Texas Education Agency to take over Connally ISD and appoint superintendent
CONNALLY, Texas (KWTX) - The Texas Education Agency recently announced that they will be taking over Connally ISD.
TEA cited that two of the Connally Independent School District campuses earned a fifth consecutive unacceptable academic accountability rating following the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years.
Connally’s elementary and junior high campuses were sighted of having problems for the past 5 consecutive years, earning ‘F’ and ‘D’ ratings which raised concerns for the school district.
The TEA says they are now working to implement a board of managers and a conservator to govern the district.
Commissioner Mike Morath maintained that they will also have to find a new superintendent for the district.
The commissioner visited the school district last September after two campuses received an ‘F’ rating for the last school year.
While he says he was pleased with the school’s efforts, he says more must be done to ensure the success of every student.
Morath says the new board of managers and conservator will prioritize content across the whole school district that meets the state’s standards and will push effective teaching methods.
According to Morath, the last time the Junior High met the TEA’s standards was in 2016 and the last time the Elementary school met the standards was in 2017.
He says across the whole district, only 24 percent of students are meeting their grade level’s standards set by the TEA.
“This is not a new problem, again 24 percent of kids are on grade level, so you have 9thgraders that have significant academic achievement gaps so not only do you have to give them good content on today’s lesson but you have to figure out how you weave in all the lessons they may have missed over the last decade of their life, so it does require a lot of work,” Morath maintained.
Morath says the whole process will take some time, but they are committed to working with the school district to improve student performance and readiness.
“It’s not just one thing that caused this, it’s not going to be one thing that improves the situation, but we are going to wholistically change the leadership environment and try to as rapidly as possible improve the quality of academic supports that are provided to the kids in our schools,” Morath said.
While the school district was not available for an interview, they provided a statement.
“Connally ISD has received word from the Texas Education Agency that a conservator will be appointed to advise and oversee operations within our district. Additionally, the TEA shall appoint a Board of Managers to provide governance of our district.
Once a Board of Managers has been installed, TEA Commissioner Mike Morath shall appoint a superintendent to lead the district.
Since becoming superintendent in July of 2023, Superintendent Jill Bottelberghe has dedicated an immeasurable amount of effort towards improving our schools. We have already seen substantial gains in academic achievement thanks to the plans and protocols that she has put into place. Her leadership has been pivotal in laying the foundation for our district’s ability to grow and succeed in the long term, and for that we are eternally grateful. Ms. Bottelberghe remains fully committed to these improvement initiatives and will continue to oversee them as the district’s superintendent until the TEA appoints a replacement.
While we are supremely proud of the progress that we have made, we recognize that there is still work that needs to be done.
We are incredibly thankful for the time, effort, and sacrifices that our elected Board of Trustees have made over the years. It is clear that they truly care about the students and employees of Connally ISD with all their hearts. It is our hope that the appointed Board of Managers will work to not only improve our district’s academic performance, but also serve our community with the same passion and sincerity as our Board of Trustees has.
Local input matters when governing a school district. We strongly encourage the community members of Connally ISD to apply to serve on the Board of Managers so that their voice and perspective can be heard. Stakeholder meetings will occur in the coming weeks to provide additional information about this process.
The district remains focused on moving forward with improvement initiatives so that we may continue to see growth in student academic outcomes, behavior, and social development.
We are committed to doing all that we can to provide the students of Connally ISD with an outstanding education that equips them with the tools for success. We look forward to working with all stakeholders to set and uphold the Cadet Standard.”
This is a developing story.
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