Home Care In Keller, TX

The Keller ISD Board of Trustees has named a lone finalist for superintendent to replace outgoing superintendent Rick Westfall.

The board unanimously voted 7-0 Monday morning to name Dr. Tracy Johnson as the lone finalist to lead the district's 34,000 students and more than 4,000 staffers.

“I am humbled and honored to have been chosen as the lone finalist for the KISD Superintendent position,” Johnson said. “This is profoundly personal for me because I truly believe we have the best students, parents, employees, and community. I have had the privilege to witness the heart of the people of this district, and it is evident that our community is dedicated to the growth and care of students. Ensuring every student receives the best educational experience possible has served as my top priority and focus throughout my educational career. I am thankful for the Board of Trustees’ commitment to our students and for placing their trust in me to lead this district.”

Johnson is currently the district's chief human resources officer and will be the first female superintendent in the district's 112-year history. She has held her current role since 2019 and has been in public education for 22 years.

“Dr. Johnson is the best choice for Keller ISD because she is deeply rooted in our community,” said Dr. Charles Randklev, KISD Board of Trustees president. “She knows our students, educators, and parents, which means she understands how to support our kids and establish strong learning environments for them to succeed. She is committed to academic excellence; and, under her guidance, Keller ISD will remain intentionally exceptional and is poised for continued innovation and success.”

In a statement, the district said Johnson’s husband, Harold Johnson, was "recently retired from Keller ISD after serving as a career and technical teacher at the Keller Center for Advanced Learning for five years and, most recently, as bond project manager for KISD’s Facilities Department for four years. They have two daughters and one granddaughter."

Texas state law mandates a 21-day waiting period between naming a lone finalist for a superintendent position and when they can be put under contract. After that period expires, the board is expected to call another meeting to formally declare Johnson the superintendent and determine her start date, though she is expected to start on Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024.

Over the summer, Westfall announced he planned to retire at the end of the year. Since announcing his retirement, the district said John Allison has served as the interim superintendent.

In North Texas, two school districts are challenging Texas education’s status quo: Keller ISD and Carroll ISD.

Both districts are taking steps to fight the state’s recapture law, which requires property-wealthy districts to send excess property tax revenue to the state for redistribution to property-poor districts.

Recently, Keller ISD’s school board voted 5-1 to stop paying recapture money next school year. Carroll ISD also discussed a similar move. And these aren’t the first districts to oppose recapture – Spring Branch ISD made a similar move last month.

Chandra Villanueva is the Director of Policy and Advocacy at Every Texan and she joined Texas Standard to talk about why school districts are pushing back against the Texas Education Agency (TEA). Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:

Texas Standard: Why are these districts considering stopping paying recapture money to the state next school year? What are the main reasons that they’re citing?

Chandra Villanueva: The main reason is how underfunded our school finance system is and the inaction that the Legislature has taken. So far this year there was no additional money put into schools.

I think what’s really important to remember about recapture is that it’s about leveling the playing field between districts. So if a recapture district is struggling and a recapture district says that they can’t make ends meet, that means that every single school district in the state is having similar issues and is also having problems making ends meet.

So I’m thinking about some of these districts now that want to break away from the system or stop making payments. Do they face penalties if they refuse to make recapture payments?

They absolutely do.

What will happen is that TEA will come in and annex their property, basically take property within the school district and reassign it. They try to go to a neighboring school district as close as they can to level out the wealth per student.

Houston kind of tried this several years ago when they first went into recapture. They thought that they could vote against it and TEA said, basically, “we’re going to take the Galleria and assign it to a different school district.” So that’s what’s going to happen if they actually go through with not making these payments.

You, I would imagine, oppose this effort to get in the way of making the recapture payments. Are there examples of how the program has actually worked in the past?

The recapture system actually works exactly as designed.

I’m a huge supporter of recapture because it is about leveling the playing field. The problem is the level of funding within the system. So recapture gets a lot of attention because the school districts can daydream about what they could do with that funding that they have to send back to the state. But there’s a whole lot of districts that have nothing to daydream about. They’re stuck in the room being reliant on state aid, and they’re all in the same boat.

So these districts are able to make this claim that they want to keep their money, but they’re not doing anything to help the school districts that have no money to keep or refuse to send back. So I think it’s really important for all school districts to band together to demand an increase in what we call the basic allotment, the base per student level of funding.

Could districts survive on that base allotment? I mean, we are talking about having to completely restructure the system if in fact some of these districts decide “we’re not going to pay.”

Districts can’t survive on their base level funding right now. The last time it was increased was 2019, and the Legislature again chose not to do anything during the regular session – the first special-called, the second special-called – and we’re now approaching a third special session, which the governor has said he’s going to focus on vouchers, taking money from public schools to private schools.

