Burnet and Webb Parents: You Still Have Some Power Over the AISD Issue.

As you probably are already aware, Burnet and Webb Middle Schools have each received their fifth consecutive F rating. Which means Texas law requires Education Commissioner Mike Morath to act.

What you might not know is that the same law that requires Morath to act also gives you something most parents probably have no idea they have: a way to influence what happens next.

And the clock is already running.

Under Texas Education Code §39A.111, when a campus reaches five consecutive unacceptable ratings, the Commissioner must order one of two things: closure of the campus, or the appointment of a board of managers to govern the school district. The law is clear. Morath must choose at least one of those options. There is no option there.

What I want Burnet and Webb parents to understand is that you are not powerless while Austin ISD and TEA work through what happens next.

Texas Education Code §39A.112 gives you a voice.

Parents Can Petition Morath Directly

Parents representing more than 50% of the students enrolled at an affected campus can submit a petition requesting which of the two required actions they want Morath to take.

That is not a petition asking Morath to consider your opinion. If the petition is valid, the law generally requires him to order the action requested by the parents. There is an exception: the Austin ISD Board of Trustees can subsequently vote to request the other action and explain why. If that happens, Morath is allowed to choose the Board's requested action instead.

So parents have real power here. Not absolute power. But real statutory power.

Burnet and Webb would have to organize separately. The law operates campus by campus, and the signature requirement is based on the students enrolled at each individual campus. Burnet parents would petition for Burnet. Webb parents would petition for Webb.

The Deadline Is October 15. I Would Not Wait Until October.

TEA's current rule says the completed petition must be finalized and delivered to Superintendent Matias Segura no later than October 15 for validation. If Segura certifies it as valid, he must send it to the Commissioner no later than December 1. If the AISD Board wants Morath to take the opposite action, the Board has until December 15 to approve that request at a public meeting and submit its explanation. If closure is requested, AISD must submit a comprehensive closure plan by January 30. Morath must issue his sanction order no later than February 15.

That sounds like plenty of time. But it really isn't.

The biggest problem I see in the rule is what it does not say. It gives parents an October 15 deadline. It gives Segura a December 1 deadline for sending a valid petition to Morath. But the rule itself does not establish a separate deadline requiring Segura to tell parents that their petition has a problem, and it does not give parents a guaranteed period after October 15 to correct a petition that AISD decides is invalid.

That is why I think parents should start communicating with Segura now.

Not October 14. Now.

Before You Collect Hundreds of Signatures, Get the Rules in Writing

There are several pieces of information parents need from AISD and TEA before a major signature drive begins. And my advice with Austin ISD is that everything must be in writing. Everything. Every detail, every date, everything. I cannot stress that enough.

TEA does not simply look at the number of kids attending the school on whatever day the petition is submitted. It uses a rule requiring a TEA-determined enrollment snapshot date. A student counts for petition purposes only if the student was enrolled at the individual campus on that snapshot date. The rule also says a qualifying parent is the parent identified on the student's registration form and only one parent signature can be counted for each enrolled student.

So the first questions for Segura should be simple: What is the TEA-established snapshot date for each of Burnet and Webb? How many qualifying students does TEA show at each school on that date? What exact number of represented students constitutes more than 50%?

Don't calculate the target from the current enrollment number on a website. Get the number AISD will actually use when it validates the petition.

Parents should also ask AISD how organizers are supposed to know whether a family is eligible to sign. AISD will not hand organizers confidential student records. But there has to be a workable process for determining whether signatures correspond to students who count under the rule. Ask what that process will be.

Ask for AISD to communicate information about the petition process directly to eligible families, preferably by email. Give Austin ISD the email draft you would like to send. This is the only way I can see this working since Austin ISD will not release the information to you. Ask them for the date they will send this communication out, and the number of individual families to whom it will be sent out. In your email draft make sure it tells parents the what, when, where and why. Ask them to contact the organizer with their contact information. Once you collect the information, it's yours and you can use it.

Side note: If this effort is being organized by the school PTA, you can request the school give you that list as parents check off on the PTA receiving their contact information during school registration typically. It might not be a complete list, but at least it's something. The important thing is to make sure you have a good list and that you monitor signatures to make sure it is from the correct parents for the correct kids.

And I would ask Segura additional questions in writing: How quickly will AISD validate the petition after it is submitted? Get a date. How will organizers be notified of any invalid signatures or other deficiencies? Get a process and date. Will AISD agree to perform interim or batch validation before October 15 so parents have an opportunity to correct problems while there is still time?

Maybe AISD already has a process for all of this. Great. Have them put it in writing and give it to the parents.

The Signature Rules Matter

TEA requires more than 50% of the students enrolled at the campus to be represented. That does not mean more than 50% of parents. If a family has two qualifying children at the school, those are two students. If two parents sign for one child, only one signature counts toward the threshold for that student. The rule specifically says only one parent signature per enrolled student can be counted.

TEA also requires the parent's handwritten or typed name and an "original signature." The rule does not expressly tell parents whether a legally valid electronic signature through something such as DocuSign or Adobe Sign satisfies the requirement for an original signature.

I would ask TEA that question and get a response, in writing, immediately.

If TEA confirms that a compliant electronic signature is acceptable — and they confirm that in writing — organizing becomes dramatically easier. If TEA says it requires wet ink, then parents know that before collecting hundreds of signatures electronically and discovering later that they don't count.

