MCLENNAN COUNTY, Texas (KXXV) — The clock is ticking for Connally ISD as it awaits the Texas Eduation Agency (TEA) decision regarding the possibility of closing campuses or a state takeover of the district.
A decision could come down as early as next month.
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25 News' Bobby Poitevint received a letter exclusively from the TEA addressed to Superintendent Jill Bottelberghe and School Board President Steven Carter from TEA Commissoner Mike Morath dated back in September.
In the four page letter he said, “The data reflects that the district’s current approach is not working, and transformational change is necessary to improve outcomes for all students in the district.”
“When we received that letter it definitely served as a very somber moment - Something that we understood was that the data shows there are deficits and there are problems,” Communications Director for Connally ISD, Michael Donaldson, said.
This comes after the latest TEA A-F accountability ratings were released in August.
In those ratings, four of the district’s five rated campuses received failing grades consecutively in recent years.
It all boils down to accountability and change for the TEA, something Donaldson agrees with.
He said the district doesn't plan to appeal the scores even though the TEA allows for an appeals process. He said they are putting their best foot forward right now with turnaround plans in place. Some have been in place for several years now while others are in development.
They are also working with the TEA and Waco’s local education service center at Region 12, according to Donaldson.
“Receiving that letter and seeing that sentence gave us the opportunity to really test and say ‘ok wait we feel that in the past year we have made very serious changes that we believe - based on the data that we’ve seen and used in our turnaround plans are going to help our students move in the right direction,” Donaldson said.
Following the release of the ratings, Superintendent Bottelberghe invited Commissioner Morath down to see the district's efforts firsthand.
Donaldson believes Commissioner Morath had a "positive" experience and according to other reports, Commissioner Morath had optimistic comments to say about the district’s efforts to improve.
But why are the district's turnaround improvement plans that are currently in place not yielding progress?
Donaldson explains and said classroom improvement is a "marathon" and not a "sprint" — adding it takes time and there have been potholes in that marathon like administration changes including a new superintendent, testing formula changes and of course the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We wanna really make sure that we’re focusing on doing what we can with our students today to continue to see some growth" he said.
While the TEA didn’t comment further when they sent 25 News Bobby Poitevint the letter, they did say a decision would be handed down in the coming months with a time-frame being from November to January.
