2/9/2011
Committee to Save Austin Schools Meeting Minutes
Meeting started: 6:08
Sam handed out copies of each school’s questions for Dr. Carstarphen.
Kathleen discussed how she, Courtney & Sam met earlier on Wednesday & grouped questions from all
schools into 4 question types. Kathleen received an email from Dr. Carstarphen that talked about a
proposal she received from a central city school, that she wanted to go over it with us, and work
towards a “solutions-oriented conversation”. Discussion regarding if we want to continue with Q & A
as planned or talk about proposal Dr. Carstarphen received.
Question posed: How many other schools have a plan on the table currently?
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Allan – has a couple ideas, but not a formal plan yet. They are below capacity. Allan used to be
a junior high, so they have room. They would gladly accept students from a school that closed,
if it gets to that.
No other school indicated they have a plan similar to Becker’s.
Discussion regarding Q&A vs. solutions:
1. Listen to Dr. Carstarphen because we do not have clear idea of budget gaps, etc. Keep the ball
in her court, but keep reminding her not to close good neighborhood schools w/ bad data.
2. Question: why won’t they use accurate info when making these decisions? How do they make
the decisions with bad data? We really are not talking a lot about data tonight because she is
coming to talk through what we do now with facilities and the budget gap.
3. Idea: Dr. Carstarphen should put out plan and tell us why it works.
Decision: Truncate Q&A time. It was supposed to be 15 minutes for each of the 4 questions. It will be
cut to 10. Apparent from her email that she wants time to talk to us about this proposal she received.
Questions for Dr. Carstarphen:
1.
What is the decision making process moving forward regarding the Task Force criteria in
decision making, community input & involvement and FCI data.
2. Is AISD in support of the preservation and success of neighborhood urban schools? How do
strong neighborhood schools play into the strategic plan?
3. Alternative options: How can each school be a part of finding alternative solutions to maximize
efficiency of their respective schools?
4. Miscellaneous Category
a. Transfer policy – what is your opinion of the policy and what are your concerns about it?
b. How will you address the transportation issue surrounding the proposed school closures
when the cost of fuel and transportation are going up?
Ground rules for the session: Respectful, no side talking (unless translating), need someone to remind
everyone to be specific, try to get Sam’s attention if you feel someone is rambling!
Kathleen let the group know how easy it is to set this up: send email to superintendent@austinisd.org.
Miscellaneous Items
1. DAC meeting: 2/15 @ 4:30. This is the District Advisory Council, which is a large group of various
community people that talk with Dr. Carstarphen about things they are hearing/discussion in
the community. During Citizens Communication we would like to talk. Asked for volunteers to
go make a 3 min speech.
2. Get school updates to Jenny @ Save Austin Schools.
3. Brooke walking to Zavala @ 3pm on Friday
4. Ortega & Govalle also walking Friday @ 3pm
5. Allan – Community meeting w/ Sam Guzman tomorrow @ 6pm.
6. 2/17 – Richard Frazier will be @ Ortega 6:30-7:30
7. School rep can add whoever they want to googledoc.
8. 2 other meetings going on tonight: Cheryl Bradley & Austin Interfaith
9. March 12th rally @ Capitol from 12am-2pm with marches before from 3-4 places around town
from 10am-12pm.
10. Austin Interfaith is taking a ‘no school closures’ stance. They are a good group to help others
organize. They could be helpful in helping us determine our next steps. Did a good job on AISD
custodial issues 2-3 years ago. Austin Interfaith’s website: aif.org
11. Someone worked for Travis County Democratic Party during last election & can get voter info
near each school.
12. SW Workers union – they are concerned b/c no one talking custodians, cafeteria workers, etc.
They want to be involved.
13. Pease passed out an open letter to the school board and Dr. Carstarphen that we want
published. The Austin American Statesman does not like to be scooped so they may not print it
if it is in other community newspapers first. Discussion about calling out TEA ratings and TAKS
scores because not all schools that have been proposed are exemplary or recognized. People
will meet right after the meeting to wordsmith that bullet point in the letter to include language
regarding “innovative programs, successful partnerships, student progress, personal student
growth, etc”.
14. There are still people in the community that think the schools that have been considered for
closure are closing because they are poor-performing schools. They think we are under-enrolled
based on bad data that has been out in the press.
