KYLE, Texas — Hays CISD, Bastrop ISD, Leander ISD and Dripping Springs ISD are joining a lawsuit against the Texas Education Agency (TEA) over its accountability system for school districts.
This comes after multiple school districts, including Del Valle ISD, sued over recent changes to the accountability system, saying the TEA changed its benchmarks after the school year started so that districts couldn't adjust.
If a school district ranks low enough for long enough, the State of Texas can take over.
Last week, the TEA delayed releasing its accountability ratings for at least a month. At a meeting Monday night, Hays CISD leaders said the changes and the delay make it hard for schools to know what to aim for.
"I'm all about raising the bar. I believe in accountability and I believe in closing gaps and I believe in always being transparent. But if our leader, the commissioner, is not offering up all those things in advance and the system's not fair, then I think we need to go down this road and pursue this avenue," Superintendent Dr. Eric Wright said.
In a meeting on Tuesday, Bastrop ISD also made the decision to join the lawsuit. Leaders said it's been difficult to plan for the grading changes when the state has been vague about the benchmarks.
"They were looking at basically overhauling everything," Bastrop Associate Superintendent Matt Warford said. "And they just gave us this laundry list of many, many, many things that could be changed. But again, we weren't going to know until the final accountability manual came out in late spring to know exactly what that was going to look like."
On Thursday, Leander ISD's Board of Trustees voted to join the lawsuit as well.
In total, more than two dozen districts are part of the lawsuit.