Where Troy stands.

$23.6 million projected deficit — August 2026

What the record supports: RRISD now anticipates a $23.6 million FY2025-26 deficit, reducing the general-fund balance to approximately $43.2 million—about 30 days of expenditures. Reported causes include an $11 million payroll overage and a $12 million insurance-fund transfer, twice the amount budgeted. The district has projected or recorded deficits in each of the last six fiscal years.

Negative-public-opinion signal: Strongest current financial-management criticism. The CFO warned that the reduced balance could affect the district's state financial-integrity rating.

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Bus-route elimination proposal and reversal — February–April 2026

What the record supports: Families were told certain “legacy” routes would be eliminated because the district no longer considered them hazardous. Parents described young children walking up to roughly two miles on roads without sidewalks, lighting or safe crossings. After sustained objections, RRISD paused the plan and retained the routes for 2026-27.

Negative-public-opinion signal: Direct parent opposition involving student safety. A fair criticism is that families had to pressure the district to reconsider the safety analysis.

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New tax-rate election following deficit news — 2026

What the record supports: The board called a November 3 VATRE seeking six additional cents in the maintenance-and-operations rate to fund raises and salary compression.

Negative-public-opinion signal: Creates difficult optics: a tax increase request following recurring deficits and a large bond. However, bond/debt money and operating/payroll money are legally separate funds; claiming the bond could simply pay salaries would be inaccurate.

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Repeated police leadership turnover and oversight problems — 2022–26

What the record supports: In August 2026, RRISD confirmed another police-chief departure and named an interim chief. The department previously received a sharply negative outside culture assessment, while a state review identified deficiencies in required pre-employment procedures for earlier police leadership. A former chief also filed a whistleblower case containing disputed allegations about reporting and handling of a student assault.

Negative-public-opinion signal: Sustained concern about stability, hiring controls and safety leadership. The whistleblower allegations remain allegations; the district disputed important portions of them.

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Superintendent contract extension and bonus — January 2025

What the record supports: The board voted 7-0 to extend Superintendent Hafedh Azaiez's contract through June 2028 and approve a $21,333 bonus. Six of the seven current trustees—everyone except Cuero—participated in that vote.

Negative-public-opinion signal: Critics connect this vote to the board's earlier handling of the superintendent controversy and question continuing to extend and reward him.

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Major bond and contracting concerns

What the record supports: The 2024 bond placed $998.1 million across four propositions on the ballot. Voters approved $932.2 million for facilities, technology and fine arts, but rejected the $65.9 million athletics proposition. Fabian Cuero's connection: before his appointment to Place 6, he co-chaired the Citizens Bond Committee. He did not vote on the bond as a trustee. The district subsequently created a public bond tracker. Separately, critics sought underlying evaluation, pricing and communication records connected to job-order contracts with authorizations reportedly reaching $5 million. One awarded company, AZTECA Designs and Construction, later received attention because its owner was indicted in an unrelated voter-fraud case.

Negative-public-opinion signal: Criticism included the package's size, anticipated interest costs and additional debt; complaints that the final project list was not sufficiently shared before the board's decision; and the athletics proposition's rejection. The job-order contracts create a due-diligence and disclosure question, but I found no evidence that the RRISD contract itself was illegal, that the entire authorized amount was spent, or that trustees received a political benefit.

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Older controversies that still affect sitting trustees

Superintendent hiring, investigation and reinstatement — 2021–22: Azaiez's initial appointment had to be repeated after a procedural error. He was later placed on administrative leave during an investigation and reinstated 5-2. An outside investigator criticized his failure to disclose legal and TEA-related developments. Amber Feller Landrum and Amy Weir were sitting trustees during this period. No criminal charge was filed, so the underlying personal allegations should not be presented as proven.

Board-meeting removals, arrests and civil-rights litigation — 2021 onward: Two residents arrested following contentious board meetings sued trustees, administrators and police, alleging retaliatory exclusion and constitutional violations. A 2024 ruling dismissed many claims but allowed certain individual claims—including one involving Trustee Feller—to continue. This is evidence of a serious governance controversy, but not proof that a court ultimately found the board liable.

Special-education restraint findings — 2023: TEA substantiated findings involving an improperly handled restraint of a special-education student, an aversive technique and missing restraint documentation. The district acknowledged that one restraint did not comply with law and was ordered to take corrective action. This supports criticism of district safety oversight, although it was staff conduct rather than direct trustee conduct.

