Three constitution college superintendents who’re among the many highest paid in Texas are overseeing among the lowest-performing districts within the state, newly launched data present. Considered one of them is vulnerable to closure by college yr’s finish.
An investigation by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune beforehand revealed that board members at Valere Public Faculties had paid Superintendent Salvador Cavazos as much as $870,000 yearly lately, roughly triple what it reported publicly to the state and on its web site. Two different districts the newsrooms coated, Religion Household Academy and Gateway Constitution Academy, additionally considerably underreported the compensation paid to their prime leaders.
The state decided that each one three of these districts have had failing or near-failing ranges of efficiency lately. The rankings, launched final month by the Texas Schooling Company, additionally present that constitution colleges make up nearly all of the districts which have repeatedly had “unacceptable” efficiency, although they account for a small portion of public colleges throughout Texas. The company printed two years’ value of accountability rankings for the state’s public and constitution colleges that have been beforehand undisclosed as a result of litigation.
Religion Household Academy, a Dallas-area district with two campuses, was one in every of eight constitution college districts that at the moment are on observe to be shut down on the finish of the varsity yr after receiving a third consecutive “F” rating. Board members paid superintendent Mollie Purcell Mozley a peak annual compensation of $560,000 lately to run the district, which has about 3,000 college students.
Schooling specialists mentioned they have been troubled that the underperforming constitution networks the newsrooms recognized would make investments so closely in superintendent compensation as an alternative of areas with a extra direct affect on pupil achievement.
“I don’t know what metrics the board’s reviewing to say that that is efficiency that may warrant this quantity of pay,” mentioned Toni Templeton, a analysis scientist on the College of Houston. “What we all know from tutorial literature is once you put sources closest to the scholars, the scholars profit probably the most. And the superintendent’s place is essential, however it’s fairly removed from the children.”
The state’s “three strikes” legislation mandates that the state schooling company routinely shut down a constitution college district that has repeatedly failed to fulfill efficiency requirements.
Faculty leaders have a 30-day window to contest the rankings with the state schooling company in the event that they imagine there have been errors. The state will then launch ultimate scores in December that can decide whether or not failing campuses shall be pressured to shut.
Keri Bickerstaff has despatched 4 of her 5 youngsters to high school at Religion Household Academy however pulled most of them out after prekindergarten. She mentioned she was shocked and saddened when she discovered concerning the district’s funds to Purcell Mozley from ProPublica and the Tribune. At her youngsters’s college in Waxahachie, south of Dallas, Bickerstaff noticed crowded lecture rooms and felt that the lecturers lacked expertise and left the varsity at excessive charges. She was shocked that the superintendent had been paid so extremely.
“I used to be below the impression that funding was a problem,” Bickerstaff mentioned in an interview.
Purcell Mozley and Religion Household Academy didn’t reply to repeated requests for remark, however in an Aug. 14 letter to oldsters and workers posted on the varsity’s web site, she acknowledged that the district deliberate to enchantment the state’s ranking. “Whereas this ranking is disappointing on its face,” Purcell Mozley wrote, “we wish our neighborhood to know that we’ve got carried out a radical overview of our efficiency information — and we strongly imagine that our true rating for 2025 displays a stable C ranking.”
One other small constitution district in Dallas, Gateway Constitution Academy, has two strikes in opposition to it after receiving a combination of “F” and “D” ratings during the last three college years. If the district receives one other low rating subsequent yr, it too shall be pressured to shutter its two campuses that serve round 600 college students.
State schooling data present Gateway has been affected by instructor turnover, with as many as 62% of its instructors leaving the district lately. The district has paid lecturers about $10,000 lower than the statewide common whereas paying superintendent Robbie Moore greater than $426,000 in 2023, in response to tax records — practically double his base wage of $215,000.
Gateway and Moore didn’t reply to requests for remark. After it was initially contacted by the newsrooms concerning the beforehand undisclosed compensation, the district posted a new document on its web site that lists an undated $75,000 bonus for Moore.
Whereas there are not any state laws limiting how a lot college districts will pay their superintendents, state lawmakers have tried to alter that for years. Lawmakers filed a minimum of eight proposals throughout the latest common legislative session that may have constrained directors’ pay and severance packages at public and constitution colleges, however none handed. That included a invoice authored by Sen. Adam Hinojosa, a Republican from Corpus Christi, that may have capped a superintendent’s revenue to twice that of the highest-paid instructor within the district.
Hinojosa filed one other invoice throughout a particular session that started in July that may have allowed superintendents to earn as much as 3 times as a lot because the top-paid lecturers when their district scored an “A” ranking. But when a district earned a “D” or “F” ranking, a superintendent’s revenue couldn’t exceed that of the top-paid instructors. The measure failed to succeed in a committee for dialogue.
“If lecturers are held accountable for pupil efficiency, directors ought to be too,” Hinojosa mentioned in an announcement.
