East Texas Advanced Academies (ETAA) shared several major updates following its regular board meeting. The ETAA board received and accepted the organization’s fifth consecutive clean, unmodified financial audit opinion for the 2024-25 fiscal year.
“The unmodified financial audit opinion is the gold standard, demonstrating exemplary fiduciary management and the overall soundness of our financial operations,” said Brian Ziemer, ETAA chief executive officer and CPA. “I am very pleased ETAA has achieved this distinction five years in a row, and I look forward to achieving it again for our sixth audited year.”
The ETAA board also received a strong report on campus performance during the 2025-26 school year. ETAA Chief of Schools Melanie Pondant reported that five campuses rated by the Texas Education Agency earned B ratings. Pondant said the accountability ratings reflect ETAA’s focused efforts to strengthen academic operations across its campuses.
“All of our principals and campus leadership teams have worked hard to achieve these excellent results, and we look forward to even better outcomes in the 2026-27 school year that has just started,” Pondant said.
The ETAA board also received a report that Ziemer and Pondant have been approved and appointed as TEA’s first fully certified Senate Bill 1882 Texas Association of School Boards trainers. Ziemer was approved to provide board training in technical areas of Texas Education Code updates and board governance under S.B. 1882, specifically teaching Texas school boards about the requirements and implications of Texas Administrative Code Chapter 19, Subsection 97.1075, which establishes the legal framework for board, administration, and charter partner separation of duties and responsibilities.
Pondant was approved to teach Texas school board members about implementing school improvement initiatives under S.B. 1882, specifically the structure and function of campus leadership and district-provided service operations.
“We are honored to congratulate Dr. Ziemer and Mrs. Pondant for this remarkable state-recognized achievement, and we are very proud that ETAA is once again leading the way for others to succeed with S.B. 1882,” said ETAA Board President Jud Murray.
East Texas Advanced Academies is an S.B. 1882 charter partner of Longview ISD. Since becoming the first Longview ISD charter partner to contribute additional general fund revenue to the district during the 2019-20 school year, ETAA has contributed $39.2 million in additional S.B. 1882 general fund revenue to Longview ISD to support students across all grade levels.