AISD parent petition to close failing middle schools

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson says a couple of failing middle schools will be closed. It appears parents gathered enough petition signatures to trigger a shutdown of Burnett and Webb Middle Schools. This would prevent a state takeover of Austin ISD. Fox 7 Austin's Angela Shen joining us in studio to explain. Angela? The two schools received five consecutive F ratings from the Texas Education Agency. There are essentially three options from there. the state could replace the school board or close the campuses. The third option is for parents to petition the state education commissioner to close the schools if more than 50 percent of parents at each campus sign, the commissioner has to accept it and the district has to submit an improvement plan which the commissioner still has the final say in. The petition deadline was yesterday. AISD says they have received the petitions but they have to wait for fall enrollment numbers to come out on the 30th to start validating. The results will be submitted to the TEA by December 1st. Last week, advocates for the petition say it gives parents more of a say in the future of their schools. It's important that we are able to stand up and defend our school. We stand together and defend our school. We don't have the state come in and take us over. The state doesn't need to take us over. The state needs to come in and help us. Now on the flip side, a Burnett parent told us recently she doesn't think people like the Austin mayor should be pushing for parents to ask for their schools to close. Webb PTA posted on Facebook that parents were being asked to sign the petition without fully understanding it. Some were even being handed to kids and some parents want to redact their signatures. The TEA released a statement that says 2026 accountability ratings are not final yet and AISD has submitted an appeal for the ratings at Burnett and Webb any statutes that mandate state intervention to support student learning in AISD have not been reached. Angela, how likely is it that those signatures will be validated though? Well, after advocates held a press conference last week, it seemed unlikely. They said then only 11% of Burnett families had signed and 2% at Webb If they did a really big push in the last week, maybe they got to 50%. But as I mentioned, there was concern that parents didn't fully understand what they were signing. Back to you. Angela Shen, thank you.