Andrew Kim, the conservator appointed to oversee the state takeover of Connally Independent School District, sees a path for the district not only to rebound academically but to become a school system of choice for local families.
As Connally students began their state standardized testing this week, Kim spoke to The Waco Bridge about the challenges and opportunities ahead for this district.
Poor performance on the STAAR test was the main cause of five consecutive years of failing state accountability grades at Connally Elementary and Connally Junior High schools. That triggered the Texas Education Agency’s decision in December 2025 to take over the entire school district.
Kim is overseeing that process as conservator, while waiting for the TEA to complete the process of appointing a new superintendent and board of managers. He is also conservator for Beaumont and Lake Worth ISDs, which are in the process of a state takeover.
Kim said the district is already making some necessary improvements, such as implementing a state-recommended curriculum. He said he expects more teacher development training and better feedback systems will be part of the recipe for improvement. He also cast doubt on whether the four-day-a-week calendar the district has had since 2023 will continue.
The TEA commissioner will re-evaluate the district in two years and decide whether to continue the intervention or phase it out.
The change in leadership at Connally ISD comes as the district’s current board is moving to consolidate its elementary campuses at Connally Primary School in Elm Mott starting this fall. That plan involves the demolition of the aging Connally Elementary School, a plan Kim supports.
Kim has been in education for more than 30 years, including 15 years as superintendent in various districts including Comal and Manor ISDs. He has worked for bigger districts like Dallas ISD.
Kim has also been part-time conservator for Socorro ISD in El Paso – a district with 45,000 students. He notes the district has seen positive growth during his time as co-conservator alongside Michael Hinojosa.
This Q&A from a phone interview with Kim on Wednesday has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
What would you say are some of the biggest immediate issues you’re dealing with at Connally?
This time of the school year, I think that all superintendents in all school districts are really trying to figure out: How can we ensure that as we begin the state testing that our kids are well prepared from a mental perspective, and obviously wishing them to do the very best. This test is one leg of the challenges in life, and that’s very important right now.
As a school district, while you’re trying to finish the school year on a very high note, you’re also trying to prepare for next school year. One of the most important things that school districts contend with during this time of the year is ensuring that all your teaching staff, all your staff positions – whether it’s our transportation folks, child nutrition – we want to have the very best staff in comparison, always. So looking for talent, recruiting talent, advertising for talent, is always one of the key things to take care of at this particular point.
Because of the situation that we’re dealing with here as part of the state intervention, is to make the transition as smooth as possible, so that the focus is on our students.
Can you give us a timeline of the transition, including when the new board will be seated and a new superintendent appointed?
I don’t have particulars on that. So my job is to, once again, make this transition as smooth as possible in terms of operational work, to ensure that the budget process is taken care of, the current board of trustees, as well as superintendents working on some of the things that we need to work on to finish on a strong note. They’ve done a great job. So I want to compliment them on their desire to make sure that our students are performing at the highest level.
I think everybody is right now involved in that enterprise at this particular point. So I’m very proud to be part of that process right now.
What assurances can you give parents that are staying with Connally that it’s going to be in their kids’ best interest?
We are living in a time period of what I consider to be a very positive parental choice world. I think parents are in a position to have multiple different options for their children. How great is it that parents now get to choose?
And so the other side of that coin is that school districts – and other educational institutions – we have to be competitive. We have to ensure that what we offer to our parents is a level of excellence, a level of highest level of performance.
When you think about that from that perspective, then our parents and the parents of Connally Independent School District ought to feel a complete level of confidence that this state intervention will produce that level of high performance.
And if they want to be part of that process, then they really ought to choose this school district over, you know, perhaps some of the other ones that they might be thinking about.
Do you believe the culture of the schools needs to change, to improve them academically, and in what way?
Culture goes hand in hand with any change management process. Great organizations have great culture. But what matters, I think in many ways more is what I would consider to be virtues. Virtues are habits. Virtues are actionable things, right? So sometimes culture resides in the realm of values, and I would say that from what the change management process will produce is certainly taking the very best, honoring what’s been really great, but really building upon a set of new virtues, whether it’s in the instructional pedagogy, whether it is in terms of how we deal with our parents, in terms of how we deal with resource allocations and so forth.