But there’s been no promises that he’s going to do anything to improve school funding for the vast majority of Texas students.

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Monday night, Keller ISD board members officially said "No thank you" to a longstanding move that sends local tax dollars back to the state.

It's something board members have said is similar to "the mafia".

The debate revolved around a rule set by the Texas Education Agency called recapture, also as Robin Hood. The rule allows lawmakers to take excess local property tax dollars from property-rich school districts and use it to help balance the state budget or send it property poor districts to ensure the amount of money being spent per student is equal across Texas.

Districts can make recapture payments by purchasing attendance credits from the state.

There are about 150 districts considered property-rich across the state as more people move to Texas and compete for housing, which is driving up property values.

Keller ISD is one of them. According to the school board, it had excess local revenue of about $2.5 million that it already agreed to pay for 2022 taxes.

However, as school board members questioned the lack of transparency by the state in knowing exactly where the money is going, they started a debate over whether or not to make another recapture payment for 2023, which is due to be paid next year.

The latest news from around North Texas.

"The reality is the state is sitting on a multibillion dollar surplus. And the argument that in lieu of them giving us more money that we should just give them more money instead of funding schools appropriately, is absolutely asinine,” said Chris Coker, Keller ISD trustee place 5, during Monday night’s meeting. "They are constantly looking for ways to collect more money from the districts. If we continue to just give it to them willingly, it creates a problem and sets a precedent that we set over the years."

Residents were upset to know that extra money possibly wouldn't go back into their schools if the board didn't vote against it. They didn't hold back during fiery public comments.

"You know how complicated Texas school finance is and you're hoping the community doesn't do their homework to understand what it is you're trying to do,” said one Keller ISD mom.

The board ended up voting 5 to 1 to not send the recapture payment to the state for the 2023 taxes unless the state provides more transparency on where that money is going.

"As trustees, we have a fiduciary responsibility to this district. And as part of that fiduciary responsibility, I think it's protecting the funds that we have,” said Charles Randklev, Keller ISD board president. “2.5 million dollars in attendance credits, whatever that is, is tantamount to a shakedown by Austin."

The lone board member who voted in favor of paying the state said she was concerned about sending the wrong message to the community.

"I would never tell one of my kids you don't have to pay your bills if you don't want to, because that's what it is. I mean it's a bill – do I like it? No, I certainly don't but it's there,” said Ruthie Keyes, Keller ISD trustee place 7.

There are some consequences if districts don't make recapture payments. According to the TEA, districts can be prevented from adopting new tax rates and can even have taxable property detached from their district and given to others in order to level out tax revenues.

The state can even withhold funding from those who don't make their recapture payments.

Keller ISD's decision is a show of defiance against the state and they're not the only ones to do this. Spring Branch ISD in the Houston area recently voted against it as well.

Right now, there are calls for lawmakers or even the Texas Supreme Court to intervene and change the law.

Keller ISD has joined numerous other school districts across the state in a lawsuit against the Texas Education Agency over the state’s accountability ratings.

The action taken

Keller ISD board members voted unanimously 5-0 during their regular meeting Sept. 25 to join the lawsuit. Before reading the resolution that outlines the reasons why the district is joining the lawsuit, KISD general counsel Amanda Bigbee said 95 school districts across the state have joined the lawsuit, representing 1.7 million students.

The backstory

Filed in August in the Travis County 419th District Court, the legal petition Kingsville ISD, et. al., v. Morath alleges TEA Commissioner Mike Morath would effectively lower A-F performance ratings for the 2022-23 school year in an unlawful manner by changing the way they are calculated retroactively.

"That will arbitrarily lower performance ratings for many school districts and campuses even though their performance improved," the petition reads.

The TEA began a refresh of its methodology for calculating accountability ratings in late 2021, sharing new benchmarks students must reach for schools to receive a certain letter grade, according to an agency news release. One of these adjustments raised the cutoff point for a district to receive an A rating based on the college, career and military readiness of students from 60% to 88%.

District officials across the state have raised concerns about the impact of the changes to accountability ratings—a metric used by school boards to address educational priorities year to year. It is also a performance measure used to gauge the quality of schools by their communities and prospective families.

The TEA announced Sept. 12 it would delay the release of A-F accountability ratings for Texas school districts and campuses from Sept. 28 to October to review student data and re-evaluate the methodology used in calculating these ratings, a news release from the agency states.

“Maintaining high expectations helps guide our efforts to improve student learning and support,” Morath said in the release. “The A-F system is designed to properly reflect how well our schools are meeting those high expectations, and the adjustments we are making this year will ensure it continues to serve as a tool for parents and educators to help our students.”

