The Committee on Academics Stewardship and Efficiency (CASE) held its first meeting last Monday night. But you would not know that from SAISD’s website, press release or other means of communication.
CASE is the committee that is tasked with redrawing school attendance boundaries across the District.
We last reported on the formation of this committee on February 10, 2026.
Cardenas Concerns About CASE Ignored
CASE Members Not Appointed By Trustees
The Board of Trustees has not voted to appoint any of the committee members.
As far as we can tell the Board has never taken a vote to officially form CASE.
Now the committee is meeting at the direction of staff alone. They are doing so without official action appointing the committee members. They also have not told the public they were beginning to meet.
The Concho Observer learned that their first meeting was Monday after the fact.
Secret Meetings
We asked SAISD if the meeting were open to the public. We were told no. Only invited committee members and Trustees were allowed to attend.
We have also received reports that “committee members” are being instructed to not disclose anything that is said in the meetings until the District Administration is ready to make it public.
Such an instruction is probably unenforceable under the First Amendment.
We asked if we could have a list of the committee members and were also told no.
There are no recordings of the meetings the public can watch or listen to.
“Because We Say So”
According to Shannon Schwartz the District’s Director of Communications, “The committee is made up of representatives from all zones and areas of town to ensure broad geographic representation. At this time, the committee roster is not being distributed publicly.”
Of course the public and press has no way of finding out if that is true. The District will not provide any information about the selection process or who is on the committee.
Reportedly the committee is made of up 72 persons. About a third of those are rumored to be SAISD employees.
We have no way of confirming that either.
If true that raises a question of conflicts of interest and how representative the committee is of the community, parents and student body.
Who those committee members are, the selection process through which they were recruited, chosen and appointed, who appointed them, and even when they meet remains shrouded in secrecy.
Board of Trustees Has Not Approved Committee
To this reporter’s knowledge , the Board of Trustees has not formally voted to either create the committee or appoint committee members.
I was also unable to find any resolution delegating the authority to appoint such a committee to the Superintendent or staff without consent of the Board and notice to the public.
There is little guidance in state law on exactly how a district redraws its school attendance boundaries other than complying with Open Meetings laws and the Constitution.
Advisory committees ordinarily do not have to comply with the Open Meetings Act if they are purely advisory. Whether this committee’s task is purely advisory remains to be seen. We cannot tell that either because of the secretive process being used.
Decisions Should Not Be Made in Private
Many people in San Angelo already think SAISD is not open to the public and hides its real decision making behind closed doors.
The perception is that the Board has made its decision before its meetings ever start.
The secrecy with which CASE has been put together and is operating is only going to make matters worse.
Local government should be the most transparent of all. After all its decisions affect the daily lives of tens of thousands of people in our community.
SAISD is fumbling the ball on CASE and needs to get its act together fast. If not, approval of the CASE recommendation is going to be met with a lot of public opposition.
And SAISD will have lost the public’s trust at a very critical time.
