001Uh, good evening and thank you for being with us. In compliance with chapter 551 open meetings of the Texas Government Code, I call to order a work session of the board of trustees of the Austin Independent School District for Thursday, May 14th, 2026 at 6:12 p.m. A quorum of the board is physically present at Austin ISTD central office to conduct this meeting. This meeting is being broadcast on cable channel 22 through Spectrum at Sound Broadband and on channel 99 through AT&T Universe. Closed captioning in English is available on these platforms for individuals who are deaf or heart of hearing. Welcome and thank you for joining us. We have an opportunity for public comment this evening. Members of the public wishing to participate in the public testimony portion of our meeting called a dedicated AISD phone
002line in advance of the meeting to sign up to speak in person or to audio record their remarks. This is an opportunity for the board to take part in listening to our community. While we wish we could respond to each topic raised, the Texas Open Meetings Act does not authorize a board to engage in deliberation or take action on comments or complaints from members of the public if the subject is not on the meeting agenda. For comments related to posted agenda items, we will engage in any deliberations or ask follow-up questions during the presentation of that item on the agenda. Tonight, we had no callers who signed up to speak in person and we have 11 people who left recorded messages. We will now play the recorded messages for public comment. So, please listen carefully.
003>> I'm Rod Joseph Rodriguez. I teach high school English in Austin ISD and I'm a member of Education Austin. Teachers and my students are concerned about the staff cuts and budget cuts. We need manageable class sizes and time to plan and collaborate with school professionals, parents, and families. To reduce staff and budget cuts, use less consulting services. There is a lot of brain power in this room and schools that we can consult staff and community members without additional expenses. I urge the trustees to remind the superintendent and his team to put people first with no staff cuts and no large class sizes. The people are students, teachers, coaches, custodians, librarians, counselors, and bus drivers among others. They matter. We matter. Communities matter. make decisions that value people and their livelihoods. Thank you. >> Hi, my
004name is Katherine Martinez and I am a District 1 resident. When I went into board talks this morning at 8 a.m., I could not find much information to help form public comment. I'm concerned about the public engagement in this process because it is difficult for me to stay engaged even as a person willing to chase this information and with the privilege of time to read through documents. I'm concerned that there are communities who aren't going to see the impact of decisions being made coming before it's too late and campus level people who would help them are gone. There are voices that are being left out of this conversation and the unwillingness to go to them is what is eroding trust in public serving institutions. For all the bad PR going right now, it would do
005a lot for the public to understand sacrifices being made by decision makers. I hope that there might be more transparency to any pay caps, lost stipens, or conferences being missed by district leadership to help offset even a small portion of the harm experienced by the lowest paid team members. Thank you. >> My name is Tracy Fer and I am a registered nurse currently working at an elementary school in South Austin calling about item 3.1, the budget. I also spent the first half of the year working at Rosedale, one of AISD's specialty campuses for students with disabilities. At both schools, I've been able to see how important the role of nursing is for our students. Not only do we manage MD orders for medications, procedures, and emergency care for chronic conditions like seizures, diabetes, asthma, and
006allergies, we track trends and help spot acute conditions that show up in those 8 hours kids are away from home. For many of our students, we are the first provider they see when a new symptom appears, and we can help parents with resources for further treatment. Yet, we still don't know if we have jobs next year, and if so, if we get to stay at the same campus. I want to know that the board and the district believe in supporting our students with certified registered nurses even at the smaller elementary campuses. Students and parents deserve to feel safe sending their kids to school. And those of us who choose to work in this field deserve to feel supported as we continue to show up during this trying time. With school ending and during mental health
007awareness month, no less, please give us some assurance that you value the same things we do and continue to fully fund the health services department. Thank you. >> My name is Taylor Carrick Cavin. I'm a teacher at Dolby and a proud member of Education Austin. While I was proud to see trustees and our superintendent at the interim hearing Monday, I was disappointed that none of them registered to give testimony about our budget deficit. Several union members, parents, teachers, and community supporters did, however, ensure our state representatives understood the gravity of our budget deficit. As other members have said, I'm concerned about these budget cuts. Every cut to a campus affects our students. Cost of living is affecting us all and increased workload will continue to push educators out of this district. I urge the board
008and district leadership to prioritize transparency and protect the people who make our schools function every day. Thank you. My name is Morgan and I'm a third grade teacher. I am calling because I am deeply concerned about the proposed staffing ratios and disappointed by the decision-making process that has gone into this. With the new ratios, there are four teachers at my campus at risk of losing their jobs. Some of these teachers are TIA designated. Another was recognized as our campus's teacher of promise. They are all passionate, dedicated educators. These are exactly the type of teachers we should be fighting to keep within the district. It is difficult to understand why teachers who are proving themselves to be effective and impactful are being pushed out simply because they have fewer years with the district. What message does
009that send to early career teachers about building a future in AISD? The reality of the proposed ratios are overcrowded classrooms in which teachers are stretched thin and students are not receiving the support they need. Our students deserve deserve better and our teachers deserve better. I respectfully ask that you reconsider these decisions. Thank you. My name is Erikica Hoffman. I'm a teacher at International High School, one of the 11 closed campuses this year, and I'm a proud member with Education Austin. I'm calling in regards to the budget discussion tonight, and to urge uh board members and decision makers within Austin ISD to not move forward with campus level cuts, instead turn inwards to the central office and in particular, cut all cell phone and travel stipens for the positions that they are shared with. as the
