Andrew Walsh, candidate for Keller ISD Place 5

Candidate name: Andrew Walsh

Campaign website: https://www.walshforkisd.com/about

Education: Graduate degree from the University of Houston

Occupation and workplace: Engineer

Keller ISD has approved closing Bear Creek, Parkwood Hill and Trinity Meadows intermediate schools after the 2026-27 school year as the district responds to declining enrollment. Do you support the consolidation plan and what should guide any future decisions about school closures, attendance boundaries or the use of district property?

I support the consolidation plan, even though it directly affects my family. We have three boys in Parkwood Hill this year, two of which will be between fifth and sixth grade when the school closes. I hate it, but I also accept it.

Intermediate school closures were part of the recommended consolidation plan that came from our community-led Long Range Planning Committee. It wasn’t a selfish or politically motivated decision from the board. Our neighbors looked at the facts and determined the best path forward given the tough circumstances.

I was on our community-led Budget Committee, so I know that our enrollment in Keller ISD is declining. I also know that the Texas Legislature isn’t fully funding our public schools. This was a hard choice, and we may be faced with more hard choices as enrollment continues to decline while inflation and unfunded mandates from our legislature continue to erode our effective budgets.

Going forward, the board must seek community input for the most difficult issues that affect us all. This would include anything regarding school closures or shifting attendance boundaries. I believe that the Long Range Planning Committee should be permanent for the foreseeable future, with annually rotating membership. 

The use of district property must be handled on a case-by-case basis. This is so broad that I cannot fully address it here, but I will say that for anything controversial, the board should seek community input through a standing or ad-hoc committee.

Keller ISD voters will consider an $828 million bond package. Which propositions do you support or oppose, and why? If elected, how would you oversee bond spending if voters approve it — or address the district’s facility needs if some or all of the propositions fail?

I support all of the bond propositions. They are good for our kids and our property values.

Like it or not, Texas school districts should have a bond every 3-5 years. It has been 7 years and counting for KISD, and we’re all seeing the results firsthand. Our natatorium is closed. Air conditioning units are failing all over the district, including two of my kids’ classrooms. There are also many other mechanical, electrical and plumbing issues that most people haven’t heard about, like roof-related water intrusion damage at many campuses.

“Band-Aid” solutions like spot coolers are very expensive (~$500 per week per cooler) and are paid for out of our teacher salary fund (M&O). We’re having problems with teacher retention, and it’s no surprise. We don’t offer competitive compensation with neighboring districts and we expect many teachers to work in classrooms with no AC.

The bond package was put together by our neighbors on the Citizens Bond Advisory Committee. They came from different political persuasions and feeder patterns. They met 11 times, put in 1000+ man-hours and visited campuses to see the problems firsthand. Every candidate project had to get a 2/3 supermajority vote to make it into the final bond package. I trust my neighbors, and only high priority needs were included. On top of that, they limited the size so that it can be paid for using our current tax rate.

If approved, the board must prioritize the projects appropriately (they will not all be concurrent) and oversee the planning and execution by our own administration and external contractors. Because this involves tradeoffs that affect the community, the board must seek input from the soon-to-be-formed Citizens Bond *Oversight* Committee.

If bond proposals are rejected, then end-of-life maintenance and emergency repair costs fall on our teacher salary fund (M&O) and our small “rainy day” fund. Neither will be able to bear the costs for long, particularly if Proposition A fails. In that case, the district must immediately start putting together a new bond package for the next election cycle. 

Keller ISD adopted a nearly balanced $346.1 million general fund budget for 2026-27. If the district faces a budget shortfall, how would you want to address it? 

In general, I want to avoid budget shortfalls in the first place. Many costs can be predicted and mitigated if both the board and the administration are on top of district spending. Though this process may sometimes be painful, trustees must be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars and cannot abide year-over-year deficits. As an engineer and program manager, I’ve managed multimillion dollar projects and solved a lot of tough problems. If elected, I will apply my skills and experience to put Keller ISD on a fiscally responsible trajectory.

The most likely budget shortfalls would be as a result of failing bond propositions. End-of-life capital equipment and infrastructure will require emergency repairs at unpredictable intervals. A recent example is our natatorium, which required a $2+ million disbursement from our small “rainy day” fund. It is important that we pass the bond to avoid these situations.

What do you believe is Keller ISD’s most pressing academic challenge? Identify one measurable academic outcome you would like the district to improve during your term and one action the school board can take to help accomplish it.

I’m an engineer, so I’m used to analyzing data. Numbers don’t lie, but they can mislead you if you’re not careful. A key board responsibility is monitoring and oversight, and there are a few areas that I’d like to dig into first if elected.

If we look at STAAR performance rates, we find that Keller ISD exceeds Texas state averages in most grades and subjects, often by a significant margin. That’s wonderful! However, there are a few curious exceptions: fourth-grade math, seventh-grade math, seventh-grade reading and eighth-grade science. One of my priorities is to look into the reasons behind all of these shortfalls. There might be a great explanation and no problem, or we might need some improvement.

Since I have to pick one for this question, I’ll focus on seventh-grade math. For “Meets Grade Level or Above” and “Masters Grade Level,” we’ve fallen short two years in a row, and not by small margins. This implies a problem. That said, we beat the state average for sixth- and eighth-grade math in both of those years, which implies that the seventh-grade scores might be a benign anomaly. This will require some digging and analysis, and to go further I’ll need more data and access to experts in our administration. Trustees have this access.

Understanding the data and correlating it to actions we’ve taken in the real world will inform whether a response is needed and what form that response should take. In any event, I’ve got the right analytical skills to attack this and I know where to start.

Keller ISD went through a debate in 2025 over a proposal to split the district, which the board ultimately abandoned. Did you support the district split? More broadly, what would you do as a trustee to rebuild or maintain trust among families and residents across different parts of the district?

Both then and now, I am firmly against splitting Keller ISD. We’re stronger together.

I believe that splitting the district would hurt schools and students on both sides of the tracks. We’re already having a funding crisis, and we’re better off without duplicating superintendent, administration and shared facility costs. As a larger district, we also have more negotiating power for service contracts. 

Even though it was ultimately thwarted, the split attempt has caused a major rift in our community. The previous board of trustees breached our trust by trying to silence our voices. They tried to bypass a community vote because they knew it would never pass.

Healing these divisions will take proactive effort, and trust takes time to rebuild. The board needs to lead the way for the larger community:

First, we need to focus on transparency and accountability by making information public and by using community-led committees to help chart our collective course as one unified Keller ISD. 

Second, we need to turn down the temperature of our public conversations. We need to focus on the business of running the district and having a normal school year, not on demonizing any part of our community. We’re all in this together: students, parents, teachers, administration, taxpayers and everybody else.

Third, we need to keep politics out of our schools and libraries. I’m an Independent, and I think that we all agree on a lot more than we realize. And even when we disagree, we can still love our neighbors.