Legal challenge could force Keller ISD to change how it elects board members
A Dallas law firm said it is planning to file a lawsuit against the Keller school district, alleging that its all-white board is evidence of a discriminatory electoral system.
At issue is the district’s at-large places in which voters select candidates from across the district to fill open school board seats. Some experts believe at-large elections unfairly favor majority voting blocs and therefore violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was established to ensure all registered voters have an equal voice.
The alternative would be a single-member system in which voters elect representatives from subdistricts within the larger district. Over the past several years, legal challenges based on interpretations of the Voting Rights Act have pushed at least five North Texas school districts to change their electoral systems.
William Brewer, founding partner of Brewer, Attorneys & Counselors, said several Keller school district residents had reached out to his firm about challenging the election rules. Those inquiries were in response to a recent proposal to split the district in half, using Denton Highway as the dividing line. The plan was met with overwhelming opposition from parents at a Jan. 16 board meeting. The next public hearing is scheduled for Jan. 30.
Board members Joni Shaw Smith and Chelsea Kelly referred questions to the communications office, which confirmed that Keller uses an at-large election system. Messages to other board members were not returned.
Brewer’s firm has successfully initiated the move away from at-large voting in the Lewisville, Richardson, Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Irving and Grand Prairie school districts. He said he plans to file the lawsuit within 45 to 60 days.
The crux of the issue, said Brewer, is the achievement gap between white students and students of color in the Keller school district. According to the firm’s research, fewer than half of Black students are considered college ready at graduation, whereas a majority of white graduates meet college readiness standards. Brewer said scores indicate that roughly half of Hispanic students in the district graduate college ready.
According to the most recent publicly available Texas Education Agency data, from the 2022-23 school year, 50.2% of Black seniors in the Keller school district reached the college readiness threshold. For Hispanic students, that number was 54.7%, and it was 70.7% for white students. These statistics were confirmed by a district spokesperson.
Brewer blamed the discrepancy on the fact that Keller’s school board is all white, and therefore doesn’t respond equally to the needs of the district’s diverse student population. He said the board’s makeup is a consequence of white voters, who constitute the majority of Keller residents, largely voting for white candidates. Only 47.4% of the district’s students are white, according to the Texas Education Agency.
Five of the Keller school district’s seven trustees live in the city of Keller, with the other two members residing in Fort Worth, where almost 70% of the district’s residents live. Demographically speaking, there is a stark contrast between the east side and the west side of the district. The eastern portion, which includes the city of Keller, is far more affluent and far less diverse than the western portion.
The trustees who put forth the plan to split the district apparently hoped to detach the eastern half of Keller from the western half, leading some district residents to view it as the “haves” wanting to separate from the “have-nots.”
“The voting patterns are polarized,” said Brewer. “And look at the effects: five out of seven board members live on the east side. The whole theory of Home Rule is based on having elected officials who represent your needs. Unfortunately, at-large districts typically create exclusions.”
To remedy this, Brewer plans to prove that the school district’s board election system is discriminatory, forcing the district to move to either a single-member system or a hybrid system that includes so-called “opportunity districts” that allow for more direct representation for voters of color.
“The law says in order to force a change, you need to establish preconditions,” Brewer said. “You have to show that voting is polarized — that whites are voting for whites, Hispanics prefer voting for Hispanics and Blacks are voting for Blacks. Then you have to be able to draw districts around subgroups that are contiguous and compact. Those preconditions seem to be present in Keller.”
Once those conditions are met, Brewer said, there has to be evidence of impact, what he called “a totality of circumstances.” In his opinion, the achievement gap between white and nonwhite students in Keller satisfies that requirement.
“One of the things we look at to determine if we use resources to challenge the election process for school boards is whether or not children are getting the same outcomes,” said Brewer.
Lewisville as a case study
It’s yet to be determined which resident or residents Brewer will be representing in the lawsuit against the school district, should it be filed.
In the Lewisville case, which was settled in 2023, Brewer’s firm represented Paige Dixon, a Black parent. Three years prior, Brewer represented Frank Vaughan, a white plaintiff, in a similar suit against Lewisville, but that case was thrown out when Vaughan was unable to prove he’d been the victim of electoral discrimination.
Other potential legal challenges
Another issue the Brewer firm is looking into is the allegation that board trustees hatched the plan to split the district during private conversations behind closed doors. Some have argued that violated the Texas Open Meetings Act, which requires such discussions to happen in a public forum.
William Brewer expressed surprise that board members considered the move without first soliciting input from Keller school district residents as a whole.
This story was originally published January 24, 2025 at 3:43 PM.