010expectations for staff more broadly in the district do not do not get the same kind of payouts. Um and this would not lead to people losing their jobs either. Whereas non-certified teaching staff are losing their jobs in spite of there being twice as many vacancies as there are proposed impacted salaries. And Austin ISD has an exemption through the district of innovation to hire non-certified teachers. It is an insult and it is and it is affecting people's livelihoods to cut out their contracts altogether simply because they are not certified when they were certifi when they were hired on the stipulation that they would get Hi, my name is Whitney Alexander, parent of current students at Hill Elementary and upcoming students at Hill Elementary. calling to express my concern about and and hope that the school district
011would please keep the current class sizes and not increase them with the budget change. and also to encourage and request that the school district would keep teachers based on performance and not based on tenure. We were surprised to hear that some of the teachers who are well-loved, I believe have great performance, great peer reviews are being considered for not being able to continue their contract. And I think that we can surely do something different to help alleviate the budget that keeping amazing teachers who have shown great promise and great care for their students and success in the classroom. As of >> Hi, my name is Zeb White. I'm a speech language pathologist at Doss Elementary and I'm calling concerning the budget. I wanted to urge the board to maintain the full special education and bilingual
012stipens for our entire team. When I attended last week's board meeting, the administration suggested that proposed cuts only affect staff who do not work directly with students. But this is simply not accurate. Moving SLPA, diagnosticians, LSSPs, and other sped staff to lower tiers ignores the reality that these providers are on the front lines working with students every single day. Special education is a collective effort. Destabilizing our support staff and evaluators risks the compliance that we only just regained in February. Furthermore, losing these veteran staff members directly threatens our ability to recover the lost charge revenue from federal Medicaid sources that the district desperately needs to address the budget crisis. Please protect the full sped siphon for the entire team to ensure student stability and fiscal responsibility. Thank you. >> This is Sharon Bane, the parent
013of two AISD graduates. I'm eager to see the discussion tonight about the connection between budget and baseline academics, a topic that rightly keeps surfacing in board meetings. I encourage the administration not to let the desire for a pedagogically perfect definition get in the way of what's needed right now to make smart strategic budget decisions. What are the basics? Where are the holes? How can we allocate to fill those holes? What is the difference between ELA at a band one school and a band four school? How do we remedy any difference between math at a band one school compared to a band four school? That's the kind of basic information I believe trustees need in order to decide on this year's budget. Thank you. >> Hello board of trustees. My name is Peter Kim. I'm a
014substitute teacher and a member of Education Austin and I'm also calling to again ask that the board seriously consider and do everything it can do to preserve our frontline staff and teachers as much as possible. Specifically, I want to ask if there's really no other way to resolve a budgeting crisis without forcing secondary teachers to move to 708 schedules. Those teacherto student ratios are going to be absolutely unsustainable. that's going to have the time that teachers get to plan and do out of classroom work while at the same time increasing the number of students that they're going to need to manage. You are going to be absolutely flogging them. And the resulting exodus of qualified teachers is only going to accelerate that studenttoteer imbalance. And this is for all our sakes, not just for the
015teachers, but for the sake of the district as a whole. I'm asking you to reconsider this point because the thing we absolutely cannot afford to let happen right now is to lose even more of our teachers. Thank you. My name is Robert Rosenlat and I've been a counselor at Northeast Early College High School for 12 years and I'm a parent of a Macllum High School senior. I'm calling to comment on item 3.1, the budget. The story of the Northeast senior who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement while driving home from work has garnered significant community attention. This student is the second northeast student that the counselors know of who has been detained and the 15th student that we are aware of who has been directly impacted by ICE detention of a family member. While
016we have no way of knowing exactly how many families have self-deported or otherwise stopped sending students to school due to concern for their immigration status, it is safe to say that nearly every student at Northeast knows someone who has been detained. The impact of ICE detentions on Northeast has been severe and undeniable in terms of students lost and others who face daily barriers to their education. Less students means less school funding and less positions for educators. ICE detentions are directly and negatively impacting the AISD budget. It is important to note that ICE detentions are not impacting all AISD schools equally. They're happening predominantly at schools with Latino majority and a low socioeconomic level. Thank you to all of our callers. Um, this concludes public comment. As a reminder, you are also welcome to share comments
017or questions with the board by email at trusteesaustinisd.org. Uh, trustees, if we have any questions or comments regarding non-aggenda topics raised in public comment, you're welcome to share them now. And please note the district is limited to providing basic factual information or needed clarification, identifying existing ASD policies and resources for reference or noting a topic for followup um or inclusion at a future agenda. Any uh questions, comments before we move on? All right. Thank you all very much and thank you to everyone uh who took the time to call and share um your comments with us. Uh so we'll now move on to the work session. Usually during a work session, we're down there. Today, we're up here. Um, we had a grievance this afternoon and didn't want to ask staff to move things around.
