png thumbnail

An Eastside Memorial High School community member said he is suing Austin ISD, claiming that the district violated the Texas Public Information Act by not releasing documents he requested.

Steve Swanson, a member of EMHS's Campus Advisory Council, said he requested all documentation since 2009 of AISD's work to help EMHS succeed. He said the district has not produced the documents.

Swanson's lawsuit, filed March 27, claims that AISD "unlawfully withheld public information regarding EMHS, the potential closure or repurposing of that campus, and of the district's neglect and abandonment of its duty to help the campus succeed."

Swanson has asked the court to declare that AISD violated his rights under the Texas Public Information Act and to require that AISD release the requested documents and pay his attorney fees.

"We've been asking for information, and the suit will help foster a more honest discussion about what has taken place in the past and how we can do better in the future," Swanson told reporters at a March 27 news conference.

In a statement, AISD said that Swanson had neither informed the district about a lawsuit nor had the district been served with a lawsuit.

"The first we are hearing about it is from the media today. Of course, the district is not able to comment on the alleged suit until we have had a chance to read and analyze it," the district wrote. "To the district's knowledge, the district has responded timely to each and every request for information filed pursuant to state law by Mr. Swanson and others."

Background

AISD is still figuring out the next steps for EMHS.

In 2011, the district contracted with IDEA Public Schools to create an in-district charter in East Austin. AISD added IDEA to the reconstitution plan, the plan that allowed the district to repurpose Johnston High School—rated Academically Unacceptable by the Texas Education Agency—and turn it into EMHS.

In 2012, the board of trustees voted to end the district's contract with IDEA. IDEA was scheduled to extend its programming to EMHS in the 2013–14 school year.

Now the district has until the end of the 2012–13 school year to come up with a new plan to avoid the school's closure.

The lawsuit

According to the lawsuit, Swanson requested the documents to discover what AISD had learned from the outcome of its partnership with IDEA.

"Surely the central administration learned a lesson and put it to paper in order to avoid the same mistakes in the future," the suit states.

Swanson said he requested information about the process the district used to plan schools, about budgeting, who was involved in planning and when and how the district makes decisions.

The suit claims that AISD ignores local communities and dictates campus policy decisions from its central administration offices.

"The community is supposed to help assess academic achievement, set objectives, create a timeline and measure progress toward meeting those objectives," it reads. "It is supposed to be highly democratic."

The suit also claims that the urgency of the May/June deadline squelched debate and fast-tracked the drafting of the district's Request for Proposals, which the board decided to send to educational entities that could partner with EMHS.

"Although EMHS's Campus Advisory Committee explicitly told central administration it would only accept mentorship and assistance, the RFP the central administration wrote explicitly sought an entity to take over the campus," the suit states.

The lawsuit claims there was no reason to reconstruct the school as a charter "when the central office had never even tried community-based planning under the Texas Education Code."

"AISD's central administration has never genuinely tried to work with the EMHS community to help the school succeed. It has pointed its finger and blamed parents and teachers and students, and it has used the campus as a guinea pig for pet projects, but it has never authentically engaged with the community on a peer basis to explore ways it could help," the suit claims.

Swanson said he had met with district representatives to discuss his document request prior to filing the lawsuit.