At the conclusion of the meeting, no action was taken and board President Charles Randklev said the next steps include creating a community website to share information regarding the feasibility of a district split.
Randklev added the board will present the idea to community groups for feedback, as well.
“The biggest question we face as a trustee, especially right now, is, where do we go from here? Where do we find more funding?” Place 7 Trustee Heather Washington said at the conclusion of the meeting.
Washington said that $45 million in funding has been cut from Texas school districts over the last two years, including KISD. She said the board will have to make “tough decisions” on how to address the lack of funding.
“Give us the time,” she said “We listened to you tonight. Give us the time to get all of this together.”
The details
While the meeting was open to the public, the trustees and board lawyer Tim Davis went into a closed session to lay out the legalities of the split and what that process entails.
Place 3 Trustee Chelsea Kelly called for the meeting to be open to the public, which was denied by Randklev. She requested to go to executive session without legal counsel present since the board did not require attorney client privilege, which was also denied.
Kelly then asked if the discussion could be recorded and posted for transparency, which was denied, as well.
Place 1 Trustee Micah Young made a motion for board comments to be moved before the executive session, which was approved.
Kelly read a prewritten statement that claimed Randklev planned to conduct a vote to split the district Jan. 16 from a closed meeting Dec. 19.
“What made it worse was finding out this resolution was said to be voted on with no further discussion, community input or planning,” Kelly said. “It felt like a decision that was already made behind closed doors.”
Place 4 Trustee John Birt said his recollection of the Dec. 19 meeting was different than Kelly’s and said the “premature release of conceptual, incomplete information by some of my board colleagues ... allowed political adversaries to prey upon the emotions of parents, citizens and elected officials.”
Place 2 Trustee Joni Smith also read a prepared statement that said she wasn’t involved in the concept of splitting the district and the board needs to band together to come to a resolution.
“I'm not saying I'm for or against this,” she said. “How can I? I don't know the details. Neither do you, and we all deserve that.”
Superintendent Tracy Johnson said through tears that she didn’t think the proposed resolution was right and said she was willing to offer her resignation at the end of the special meeting.
“As the CEO and superintendent of this district, you hired me to look out for the best interest of every stakeholder in this district,” she said. “I think the timeline [to possibly split the district] is accelerated. I don't think we have the details. I don't think that we have the answers. And if the community decides this is something that they want, then we need the time and the right way to figure it out.”
The meeting was adjourned after more than six hours and officials will reconvene Jan. 31 instead of Jan. 23, since Johnson will be unavailable on that date.
What they’re saying
Before the meeting went into the closed session, community members were allowed to speak on the possibility of dividing the district and what it could mean for KISD parents and residents.
Dozens of speakers addressed the board for more than three hours and the majority of speakers expressed their concerns about the lack of transparency from the board.
Pryor Jordan, who was listed as the 102nd speaker at the meeting, said he looked at census data from the ZIP codes where the split would occur along US 377 and said the effect would result in the district west of US 377 to be more disadvantaged.
Jordan’s wife, Jerrica Jordan, said if the board was going to push for this move, it should have been advertised to the residents far ahead of time.
“I would have preferred an election petition,” she said. “Many families moved to Keller for the school district, and to do this all behind the scenes, it makes me lose faith in the people we elected to serve.”
James Trimm, the district director for State Rep. David Lowe, said that their office believes that the people should be involved in district decisions of this magnitude. He was at the meeting in lieu of Lowe, who is in Austin for the start of the 89th Texas State Legislative Session.
“[The voters] are the owners of the property of the school district, the assets of the school district and the debt of the school district,” Trimm said.
Ruthie Keyes, who was on the KISD board of trustees for nearly 12 years before resigning in December 2023, said the proposal was “crazy” and she was concerned on how this will affect the Keller feeder patterns.
“I walked away [from the board] because of this type of behavior,“ Keyes said.
Other residents asked how resources would be divided and how the new district would navigate access to the Keller Center of Advanced Learning, the natatorium and the athletic facilities.
Young said during the open discussion one district not being able to use KCAL and other KISD amenities would not be the case and the proposal “wouldn’t fly” if just one district was able to use those facilities.
“Those types of programs have been built by everybody, and those should be shared assets,” Young said.
Next steps
For KISD to be split into two districts, several processes must take place. Jake Kobersky, the Texas Education Agency’ director media relations, said TEA is not involved at this time since it is a local issue and that dividing a district falls under Chapter 13 of the Texas Education Code.
Subcharter C of Chapter 13 states that several criteria must be met for KISD to create a new district:
- The new district must be at least 9 square miles and have at least 8,000 students in daily average attendance.
- The creation of the new district by detachment is initiated by the resolution of the board of trustees for each district, which is then presented to the Tarrant County Commissioners Court.
- No later than 30 days after the commissioners court receives the petition to detach part of the district under this subchapter, the commissioners court will hold a hearing in regard to the validity of the petition.
- Should the court agree that the petition is valid, each board of trustees will hold an election on the same day in each district. At least 25% of registered voters in each district must vote for the resolution to move forward.
- If all the requirements are met, the commissioners court shall enter an order creating the new school district.
- Should a new district be created, any property in the territory that detaches would become the property of the new district. The new district would also assume, and is liable for, any portion of outstanding debt of the district from which the territory was detached.
The news of a possible district split first started gaining traction on social media the week of Jan. 6, with several KISD parents and residents voicing their concerns.
Elizabeth Carter, who has a 6-year-old child with special needs in KISD, said she came to the meeting seeking answers beyond the rumors on social media.
“I’m here to find out what is really going on and go from there to find out how this will affect the special needs children,” she said. “The truth just needs to come out.”
Randklev told Community Impact Jan. 9 he was "not in a position to comment right now" but later confirmed on his Facebook page that the district was in talks about splitting the district.
The main factor for this discussion is the lack of action at the state level to support school districts, he said in his post.
“School districts throughout our state are being faced with unprecedented challenges,” Randklev said. “As an example, neighboring districts are closing campuses, increasing class sizes and cutting programming. We refuse to accept this as our fate, and we will unapologetically fight for our students and staff."
In an email to Community Impact on Jan. 10, Place 5 Trustee Chris Coker echoed Randklev's Facebook statement that any possible actions taken would be in the best interest of students.
"I can assure everyone that if it becomes apparent in our discussions that this will negatively impact kids or student outcomes, the discussion becomes dead in the water," Coker said. "Innovative discussions must be had if we are going to continue to attempt to navigate the funding problems the state continues to force us to deal with."
Requests for comment from Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, were not immediately returned.
Smith and Kelly posted joint statements to their respective Facebook pages Jan. 9 saying that they were against the split and that they initially were not aware of the discussion.
Fort Worth District 4 Councilman Charlie Lauersdorf told Community Impact Jan. 9 he heard of the plans from a school board member that the board was looking into the feasibility of a split.
“When I asked why I, or the city [of Fort Worth], wasn’t made aware of these plans, I was told that it was because it was so early on in the process that they haven’t discussed it with anyone outside the board,” Lauersdorf said at the time. “I reminded this board member that over two-thirds of KISD fall within the city of Fort Worth and that I represent a vast majority of those residents, so I’d hope to be included in any future conversations.”
