Keller ISD Superintendent Tracy Johnson has resigned from the district. Johnson criticized the board’s plan to split in two, calling it bad for kids. She’s been missing from meetings for more than a month since making those comments and on Thursday the board accepted her resignation. Education reporter Wayne Carter tells us two board members say that resignation was not voluntary, like the school district claims.
After naming an interim superintendent late last month, the Keller ISD school board officially accepted the resignation of Superintendent Tracy Johnson during a special meeting Thursday morning.
Parents spoke in the early morning meeting making a last ditch effort to encourage the board not to part ways with Johnson, in the job just one year, after previous Superintendent Rick Westfall suddenly retired.
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WATCH HERETwo board members, Joni Smith and Chelsea Kelly, said Johnson’s resignation was forced. " While I don't want to accept this resignation, there's others I do want to accept. I'm broken hearted. This district is in utter chaos," said Joni Smith, Keller ISD trustee.
Johnson first mentioned resigning during a contentious school board meeting on Jan. 16, where the district first addressed a proposal to split Keller ISD in two. It was the first time parents and district leaders gathered in the same room since rumors about the proposal surfaced.
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SIGN UP Johnson said the board’s plan to split the district was bad for kids and that she was sorry but would rather resign than see the split through.
“It's been a huge distraction, a distraction that is not needed right now at this time of the year or ever. We have staff members that are worried about whether or not they're going to have a job, and that hurts my heart because, as an educator of 25 years,” Johnson told the crowd. "I'll be honest, I don't know that I want to be a part of it and so I am prepared to offer my letter of resignation. And I'm not doing that for theatrics, but I'm doing it because I've been in education for all kids, and I believe that every child has an opportunity to learn, and I think every child has an opportunity to attend schools in Keller ISD.”
Board members said they didn’t want her to resign and would take a step back.
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Despite those words the school board has later insisted the only way forward is to split in two, along the railroad tracks of 377, into a small affluent district to the east, and a new district to the west.
Parents packed meetings demanding it stop, students walked out of schools, reports from experts say the split doesn’t save money, and now the leader of the district leaves over the plan.
Johnson's chair was empty at the very next board meeting on Jan. 30. That meeting lasted more than seven hours and focused almost entirely on the board's plan to split Keller ISD into two districts. An agenda item in that meeting to discuss her resignation was skipped over and the board appointed Cory Wilson the interim superintendent.
Before being named the interim superintendent, Wilson served as Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services, one of five assistant superintendent roles in the district.
Parents against the split then urged Wilson to stand with them against the board.
NBC 5 has asked the board president for an interview. District officials tell us he hasn’t respond to their request to consider it.
We asked the district about the questions parents had on the plans, promises to consider a step back, and a report which seems to show no cost savings from all this.
Today the district said they had no answers for us, and no timeline on when they could get them. We continued to press and were told by their spokesman he had no response to provide.
While board members Joni Smith and Chelsea Kelly, have been the lone vocal opponents of the board leadership's plan, the board President and Vice President did say they wished Dr. Johnson well. Vice President John Birt adding that he hoped the new Superintendent could help them through "troubled waters" they face, to which there were guffaws from parents at the meeting.
The board president had security officers remove one parent and her two year old son, after she publicly yelled at the board, during a portion of the meeting that was not open for public comment.