018So, um, we're reversed from our normal. Uh, and I will turn it over to Superintendent Sigura. Thank you. >> Uh, yes. Thank you, President Boswell and trustees. I'm actually going to because it's a work session, I'm going to hop down there um for the remainder of the meeting. So, if it looks weird to everybody else at home, um, it's just easier because >> we we work together in presenting. So um so this uh we have um uh about two hours allocated for the work session. Uh there will be two components to it. Uh primarily the first will be an update um regarding the baseline academic um uh plan program. Uh just to share uh um some information and then kind of use it as a continuation of the work session we had two weeks ago.
019Uh Dr. Marian Maxwell will lead that conversation. and I'll be there to support her. And then we'll transition into a a budget update where we'll get into more details by division regarding the um reductions that we're looking to um consider and bring forward. And then at the end, we'll end uh with a timeline and just some kind of procedural things to to get us to approved budget here by the end of June. So uh with that, I'll hand it over to Dr. Maryanne Maxwell while I transition off the dis. Thank you, Superintendent Sigura. Good evening, President Boswell and board of trustees. Um, happy to share where we are with this work um with um not just academic baseline but the um larger picture of all of the things that academic framework just to go over
020a little bit of that big picture first and then get further down into some of those baseline um pieces. Um so this first slide shows um different milestones that are coming up really across the next uh 18 months to two years um that are different pieces of the academic framework. So they're colorcoded for the different sections. As you know we've started um theory of action uh draft for example early in May. We're still working on that. We'll be engaging the community in some of that feedback. Um the green is part of what we're doing for professional learning communities and that work with all of our campuses and um our teams at the district level. Uh yellow is all the milestones that are connected with the professional learning plan that we're developing and and working to
021roll out over the next few years. Um the uh orange represents the pieces of the plan that uh and and the milestones of the plan that have to do with curriculum instruction which involves programming um academic baseline um pro program evaluations and decisions for um how we're uh deciding on bigger picture programs in the future. Um and then other sections of that have to do with our um instructional model and and pieces that of the bigger picture of curriculum and instruction. Um and then we have in the purple milestones are associated with our assessment u piece of the academic framework. So looking forward to establishing an assessment framework committee next year really looking at how the district sees and uses our assessments um and values and assessments and um you know thinks through what what
022has the most meaning for our students moving forward. Um, so a little bit more detail on the programming piece. We wanted to share this. This is a snapshot of the actual project plan itself. Got a little more detail for leading up to the milestones or the tasks that um lead up to the milestones and some description of this work. So I won't read everything on this slide, but I do want to just show it um to talk about this work that we have coming up and and some of the t key tasks and milestones associated with it. So right now in the past few months we've been collecting um everything that we need to have an asset map for programs. Um that's instructional programs, that's courses, that's after school programs. Um not just core, that's
023fine arts and athletics and and the multitude of programs and services that we have on campuses. There's also special education services. And so um this is a a a huge uh work and still under development. We've started that draft. Um and the ultimate goal with that is as we verify campus programs with um campuses themselves and we've done some of that work uh across departments um where the the goal there is to draft a public-f facing program map so that students can uh so that families can see and anyone in the community can click on this map and see what schools are offering. There's a lot it's it's difficult information to come by in various sites that we have across the district. So, we're really trying to streamline that and make it more accessible to
024um the public. And this is really just information on what we currently have on campuses. At the same time, we're working on um drafting that academic baseline um sharing that with everyone and it's really important. An important piece of that is really engaging community and getting feedback, engaging staff, um getting feedback on that academic baseline. We definitely don't want to create that in a vacuum. We have a lot of information especially from long range plan that was done that that feeds into that. Um but uh there there's been some time and some changes since the long range plan uh and some other uh logistics that's really we really want to consider that we're facing now as far as actually operationalizing a lot of the things that are in that plan that would inform that academic
025baseline. Um and then uh of course another piece of this uh going into this all kind of happening happening simultaneously creating that program evaluation process. I mentioned this a little bit in the last workshop that we had a couple of weeks ago. We really should have a process for evaluating programs. We would like to share that and get feedback on that as well before we start evaluating programs um and work with um people to really develop a strong process for that. Um ideally at the end of this and by August we would be able to launch that um campus programming map and then uh moving on then we're looking at analyzing campus comparison. So now we have all the information gathered. had shared information and we'll we'll go back into um what we had done
026about this time uh a year ago which is really to start comparing what different programs are offered at campuses where we may see some some gaps and what we might as planning ahead for identifying courses programs and making sure that they're in all the places they want to be. That should be also aligned information to the academic baseline, right? Um so we'd be able to finalize all of that work at that point. um continue evaluations of programs. Ideally for any programs prioritizing what we start evaluating next year in the fall. Um ideally if there are any changes to programs the timeline here would like to have those program decisions by the end of fall because that will inform any changes that need to happen for campuses or adjustments that we need to do programwise and
