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Annexation/Detachment Appeal Dismissed
Ruling: A proposed ISD annexation/detachment appeal is denied because the proposal does not meet the minimum requirement in state law for approval. GKC Operating LLC et al. & Amarillo ISD v. Bushland ISD, No. 018-R6-01-2022. Signed Aug. 23 by Education Commissioner Mike Morath.

This appeal involves the quest by Amarillo ISD and GKC to have the commissioner approve the annexation of a part of the territory within Bushland ISD into AISD’s boundaries. AISD trustees approved the underlying annexation petition presented by GKC, but BISD trustees denied the corresponding detachment petition.

The territory in question, as of the time the dispute arose, had three adult residents (all of whom were tenants) and no students.

The commissioner rejected the requested annexation on a finding that the proposal did not meet the minimum criteria — that is based on a formula in state law — on what must be considered when the board of one of the school districts approves the petition and the other board doesn’t approve it.

The commissioner noted that the criteria in such circumstances involves inputting data into a mathematical formula that takes into account the number of residents and the number of students in the territory to be annexed and the impact to the tax base of the ISD that would lose territory if the petition were to be approved.

After inputting the required data into the formula, the answer came back that the petition did not meet the minimum criteria that would allow the requested annexation to be approved, the commissioner concluded.