Though Valere obtained a “D” rating for the past two years, its board has compensated Cavazos tons of of hundreds of {dollars} yearly on prime of his base wage, making him among the many highest-paid public college leaders within the nation, the ProPublica and Tribune investigation discovered.
Within the weeks after the newsrooms printed their findings, state lawmakers and an advocacy group that represents constitution colleges strongly criticized Cavazos’ compensation, calling on the district to decrease his pay and tie it to particular metrics. The state schooling company opened investigations into every of the three constitution colleges talked about within the story, that are “open and ongoing,” an company spokesperson mentioned.
In a written response to questions for this story, Valere Public Faculties mentioned that it didn’t intend to enchantment the district’s newest ranking and continued to defend Cavazos’ excessive pay, stating it was justified by his “expertise, efficiency, and involvement in fundraising.”
The board mentioned it didn’t really feel that Cavazos’ compensation was interfering with different district priorities and disagreed that Valere was among the many lowest-performing districts within the state. Its response cited commencement charges, that are barely increased than the state common, however didn’t tackle the low take a look at scores that drove the district’s “D” rankings.
The board members didn’t say whether or not Cavazos’ pay would stay on the similar degree sooner or later however pointed to his employment contract for the present college yr that lists a base wage of $285,887, plus a “retention stipend” of $20,000 per thirty days, after taxes, which seemingly doubles his base wage. The stipend, which the newsrooms revealed earlier this yr, had not beforehand appeared in Cavazos’ annual employment letters.
Holding Constitution Faculties Accountable
Texas’ A-F ranking system was established in 2017 and makes use of metrics comparable to standardized take a look at scores to grade every district and campus on pupil achievement, college progress and success with closing socioeconomic achievement gaps.
The brand new rankings come after a prolonged authorized battle between Texas public college districts and the TEA over adjustments to the schooling company’s rankings system. Districts twice sued Mike Morath, the TEA commissioner, to cease the discharge of the scores after the company introduced plans to revamp the system in 2023. The lawsuits efficiently saved the scores from public view till this spring, when a state appeals court docket overturned a ruling in favor of the districts, setting the stage for the discharge of efficiency rankings for the 2022-23 college yr in April, and rankings for the 2 most up-to-date college years in August after a separate resolution by the identical appeals court docket.
The rankings have an effect on constitution colleges and conventional public colleges in numerous methods. A conventional public college district can probably face state intervention after one in every of its campuses receives 5 years of failing rankings. The brand new TEA data present that there are 5 such districts in danger. By comparability, the state is required to routinely shut down a whole constitution district that receives three years of failing scores.
Supporters typically level to the “three strikes” legislation as proof that constitution colleges are held to a better degree of efficiency requirements than public colleges.
The regulation, which was launched in 2013, is one in every of many guardrails that has been put in place since constitution colleges have been licensed within the Nineties with far much less state oversight than public colleges. Constitution colleges, for instance, have been initially shielded from the state’s nepotism and conflict-of-interest legal guidelines till reviews of leaders participating in self-dealing and profiteering regularly prompted lawmakers to behave.
Brian Whitley, a spokesperson for the Texas Public Constitution Faculties Affiliation, mentioned that Texas holds constitution colleges “extra accountable, extra shortly” after they don’t meet efficiency expectations, together with by means of automated closures.
Personal colleges are set to obtain an analogous degree of safety from the legal guidelines that govern how conventional public colleges spend their cash: Underneath a landmark college voucher invoice the Legislature handed this spring, the state plans to direct a minimum of $1 billion public {dollars} to personal schooling within the coming years. Earlier this month, an investigation by ProPublica and the Tribune revealed greater than 60 situations of nepotism, self-dealing and conflicts of curiosity at Texas personal colleges that seemingly would have violated state legal guidelines had the faculties been public.
These kinds of conflicts of curiosity and familial enterprise entanglements have been frequent amongst a minimum of two of the three constitution districts which have made outsize funds to their leaders.
Data present that Gateway Constitution Academy has employed staff associated to directors, together with Moore. In response to Gateway’s 2017 monetary audit, Moore additionally married an “educational coach” within the district that yr. Data present that the coach’s compensation elevated from $75,000 to $221,000 throughout the 2022-23 college yr, after she was promoted to director of curriculum improvement. She didn’t reply to requests for remark.
At Religion Household Academy, Gene Lewis, one of many founding board members who employed Purcell Mozley and evaluations her efficiency, can also be her uncle, in response to bond paperwork. Lewis’ spouse additionally sits on the board of a separate entity that oversees the district, in response to Religion Household Academy’s tax filings.
Lewis and his spouse didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Whitley informed the newsrooms that his group had supported a spread of laws to implement better accountability for charters.
“We strongly imagine that each one public colleges, together with public constitution colleges, should be clear and good stewards of taxpayer {dollars},” he mentioned in an announcement.