027give everyone plenty of time to make those adjustments. It's a little bit of an aggressive timeline for that kind of work. Um but if we prioritize the programs and then really set maybe a two-year or three-year plan on what we are evaluating um then I think we could really take care of some things um first that that might we feel might have the most impact to the system um and then make those decisions so everyone has plenty of time obviously understanding timelines are what we work by and then sometimes things happen so it there might be a few things that need to be pushed back. >> Yeah and just for our trustes awareness this is a snapshot of the project plan. So, one of the things that we've shared previously is, you know, the the
028priorities of the board and the superintendent are very much aligned. And so, the details of the work live on this screen, but they also live in a much more dense project plan that we are tracking to ensure that we hit our milestones and ultimately. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> So, these are uh in the draft baseline program um these are the in the draft these are the baseline programming components. So lots of things obviously other than just what you would strictly academics but as we know all of these things working together have a huge impact on our students their learning their well-being um and overall us as an educational system. some family engagement staffing which we started to talk about last week and how we st how we staff campuses and you received that um
029draft staffing plan for 26 27 um core instruction MTSS multilingual and ESL special education fine arts CTE PE athletics character building um nutrition and basic needs technology and enrichment. So, these are all um important topics. Um tonight, when rather than getting into um everything, which we won't have time for, we do want to at least show some examples from the draft baseline program and talk about the way that it's structured. So, we're going to go into what we have um core instruction. There are a lot of questions about courses and offerings of courses at different campuses. We're going to talk a little bit about that tonight. So, um we have some examples of that of instructional programs and how we're structuring them. now um how things do begin to be differentiated across campuses especially for
030college credit bearing courses um and then show a few more examples of this proposed draft baseline and crosswalk that with some of our long range plan recommendations definitely >> well and one thing I think to note is that the components could change right I think as we go through this process and engage with the community and engage with their board there are other components that are within our system that don't live in the baseline But they could as we evolve this and move forward. Just to be clear, some of those components could change or we necessarily could add others. >> Yeah, the word draft is important. We do we really do want to gauge and get feedback on this um in multiple avenues. Um it's important to to really create it together because ultimately this
031would be a very long-term long-standing um set of um values and ways that we make decisions in the district. Um so this is just a snapshot of a piece of this draft um baseline program. The structure here is we're identifying what it looks like at elementary, what it looks like at middle school, what it looks like at high school. Um right now it's just uh linked for example in the staffing area the staffing guidelines that um were proposed or the draft staffing guidelines for 2627 that received a couple of weeks ago. Um and then you begin to see some this is just the core instruction section. And there's lots of other sections in here. Um, but you can see some of the differences um at elementary. Some of the things that we um would certainly
032want to guarantee um at middle school that even just gets a little bit more because um one of the things that we uh do offer now, we'll talk about that a little bit later. Uh is on level uh for all of our core classes and we also offer advanced for our core classes. Um and then uh of course in every level teach align grade level rigor um really regular common formative assessments that are done in the classroom um regularly with with students. Um and then at high school it begins to get quite a bit more complicated. And so we've added some specifics there on um not just uh the core courses but which kinds of courses we would need to offer. And we'll talk about that a little bit more once we get into actual
033high school section. goes through elementary and middle and high um uh as we're as we're looking at these different things. So this is a slide showing different programs. This is not everything that happens in an elementary but the some examples um and then you can see for example the first one's um language arts, math, science and social studies. Those are state required for us to offer. Um so we definitely want to make sure that's part of our academic baseline. Um the way that that's actually required in state law is just that you give sufficient time. The reason for this is because at elementary you can have mixed grade levels of classrooms and so sufficient time just means sufficient time to really cover um all of the learning and all of the standards in a in
034an appropriate way so students can learn them. Um our current structure for this is we actually do provide instructional minutes at the elementary level. It varies a little bit across grade level. So that first one you can see language arts is uh 145 minutes in kinder and that actually reduces down over the years. So by the time you're in fifth grade it's 110 minutes. You can see some of the reasons for that. Well we ob foundational literacy is important takes time with 5-year-olds um and the younger levels and so there's a lot of that structured literacy that's that happens that's reduced over time as they get older as you increase things like math and science um and as as students get deeper into those subjects. Um so the one of the things too like on
035the next slide this is actual uh this is elementary continued. Um so this is an example of some of these things are required by the state. Some of these things are required locally by our local policy. You can see physical activity is required by the state K through five either 30 minutes daily or 135 minutes per week and that can either be part of PE or through structured activity during recess. That's how the the actual code is written. um we provide that with 135 minutes weekly of PE for K5. So we ensure that in our instructional minutes guidance that that that happens at all of our campuses. Um we are actually able to accomplish that. Previously there was an ABC schedule which you can see referenced in our local code. Um during in the WOW
