Austin Independent School District Superintendent Meria Carstarphen Wednesday announced the closure of Pearce Middle School, effective immediately.

At a press conference, Carstarphen said AISD received a letter from Texas Education Agency commissioner Robert Scott ordering the shutdown of the school.

The TEA commissioner said the school received an academically unacceptable rating for the fifth year in a row. Pearce has been rated either low-performing or academically unacceptable eight of the past 10 years.

Scott's letter to AISD said the following: “This pattern of continuing low performance is not acceptable and currently is unmatched by any other campus in the state. I [Commissioner Robert Scott] am therefore ordering the closure of the Pearce Middle School effective with the 2009-2010 school year.”

In a press release, Carstarphen said she respectfully disagrees with the decision.

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"The Pearce community has come together to ensure that our children know it’s important to be strong academically, work hard, be persistent and achieve high standards," Carstarphen said. "Their efforts resulted in significant and meaningful improvement and I believe that under the new law, Pearce could have stayed open and continued on this accelerated path of improvement."

The decision caught many by surprise, including the AISD superintendant, particularly with the start of the next school year only a little more than a month away.

"With less than 30 working days, really puts us behind the eight ball," Carstarphen said.

Pearce's 500 students will be transferred to one of 12 other schools with sufficient capacity.

The Pearce community has repeatedly asked for more time to bring up overall test scores, which students were able to do this year, in almost all subjects. Unfortunately, science scores weren't high enough.

Carstarphen said this year’s scores are encouraging and she has faith that students can still turn the corner when it comes to scores.

"They did not fail their kids, and kids did not fail themselves, they did good work," she said.

Brenda Washington lives a stone's throw from Pearce Middle School, where three of her children went to school. She said she's angry and wants some answers.

"Why are we closing all of our schools down? I'm not understanding it," she said. "They're not educating our kids; the education they are giving our kids is a third degree education."

But not every parent in the neighborhood is sad to see Pearce go, some are saying the closure was long overdue, and in the best interest of the students.

"We have to look out for their future," parent Jeannette Rivera said. "We can't push them back; we have to teach them to move forward."

There is some discussion of repurposing the school or making changes that would allow it to stay open. Washington hopes parents fight for that, and hold the district accountable.

"They need to know they graduated from their community school, not some school over somewhere they will never go back to," she said.

In related news, the TEA also deemed Reagan High School unacceptable, but it will stay open under the same management.

Reagan will have to contract for professional services to improve student achievement in underperforming areas.

TEA will release its final report regarding Pearce Middle School July 31. Carstarphen will hold a public meeting at Pearce for students, parents, teachers, staff and the community from 6:30-8:30 p.m., July 15.