Texas Education Agency officials said they filed an appeal Thursday to overturn an injunction by a Travis County judge blocking it from replacing Houston ISD’s trustees with a state-appointed board of managers.

The appeal was sent to the Austin-based Third Court of Appeals, and if a panel of judges sides with the agency, it could resume its work to strip Houston ISD’s board of power.

If the injunction is upheld, the TEA would not be able to move forward until a lawsuit by the Houston ISD board of trustees has been decided. Travis County District Judge Catherine Mauzy on Wednesday set a hearing date for June 22.

TEA officials had hoped to replace HISD’s board by this spring. Hundreds of community members already have applied to serve on the board of managers, which likely would remain in power for two to five years.

The education agency announced it would take over the HISD board Nov. 6, one day after voters ensured four new trustees would join the board this month.

HISD’s board sued the TEA last August to stop the takeover, arguing that the agency overstepped its authority in deciding to strip the trustees of their power.

TEA officials point to a 2015 law that requires the agency to act if a campus fails to meet the state’s academic standard for five years in a row. The law, HB 1842, mandates that the TEA shutdown the low-performing campus or appoint a board of managers to assume control of the school district. After HISD’s Wheatley High School received an “F” grade in the state’s accountability system last fall, failing to meet the state’s academic standards for a seventh year in a row, TEA announced it would takeover HISD’s school board.

TEA officials also cited an agency investigation that found some trustees violated the Texas Open Meetings Act when they tried to remove and replace Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan in October 2018. Lathan was removed but later reinstated.

Houston ISD’s attorneys argue a 2015 change to the law made it so Wheatley could not trigger sanctions until 2022, but the TEA argues the school’s performance already has triggered action.

Shepherd ISD, a small school district just south of Lake Livingston also is targeted for a board takeover by the TEA. That district also sought a temporary injunction this year to stop the education agency takover. On Thursday, Travis County District Judge Karin Crump denied that application for an injunction.

HB 1842 was not the TEA’s only potential option to replace Houston ISD’s board. It could sanction the district over the state investigation. State law also allows the TEA to take over the board if a district has had a TEA conservator for two or more years.

HISD attorneys argue that the TEA’s investigation was biased and that because the TEA conservator was assigned to one campus, and not the district as a whole, her presence would not trigger a takeover.

The injunction by Judge Mauzy also blocks the TEA from acting under either of those rules.

Chronicle reporter Jacob Carpenter contributed to this story.

shelby.webb@chron.com