036section that's that is working out for wellness that's required locally for elementary schools. Um, and that was is a result of when you're on an ABC schedule, then you don't always get 135 minutes per week of PE. And so that time was implemented to ensure students um were meeting their minutes. So um that's that was under a different schedule. For bilingual education, for example, um you do you state required to offer that with 20 more students who speak the same language other than English at the same grade level. There are four different models that you can offer. We offer two of those. Dual language one way and uh or dual dual language two-way. Um prek3 is another example. Uh prek3 is not required by the state at all. Prek4 is required by the state if
037you have 15 or more eligible for eligible four-year-olds. Um we have half or full day prek three at 36 campuses. Uh and we have full day prek4 at 66 campuses. This is projected for next year. Um, an important thing to note is you only get half day funding for prek. And so what we have to do in order to um have those especially a full day program um we have to we partner with um other uh early childhood agencies that work with us so that we that that is what allows us to be able to have all of our prek um at at all of these campuses. Um and and as a as a side note, the long range plan, one of the things that it is uh operational recommendation is that the district have
038uh universal prek at at all of our campuses at every elementary campus. Um so that's a little bit of a difference between you can see and what we'd like to you know work on as part of this process with um all of our staff and the community as we're setting academic baseline and really talking through these things. There um there is what is required by the state. there is what is actually funded by the state which is not always the same as what's required by the state um as you can see with a full day prek4 um and then there is what we are working towards and then there's definitely the visionary goal in the long range plan so funding wise we do need to find figure out and that's just one example is prek
039where we can actually um meet those goals or aspire to those goals but then set a realistic way looking at logistics looking at funding um to really um uh actualize any of those goals. Um middle school very similar. It actually says sufficient time as well because you can still have mixed grade levels in middle school. Um and so what we offer an an actual structure is you're just required to offer ELA math algebra 1 now and 8th grade including that advanced math pathway and science. We actually offered all of our middle schools regular um language arts and advanced language arts at all grade levels. Regular math and of course the accelerated math pathway at all the grade levels. Same for science, same for social studies. It looks a little bit different in all of our
040campuses. Sometimes those are separate classes, sometimes those are stacked classes so that you have um regular and advanced students in the same classes. It depends on the enrollment um and and what look what it looks like and the request for those courses at the campuses, but we do offer it at all of our campuses. Um and then of course we go also above and beyond for fine arts. Um only offered to require one per grade level in 678. We offer art and band at at least art and band at every single middle school and then we have at least two other fine arts offerings. Sometimes we have four, five and six fine art uh fine arts offerings at our middle schools. Uh this is continued. Um so again some of the this is not everything
041of course but um you know some of the state requirements versus what we are offering um languages other than English is another example it the the way that the state is written it's just to the extent possible our local code requires that we have the secondary dual language program at identified middle schools um and what we currently offer is we do offer every campus h has at least one language um not every campus has both a traditional pathway and an accelerated pathway. Some have one or the other and some do actually have both as well and some have multiple languages, but um every campus offers at least one language other than English. Um and so high school uh of course gets a little more complicated. Um we have uh three uh different graduation paths. foundation
042high school program um the uh the foundation high school program plus endorsement and then same plus endorsement plus the distinguished level of achievement. We are required to offer all three of these pathways by the state. Um the foundation program uh plus at least one endorsement. There are five areas you can get an endorsement but every school has to offer at least one. Um, and we do have to offer the distinguished level of achievement if we want our students to be eligible to be in the top 10% to go to Texas uh, public universities. So, we consider that yes, we do we are required to offer all of those. And so, there's differences in those courses. 22 credits for the foundation program and then 26 credits in a little bit of a different way for the
043endorsement distinguish level. And so, this is an example. We're not going to go through all the examples at high school for all the different um courses. So, we're just narrowing in on um math this evening. Uh the state requirement is algebra 1, algebra 2, geometry, pre-cal, and math models. Um again, you'll see here in high school, we offer both regular and advanced for algebra, regular and advanced for geometry, regular and advanced for algebra 2, pre-calculus, math models. We also offer algebraic reasoning. Um, and then of course, college prep math. That might be changing a little bit in the future depending on um whether or not uh uh we get um the state approves um who can provide college prep math. Um and on our district-wide core sheet, we also offer calculus and statistics um at
044all of our campuses. Now, it doesn't always make it all of our campuses. Um, sometimes it is just one small section, but we do offer that on the district-wide core sheet, which will be important coming in the future, especially um because we have more and more students that are going through the advanced math pathway and need that final math in high school. And then you can start to see minimum of two college credit classes, for example. So, that gets a little more in-depth as well, but it shows us that we do have to offer a variety of these additional courses plus electives and all of that in order for students to be any one of those three pathways. Yeah. And I think one of the things um when Dr. Maxwell and I are really kind
045of thinking through how this is going to look um when I look at the third column from the left specifics of the requirement that is what's required. Furthest column to the right are all the ways that we can meet that requirement with our current suite of offerings. Right? So any high school can kind of build out their academic program and use that set on the right to meet the obligations in the middle. And so you can imagine how many different combinations you can see when you have the number of high schools that we have. So each high school gets the same allocations but they choose based on you know student desire and need uh as well as kind of how they're structured and maybe their academic focus to kind of make that match. So it's
