Some Austin educators are calling on the school board president to resign following text messages she sent to a trustee.
Education Austin, an Austin teacher's union, wants Kendall Pace to leave the board. The group voiced their concerns at a press conference Wednesday morning outside the Austin Independent School District headquarters.
During the press conference, Ken Zarifis, the President of Education Austin, said the union came across a message that Pace allegedly sent to trustee Julie Cowan that called community activists "crazy ignorant."
"We are deeply saddened by the fact that a board president would actually attack the very community that elected her to this board. The community that she has been elected to serve and that she would turn around and make such bile statements about that community," said Zarifis.
Zarifis reported that Pace allegedly made the comments while discussing a grant which would help fund struggling schools in northeast Austin. According to the text messages, Pace said the grant would only get approved for the district if officials “ignore the special interest groups and crazy ignorant community activists and poverty pimps,” Zarifis said.