Janet Horton Successfully Represents School Board in Recent Petition

April 10, 2007

HOUSTON (April 20, 2007)--Bracewell & Giuliani LLP school law partner Janet L. Horton successfully represented the administration of the Spring Independent School District in its argument to the Spring school board recently to dismiss a petition from a posh Spring subdivision to leave Spring ISD and join the Klein ISD.

The petition, filed on behalf of 190 members of the Northgate Forest subdivision, requested that the area be detached from the predominantly minority Spring ISD and annexed to the more affluent, less diverse Klein ISD. 

Ms. Horton successfully argued that the petition failed to meet a Texas Education Code law dictating that the loss of taxable property not be disproportionate to the number of students in the area to be detached.  “The petition did not meet the statutory requirements because the assessed value of the subdivision was $92.5 million, but only seven students from Northgate who currently attend Spring ISD schools would move to Klein ISD; therefore the ratio rule in the law was violated,” Ms. Horton said.