15. Action item: Need materials translated to Spanish.
16. Action item: School reps get feedback regarding open letter in by Friday.
17. Laura Heinauer here from the Statesman
Dr. Carstarphen Q & A
Sam welcomed Dr. Carstarphen & Lawrence Fryer. Gave a brief history of how we came together.
Everyone introduced themselves for Dr. Carstarphen and Mr. Fryer.
Dr. C gave a brief opening involving the context of where AISD is currently, state-level, not getting
better, etc.
1. 1st time ever since world wars that Texas is not considering investing more in education. The
current state economic issues will have to get resolved by deep cuts.
2. Thought AISD was looking at a shortfall of $54-$55M, but could be double that based on SB &
HB 1.
3. After Dr. Carstarphen arrived there was concern about last bond (2008). It was a large bond,
and people were wondering if we were building and fixing the right things. The Taskforce
started looking at buildings and all AISD facilities.
4. As the budget unfolded this year, efficiencies in Facilities got pushed up in a hurry. Always
looking at FY13 (12-13 school year), but really in dire straits.
5. Austin has two unique things affecting it: Chapter 41and Social Security. Even though our
schools are not wealthy, our district is considered wealthy, so we really need that formula
changed. There are less than 40 districts in TX still funding Social Security, which costs the
district about $30M/year. What she hears is that most young teachers would rather see that in
their pocket now rather than later, and they make up about 50% of our teachers. Need
legislation (both Federal and State) to fix these to probs.
6. Currently expecting a $94M gap. Unprecedented and it cannot be absorbed in one year. If the
Legislature decides to do a wealth based approach to cuts, then the worst case would be a
$180M gap.
7. Dr. Carstarphen really wants to meet again during early March, so she can give the School Board
a summary of all the things she’s heard in the community to give balance so she can float new
ideas from community.
Question #1: What is the decision making process moving
forward regarding the Task Force criteria in decision making,
community input & involvement and FCI data?
Task Force will make a preliminary report to the Board on 2/14. The Board will listen, ask questions.
Then the Task Force will come back again during the March Board work session. Dr. Carstarphen asked
the Task Force to put forth something the Board can accept but does not have to approve. Dr.
Carstarphen is not sure if the Task Force will accept her idea of writing a proposal for acceptance, but
not approval. She does not think there will be any surprises in March. The School Board is the only
group that can take action. After the report comes in, then there will be a need for community
discussion about the plan.
After the Task Force report Dr. Carstarphen gets a chance to see the report and vet it with the
community.
FCI data: cost to renovate/cost to replace. Dr. Carstarphen said there have been things done at schools
to sort of fix FCI issues, but we have not addressed core renovation issues. What can we fix while kids
there, off-line/on-line, what needs to be replaced? She discussed the differences between Minnesota
(where schools receive an allotment from the state each year for M&O capital expenditures) versus
Austin (where it takes a bond to get enough money to work on M&O capital expenditures).
Floor question: When will Dr. Carstarphen “unpack” the Task Force report and what degree will the
community have input?
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Task Force has community input and either will or will not use it. Dr. Carstarphen suggested
that in early March will be the time to review Task Force report, get clarity on certain items, get
everyone on the same page to then look at the report and move forward working on solutions.
Floor question: Are school closures temporary or permanent (online-offline)?
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Dr. C added “or is the building going to be used for something else? Dr. C has closed schools
before. 79 students in a building with a permanent capacity for 464. It was turned into a pre-K
center because that is what the community wanted. There will definitely be schools that close
& reopen because they repurpose. ALC used to be Anderson High School. Lots of things that go
into this. The Facilities Task Force was tasked with a 10 year plan. Not having the entire 10 yr
plan for people to see, before going to public made it hard on the public. There could have been
a better order to things (i.e., talk about 10 year plan first and then closures, etc.).
Floor question: FCI data…how much money needs to be spent on a building for renovations to be
considered enough? If there is a building with $2M in renovations, but it needs another $6M, is that ok?
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It depends. She renovated a middle school that needed $14M worth of work. They kept it 1/3
open during renovations, and then reopened. Quality of workmanship matters…..bldg from
20’s different from 70’s. Did the money spent actually make the building better? Did we
actually fix anything?
Question #2: Is AISD in support of the preservation and
success of neighborhood urban schools? How do strong
neighborhood schools play into the strategic plan?
Vertical teams need to be strong and tight, and you need strong neighborhood schools to make it work.