Board dysfunction and state monitoring — 2021–23: The period included trustee lawsuits, unsuccessful censure efforts, ethics-training disputes and a TEA-appointed monitor. The original monitoring action arose from a 2019 complaint against a former trustee, and monitoring ended in 2023, so it should be described as historical governance damage—not a current state sanction.

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Polarizing or lower-confidence controversies

Ten Commandments litigation: Attorney General Ken Paxton sued RRISD after the district declined to display donated posters while constitutional litigation was pending. The Fifth Circuit subsequently upheld the state requirement, but Supreme Court proceedings were being pursued. This issue divides public opinion rather than demonstrating uniformly negative sentiment.

Library-material policies: Trustees faced pressure from both book-removal advocates and librarians/free-access supporters while implementing new state requirements.

Panorama student survey and grievance procedures: Three November 2025 speakers criticized the survey, library titles and proposed employee-grievance language. This is documented criticism but too small a sample to characterize districtwide opinion.

Single-member districts: The board repeatedly considered but did not adopt geographic single-member districts, drawing criticism from some representation advocates.

The current Round Rock ISD Board of Trustees roster is Alicia Markum, Melissa Ross, Amber Feller Landrum, Amy Weir, Chuy Zárate, Fabian Cuero and Michael Wei.

RRISD’s board has faced recurring problems with financial forecasting, administrative oversight, police-department stability, contracting transparency and responsiveness to parent safety concerns. In 2026 alone, it projected a $23.6 million deficit, reversed proposed bus-route removals after parent pressure, lost another police leader and asked voters for an operating-tax increase.

These are not abstract management issues. They directly affect classrooms, bus stops, school safety and family budgets. When forecasting is unreliable, programs and jobs become bargaining chips. When oversight is weak, problems fester until they become crises. When parents raise safety concerns and must organize just to be heard, trust erodes.

As Trustee for Place 6, I will insist on clear financial forecasts with honest assumptions, public explanations for leadership turnover, competitive and transparent contracting, and a board culture that responds to families before pressure forces a reversal. Taxpayers, parents and teachers deserve a board that gets ahead of problems instead of reacting to them.

Round Rock ISD’s original decision to remove bus service and expect children—some as young as five—to walk nearly two miles along routes described by parents as dark, steep, lacking sidewalks, and containing blind turns was unacceptable.

I am relieved that, after families organized and spoke out, the district paused these changes for the 2026–27 school year. But parents should never have been forced to fight simply to be heard about the safety of their children.

This episode exposed a serious failure in leadership and transparency. A scoring sheet cannot replace common sense, firsthand inspection under the same conditions students will face, or meaningful input from parents. If a route requires children to walk in the roadway, navigate blind turns, or travel before daylight, district officials should not declare it safe without publicly showing exactly how that conclusion was reached.

The way this decision was handled made student safety and community input appear to be the last considerations instead of the first. Trustees cannot dismiss that as merely an administrative matter. The Board is responsible for oversight, accountability, and ensuring that families have a voice before—not after—decisions are made.

Voters also approved approximately $932 million in bond projects, including more than $10 million for new buses. Bond funds purchase vehicles and cannot legally pay the operating costs of routes, but that distinction does not excuse the Board from clearly explaining the district’s complete transportation plan. Taxpayers deserve to know how bus purchases, route eligibility, staffing, operating expenses, and future service levels fit together.

As Trustee for Place 6, I will insist on:

Publishing route evaluations, scoring criteria, maps, and inspection findings before service changes are approved.

Inspecting disputed routes during the actual hours and lighting conditions students would experience.

Giving affected families advance notice, a meaningful opportunity to respond, and a clear appeal process.

Maintaining a public bond dashboard showing what was promised, contracted, spent, completed, and remaining.

Delaying any transportation change when reasonable student-safety concerns have not been publicly resolved.

Transparency is not issuing a press release after a decision has already been made. Transparency means showing the work, listening to families, answering difficult questions, and remaining accountable for every taxpayer dollar.

Our students must never come last. On the Board, I will put their safety first and demand the openness and accountability our community deserves.

— Troy Evanovich Candidate for RRISD Board of Trustees, Place 6