AISD is unclear.
Mayor Kirk Watson, who opposes a takeover, wrote in a Sept. 9 newsletter that a majority of parents petitioning means Morath "must close the campuses rather than replace AISD’s elected board." But the commissioner can still layer other interventions, Segura said in a Sept. 14 letter.
Watson’s Oct. 22 newsletter then said the commissioner "retains other authority to intervene" and that such intervention "could be significant." He distinguished a monitor and a conservator, which leave the elected board in place, from a board of managers, which replaces it.
"State oversight isn’t the same thing as state control," Watson wrote.
What's next
The next regular AISD board voting meeting is 6 p.m. Oct. 29, according to the district’s meeting schedule.
A Burnet and Webb family engagement plan starts the first week of November, according to Segura's Oct. 19 letter. AISD expects TEA’s response to its ratings appeals on or around Dec. 10, one day before the agency releases final ratings.
The AISD board can ask the commissioner for a different action by Dec. 15, and TEA’s guidance says Morath "may order" it. If closure is requested, AISD must submit a plan by Jan. 30 outlining how students would be supported, and Morath will issue an order by Feb. 15.