046very very difficult um to really kind of say hey for this specific program that's not a requirement from the state like what is the expectation for all other campuses that is really I think one of the things that we struggle as an organization to to really communicate effectively and also I don't think it's very well understood because they all get the same allocations it's just how they build up their program varies and so this is a really good example here that I think we we want to walk you all through. >> Yeah. So, so these are some snapshots from our program map. This is this is a these are the top one is AP courses, middle dual credit. The bottom is onramps. These are actual high schools, campus A and campus B that have very
047similar student enrollment. And so they both are staffed following the same staffing staffing method. Um, and as you can see, uh, the AP courses, campus B offers quite a few different AP courses. It's about the same in dual credit for both campuses. And then when you look at on-ramps, campus A offers quite a few more options in on-ramps than campus B. Again, so some some of that is just built on their programs. Some of that is built on um the traditional enrollment and the choices at the students and then demand um at that campus and communities and the way that they built their programs. Um all of them meeting of course the minimum requirements. Um but just it looks different in exe execution because there are multiple ways for students to earn college credit in
048high school. Um so that that really is why this is part and we kind of honed in on that part when we're talking about budget this evening. Um thinking through how our campuses are staffed, how that how that really does affect programs um and how they choose to allocate those staff according to programs. And this is just math. This doesn't even include um CTE. One of these campuses has quite a few CTE courses. >> Yeah. So, both of these are AISD high schools. >> Yes. >> Both of them are very similar in enrollment and have nearly identical allocations, right? And this is how they each individually meet the requirements for graduation and are compliant with our policies and state requirements. So, just kind of shows you the array that you can have within Austin IC,
049which I think is a it's a good thing. It's just complex >> and I think it'll be helpful for the community to be able to see once we can verify and complete this program map um every everything that is on there. You can actually this is the way this is this is just narrowed down for snapshots for tonight. This is actually a list of all of our campuses and it goes so long um in offerings that I you wouldn't even be able to print it and see it all. Um, so it's a it's a very um comprehensive sheet for all of the courses that our campus our campuses are offering right now. Um, and and again this this program uh map so far in its earliest form, which is a spreadsheet, we want it much
050more user friendly and interactive for when we can we can publish that on a public facing site. um it it's really uh helpful to use this and see across campuses what's happening and and um again where we can um find some gaps and and work to make improvements. Um so I mentioned earlier long range long range plan um recommendations and we've done a crosswalk um to address similar areas in the long range plan. These are some of the major areas um talking about the operational um recommendations for the district for academics and CTE and athletics facilities safety security so on um and so that that was definitely something that we'll continue to reference as we engage with staff and community on um baseline academic programming um to to really uh see that vision and then
051again weigh it against current realities and then come up with real logistical solutions um ideas for academic baseline but logistical solutions for um actualizing those goals. Some of the things we have already started working on as you as you well know and I get to talk about um up here quite a bit uh that are are um goals in the long range plan. There's a section in the long run plan called baseline programming. A section in that is called curriculum. Um and then of course the first thing is asking us to define that B what baseline and fundamental means to Austin ISD um quality of instruction focus on literacy developing writing skills providing more options for advanced class uh advanced classes for underserved students. Again something I've been able to to uh share with our
052teams have been able to share with a little more about how we're working with campuses on increasing those opportunities for students. Um and then uh another large recommendation is here is improving curriculum for all students. And so I I'm I'm pleased with what that work I I believe that it was the right place to start. Um if we don't start there and we don't start with classroom level work and classroom level um academics then none of the rest of it matters. You have to get the foundation right. Um you have to have strong classrooms in every campus that we have and it it was I think the right place to start. Um, moving on to the asset map. That's another goal uh in the long range plan that talks about mapping our programs and our
053resources and and deficiencies and making it publicly accessible. Again, I've kind of showed you some snapshots. This is a snapshot of the just the elementary page. So, some of the things we've done is just look big picture at all of our schools first and then there are lots of other tabs that dig deeper into the programs. But you can see here um just our first set of schools listed so we can identify whether it has prek3, prek4 um dual language, uh art, music, making sure even just some of those basics are there. um if it's an AVID campus, if it has communities and schools, um if it has literacy first in-house model versus literacy first um uh Americanore model, um all of these things and after school programming, which has its own tab, uh that
054so we can just kind of take a big picture and see those things. Um and ideally anybody would be able to click on that and see, okay, I'm zoned to the school. I'd like to know if it has an afterchool program. and you're not having to search through the website um at the school or at different campuses to see what they have. Um this is another snapshot of of that is an example of like a tab that has just program specific information. So we can look across see which classes are offered, CTE courses are offered in certain clusters. This actually goes all the way down to middle school um to show our middle school offerings and our career and college exploration courses at middle school. And that is the end of the academic baseline section.
