Hispanics and poor discriminated against in San Angelo schools, federal complaint alleges

Here's what to know about the investigation opened by the federal Office for Civil Rights concerning possible discrimination at San Angelo ISD.

The Standard-Times obtained a copy of the complaint filed against SAISD through a Freedom of Information Act request. The documents contain allegations of "escalating" discrimination against teachers, parents and students of the bilingual program at Glenmore Elementary.

"The district has only been targeting schools with very high percentage of Hispanics and low socioeconomic students who come from families who are unable to speak and/or communicate well in the English language," the complaint stated. "This is not a single act of discrimination against the families, students and teachers in the bilingual program, but rather an ongoing issue that seems to be escalating on a daily basis."

More: San Angelo ISD under investigation by Office for Civil Rights

SAISD has one case filed May 3 with the OCR, which is part of the U.S. Department of Education. The newspaper's request to the OCR for more information on the investigation led to the release of documents Aug. 15, including the original complaint with redacted information and a letter informing the district of the investigation.

The school district administration declined to comment for this story Wednesday.

"San Angelo ISD is unable to provide any comments regarding the ongoing investigation at this time," Shannon Schwartz, executive director of communications for SAISD said.

Background information on the case

The filer of the complaint, whose identity was redacted, provided background information for their case, starting with a sustainability plan from the district.

The district had proposed to merge two elementary schools, San Jacinto and Reagan, beginning in the 2023-24 school year. The plan was to send all the kindergarten through fifth grade students from San Jacinto to Reagan to use San Jacinto as an Early Childhood Education Center.

"This would allow the district to segregate into just one school all the three and four-year-old students in the Special Education Program and to downsize the regular pre-kindergarten programs offered at eight different schools into a single site, San Jacinto Elementary," the complaint read.

Reagan and San Jacinto have a very high percentage of Hispanic, non-English speaking and low socioeconomic students.

"Parents from both schools were opposed to the district's plan because they considered it discriminatory and unsafe for the students who, because of lack of transportation, would have to walk long distances through dangerous neighborhoods to and from the assigned school," according to the complaint.

This proposal was made public and was "well explained" by the superintendent months in advance. Parents knew the date that the proposal would be presented to the School Board for approval, giving them time to prepare a case against the merge.

During the School Board meeting on Feb. 27, 2023, parents had the opportunity to speak against the proposal. Five out of seven board members voted against the proposal and in favor of the parents.

Trustees requested administration to bring forward another recommendation to present in the following School Board meeting on March 27.

Next step: Downsizing bilingual programs

"As a result of their failed proposal of merging, administrators decided to downsize the prekindergarten programs offered at eight different elementary schools and to offer it at only four schools," the complaint stated. "However, the bilingual programs were never mentioned as part of the sustainability plan."

Their recommendation also included the consolidation of the bilingual programs offered at two different elementary schools, Glenmore and Bradford, into just one school, affecting prekindergarten through second grade students.

For the school year 2023-24, the bilingual program was going to be offered only at Bradford. All the students and teachers from Glenmore were going to be moved.

"Once again, administrators decided to target Hispanic and non-English speaking students and families without regard to the academic, social and emotional effects this would have on students," the complaint stated.

These decisions, along with the allegations listed below, are the basis for the discrimination complaint, according to the federal documents:

• The decision was made less than one week before the School Board meeting and was done without any input from parents and teachers.
• Parents and teachers were not informed in a timely manner about the changes and were not informed the recommendation would be presented to the School Board meeting on March 27.
• Bilingual teachers at Glenmore were not informed about the decision until March 23.
• Parents were informed about the changes on March 24 through a misleading and unprofessional letter that had no signature, date or school/district head.
• Administrators concealed information from parents and teachers. On March 27, district administrators met with all bilingual teachers and administrators from both schools to discuss the changes and to make plans for the transition. During the meeting, someone — whose name was redacted in the documents — was asked if the decision had already been approved by the School Board. The administration indicated that it did not need board approval. "She failed to mention to the teachers that, minutes later, she would be presenting the recommendation to the board," according to the complaint. "By withholding that information, she denied the teachers the opportunity to speak up and express concerns to school board members."
• Administrators waited until April 11 to have the first face-to-face meeting with the Glenmore parents to discuss the changes and to respond to any questions they had. Parents expressed their concerns and disapproval, but they were told the decision was already made and nothing was going to change.

Parents opposed to moving their students to Bradford

According to the complaint, here is what the parents alleged and were concerned about:

• They were unhappy about the lack of consideration and respect from administrators and felt their civil rights were denied when administrators made decisions for their children without telling them and/or giving the opportunity for input.
• The move was going to affect the social and emotional well-being of the students.
• Schools are on opposite sides of town.
• Transportation was offered, but parents were not willing to place their kids in danger by leaving them by themselves at their home schools to wait for the school buses to pick them up.
• Demographics of both schools are different, and parents believed their students were not going to have the same educational opportunities at Bradford.

The complaint stated they are hoping for the district to reinstate the bilingual program at Glenmore or another school so that students from both sides of town can benefit from the program.

A notice was sent to Dr. Christopher Moran, SAISD superintendent on Oct. 17, 2023, informing him of the investigation.

As a public service, the Office for Civil Rights publishes a list of elementary, secondary and post-secondary institutions that are currently under investigation, according to its website .

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This article originally appeared on San Angelo Standard-Times: Hispanics and poor discriminated against in San Angelo schools, federal complaint alleges