• by Juan Sanchez

 

In a letter to the Committee Against Taking our Students (CATS), dated July 7, 2008, UCISD Superintendent Wendell Brown acknowledged receipt of documentation from the organization asking the Texas Education Agency (TEA) for detachment of Batesville School from the UCISD. According to the letter, (see “downloads” at LaVozUvalde.com), Brown states that the district is reviewing the request. The letter also states that the pursuance of detachment by CATS is “contraire to the direction of the UCISD.”

However, our sources have indicated that at this juncture, there is mixed sentiment concerning detachment. On one hand, UCISD is not necessarily in agreement with CATS, but on the other hand, there are some who view detachment as a means of extricating the district from a protracted headache.

From an educationally historic perspective, there is some agreement that Batesville may be better served if allowed to detach. However, even upon detachment there may still be some Batesville students who will continue to attend the UCISD.

Also, according to our sources, there are some rumblings on the part of La Pryor. Apparently some of the same problems that the UCISD has had with Batesville students have arisen in La Pryor.

However, it will be difficult for UCISD to flatly deny the Batesville parents their request. If the board argues from a monetary perspective, it will be seen as greedy and interested only in the tax dollars it collects – an argument that has been posed by Batesville parents.

Additionally, to intentionally deny the Batesville parents their request would be to ignore the nearly 300 individuals that signed the petition requesting detachment. This action would more than likely be very questionable, as it would be denying the parents the right to chose where their children go to school.

It has been argued, and is still argued, that the manner in which UCISD proceeded from the very start has led to the current situation. It is now obvious that the board, taking their cue from the superintendent, decided the matter of transferring the seventh and eighth grades from Batesville to Uvalde without fully informing, or allowing for discussion of the issue with the Batesville parents. Additionally, during the court hearings in San Antonio in May 2007, the UCISD in effect acknowledged its failure to provide to the Batesville students comparable educational opportunities as those provided to the students in Uvalde.

Time has not lessened the resentment over the issue, nor is it likely that further delays, as the UCISD attorneys review the documentation, will diminish the resoluteness of the Batesville parents.