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The three charter school supervisors, one of Texas’ highest paying salaries, oversees some of the lowest-performing districts in the state, the newly released record shows. One of them risks closure by the end of the school year.
A survey by Propublica and The Texas Tribune revealed that previously Valere Public Schools board members had paid Principal Salvador Cavazos $870,000 a year in recent years, almost tripling what they reported publicly on the state and its website. Two other districts covered by the newsroom, the Face Family Academy and Gateway Charter Academy, also significantly underreported compensation paid to top leaders.
The state has determined that all three of these districts have a level of performance failure or near failure in recent years. The assessment released last month by Texas Educational Institutions also shows that charter schools account for a portion of Texas public schools, but still account for the majority of districts that have repeatedly “unacceptable” performances. The agency has announced two years’ accountability ratings for public and charter schools in the state, previously private due to the lawsuit.
Faith Family Academy, a Dallas area with two campuses, was one of eight charter school districts that would be closed at the end of the school year after receiving three consecutive “F” ratings. Board members have peaked Principal Molly Purcell Mosley’s annual pay of $560,000 in recent years to run the district with approximately 3,000 students.
Education experts said that low-performing charter networks are plagued when the identified newsrooms will invest heavily in supervision compensation rather than areas that will directly affect student performance.
“The University of Houston has been working hard to achieve,” said Toni Templeton, a research scientist at the University of Houston. “What we know from the academic literature is that when you place the resources closest to the student, the student benefits the most. And while the supervisor’s position is important, it’s quite far from the child.”
The state’s “Three Strikes” law requires state educational institutions to automatically close charter school districts that have not repeatedly met performance standards.
School leaders have a 30-day window to challenge their assessment with state educational institutions if they believe there is an error. The state then releases its final score in December to determine whether a failed campus will be forced to close.
Keri Bickerstaff sent four of his five children to Faith Family Academy school, but he pulled out most of them after kindergarten. She said she was shocked and saddened when she learned about the district’s payments to Purcell Mosley from the producer and Tribune. At her children’s school in Waxahachie, south of Dallas, Bickerstaff observed a busy classroom, feeling that the teacher had no experience and that she had left the school at a high rate. She was surprised that the director was paid so highly.
“I was under the impression that fundraising was a problem,” Bickerstaff said in an interview.
Purcell Mosley and the Faith Family Academy did not respond to repeated requests for comments, but in a letter to parents and staff posted on the school’s website on August 14, she said the district plans to appeal the state rating. “This review is disappointing to my face,” wrote Purcel Mosley. “We want our community to know that we have conducted a thorough review of our performance data. We strongly believe that our true score in 2025 reflects a solid C rating.”
Another small charter district in Dallas, Gateway Charter Academy, has been on two strikes after receiving a combination of “F” and “D” ratings in the past three grades. If the district receives another low score next year, it will also be forced to close two campuses serving around 600 students.
State education records show that Gateway is plagued by teacher sales, with 62% of instructors leaving the district in recent years. Tax records show that the district paid more than $426,000 less than the statewide average, paying more than $426,000 in 2023, nearly doubled its $215,000 base salary.
Gateway and Moore did not respond to requests for comment. After being contacted by the newsroom about private compensation previously, the district has posted a new document on its website listing Moore’s $75,000 bonus.
There are no state regulations that limit what a school district can pay to supervisors, but state lawmakers have tried to change that for years. Lawmakers have limited salaries and retirement packages for administrators in public and charter schools, but have submitted at least eight proposals during the latest regular legislative meeting that no one would have passed. This included a bill written by Sen. Adam Hinojosa, a Republican from Corpus Christi.
Hinojosa introduced another bill during a special session that began in July. However, if the district had achieved a “D” or “F” rating, the director’s income could not exceed the highest instructor’s income. This measure failed to reach the committee for discussion.
“If teachers are responsible for student performance, so should administrators be,” Hinojosa said in a statement.