There is a tradeoff: In order to make it work, we may need to tighten up on flexibility (i.e., transfers).
Yes, AISD supports neighborhood schools but behavior has been choice oriented. We pull life out of
some schools because we overdo transfers.
Floor question: How did so many schools from the East Side end up on the list?
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Kids are leaving East Austin to integrate other schools. The drain starts in elementary and
continues up the vertical team. We have enough students to fill Austin schools, but people
don’t want to go to school together. We’ve created choices in the community that let some
things stay the same way.
Floor question: Joslin is 70% Hispanic and there a lot of white people in that neighborhood who do not
want to go to the school. Is that going to need to be one of the things we deal with? Do we limit
transfers?
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Something’s gotta give. When you don’t have enough money, you have to pick some things:
transfers, boundary changes, etc.
Floor question: In my neighborhood people are also choosing to opt-out of the public system and go to
private school. We need to talk about why people are opting out of their neighborhood school.
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Over 4,000 kids in East Austin are choosing charter schools, etc. We need to call these people
and find out why. We may have to create new programs and then attract more kids back to the
school.
Floor question: Our neighborhood school was way over capacity and we feel at smaller schools. I did
not feel the large school was safe or better for our children’s education.
Floor question: How we are analyzing schools with special programs (dual language, PPCD, etc). Kids
have been transferred in by the district in some cases, but we are not counting these kids. There needs
to be a more sophisticated look at utilization – not just attendance projections.
Question #3: How can each school be a part of finding
alternative solutions to maximize efficiency of their respective
schools?
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Yes, we need to have more conversations with real data (budget, etc). The bottom line is we
will not have enough money so a solution oriented approach is the way to go.
What does 10 years from now look like? Can we have a conversation about the whole district?
North Central – can’t find property to buy. Pease has a whole different situation – need to do
something unique for them because of historical building.
There is some low hanging fruit w/ facilities efficiencies. However, every time we move people
it costs money. Can’t just get rid of leases.
What are all the things we can do: other facilities, land, etc? If we all understand goals, then
the school district does not want to get beaten up when they go to sell things (I think she was
referring to the land in Travis Country that made the papers over the weekend).
Very interested in stuff coming out of Becker. Thinks it will get all schools (in that area) at 100%
capacity and solve some problems, but doesn’t know if it will work.
Appreciate advocacy component, however the state looks at us as a system. Comptroller/Bob
Eisler’s (?) work is bubbling up through State. We do not want to be perceived as inefficient
because we do not want to give the State a reason to cut our funding.
Floor question: When will we see the overall plan, because it is unreasonable to ask for solutions if we
do not know what the 10 year plan is? Is the Facilities Task Force how we are going to solve budget
program? Or just a 10 year plan?
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One small part of how to run a better, tighter district. Texas is so unique. There is so much in
statute, but so slow to move. We need the Legislature to be talking about a $2B educational
shortfall (instead of $5-10B) in order to make things work. Many of the district’s advisors are
saying work on the worst case scenario. By the law, Dr. C has to make staffing standards NOW,
and will take more at end of Feb. At least 500 staff reduction & we haven’t even started talking
about the other stuff.
Floor question: Why can’t we spread budget woes to all other schools?
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We did do that, and they did it 3 times: for a $30M, $54M, and $90M shortfall. Schools can’t
cut services to special education or bilingual services because it is against the law. There is risk
in the current budget reduction plan (i.e., class size increases need waivers that the State could
deny). There are no winners in this plan.
Floor question: Where did this pressure on efficiency come from? It seems like the community thinks
effective over efficient?
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AISD basically overspent its credit card. When times were good, we over-hired at least 120+
elementary schools (according to a review AISD had done by someone that I did not catch the
name of). When Dr. Carstarphen arrived, she was already in a deficit -- $23-27M. The district
almost had to take out a loan to pay salaries in December 2009. The School Board did not agree
to financial exigency last year.
Conversation about districts being efficient with taxpayer money is really on the Legislature’s
mind. Susan Comb’s FAST data. Follow Eisler & Shapiro’s accountability ideas that deal with
fiscal accountability and not just academic accountability. In Minnesota a law passed that would
not allow school districts to build new schools or add on to existing schools, if the school district
was deemed inefficient (by formula state came up with).
If we do not come together as a community and work together, the state will step in our
backyard & mandate how we fix things.
Meeting adjourned about 8:15pm.