Morath rejects Snyder ISD realignment plan

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Texas Education Agency (TEA) Commissioner Mike Morath on Tuesday notified Snyder ISD officials that he would honor the parent petitions requesting he close Snyder Junior High School. 
However, Morath also said that he would not approve the proposed dual-pathway realignment plan for second through eighth grades. 
The plan to realign grades and restructure academics has been the subject of multiple community meetings, staff meetings and focus groups since October 2019. Morath said that the proposed Inquiry Based Learning Academy did not offer a significantly different curriculum.
“He didn’t believe it was a different enough academic program,” Superintendent Dr. Eddie Bland said Wednesday morning. “He gets the final word. There is no appeal.”
Bland told trustees that there isn’t a set of objective criteria outlining how large or small the changes must be.
“It’s a subjective decision. Most of the (TEA) commissioners believe ‘I believe this is a significantly different academic program’ or ‘I believe it’s not.’ There’s not any objective criteria there,” Bland told trustees during Tuesday’s school board meeting.
The district has until January 30 to submit a revised comprehensive plan for campus closure that meets the statutory requirements and receives approval. 
“Because of the short timeline where it has to get back to them, there is a great chance we may be talking about a called board meeting next week to review where we are in that process and discuss what we may need to do. They didn’t give a lot of feedback,” Bland said Tuesday.
The options for reopening campus remain the same: sign an agreement with a charter company to operate Snyder Junior High School or to reopen the school with the majority of the grades different and a distinctly different academic program. 
“The only other way it can be repurposed is if we’ve reached an innovative partnership agreement with one of the larger innovative partners,” Bland said Tuesday.
He said one of the charter companies that had expressed an interest in working with the school district would meet the state’s criteria to operate the campus.
“They have to be serving 10,000 students or have a ‘B’ rating. That’s something we’re going to at least explore at this point because in our call for quality schools, one of our applicants actually meets that criteria. They have the 10,000 students and they have the B rating.” Bland said.
Morath also told school officials he is appointing conservator Keri Barnett to the district. The role of the conservator is to monitor and report back the district’s progress with regards to improving the academic performance. 
“The district remains steadfast in its commitment to provide the best education to our students,” Bland said in a statement Wednesday morning. “We will diligently explore all available options for our junior high (school) and our district.”
During Tuesday’s meeting, trustees tentatively decided to hold an emergency meeting next week, but did not set a date in order to allow school board members to select a day that fit their schedules. A message left with the TEA media office was not returned.