RISD’s school board has been sued for unfair practices by former trustee David Tyson Jr.
Make no mistake. The lawsuit against Richardson ISD by former trustee David Tyson, Jr. isn’t just an indictment of the RISD system of governance, but of the board members as decision makers. Though Tyson seeks no monetary damages from them, each trustee is named individually in the suit.
Tyson says decisions made by the “perpetually monolithic board,” particularly since the federal desegregation order was lifted in 2013, “contribute to an egregious performance gap between affluent, white students attending favored schools and everyone else.” He says these board members “are supposed to make decisions involving the allocation of resources in a manner that benefits all children equally” and infers the board has used resources to boost the success of white students living in well-to-do pockets of the district over minority kids from disadvantaged homes.
The current system is unfair, Tyson says, because “minority preferred candidates face a white voting bloc.” The remedy he seeks is an immediate, permanent shift from at-large to single member districts to make the election of minority candidates more likely. His suit specifically mentions Hamilton Park as an area likely to elect a minority trustee.
After the lawsuit was filed Friday, some have commented on social media that “it’s about time” single member districts came to RISD. Tyson is the only minority ever to serve on the board, despite RISD being a “majority-minority” district. About 40% of RISD students are Hispanic, 30% are white and 20% are African-American.
Some of the same folks who opined the time was right for single member districts hastened to add, “but our trustees do a great job.”
I don’t see how one can sit on both sides of that fence.
Either these trustees are doing the best they can allocating the resources they have, or they’ve demonstrated they cannot or will not serve all students, and a new method of electing trustees must be devised. If RISD trustees are doing a good and fair job, there is no need for change. If they are failing RISD children, we must change.
Tyson isn’t just saying poor schools underperform affluent schools – that’s easy to prove by viewing test scores. At the lowest-performing 8 elementary schools (including Audelia Creek, Forest Lane, Northlake, Skyview, Stults and Thurgood Marshall in Lake Highlands), 70% of students are meeting grade level in only zero or one subject. At the top 8 (most of which are in the Pearce feeder pattern), more than 80% meet grade level in all subjects. Tyson claims the RISD system of electing trustees favors affluent schools and students, and decisions made by trustees perpetuate that unfair system. Tyson says year after year, seeing these disparate results, RISD trustees “prioritize this cluster of high-performing, primarily white schools at the expense of the rest of the community.”
Here’s the problem RISD needs to brace itself for: Tyson’s attorneys and others have been successful in lawsuits against Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD, Grand Prairie ISD, Irving ISD, the City of Farmers Branch and the City of Irving. These entities either lost in court or were forced to settle and now have single member districts.
RISD has not said if they will fight the lawsuit. The next school board election is set for May 5th. Incumbent Kim Caston has announced she will run for re-election and Lake Highlands resident Jean Bono is expected to run again, as well. No other candidates have announced intentions to challenge the incumbents.