What we do on a day-to-day basis, what the new staff that we’ll be doing every day on a day-to-day basis, will be a level of excellence and continue to do the great things that that still needs to continue, as well as change those that we need to change in order to produce the better results that we need for our students.
Do you expect any of this transition with the TEA to have any impact on the enrichment programs and extracurricular extracurricular activities?
A: Schools will have extracurricular activities. Certainly we believe kids being involved is very important, and I think that would be the stance of the new administration going forward. And certainly I’m going to help to make sure that those things are still a part of the school life.
Would you say advanced academics would be a priority?
What’s going to be a priority is making sure that our teachers are teaching at the highest level, to the level of excellence, that they’re from classroom to classroom to classroom, and that would be regardless of whether or not we’re addressing kids who are in an advanced academic class or special ed, or any students, so I think they all deserve it at the highest level possible that they’re at.
What do you think the effect of Connally’s four-day-a-week school schedule has been on performance, and what is the future of that schedule?
So I can’t address any particulars about Connally ISD’s four-day schedule. There is a TEA study regarding this situation. So I would encourage you to look at that on the four-day. Generally speaking, though, the four-day has not yielded at this particular point a great level of student performance.
From a common wisdom sense, we need more instructional time with kids, and so that will be what’s going forward to ensure that there’s more instructional time for students, to ensure that kids are in front of our great teacher on a day-to-day basis, as much as possible.
Connally has been using the (state-recommended) Bluebonnet curriculum since last year. How successful has that been, and what instructional changes still need to be made to turn around these schools?
So the Bluebonnet curriculum is a high-quality instructional material. It passes a great deal of muster to get to that level. But Bluebonnet curriculum is one leg of the one piece of the puzzle. So in essence, we also need to ensure that we have high instructional strategies, high instructional practices that goes along with that just as well. We could have a great violin, but if we don’t have a great person playing that, then it’s really for not.
So we need to ensure that both things are at the highest level possible, so curriculum is in place, which I think is great thing. We need to obviously bolster that, and then continue to bolster our teacher development and ensure that we have great teaching skills and practices in their classroom.
What have you learned as a superintendent and conservator about what strategies work to turn struggling schools around?
Over the years having done some of the turnaround work in my previous work, and building systems and processes, I’m big on ensuring that there is consistency of high instructional practices from classroom to classroom to classroom.
On top of that you have to create a great feedback monitoring system that really engages teachers with administrators, instructional coaches, and really dig into the teaching practices. It comes to those things that you have to do on a day-to-day basis. It’s hard work. It is a work that requires discipline.
It requires work that involves collaboration, work that involves the ability to be able to really receive and give feedback to one another, and so that’s something that you know is part of the desire going forward, ensure that is part of what we do.
Do you think that current teachers and Connally ISD are capable of the transformation you have in mind? Or is hiring new teachers necessary?
I believe all teachers are capable, and I think that we ought to give a lot of credit to our teachers to be able to adjust and adapt. But it will come down to the teachers or mindset and their willingness to learn, their willingness to adapt, willingness to learn new things and to have an open-mindedness about moving forward.
That’s going to be a key thing for each individual to make that work. But in terms of skill sets and capabilities, our teachers in the state of Texas are working extremely hard.
How confident are you doing this consolidation without having to ask voters for a bond issue?
Certainly that discussion was had. At this particular point, we want to do what is in the very best interest of the taxpayer and not to try to go ahead and do something that’s not necessarily needed at this particular point.
The consolidation will give us an opportunity to maximize optimization of our facilities at the school district, and then going forward, if there is a future need, then certainly we’ll have to engage the public on that. But at this particular point, optimizing the facility with what we have already is a very first important step to the taxpayers.
What was your first impression when you walked into the elementary school?
If anyone were to walk to that campus, just seeing our children, our fourth-graders and fifth-graders, it’s not the very best. I will say that the hallways were very dark. The restrooms were not up to par of any standard. These are aged facilities. Once they were great, but certainly it’s not anywhere near where it needs to be. I’m not trying to say that it needs to be fancy. Providing a great environment and ensuring that kids learn in a good environment, a safe environment as well as an environment that’s conducive to learning, is very important.
So I think the consolidation will help in that regard. Certainly, it’s a smaller piece of the puzzle, but still an important one. Certainly appreciate the district for thinking through this and having thought through this for a long time.
