Lawmakers fight Pearce closure

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Lawmakers and community leaders in East Austin held a meeting from noon to 1 p.m. Friday in their effort to fight the closure of Pearce Middle School .

The state ordered the school closed after students failed the TAKS tests for the fifth-straight year. The school is located in Northeast Austin where 95 percent of students come from economically-disadvantaged homes.

For the first time since the announcement the principal of the school for the last two years spoke to us about what this means.

"Personally I can tell you we are extremely disappointed I feel as if we are in mourning at this time the teachers the boys and girls all worked really hard to ensure success, and quite honestly, it's on the record students performed at levels they have never performed at before," said Principal James Troutman.

The group thinks that by coming together and showing their support they may be able to convince Education Commissioner Robert Scott to keep Pearce Middle School open, citing new legislation. Scott sent a letter to Austin ISD Superintendent Meria Castapheran, dated July 2, announcing his decision to close the school.

"I hope that today's rally with the legislators and parents and teachers will help us get a reprieve," said Troutman. "We really thought the law was going to help us in fact we referred to the law HB 3 as the Pearce law because we new the tremendous progress."

Proponents of keeping the school open said new legislation allows the school more time to improve their TAKS test scores. They claim in the last couple of years, students made great improvements on their test scores. Representative Dawnna Dukes and Representative Dawnna Howard attended the meeting.

Rep. Dukes found out about the closing through the media. She felt the commissioner should have told her because she had drafted HB 3 in order to keep Pearce open.

"I will not be a happy camper if I find out something was done on a local level to close this school," said Rep. Dukes. "I'm no longer counting on AISD. I am meeting with the commissioner [Friday] afternoon myself."

The group will hold another meeting at St. John Branch Public Library at 4 p.m.