The Texas Education Agency is working to identify community members in the South San Antonio Independent School District who could serve on a state-appointed board of managers.
On Thursday, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath notified South San’s elected trustees that he was conducting a fact-finding review on their leadership over the past year, and he invited them to meet with him.
While Morath completes that review, he has directed TEA staff to begin identifying potential candidates for a board of managers at South San. Those candidates will only be tapped to govern South San if Morath decides they are needed.
TEA investigators recommended the state appoint a board of managers to oversee South San a year ago due to the “egregious nature of the board’s conduct,” but in September 2023 TEA delayed the order for a year to give the elected board time to improve.
Last week, South San’s state-appointed conservator Abelardo Saavedra sent a letter to Morath recommending the state take over governance of South San because the elected board had failed to make sufficient improvement.
Saavedra told Morath that South San’s trustees have “pervasive attendance, participation, and mindset issues,” and they did not meet any of the four “exit criteria” he developed in collaboration with the superintendent and the board.
Saavedra said the elected board has not met the legal training requirement for the past three years because “one or more trustees have been absent” from the training “each time it’s been scheduled.”
“This blatant disregard for Texas law and lack of initiative in seeking growth opportunities give me serious concerns about whether this board has the appropriate mindset or ability to govern the district effectively,” Saavedra wrote.
Saavedra said the elected board does not spend enough time discussing ways to improve student outcomes and has failed to "publicly engage with the community.”
He also told Morath he was concerned by the way the trustees communicated with each other. He highlighted an incident of name-calling and profanity between trustees that ended in the arrest of one trustee. The court later dismissed the charges against the trustee.
South San has a long history of board infighting and overreach leading to investigations. The district was previously under the oversight of a conservator from 2016 to 2018.
State law gives a state-appointed conservator the power to override decisions made by the elected school board. Conservators also have the power to direct the school board, superintendent and campus principals to take specific actions.
TEA opened a new investigation into governance issues at South San in 2019 after the board voted to rapidly reopen previously closed schools against the recommendation of the superintendent. That investigation resulted in the appointment of a monitor in 2021.
Morath has not yet decided to appoint a board of managers for South San, but he’s directed his staff to find potential candidates in case he needs them.
“If there is sufficient evidence that the Board of Trustees addressed the concerns raised in the investigation, there will be no changes to the district’s existing governance leadership team,” Morath told South San’s trustees in Thursday’s letter. “However, if I determine that intervention is still needed to best serve the students of your district, I will appoint a Board of Managers.”
