Royse City teacher who resigned warns board: "Consider this your 911 call, your house is on fire"

Stephanie Tate, a math teacher and soccer coach at Royse City Middle School, told the Royse City ISD Board she has resigned effective at the end of the school year and urged immediate action to address staffing, overcrowding and safety.

"Consider this your 911 call, your house is on fire," Tate said during public comment, describing an incident two weeks earlier when she stood at her classroom door "armed with a hammer, prepared to take a bullet to save my students." She said for 17 minutes both she and her students believed they were in immediate danger.

Tate listed specific requests to the board: reduce class sizes (she cited "30 plus students in every class"), resolve overcrowding at Bailey campuses and the high school, equalize security and core staffing between Summers and Bailey campuses, stop creating new executive-director positions in favor of filling instructional vacancies, and restore teacher coaching positions to classrooms.

She also asked the district to explain recent changes in financial leadership and "how financial oversight is being maintained without key officials in place," and to fix errors in the teacher incentive allotment process. "Our teachers deserve to be respected and valued by you," Tate said.

The board did not take action during public comment but proceeded to closed session and its agenda items. Tate asked the board to investigate and address the items she raised to improve retention and student outcomes.

Speakers quoted in this article are taken from public-comment remarks recorded in SEG 034–SEG 140.