WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — Consolidations of Wichita Falls Independent School District’s campuses and outcries against school vouchers were a big part of the discussion at the WFISD Board of Trustees meeting on Monday, October 16, 2023.

Along with the frustration, however, came the highly-anticipated announcements of the new campuses’ freshly hired staff members.

“Then we named the assistant principals. We’ve done all the interviews for counselors and those will be announced soon, and so all of those things are coming along, and so we’re excited,” Superintendent Dr. Donny Lee said about the progress of Legacy and Memorial High Schools.

The assistant principals for Wichita Falls Legacy High School will be Dr. Troy Farris, Dr. Shannon Cunningham, Tami Davis, Nicholas Mims and Brittany Bailey. The Secretary will be Jessica Garcia.

The assistant principals for Wichita Falls Memorial High School will be Patrick Moore, Misty Speer, Michael Forney and Kim Stutz, and the Secretary will be Emily Espinoza.

With two new high schools on the horizon, plus the consolidation of a couple of campuses, Superintendent Dr. Lee said there is still plenty to do.

“The Denver Alternative Campus: What we’ve done with it is we’ve moved it over to Farris, and so we’ve got it abated because there were some abatement issues from the storm,” Lee explained.

Another item on the table was discussions surrounding the education savings account vouchers, something Lee & the Board shared a resolution against.

“When you take public funds and you give them to private schools, they’re not accountable for academic outcomes to report publicly and they aren’t responsible to report their financials, so we don’t want to hear this fraud that this is a parent’s choice,” Lee said. “It’s not at all, and we don’t support it in any way.”

The Texas Senate passed a bill allowing parents to use $500 million in public school funds to pay for private schools. If it passes in the House, more than 62,000 families may receive an $8,000 education savings account, and the WFISD is watching this closely.

“It’s going to separate the haves from the have-nots,” Lee said, which is something he said should not happen in education.

To learn more about the other issues discussed at Monday’s meeting, visit WFISD’s website.