North Forest ISD gets another sanction from TEA

North Forest school district, already functioning with a “conservator” placed by the State of Texas TEA to straighten out their financial records, has now been told they must operate with a conservator over their academic programs as well.
The Texas Education Association (TEA) notified interim superintendent William Jones last week that the conservator would be appointed, and the two TEA conservators as a management team would have authority to overrule the superintendent and the trustee board on matters of governance of the district. However, there was no discussion about closing or merging the district at this time, according to TEA spokesperson Debbie Ratcliffe. She did say that this action was rare, and one of the strongest sanctions that can be placed upon a district that is having problems.
It is anticipated that the new academic manager will be a former superintendent, probably Barbara Wilson, who was superintendent of Hitchcock ISD in Galveston County. She will join Henry Boening, the financial conservator, who was a former superintendent in Galveston county also.

The problems that will face the new management team include a dwindling student population, a temporary merger of its two high schools due to vandalism, a temporary merger of two elementary schools due to mold problems, and low academic ratings in most of its schools, that have meant 5 of its 11 schools are listed as “academically unacceptable” in the state’s rankings on the TAKS exams.
The appointment of the management conservators was made by Robert Scott, the new Texas Education Commissioner who succeeded Shirley Neely this year.
Scott indicated in a letter to Superintendent Jones that he was expecting “drastic improvements” with the help of the state’s conservators, and the cooperation of the school district. He specifically referred to improving student performance, program effectiveness, and fiscal matters in his letter to Jones.
Although the district is conducting a search for a new permanent superintendent, it is difficult because of the current conditions, and the acrimony between the board and previous superintendents, that have seen four of them dismissed or forced out in the past few years.
North Forest has had a conservator or monitor in the past, in the 1980s and the early 2001, for problems with their financial management.