Several Burnet Consolidated Independent School District elementary schools recently wrapped up their first year under a new curriculum mandated by the state, ending a year marred by challenges and low performance.

The district’s three elementary campuses – RJ Richey, Shady Grove, and Bertram – were flagged by the Texas Education Agency as academically “unacceptable” in August 2025 after receiving unsatisfactory academic gradings three years in a row, sparking state intervention.

“On August 18, (2025), we were notified that our campuses had three consecutive years of D’s,” Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Dr. Rachel Jones told trustees during a Feb. 23 school board meeting. “If you have either an F or three consecutive D’s, that’s considered unacceptable.”

Under the TEA’s guidelines, any campus that is given a grade of a “D” three times, or an “F” once, must implement a Targeted Improvement Plan (TIP). According to Dr. Jones, a TIP involves rigorous changes to how a school operates, with options including curriculum changes, staff reassignments, or even campus closures.

“In the TIP, you need to outline an improvement strategy,” she said. “We chose to do intensive curriculum and instruction improvements.”

Those curriculum and instructional changes meant teaching staff members throughout the district a wholly new set of curricula that was approved by the state, implementing new teaching strategies like having students talk amongst groups about what they were learning, and holding regular walkthroughs by TEA staff, administrators, and principals to ensure curriculum was being properly taught.

Implementation, however, has been a struggle at many campuses, with several teachers reportedly unwilling to shift their teaching styles to meet the new requirements.

“Teachers were simply just not teaching the curriculum,” RJ Richey Principal Dr. Donna Brady told trustees. “We have many teachers that have been teaching for a long time. Over the years, they have come up with their lessons that they feel are the best way to teach. They have been given the expectation that we must use our (new) curriculum.”

“The work of implementing those curricula hasn’t been easy,” Bertram Principal Christine Hoffman added. “Our teachers have expressed some frustration.”

Later in the year during a June 22 meeting, Dr. Jones reiterated that those struggles had continued, resulting in several resignations and reassignments.

“In March, multiple math classrooms at the elementary level began being taught by a different teacher or the instructional coach because the instruction was so concerning in those rooms that campuses had someone else teach that class,” she said. “Some people really took off and grew. We also had some people who said ‘I don’t want to continue on this growth plan.’”

Dr. Jones also reported that several end-of-year State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness scores presented challenges. The district’s reading and math scores have lagged behind the state average for years.

“(Our scores) have closely mirrored the state, but we have not caught up to the state average,” she said. “There is absolutely no reason that Burnet kids can’t be at or better than the state average.”

Still, Dr. Jones and the Board of Trustees are holding on to hope that things will begin to gel together entering the second year with the new curriculum, even if it means more confrontation.

“This is urgent,” Board Secretary Mark Kincaid said. “This is unacceptable from our level. We want to do whatever we have to do to make this thing work because our kids are the ones that are suffering.”

Newly-appointed trustee Amber Cardenas added that she believed that the teachers would be able to adjust going forward, so long as the board, administrators, and principals could work together and hold strong.

“We know our kids can do this, we know our teachers can too,” she said. “Let’s all do this together. We know (teachers) can do this just like we know the kids can.”

caden@thepicayune.com