Vote of No Confidence in RRISD Superintendent Dr. Hafedh Azaiez: Restore Bus Routes for Westwood Vertical Learning Community and Affected Students

We, the undersigned parents, families, taxpayers, and concerned residents of the Westwood Vertical Learning Community and across Round Rock ISD, formally express a vote of no confidence in Superintendent Dr. Hafedh Azaiez.

Update: Additional families, including those in the Cedar Ridge Vertical Learning Community, have reached out to share that they are also impacted by these route changes and would like to be included in this petition.

This action is driven by serious concerns regarding student safety, the reliability of hazardous route evaluations, the economic impact on families, and the lack of transparency in decisions that directly affect students and families throughout the district.

Key Concerns

1. Reliability of Hazardous Route Evaluations

Community review of bus route scoring sheets and conditions has identified concerns including:

• Roadway classifications that do not align with TxDOT and local planning data
• Undercounting of driveway and access-point conflicts
• Incomplete accounting for sidewalk gaps and pedestrian infrastructure
• Inconsistent scoring across similar route segments
• Failure to incorporate environmental exposure, route length, surrounding safety conditions, and practical accessibility into scoring methodologies 

These concerns raise questions about whether current evaluation methods fully capture real-world risk.

 
2. Failure to Account for Real-World Safety Conditions

Students are being asked to walk routes that may include:

• Limited or no street lighting during early morning hours
• Hills, curves, and reduced visibility
• Blind intersections and obstructed sightlines
• Narrow or constrained pedestrian pathways
• Extended walking distances in extreme weather conditions, including Texas heat and heavy rain
• Exposure to areas with elevated safety concerns, including higher crime rates along certain corridors
• These are widely recognized factors that increase pedestrian risk – particularly for school-aged students.

Long walking distances under extreme heat conditions common in Central Texas, as well as during inclement weather, introduce additional health and safety risks that should be meaningfully incorporated into route evaluations.

These conditions are not hypothetical – they reflect real, everyday risks students face. Any evaluation system that does not fully account for environmental exposure, distance, and surrounding safety conditions may fail to capture the true level of risk.

 
3. Economic Impact on Families

The elimination of bus routes has created meaningful and uneven economic burdens on affected families, including:

• Increased transportation costs (fuel, vehicle wear, rideshare, or alternative arrangements)
• Lost work time or reduced flexibility for parents and caregivers
• Additional childcare coordination challenges for families with multiple students
• Disproportionate impact on families with limited financial or scheduling flexibility

For many households, these changes are not simply inconvenient – they create ongoing financial strain and logistical hardship.

A decision of this magnitude should fully consider the economic implications for families, particularly when those impacts are avoidable or result from potentially flawed evaluation processes.

 
4. Transparency, Access, and Expression Concerns

Parents and community members report difficulty accessing:

• The methodology used to determine hazardous routes
• Route-level scoring data
• Clear and accessible grievance submission pathways 

When complaint processes are unclear, difficult to access, or limited in scope, it restricts the ability of families to raise concerns and seek redress.

These barriers raise concerns not only under Texas Education Code § 26A, but also regarding broader principles of open expression, public participation, and accountability in public education.

 
5. Limited Responsiveness to Community Concerns

Despite repeated outreach, responses from district officials have often been:

• Limited in detail and not responsive to core safety and economic concerns
• Delayed or inconsistent
• Lacking clear explanation of decisions, underlying assumptions, or reconsideration pathways 

This pattern raises concerns about whether community input is being meaningfully considered and whether stakeholder voices are being adequately heard.

 
Why a Vote of No Confidence

Taken together, these issues reflect broader concerns regarding:

• The accuracy and reliability of safety-related decisions
• The transparency of district processes
• The accessibility of channels for community input
• The responsiveness of district leadership
• The failure to adequately consider the real economic impact of decisions on families 

A vote of no confidence signals that current leadership actions do not meet the level of care, diligence, accountability, and transparency required to ensure student safety, support families, and maintain public trust.

 
Our Demands

We call on the Round Rock ISD Board of Trustees to:

• Immediately restore bus service for all affected students, including those within the Westwood Vertical Learning Community and others whose routes include arterial roads, limited pedestrian infrastructure, reduced visibility, unsafe crossings, extended walking distances, environmental exposure, or similarly high-risk conditions
• Reevaluate hazardous route determinations using accurate roadway classifications and a comprehensive set of safety criteria, including environmental and community safety factors
• Fully assess and disclose the economic impact of these decisions on families
• Provide a clear, detailed public accounting of the financial rationale behind transportation cuts, including cost savings, trade-offs, and alternative options considered
• Commission an independent third-party audit of the district’s route scoring system and safety evaluation methodology
• Publicly release the data and methodology used in these determinations to ensure transparency and accountability
• Restore clear, visible, and accessible grievance processes for all stakeholders
• Ensure timely, consistent, and substantive responses to community concerns
• Take appropriate leadership action, including consideration of administrative accountability