SINGLE-MEMBER DISTRICTS FOR ROUND ROCK SCHOOLS?

Political action committee critical of leadership has begun circulating petition.

A political action committee critical of the Round Rock school district’s leadership announced it is circulating a petition to pursue single-member districts, which would have trustees representing certain areas of the district.

Edmund Buckley of the Round Rock Parents and Taxpayers Association spoke during a recent school board meeting on the plan, which he said is necessary due to accountability issues on the board.

“It appears that over the years the board tends to in some way pander to the Round Rock Chamber, meeting their crony interests in the Round Rock community, including the YMCA,” he said.

A failed $572 million bond package in May and the recent resignation of appointed board Trustee Stuart Selvaggi are examples of the board being out of touch with its constituents, Buckley said.

In a statement, board President Diane Cox said single-member districts are historically created to address issues of disenfranchised community or an uneven or absent representation on the board. Those are not issues in the Round Rock district, she said, as the board is “diverse and trustees advocate equally for all communities in our district.”

“If a community feels additional representation is needed, a candidate or candidates should first run for an open seat before advocating for drastic measures to address a problem that doesn’t exist,” she said.

The petition requests the 110-squaremile school district be separated into seven smaller districts, with each represented by one trustee. Candidates must live within the specific district to become its representative trustee.

The arrangement would resemble several other school boards in Austin, Del Valle, San Marcos and Taylor that have trustees representing area districts.

Both the Austin and Taylor school boards include two at-large trustees.

Marshall Sprigg, a member of the Parents and Taxpayers Association, said it will not be difficult to collect the 15,000 signatures necessary to put the proposition on a ballot. He said the western portion of the school district in Travis County has felt underrepresented for some time.

“This would offer better accountability because the trustee comes from an area voted in by those residents,” he said of the proposed board structure. “The difficulty in running for office on an at-large basis won’t be there, so it may encourage more people to run for trustee positions, and you have a better pool of talent to pull from.”

The board has the ability to create the single-member structure without an election, which Buckley called for at Thursday’s meeting.

But if trustees choose not to take action, he said, the proposition will likely be on the November 2018 ballot.

Under state law, each single-member district must have a population within 10 percent of each other.

The single-member district must be drawn and presented to the public at least 90 days before holding trustee elections.