By Sydnie Henry
AUSTIN, TX — Around 30 parents, grandparents, and neighborhood taxpayers gathered this morning exterior the Texas Education Agency (TEA) constructing to petition the TEA to take away Superintendent Hafedh Azaiez and enact penalties on the Round Rock ISD board of trustees.
“We have been in a battle with our school district for the past year,” stated Round Rock ISD mom Christie Slape.
The “safe and suburban” college district, situated simply exterior of Austin, has been racked with scandal ever since Azaiez’s appointment to the place of superintendent final June.
Texas Scorecard has been protecting the months-long saga in Round Rock ISD, documented in a particular report and our unique podcast sequence, Exposed.
Today, as involved residents gathered exterior beneath the warmth of the Texas solar, they referred to as for the TEA to take “effective action” towards Azaiez and the Round Rock ISD board of trustees for his or her allegedly unlawful actions.
The listing of grievances towards Round Rock ISD contains an “illegal $10 million tax hike, arrests of concerned parents and taxpayers, and the reinstatement of a superintendent accused of sexual impropriety and oppression of board trustees who oppose him.”
Azaiez was positioned on paid administrative depart earlier this yr as a result of public strain amid ongoing investigations into his habits, however he was reinstated about two months later by 5 college board trustees whom parents nicknamed the “Bad Faith Five.”
Despite claims by the Bad Faith Five that the investigations into Azaiez are full, Texas Scorecard found contradictory news final month when an open information request revealed that the investigations into Azaiez stay ongoing.
Now, parents and taxpayers are rallying for the TEA to behave on this scandal-ridden district.
Eric Norred with Focus on Education Round Rock stated their focus is to enhance schooling in Round Rock ISD and “get back to basics, which is reading, writing, math, science, and history.”
“This past school year alone, we’ve lost over 5,000 students that have left the district,” stated Norred. “This needs to change, and our students are suffering.”
“We want the superintendent properly investigated,” stated Don Zimmerman, government director of the Travis County Taxpayers Union.
“It doesn’t just stop with the superintendent,” stated Zimmerman, but in addition with “the board members have tried to unlawfully censor two of our board members, Captain Danielle Weston and Dr. Mary Bone. These are two excellent board members who have been unlawfully censored by the board.”
“The superintendent now is just a puppet of the government bureaucrats who control our district,” added Zimmerman, calling for the TEA to analyze unlawful actions within the district.
With the board of trustees preventing amongst themselves, the Bad Faith Five defending a superintendent beneath investigation, and the district making suspect tax hikes, parents are pissed off.
“I’ve been attending school board meetings for the past school year,” stated Slape. “And I have seen just unruly behavior from our school board members. I have filed a level-three grievance against one of the trustees. The trustees are not … communicating, and they are not working together.”
“They have ignored the formal complaints and grievances of many of these parents that are standing here today,” stated Slape.
“We have filed a complaint against things like allowing males, biological males, in the restrooms and changing rooms of the females. This is not okay. Parents are frustrated. We’re not getting heard by our school board. So, we’re appealing to the Texas Education Agency to help us. We need their help as they supervise all of the school districts in the state.”
According to Slape, they haven’t seen any TEA workers as they rally in entrance of the constructing, and so they suspect that TEA workers have been tipped off in regards to the rally and are working from residence right now.
Jeremy Story, one of many two fathers arrested final fall for “disorderly conduct” within the September college board assembly, says, “We believe that it’s time now for them [TEA] to do something visually, for our district and for the state.”
“Because they are choosing to allow wanton malfeasance in a district that is an absolute free-fall, a district that now has an F rating financially with the state, a district that now has 5,500 students who have withdrawn from the district (at least that we know of), [and] teachers that are resigning en masse.”
Story reminded listeners of McKinney ISD, the place parents have been threatened with arrest; Eanes ISD, the place a father or mother was arrested and jailed; and Uvalde’s “horrible, horrible situation that was precipitated by a police force run by a superintendent [and] school district that was [so] inadequately prepared that then the local police had to step in and help.”
“If we didn’t have independent little school district police agencies that are inadequately prepared and instead allowed our local officers, our sheriffs, and others to be in our schools, then we would not have this freedom of speech silencing and we would have better-protected schools,” stated Story.
“All of these things are very important to everyone across the state. So, it isn’t just Round Rock. Wherever you are in the state. We encourage you to press forward with us.”
This story was initially revealed by the Texas Scorecard.
