What is the best board structure to support good school district oversight, and improve student outcomes, especially for special education students and students in our Title 1 schools?
Round Rock ISD currently has a seven (7) member school board with at-large seats, which means every two years approximately half of our board members come up for reelection, and the entire district votes on all three or four races, depending on the year.
This system works fine if you’re as obsessively involved as I am in all things education, or if you don’t have a day job, but what about the rest of the voters? Getting to know all the candidates, and equally important, for all the candidates to get to know the various issues throughout the district is challenging. This is especially unfortunate considering that the vast majority of voters greatly underestimate the power that school board trustees have over our lives, the education of our children, and our local tax dollars.
The best case in favor of keeping our at-large system is the preservation of unity throughout our district (#rrisd1family, y’all!). However, getting any of the trustees on a unified school board with large gaps in representation to focus on improving student achievement, especially in our Title 1 schools, seems to be an exercise in futility. Furthermore, in light of Round Rock ISD’s recent “media ban” vote, recorded here beginning at the 01:15:08 minute mark, and reported on here, it’s difficult to claim that Round Rock ISD is the pillar of unity anyway.
Two years ago, a local district watchdog group called “Round Rock Parents and Tax Payers” (RRPTP) was circulating a petition to put single member districts on the November 2018 ballot, which would have required 15,000 signatures. Only current Board President, Chad Chadwell supported the measure at the time, but without support from any of the other trustees it was an uphill battle that the group ultimately postponed. However, with three new board members at the dais, things might work out differently if a conversation about Round Rock ISD’s board structure were to occur today.
According to Texas Education Code – EDUC § 11.052(a): “the board of trustees…, on its own motion, may order that trustees of the district are to be elected from single-member trustee districts or that not fewer than 70 percent of the members of the board of trustees are to be elected from single-member trustee districts with the remaining trustees to be elected from the district at large.” This means that the Board of Trustees could vote to implement single member districts on their own accord whenever they want, provided enough of them support it, and provided at least five (5) of the seven (7) seats are single-member districts.
In 2017, RRPTP was supporting a seven (7) single member district board structure, arguing that it would improve accountability to voters, and assure geographic representation. This would mean that each area of our district would have a single trustee representing their interests on the school board giving each area a voice in district-wide conversations. However, an exclusively single member board structure still has its downsides. Trustees often feel beholden to their smaller voting bases, and in a district as large as RRISD, that can leave the Board of Trustees at a disadvantage when it comes to addressing lackluster student outcomes and improving academic achievement. This can also make government less efficient, because it leaves each trustee less able to focus on district-wide issues without potentially leaving their constituents feeling abandoned.
Another option might be having RRISD become a hybrid district with five (5) single-member district seats based on geographic location, and two (2) at-large seats that represent the entire district. This structure may reduce voter representation, and thus reduce accountability when compared to a district with purely single member representation. It may also maximize our chances of electing board members with the political freedom to focus on issues like improving student outcomes for socio-economically disadvantaged and special education students on a district-wide basis.
There are definitely pros and cons to each of these board structures. I’ve missed plenty of them, no doubt. What say you, RRISD1family? Are we ready to talk about this?
Mystic Crusader 