What they’re saying

Interim Superintendent John Allison spoke about the importance of having a quality accountability system in place that gives students and families the correct information when it comes to school performance.

“We want it to be transparent,” Allison said. “We want it to make sense, and we want it to actually reflect the growth and the work of our students and our teachers. Let’s make sure that our accountability system is something of value to our communities and a value to our schools as we make decisions about how we approach educating Texas kids as we move forward.”

Board President Charles Randklev opined about the message a flawed accountability system would send to the community about the state of Keller schools.

“This issue is much bigger than test scores,” Randklev said. “What we’re talking about is a system that could undermine our communities and our local businesses because we’re going to give folks a snapshot that does not actually represent what’s going on in schools, and that’s wrong.”

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A $27 million renovation of the Keller Sports Park hopes to turn it into “the premier youth sports complex” in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Mayor Armin Mizani told the Star-Telegram.

“Our vision for Keller is to remain Texas’s Most Family Friendly City, and our parks and trail system, including the Keller Sports Park, is consistently named among our residents’ most cherished amenities,” Mayor Armin Mizani told the Star-Telegram. “The improvements to the Keller Sports Park, funded through sales tax revenue, will not only mean added fields and refurbishment to what already exists but will also aid our economic development efforts in recruiting vibrant retail and restaurants to our adjacent commercial corridors. At completion, these improvements will make the Keller Sports Park the premier youth sports complex in the Metroplex, all while strengthening our identity and vision.”

The 140 acre sports facility at 265 Golden Triangle Blvd. will be upgraded by Parkhill, an Arlington design firm.

The Star-Telegram spoke with the City of Keller about what exactly the Keller Sports Park renovations will look like. Here’s what spokesperson Rachel Reynolds told us.

• Converting the baseball 4-plex to synthetic turf infields and foul lines

• Converting soccer pad B to synthetic turf

• Repurposing the West Multipurpose Field into two 175-foot baseball fields with synthetic turf infields and foul lines

• Adding a new rugby-sized multipurpose field and accompanying parking lot on the north side of the park

• Transitioning KYA’s “Field 16” into an all-synthetic Miracle League field, opening up the sports park to players of all abilities

• Upgrading KYA’s “Field 15” to a 175-foot field with synthetic turf infields and foul lines

• Replacing the existing KYA fieldhouse and restroom/concessions building

• Upgrading bathrooms throughout the park

• Adding a new bathroom/storage facility near the equestrian arena and lacrosse field (along with a pedestrian connection from lacrosse)

• Upgrading the soil, seating, and viewing area shade structures at the equestrian arena

• Building new backstops, dugouts etc., for the East Multipurpose Field

• Replacing field fencing throughout the park (except the still-new lacrosse field)

• Replacing backstops for all baseball and softball fields

• Adding lighting to the lacrosse field

• Improving ADA accessibility between parking areas and bleachers for fields along the north side of the park (the southern section is already compliant)

• Upgrading bleachers and shade structures throughout the park and adding scoreboards, etc. to new fields

• Addition of a splash pad

• Upgrades and relocations of the park’s water and sewer infrastructure

Note: This list is subject to change as the City Council continues to discuss this project, and they haven’t received bids back yet. After the council approves a bid on this project, plans will be nailed down at that point.

City Council has approved an updated master plan for the park, and the city recently wrapped up the construction documents.

The list of planned improvements came from extensive discussions with a Keller Sports Park Task Force, created in June 2021, comprised of representatives from the park’s user groups (Keller Youth Association, Keller Soccer Association, Keller Lacrosse Association, Alliance Rugby Club, and the Keller Horse Owner’s Association), in addition to members of the Parks & Recreation Board and City Council.

Work will be completed in phases, and city staff is working with the user groups to adjust their schedules accordingly.

The project will be funded by the Keller Development Corporation Fund. That fund receives a 1/2-cent of sales tax revenue, which voters earmarked for park and recreation capital projects.

The scope of the project has changed since our original timeline estimates, Reynolds said. They added water and sewer infrastructure upgrades into the designs, and City Council decided to pursue a splash pad at the park. The city now hopes to break ground in January 2024. If work begins in January, the project is expected to reach “substantial completion” by December 2025.

Improved amenities will provide an improved user experience for players and their families and friends, Reynolds says. Synthetic turf should minimize rainouts during the season and will cut down on the maintenance required of the associations. New additions like the splash pad will make the Keller Sports Park a destination for area families even if they don’t participate in the leagues.

This story was originally published October 2, 2023, 5:13 PM.