In a 20-page TEA special investigative report obtained by the Express-News, agency officials found that NEISD trustees violated state law. Based on investigators' findings, TEA's associate commissioner for compliance and investigation is recommending the agency appoint a conservator, who can override school board and superintendent decisions.
The appointment of a conservator is among the most serious consequences TEA has at its disposal when disciplining a public school system.
Throughout the 2025-26 school year, North East ISD and TEA have been at odds over House Bill 1481, which lawmakers passed in 2025. The law mandates that districts adopt student cellphone bans during the school day.
The lone dissident across Texas districts, North East trustees defined the school day as the time when students receive classroom instruction. Other districts enforced bell-to-bell bans. NEISD's policy allowed students to continue using their phones during lunch, passing periods and restroom breaks.
In response, the TEA opened an investigation into the district in October and gave NEISD a January deadline to comply with the state policy. When district trustees dug in their heels in a January vote, TEA threatened further action.
"This violation represents a failure of governance, intentional noncompliance with state law, and a direct violation of a directed (corrective action plan)," TEA officials wrote in the final investigative report.
North East ISD spokesperson Aubrey Chancellor declined to comment further Thursday evening, saying the board needed time to review the investigative report and discuss next steps.
TEA considered "lesser and alternative potential interventions," but ultimately rejected them because they would be insufficient to get North East ISD to comply with state law, investigators wrote in the report.
The conservator, once installed, will "require and oversee the immediate adoption of a board policy" that satisfies the state's law banning cellphone use, TEA officials wrote. The conservator will monitor campus-level enforcement of the policy and how it gets communicated to the NEISD community, according to the report.
The conservator will also direct trustees to undergo mandatory governance training on "statutory interpretation, legal compliance, and board responsibilities," officials said in the report.
Trustees had argued that legislators didn't appropriately define "school day" in the new law and have said their community supports the cellphone ban as written. They have also posed the debate as a parent's rights issue, saying North East ISD parents want a way to get in touch with their kids during the school day.
But TEA investigators took issue with comments made by the NEISD board president David Beyer and former superintendent Sean Maika, who said in interviews with TEA that legislators' intent was not relevant to their interpretation of the law, according to the report.
Beyer did not respond to multiple requests for comment in time for publication.
"We're not subordinates of the legislators in Austin, and we know what's best for our communities," Trustee Melinda Cox said last year. "If we're given a bill that doesn't define a term, and we're not given that mandate from TEA, then why are we not in compliance? This is either a poorly written bill, or the legislator didn't want to define those terms, and there must have been a purpose for that."
North East ISD may appeal TEA's decision for a conservator. Trustees have also previously mulled legal action over the dispute with Ricardo Lopez, NEISD's attorney. Lopez previously estimated that litigation could cost anywhere between $50,000 to $100,000.
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