The Brief: December 12, 2025

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Good morning, Texas ⛅️ Here’s today’s Brief:

• Texas to take over Lake Worth, Connally, Beaumont ISDs

• Celina ISD sex abuse scandal divides the town

• Why a Texas Christmas tree farm closed despite booming sales

This edition of The Brief was written by Matt Adams.

⭐️ ️TOP STORY

Texas Education Agency taking over Lake Worth, Connally and Beaumont school districts

STORY BY JADEN EDISON

The Texas Education Agency will replace the elected school boards of Beaumont, Connally, and Lake Worth school districts, Education Commissioner Mike Morath announced Thursday. 

Under state law, Morath can either close a campus or appoint new leadership if any school in a district receives five consecutive failing grades under Texas’ academic accountability system. Each of these districts has reached that threshold. These takeovers add to a growing list of districts in which the TEA has intervened, including two of the state’s largest: Fort Worth and Houston. 

The Fort Worth school board has said it plans to appeal the commissioner’s October decision.

In August, the TEA identified five districts at risk of intervention after five straight years of unsatisfactory ratings. Since then, it has announced takeovers of Fort Worth, Lake Worth, Connally, and Beaumont ISDs. Morath has not yet indicated whether Wichita ISD, the fifth district on the list, will face similar action.

School district takeovers were once uncommon in Texas, but they have become more frequent over the past decade, following a 2015 law that allows the state to intervene after five consecutive F ratings. The law also gave the education commissioner broader authority to launch special investigations, which can trigger state takeovers. 

The A-F grading system that drives these interventions is largely based on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR), a standardized test that lawmakers have voted to replace in 2027.

Before 2015, El Paso was the only Texas district to face an academic takeover, triggered by a widespread cheating scandal. Since the law was enacted, the TEA has officially taken control of three districts for low academic performance: Marlin, Shepherd, and Houston.

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⭐️ ️TOP STORY

Allegations against a legendary’s football coach’s son fracture a North Texas town

STORY BY LOMI KRIEL

The top-ranked Celina football team is heading toward another state championship this month. A win would mark the Bobcats’ 10th state title and their second consecutive championship since Bill Elliott became the district’s athletic director and head football coach. But as his assistants called plays on the field, Elliott himself was absent. Despite pleas from his players, the coach, once celebrated as a local hero, was barred from attending games. 

Known for being tough but supportive, Elliott has long been seen as a father figure in the community, someone parents trust to deliver a stern rebuke when needed and who leads his athletes in pregame prayers. Orange-painted hay bales in honor of the Bobcats line the drive to the $25 million high school stadium, built partly at Elliott’s urging. On Friday nights, downtown restaurants routinely broadcast the games, cementing the team’s place at the heart of community life. That image began to unravel this fall. 

Police arrested Elliott’s 26-year-old son, Caleb, a middle school teacher and assistant coach, after students reported he forced them to perform naked jumping jacks and burpees while filming them, according to arrest affidavits and civil lawsuits. He now faces charges for secretly recording boys in the locker room and possessing child pornography. 

The case is the first test of a new Texas law that allows families to sue school districts over sexual abuse allegations when educators are accused of negligence, overcoming the typical legal shield government entities enjoy. State Rep. Mitch Little, a Republican representing parts of North Texas near Celina and one of the victims in the civil case, said at a press conference this month that the public deserves to know whether the school district “grossly, negligently or recklessly continued employing or failing to supervise Caleb Elliott in a way that caused harm to these children. Because ultimately, the children’s lives and these families’ lives are what’s at stake.” 

Caleb Elliott has since resigned, surrendered his teaching license, and remains in Collin County jail on state and federal charges. While his father faces no criminal accusations, at least four civil lawsuits claim he and other school officials ignored a pattern of troubling behavior that, according to lawyers and families, should have prompted earlier intervention. Both men have declined to comment through their shared attorney, who disputes the allegations. 

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🏅 BEST OF THE TRIB

• Just days after receiving a pardon from President Donald Trump, Rep. Henry Cuellar reclaimed his role as the leading Democrat on the House panel that controls Homeland Security funding.

• After 40 years, an East Texas tree farm has closed despite a rising demand for Christmas trees, as an aging farming population leaves no successors.

• A West Texas county commissioner was removed from office this week after the county judge said he violated the Texas Constitution. Lubbock County Judge Curtis Parrish ousted Commissioner Jason Corley for announcing a congressional run outside the allowed window. Corley, who was escorted from the courthouse, is suing to be reinstated.

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📰 BEST OF THE REST

Paywall content noted with $.

• El Paso health officials say whooping cough cases have reached their highest levels since the COVID-19 pandemic, mirroring a statewide surge. (El Paso Matters)

• Austin’s long-awaited light-rail line is set to overcome a major bureaucratic milestone within days, injecting fresh momentum into a project that has weathered years of political and legal obstacles. (KUT)

• Northside ISD is moving swiftly to launch a virtual high school, spurred by a new state law that is encouraging more Texas school districts to offer fully online instruction. (San Antonio Express-News, $)

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📸 The Archive

December 9, 2020

Isabel Suarez works on homework prior to the start of the school day from her home in Pflugerville. Read the story here.

👋 THE LAST WORD

"The community faces a choice: Do you excuse sexual exploitation of young children in the name of preserving your ability to go and get another darned football state championship?"

— Quentin Brogdon, a former prosecutor, who has filed civil lawsuits in the case against Celina High School Coach Bill Elliott’s son Caleb.

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