Until TEA answers the question, I would not guess.

TEA also maintains an official Parent Petition for Action page and model forms. Use those forms. This is not the time to design a homemade petition that looks better. Follow TEA's format and requirements exactly.

How I Would Organize It

I would treat each school like a small campaign. Not because this is political, but because there are too many moving pieces for a few parents exchanging texts to manage reliably.

Burnet and Webb should each establish their own parent organizing group. Choose several people and divide responsibilities: communications with AISD and TEA, parent outreach, meetings, petition forms, signature collection and counting.

Write Segura immediately. Tell him parents intend to use their rights under §39A.112 and request the snapshot date, qualifying enrollment count, exact signature threshold, validation procedure, validation turnaround time, deficiency procedure, and the name and contact information of the AISD official responsible for validating petitions.

Contact TEA directly about anything AISD cannot answer, particularly the electronic-signature question and the current model petition forms and procedures. Get answers in writing.

Bring Dr. Foster into the process immediately. He is the elected trustee representing these families. Tell him what parents are doing, keep him informed and ask him to help obtain answers from AISD, arrange meetings, navigate district procedures and make sure parents are heard. This is exactly what having an elected representative is for.

Hold parent information meetings. Ask AISD and the campus principals for permission to use school facilities after hours and to have information available at existing parent events. Also use churches, community centers, homes and other neighborhood locations. Don't assume petition forms can simply be distributed through teachers, backpacks or school activities without permission. Ask.

Keep meticulous records. Number petition sheets. Make copies or scans. Track the student represented by each signature without publicly sharing protected information. Count students, not pieces of paper. And do not aim for 50% plus one and congratulate yourselves. Signatures can be rejected. Families move. Records can be inconsistent. Build a substantial cushion above the legal minimum.

Submit early enough that there is still time to fight over validation if something goes wrong. October 15 is the legal deadline, not the date I would want the petition landing on Segura's desk for the first time.

The rule allows signatures made on or after the date a preliminary rating showed the campus had reached at least four consecutive years of unacceptable performance. Parents therefore do not need to sit around waiting for February before organizing.

There Is Another Decision Parents Have to Understand

The petition has to request one of the two statutory actions. It cannot simply say "don't take over AISD." Parents have to request campus closure or appointment of a board of managers.

Those are very different things.

A board of managers would replace the governing authority of Austin's elected trustees with a board appointed by Morath. Campus closure legally closes the existing campus, although TEA rules provide ways a facility can later be repurposed under specific requirements.

I'm not going to tell Burnet or Webb parents which one they should request. These are their children and their schools. They need to understand exactly what both possibilities could mean and make their own choice.

But I would insist that AISD and TEA explain both options clearly before parents are expected to make it.

What happens to the students if the school closes? Where would they go? Would they move together or be divided among other schools? What happens to teachers and staff? What programs move with the students? What would happen to the school building?

And if the alternative is a board of managers, parents deserve to know what that means for the entire Austin ISD system, how long state governance could last, what authority the elected trustees would lose and what role parents would have under a State-appointed board.

This is too consequential for parents to sign something because somebody standing outside the school told them which box was better.

The AISD Board Has Power Too

Even after parents successfully petition, the elected Austin ISD Board still has a role. If parents request closure, the Board can vote to ask Morath for a board of managers instead. If parents request a board of managers, the Board can ask him for closure instead. The Board's request must be approved by a majority at a public meeting, must include its reasoning and must reach the Commissioner by December 15. Morath can then choose the Board's requested action rather than the parents' request.

That means parents should not disappear after submitting the petition.

They should be talking with Dr. Foster and the other trustees. They should attend the Board meeting where any competing request is considered. They should ask trustees how they intend to vote and why. And they should make sure the Board understands what the parents at the affected school actually want before it asks Morath to override them.

If hundreds of Burnet or Webb families go through the work required to produce a valid majority petition, and the elected Board wants the Commissioner to disregard that request, I think parents deserve a very public explanation.

What About an Appeal?

AISD can pursue available accountability appeals if it believes there is a legitimate basis for one. Parents should absolutely hope every legitimate issue gets reviewed correctly.

But I would not organize a parent strategy around the assumption that an appeal will make the problem disappear.

TEA's petition rule specifically recognizes preliminary ratings and says a signature can be valid once a preliminary rating indicates four or more consecutive unacceptable years. The intervention process is not written around parents sitting idle until every possible challenge has run its course.

Organizing does not prevent an appeal. If an appeal ultimately changes the legal situation, then everyone can deal with that good news when it happens. But parents cannot get August and September back in October.

Your Power Exists Only If You Use It

This is one of those strange situations where reading the actual law changes the conversation.

Most of the public discussion has been about what Segura will do, what the AISD Board will do and what Morath will do. Those are important questions.

But Texas law deliberately put parents into this process too.

You have the right to know the number of students you have to represent. You have the right to understand how AISD intends to validate your petition. You have the right to ask questions before signing anything. You have the right to organize independently of AISD. And if a majority of the students at your campus are represented on a valid petition, you have the ability to formally tell the Commissioner which of the two statutory actions you want him to take.

That is a lot more power than most parents probably realized they had. But there is a deadline of October 15 attached to it. If Burnet and Webb parents think they may want to use this right, you need to start now.