Valere has been rated “D” for the past two years, but its board compensated his base salary plus hundreds of thousands of dollars of Cavazos each year, making him one of the nation’s highest paying public school leaders, a Propublica and Tribune investigation found.
In the weeks since the newsroom released its findings, state legislators and advocacy groups representing charter schools have strongly criticised Cabazos’ compensation, asking districts to lower their pay and tie them to certain metrics. The state’s educational institutions have launched a survey of each of the three charter schools mentioned in the story. This is “open and continuous,” an agency spokesperson said.
In a written response to questions to the story, Valere Public Schools said it was not intending to challenge the district’s latest ratings, and continued to defend Cavazos’ high prices, saying it was justified by its “financement experience, performance and involvement.”
The board said it did not feel that Cabazos compensation was interfering with other district priorities and opposed that Valere was one of the lowest performing districts in the state. The response cited a graduation rate slightly higher than the state average, but did not address the low test scores that promote district’s “D” ratings.
Board members did not say whether Cabazos’ salary would remain at the same level in the future, but pointed to employment contracts for the current academic year, listing a base salary of $285,887 and a “retention scholarship” of $20,000 a month after taxes. The pay revealed by the newsroom earlier this year did not previously appear in Cabazos’ annual employment letter.
Holding Charter Schools Responsible
The Texas AF Rating System was founded in 2017 and uses metrics such as standardized test scores to embrace student achievement, school advancement and success, closing the socioeconomic achievement gaps through each district and campus.
The new rating comes after a long legal battle between living rooms over changes in the rating system of Texas public school districts and educational institutions. The district has sued Tee Commissioner Mike Morath twice to stop the release of scores after the agency announced plans to revamp the system in 2023. The lawsuit overturned a district-favorable ruling as state courts overturned control in favor of the district and set the stage for the release of its performance rating in April 202-23. Court of Appeal.
Ratings affect charter schools and traditional public schools in a variety of ways. Traditional public school districts could potentially face state intervention after one of their campuses receives a five-year rating. New tea records show that five such districts are at risk. In comparison, the state will need to automatically shut down the entire charter district that receives three-year failed scores.
Supporters often point to the “Three Strikes” Act as evidence that charter schools are held to a higher level of performance standards than public schools.
The rules introduced in 2013 have been one of many guardrails since the 1990s when charter schools were approved with much less state surveillance than public schools. For example, charter schools were originally protected from state nepotism and profit disputes laws. This was reported that leaders engaged in self-enforcement and profitability, and gradually encouraged lawmakers to act.
Brian Whitley, a spokesman for the Texas Pacific Charter Schools Association, said Texas is holding charter schools “more responsible and faster” if they don’t meet performance expectations, including automatic closures.
Private schools will receive a similar level of protection from laws governing the way traditional public schools spend their money. Under the Landmark School Voucher Bill, Congress passed this spring. Earlier this month, a study by Propublica and Tribune revealed that over 60 cases of nepotism, self-enforcement, and conflicts of interest in private Texas schools would have violated state law if the school had been publicly open.
These types of conflicts of interest and family business intertwining are common among at least two of the three charter districts that have made extensive payments to leaders.
Records show that Gateway Charter Academy hired employees associated with managers, including Moore. According to Gateway’s 2017 financial audit, Moore also married an “education coach” in the district that year. Records show that coaches’ compensation increased from $75,000 to $221,000 between 2022 and 23 after being promoted to Director of Curriculum Development. She did not respond to requests for comment.
Private Texas schools hire relatives and enrich insiders. Soon they can do it with taxpayer money.
The Faith Family Academy is one of Gene Lewis, one of the founding committee members who hired Purcel Mosley and reviewed her performance, according to the Bond Documents. Lewis’ wife is also sitting on the board of directors of another organization that oversees the district, according to a tax return from the Faith Family Academy.
Lewis and his wife did not respond to requests for comment.
Whitley told the newsroom that his group supported various laws to implement greater accountability for charters.
“We strongly believe that all public schools, including public charter schools, must be transparent and excellent custodians of taxpayer dollars,” he said in a statement.
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