055>> Yeah. No, I I think um for us, we just wanted to share an update and then also just reinforce um kind of the complexity that goes into just um tying staffing to programming. Uh because there is so much, you know, flexibility in how our programs get built against our requirements. Uh it's not as simple as saying, you know, removing this program is going to yield this savings. It's it's just not that simple. Uh so there's a lot of work to be done. It's going to continue on for obviously the remainder of the year. But as we move into uh the budgeting process, as we think about all the different reductions that we have to consider, uh just kind of thinking in the back of your mind that at the end of the day, um
056many the vast majority of our schools are doing this type of tailoring to the campus needs and community needs based on what is allocated and that is driven by enrollment. Um not the other way. We don't staff to program, we staff to enrollment and then they build out the programs based on the needs of the community and needs of the campus. Uh but there are some exceptions certainly and and we can certainly talk about those. Uh but wanted to open up for any questions uh and you know just talk about perhaps where we are in the process, next steps um and leave plenty of time for questions because want to create obviously good amount of space to talk about specific budget items. >> Thank you trustees. Uh questions, comments about this work. I have my
057hand up. >> And yeah, Trusty Hunter is with us as well. >> Are you Trusty Hunter, are you saying you have a comment? >> Yes, I do. Uh, let me get my my screen on. >> Uh, sorry. Uh, I'm not apologizing. I was supporting students at LBJ who have worked really really hard. So, I'm trying to do both things. Um, I really have to push back the idea that it's not that simple. For me, it is that simple. Um, if we're talking about making teachers have bigger classes, teachers losing planning periods, considering librarians not working, it's got to get that simple. Right now, programming is driving the budget. That that can't happen. The budget has to drive the program, right? I I offering everything is wonderful and allowing everybody to pick and choose from the
058smoker sport is wonderful. An example something like pick a school that has after school program. Why bother changing boundaries if people are going to still have to choose to go where they going to get what they're going to get? Have an afterchool program at every school. If you're going to I mean if that's going to be that's that's the I'm using the example that we use. That way nobody got to leave their neighborhood school because every school has an afterchool program if that's what we're saying that's what we're going to do. But we have to choose now this waiting and wait. We're talking about making gigantic cuts. We're talking about making big major moves when if eliminating I'm just going to say this. Eliminating something the the what is it? THE ONBOARD PROGRAM THE ONRAMP
059program will save however many dollars. How many teachers is that? If we can cut whatever, right? We still have AP, we still have ACC. We cannot do everything everywhere all at once. And we are still having this conversation about in the future we're going to be looking at. No, right now I have to know right now we're I'm expected to vote on a budget and I still don't know if some school is going to have algebra 1. If some school is going to have whatever we say we have this uh what is it UNIVERSAL CHOICE SHEET BUT IT'S NOT A UNIVERSAL choice sheet because you can't get that everywhere. So move away from that and centralize what schools are having. That's what we have to do. That's what we have to be thinking about. And
060if an administration is not willing to do that or consider that immediately, then what are we supposed to do? What is the other option? And I actually need to answer about that. >> Yeah. Thank you, uh, Trusty Hunter. Um, no, I I think for the initial comment, I didn't want to communicate that it's complex in the fact that it can't be addressed. Um, and I think the only point I was wanting to make was that there are lots of different ways to to use the staff that are allocated. Um, I do you agree I do agree with you when it comes to campus specific programs. AVID is a is a good example and we'll talk about programs like that in the next section. We are going to have to make difficult decisions around uh the
061reduction of some of these programs as good as they are and as meaningful as they are but those aren't necessarily tied to the baseline academic program offerings. Um but I I think your points well taken uh and perhaps you know maybe shifting to the next conversation will help address some of that. But yes, we have a big gap. We have to cover it. It is we um when 87% of your budget is staffing and the way that we have staffed historically hasn't been extremely tight uh you get to the point where um you know it's a big expense and and and with enrollment declining the adjustment is difficult because of just how we are and how we've been. Um, so I'm happy to, um, that's what we'll talk about here very shortly, Trusty Hunter, those
062types of reductions. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Anything else, Trusty Hunter? >> Okay. >> No, I'll just I'm going to continue to take notes and just see if this thing comes to fruition the way I'm hoping that it will. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, Trusty Singh, I think you >> Yeah, sure. Um, so thank you. I think I'm actually pleasantly surprised um by what I what I see because this is getting closer to, you know, what I was imagining in terms of the academic baseline and just laying out what's offered um where um although I do, if I interpret what Trusty Hunter said correctly, um like getting this now um is problematic obviously, but we can't we can't change that. We we got what we got. But thank you for I I could tell
