Keller ISD board meeting flooded by speakers opposing district split; superintendent offers to resign
KELLER – The Keller ISD board of trustees did not take any action over a proposed breakup of the district at Thursday night's meeting after hearing from dozens of upset residents.
More than 120 people signed up to speak, and most who addressed the board were parents who do not want to see the district split in two.
Much of the criticism focused on how the trustees had previously discussed the idea only behind closed doors and were seemingly ready to vote on the split with little public input.
It's something one trustee addressed — and for which she received a standing ovation. Trustee Chelsea Kelly raised a point of order, asking for the normally closed executive session to be made public and have a recording.
Kelly also gave the public more insight into what happened during a private discussion with the board in December.
She said board president Charles Ranklev and two other trustees introduced a plan to split the district: Keller ISD would become Alliance ISD and a new district would be formed east of Highway 377, becoming the new Keller ISD.
Kelly said a resolution was originally set to be voted on Thursday, which surprised parents in the room.
Superintendent offers resignation
Another surprise from the meeting were remarks from Superintendent Tracy Johnson, who has been in the job for just over a year. She said the rumors about the plan were negatively impacting teachers and staff, some of whom are worried if their jobs were safe.
Sitting next to Ranklev as she spoke, Johnson also said she believes the plan is not right for kids and she does not want to be part of it. She told the meeting that she had her letter of resignation prepared and would offer it to the board if they had voted to move forward with the split.
Wealthier neighborhoods split off
The proposed boundaries are key to some of the criticisms because the result would be a wealthier area getting its own district.
The proposal's new Keller ISD would contain only one of the district's regular high schools, Keller High School. Just 6% of students at Keller High School were considered economically disadvantaged, according to the most recent data available from the TEA.
At the proposed Alliance district's three high schools — Keller Central, Timber Creek and Fossil Ridge — the same data shows that approximately 27.5% of students would be considered economically disadvantaged.
Secret meetings
Some parents said December's meeting was a violation of the Open Meetings Act. One parent, Matthew Mucker, even sued. Thursday, a lawsuit alleging Keller ISD board members violated the Texas Open Meetings Act was filed in Tarrant County Civil court.
"You chose to meet in secret, potentially illegally, absolutely in bad faith, in what could only be described as a breathtaking breach of the public trust," Mucker said in the meeting.
"They can have their agenda, but the second you start leaving out the most important thing, the people who voted you in and trust you to make those decisions, leave us out, it doesn't matter," Shawlee Williams, a Keller ISD parent, told CBS News Texas outside of the meeting.
At the end of the meeting, the board president seemed open to slowing the process down.
"Nothing has been decided and speculation that jumps to conclusions is premature," Randklev said. "I can assure you that we will have a robust, public dialogue before any action is taken. If this plan does not benefit all 34,000 students in Keller ISD, this board won't stand for it."
The board went into executive session and the board president said he's open to continuing a discussion afterwards.
