AUSTIN, Texas — Austin ISD held the first of five community meetings to get parent feedback on school changes in the district Tuesday.
- AISD hosts meeting about changes at schools
- Chance to get parents’ a timeline for changes
- Parents, teachers also gave feedback
The meeting at Bedichek Middle School was a chance for the district to speak to parents directly to give them an overview and update on where they are in the timeline for the school change process.
Earlier AISD sent out a map of the district that split it into five different regions: north, north central, central, south, and south central. That info will be used to analyze data about the schools.
At the meeting, the district presented the data that they had collected over the past few months on the schools in the south central area.
That data fell into 3 categories: academic performance, finance and operations, and human capital.
Officials said the information will be used in the next step of the timeline, where the district will work with think tanks to develop possible scenarios for school changes that meet the district’s goals and vision. Those scenarios are scheduled to be presented to the board in August, before the final vote in October.
The meeting was also an opportunity for parents to share feedback on what sort of programs they want to see in certain schools, as well as any ideas or suggestions they have for school changes.
The vast majority of feedback, however, seemed to be questions and concerns. Many parents interpreted the map of planning regions as showing a potential scenario for zoning or school boundary changes, and were suspicious that the map would be used to influence changes in feeder patterns, instead of just analyze data.
“You know is this the permanent, has this decision been made?” John Phillippe, a Barton Hills Elementary Parent said. “Has a permanent decision been made, such that if I live in the South Central region my kid’s going to Crockett High? I’m getting a little bit of a noncommittal answer on that.”
Meanwhile, teachers expressed concern over potential school consolidations.
“We’re just waiting. We know that we’re open next year. We don’t know anything about the following year. So we just want to know when that decision will be made,” Sandy Branch, a Joslin Elementary School teacher said. “There’s people who want to know if they should buy homes in our neighborhood. If our school’s going to close why would they buy a home in that neighborhood? So, it’s a big decision, and it has a lot of effect on a lot of people.”
There are four more community meetings scheduled where parents can see the data collected on the schools in each planning region, and give their feedback.