Two area school systems are getting some awkward publicity as both Collinsville and Tioga ISDs become hot topics in recent news. Inside and outside of official reporting, everybody wants to weigh in.
While online commentary is entertaining, this is an opportunity for us all to step back and take a look at what we could do to actually help education in Western Grayson County, above and beyond paying our school taxes.
Do I know what we need to be doing? No, but anything we say in public may be more than usually important. Right now in Texas the trend of private schools and home schooling puts an increasing spotlight on public education; home and private schools don’t automatically generate publicity, but what happens with local ISDs always makes the news.
Tioga ISD’s Financial Accreditation Rating, an actual grade of “F” in 2020-2022 from TEA (Texas Education Agency) was extensively covered from the get-go in local news; however, a recent announcement about a March 3rd hearing in Austin appears to have caught some community members off guard.
But it’s not unexpected, it’s not anything new, and it’s certainly not a bad thing. As explained in last week’s WNR publisher editorial, the hearing will determine an outcome from a set of possibilities already well understood by current Tioga administrators and trustees, and they will be prepared to implement whatever may be laid out for the district after the hearing.
A state conservator has been monitoring Tioga’s financial operations since 2022, when major school staff reductions were part of a comprehensive plan to pare expenses, along with adoption of the four-day week plan popular throughout many US school districts. Additionally, Tioga passed a large school bond in 2024 with proceeds applying in part to the debt shortfall.
All measures taken have succeeded in raising the district’s Financial Accreditation Rating from an F to a current 68%, two percentage points short of a 70% passing score.
Interesting to note that, while the financial crisis has been ongoing, Tioga ISD continued to succeed on other levels, maintaining an academic accreditation rating of “B.” College admission rates have been high for Tioga graduates and students are frequently featured in print and Facebook participating in team sports, community events and winning awards in local, state and national competitions.
On March 3rd the state committee and its appointed conservator will listen as Tioga’s superintendent, trustee head and four others chosen by the board to present TISD’s case. Results of this hearing will determine if the ongoing method of solving the district’s financial problems is sufficient or whether more state involvement is warranted.
While no part of the hearing is open to the public, WNR’s editorial includes contact information for Tioga constituents to express positive support to the committee. If you’re a fan of Tioga schools — which have always had a good number of incoming transfer students from surrounding areas (another subject entirely)— will sending in your thoughts to a TEA contact help? I’m not sure.
I’m guessing that communications forwarded to the state will not be all positive. Negative comments on local topics, often anonymous, usually outweigh the positive ones and there’s little opportunity to fact-check.
But in Tioga’s case, community communication likely won’t be a problem because the topic of district finance is not a “juicy” issue liable to generate unflattering opinions. Plus, the responsible parties have resigned, replaced by others working on all fronts to improve district financial operations.
On the other hand, Collinsville ISD has a scandal potentially more problematic than Tioga, one difficult to defend and easy to pepper with spicy accusations from “morality Karens”.
If you look up the Collinsville school district online, it’ll be apparent that state scorecards are not an issue, as CISD has safe, median-to-average TEA ratings. Yet you’ll also see that three top administrators are being investigated by TEA, stemming from a perceived lack of response to allegations about a staff member’s “inappropriate communications” with a student or students.
The staff member accused has been on paid leave since October and is reported to be appealing that decision in an upcoming school board hearing. On the CISD Facebook page, the Collinsville superintendent has stated that all such inappropriate conduct allegations are taken seriously while in the same sentence strongly denying the specific accusations. As of this writing that’s the latest “official” word.
But like Tioga, Collinsville student activities are featured online with favorable gusto. Especially in band and athletics, we see news stories of Collinsville students competing and showing up well in local, state and national competitions.
Meanwhile, online commentary romps on, and per usual, disagreeing forces are pretty mean to each other. In the process, commenters allude to actions of school personnel— which they may or may not have personal knowledge of—it’s hard to tell. For sure, the school district usually takes the brunt of the publicity, well before the fact gaining process has worked itself out.
Even if we don’t have students in the family, there are ways we can be more involved in local schools and be closer to what’s really happening in this critical part of our community. Let’s look into it.
