Creation of the Stafford Municipal School District
Staffordians Dared to Dream the Impossible Dream and Pursue
It to Reality...
By all odds, the Stafford Municipal School District had
little likelihood of ever becoming a reality. Nationwide,
over 200 communities had attempted a "breakaway" school district.
Stafford was the only one to gain an order of the federal
courts to implement. How did we succeed when the others failed?
The story is one of the most intriguing, and gratifying,
in the annals of public education.
It started in the spring of 1976. The Fort Bend I.S.D.,
where most Stafford children attended school, announced the
elimination of bus transportation to and from school for
the large majority of these students. Parents and City officials
pleaded with the FBISD Board to reinstate the policy of busing
which had been available since 1931. The most severely affected
of these students were very young, poor, minority, had no
other means of getting to school and had to walk across busy
highways, and even railroad tracks, to get to school. The
Board members rejected the appeal, and in a most infamous
statement, said, "If you don't like what we're doing, do
it yourselves."
With the town's people infuriated and the spirit of the
national bicentennial of '76 in the air, Staffordians began
their own revolution. That July, the Stafford City Council
announced it would study the viability of a municipal school
district, which would include the areas of the Houston I.S.D.,
as well as those in FBISD, that were within the City's boundaries.
Thus began one of the bitterest battles in Texas education
history.
After a month of study and a brutal war of words, a committee
of citizens and educational experts announced the proposal
as feasible. A petition was presented to City Council to
call an election. Following an unsuccessful FBISD challenge
to the election, which saw busloads of citizens travel to
the court hearing in Bay City, Staffordians overwhelmingly
voted to create the new district on January 15, 1977. This
was a most critical achievement, but it would be 5 years
before the doors of the Stafford schools would open.
The governor, attorney general, some prominent state legislators
and many in the educational community came out against SMSD.
In spite of their distaste for the upstart district and to
their dismay, the Commissioner of the Texas Education Agency,
noting a lack of racial motivation-a prominent element in
virtually all other breakaway districts-gave SMSD his seal
of approval.
A seven-member school board was appointed by City Council
and elections to levy property taxes and to build the school
were called for that August. The Board began having public
meetings and even adopted a prayer they hoped would bring
divine guidance.
The rhetoric, allegations and threats were hotter than the
blistering summer days that preceded the vote. Claims were
made by FBISD and their sympathizers that if the elections
passed, Stafford children would not be allowed to attend
FBISD in the fall, or participate in extra-curricular activities,
or SMSD would have to pay tens of millions of dollars to
FBISD, or all of the above. Proponents of SMSD countered
that these were all bogus, which they turned out to be and
asserted that election passage would call for: Staffordians
to control selection of the entire board, to emphasize books
not buildings and teachers not administrators, to have lower
taxes and smaller class sizes, to have Stafford taxes educate
Stafford children, to have all Stafford children attend one
campus and to provide every Stafford student a bus ride to
school.
Both elections passed by substantial margins. And FBISD
headed straight for the federal courthouse in Houston. The
federal district judge assigned the case stated openly that
a breakaway district "turned his stomach" and immediately
enjoined the new district and its board from proceeding pending
trial. After a week long trial in early 1978, the judge issued
a stinging opinion prohibiting the further pursuit of the
SMSD.
The most natural reaction would have been for Staffordians
to lick their wounds and walk off in disgrace. But this was
a fight to the finish. No biased judge or high placed public
officials would shatter this dream. In spite of cries from
most corners for Stafford to concede, the City appealed to
the Fifth Circuit Court in New Orleans.
The year that followed before the appeals court heard the
case was especially testy. The calls for Staffordians to
throw in the towel grew louder. The state legislature got
involved, attempting to pass a law that prohibited the creation
of a municipal school district. Not only was there concern
in Austin about what Stafford was doing, but that the Mayor
of Houston had called for exploring the feasibility of a
Houston municipal school district. This sent shivers through
the nearly two-dozen school districts lying totally or partially
within the Houston city limits. The law eventually passed,
but not until it was amended due to successful maneuvering
by Stafford officials to exclude small districts like SMSD.
The day finally arrived for the oral arguments before the
Fifth Circuit. A large group of Stafford citizens made the
trip to New Orleans. It was one of the most crucial days
in the short history of the fledgling district. William A.
Olson, Sr., representing Stafford, gave a brilliant and compelling
argument to the panel of judges.
This was indeed a breakaway school district, but unlike
the others, it was in no way a white-flight district, and
had every right to exist. As the judges left the courtroom,
everybody knew that SMSD still had life. The judges' opinion
that followed a few months later confirmed the fact and sent
the case back to the Houston federal judge for another hearing.
Nine months passed before the trial. To no one's surprise,
the judge ruled much as he had before and prohibited the
creation and operation of SMSD so it was back to the appeals
court in New Orleans.
The howling from FBISD sympathizers, including prominent
public officials, escalated. Why continue when there was
little chance that SMSD would ultimately prevail?
However, Staffordians endured their disparaging, derogatory
and often fallacious remarks with a calm resolve. Finally,
in early 1981, a new panel of appellate judges, including
two who had heard many school cases growing out of the fabled
1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education,
heard the legal arguments. Mr. Olson was again sterling and
persuasive. The many Stafford supporters who had flown to
New Orleans were so inspired by questions and comments of
the jurists an airplane seemed unnecessary to fly home.
On July 30, 1981, the Fifth Circuit issued an opinion that
not only ruled SMSD had the right to exist, the judges instructed
the Houston federal judge to dissolve his prohibiting orders
and allow its implementation. The local, state and national
media trumpeted the achievement. Shock and disbelief prevailed
at FBISD and in many political and educational quarters.
There was much celebrating in Stafford.
Still the fight was not over. The main question: Would FBISD
appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court? If not, where would Stafford
children go to school until facilities could be built? How
long did SMSD have before it must open the new school? Where
would the new facilities be located? How would the costs
be financed until school taxes could be levied and collected
in Stafford? These were just a myriad of questions that swirled
in the aftermath of this court decision many considered stunning.
After what seemed an eternity, FBISD announced it would
not appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. They did, however,
make numerous overbearing demands of SMSD for the transition.
Extensive and sometimes acrimonious negotiations with FBISD
and the TEA, here and in Austin, followed. One humorous,
but productive moment saw the two sides, in an effort to
avoid the curious media and public, resort to the discussions
in the FBISD Board Room broom closet.
The SMSD Board, shelved for nearly four months by the court
injunction, now had to hit the ground running at full speed.
Selecting a superintendent, searching for teachers and implementing
every aspect of a new school district was their task-all
without a dime in the bank.
The City of Stafford, which had orchestrated and financed
the entire creation of SMSD, bought an old homebuilder's
warehouse on Cash Road and converted it into an elementary
school. The City also acquired a 100-acre tract on Staffordshire
Road for a municipal school/complex for the permanent school
buildings.
On the morning of August 26, 1982, several busloads of Stafford
children rolled into the parking lot of the warehouse-turned-elementary
school to the cheers, and tears, of Stafford parents and
officials bursting with pride. After a brief ribbon-cutting
ceremony, the new teachers escorted their new students into
the renovated classrooms for the first day of school in SMSD.
By: Leonard Scarcella
Mayor - City of Stafford
March 25, 2002
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