Grapevine-Colleyville ISD rose five points to a 91 and an A in preliminary 2026 state accountability ratings released August 14, capping years of academic strategy and classroom reforms pursued under conservative board leadership. The results arrived less than three months after voters replaced three conservative-aligned trustees following an organized campaign to change control of the board.
The Texas Education Agency rated GCISD an 86 and a B in 2025. For 2026, Student Achievement rose four points to 91, Academic Growth rose three points to 82, Relative Performance rose six points to 82, and Closing the Gaps rose seven points to 91, according to the district.
Ratings rise across district
Eleven campuses earned A ratings. Colleyville Heritage High School and Grapevine High School both earned A ratings, and GCISD collected 59 distinctions, up from 38 the previous year.
“This achievement demonstrates what is possible when there are high expectations, and a focus on student success,” Superintendent Jason Adams said in the district’s release. He credited students, teachers, staff and parents.
Timberline posts 19-point turnaround
Timberline Elementary posted one of the district’s clearest turnarounds. TEA records show the campus rose from a 68 and a D in 2024 to a 76 and a C in 2025 and an 87 and a B in 2026.
Trustee Shannon Braun called the results evidence of a longer strategy. “This is what a 5 year strategic plan looks like when you stay focused, stay consistent, and do the work,” Braun wrote on Facebook. She pointed to Timberline, i-Ready and phonics-based reading instruction as examples of progress.
Earlier academic changes take focus
District records support a multi-year timeline. GCISD later described its Balanced Scorecard as a five-year strategic plan adopted after a planning process led by former Superintendent Brad Schnautz.
GCISD implemented i-Ready reading and math diagnostics for kindergarten through eighth grade in the 2024-25 school year. In November 2025, the district described daily 40- to 45-minute structured literacy blocks focused on phonics for kindergarten through second grade and said it had purchased HMH English language arts materials about three years earlier.
GCISD reported midyear reading and math gains in March and cited teachers, new instructional materials and i-Ready among the drivers. The district adopted and implemented those reforms under conservative board leadership, while GCISD educators and students carried out the strategy that produced the academic gains.
Organized campaign changes board control
GCISD board races are officially nonpartisan. As previously reported by The Dallas Express, three candidates associated with the local right lost in the May 2 election.
The district’s unofficial election results showed Matthew White defeating AJ Pontillo 52.18% to 47.82%, Lindsey Sheguit defeating Dianna Sager 51.11% to 48.89% and Darrell Brown defeating Mary Humphrey 51.64% to 48.36%.
White, Sheguit and Brown took the oath of office May 18. The board’s membership had also changed in 2025, when Matt Foust defeated incumbent Tammy Nakamura with 51.34% of the vote, a result covered by DX.
United to Protect GCISD campaigned for the 2026 challengers and said their election would remove Braun as board president and “return the school board to the control of all GCISD stakeholders,” according to an April campaign post.
By then, GCISD had spent years implementing its academic strategy under conservative leadership. The organized campaign succeeded in changing control of the board, but the incoming trustees inherited the A rating and academic progress produced before they arrived.
Provided by Dallas Express
