HOUSTON (KIAH) Parents, or anyone in the community with questions or concerns about the Texas Education Agency’s plans for the Houston Independent School District, may get some answers Tuesday night.

The first of four informational meetings that the TEA is hosting about its takeover of HISD is set for 6:30 p.m. at Westbury High School.

TEA Commissioner Mike Morath says state law requires his agency to remove the school district’s board of trustees and superintendent and replace them with a state-appointed Board of Managers because he says HISD failed to address chronically underperforming schools and did not provide enough support to students with disabilities.

“There’s a campus in Houston today where the last acceptable rating was in 2011,” Morath said. “That’s two entire generations of kids that went through that campus that didn’t learn to read, write or do math. And ultimately that’s why we are having to intervene.”

While there are some who support the takeover, lots of community organizations are fighting it through the legal system and the state and federal government.

The stated purpose of the Board of Managers is to “improve outcomes for Houston ISD students by representing the vision and values of the community.”

But the Houston Federation of Teachers says the community elected a school board to do that – a board that was in place as schools started seeing performance improvements recently.

“You have removed our voices as registered voters,” HFT President Jackie White Anderson said. “We have made our choice, and we will not stand by and let you remove the choice we have made letting our democratically elected board serve us, and we can hold them accountable.”

The second TEA informational meeting is scheduled for Wednesday night at 6:30 at Chavez High School.

The third and fourth meetings are set for March 29 and 30 at the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center and Kashmere High School respectively.

While many parents and community organizations are concerned about or even opposed to the TEA takeover of HISD, there are some who support it and hope it will lead to improvements.

“I think it’s actually a really good idea,” HISD parent Elizabeth Hornbeck said. “HISD has had several different warnings already. I’m a parent with a special education student that I think the district is definitely failing her.”