063that I imagine you did a lot of work on this. So, thank you to um the staff for doing that. I just since I think we're going to receive like a first draft of this it looks like in May. I mean in June. Is that right? >> Um >> did I see that? I don't know if I saw that correctly on the calendar. So I really the plan is to start sharing for feedback uh very soon. Like I'm ready. >> Okay. >> Um so and and so I'd really appreciate you know being able to share it with a few groups um get some feedback um with some uh key members from from uh key members of the district all of you key members of community just to get some feedback as well. I think broader
064community engagements will start a little bit later. I I definitely would want them to start this summer, but I also don't want to create a situation where not everyone is able to be there and participate that has access and I know we lose some families uh and some access to people over the summer. So, I think we will probably do both. Maybe even start it a little bit earlier and then continue in the fall. >> Okay. So, um sorry, I just lost it. Okay. So, I think I'm gonna just offer some quick feedback. That's easy. And I I heard Trusty Hunter also mention after school program and that was actually one category that I think would be helpful to have is tracking like do we have a baseline of afterchool programming program offerings like for
065title one schools or whatever and if we don't that would be helpful to know too but that like the out of school time was um something that I think would be really helpful to our families >> to know um And the other thing was I I know that there was mention of um a category for athletics and fine arts and things, but extracurriculars is kind of different. So I'm thinking about things that are offered outside of the school day. you know, we've got some schools that do like robotics and this and that and some schools that have mariachi and you know, whatever, but like a step team here, you know, but do we have sort of a target type of extracurricular, you know, whether it's it's in the fine arts area, cultural type area or
066something um that gives flexibility, but is there some is there stuff that's happening after school, too? Um that's a huge piece of the equity as you all know it's the experiences kids even get outside of school. Um the other thing that we haven't talked much as a board but um one thing that the research is showing is more import more important um and there might be room for this in in the baseline is um it's around technology >> and that could cover I think parents do want to have an idea of like screen time caps for different grade levels and so I think that's really important. Um, I think knowing whether or not we're going to be offering some AI literacy is critical. Um, I know the state doesn't have many or any regulations around
067this for schools and yet our kids are already being bombarded um by this. Our our teachers are and we don't really we're not teaching AI literacy and there are products out there that I think could be really helpful to us. Um, and just wanting to know where the district is. I'm not saying like we got to do this, but parents are asking it >> and there are other schools that are being very explicit about how they're going to be teaching AI. And so I think we've got to think about this as a um really from a parent perspective as well >> um as much as possible. I do want to reiterate um the purpose, you know, one of the reasons I was really pushing this particular document of the academic baseline during budget season was
068because we want to be I want to be able to see which schools are offering are legitimately offering the baseline. Um and by that I mean it's truly a course. It's truly it's not just some thing that's on paper that no one ever does, you know, or they're not really implementing it properly, but it's like a fully executed, you know, course or activity. But I also want to know which campuses are offering it on paper, but maybe it's not funded. I maybe it's not staffed because that's like the differentiator. Um, and I I I saw that front and center last week when I was visiting a campus. So, it doesn't really matter what we have on paper if we don't have a teacher there to deliver it. And so, I think having some indication of
069that is really helpful. >> Um, and then ultimately I also want to see which campuses are offering above and beyond the baseline. And in some cases that might be, oh, we're offering AVID programming or we're offering, you know, a dual language Vietnamese program or whatever. In some cases, it might be something different, but some place to track that. And I think that's going to that sort of blends with the academic vision piece, which is a much broader conversation. But um I think for the next goound for the budget and even for the boundary discussions that are going to be coming up that all needs to be delineated and um I did notice some of the dates on here were you know please cross check this with the boundary conversation calendar as well because the first
070question we're going to get when we start changing boundary lines is >> well what is that school offer that you're going to announce? not be assigning my student to and that needs to be prepared and ready and part of whatever presentations we do I think around boundaries but I I feel heartened by this I I feel heard like so thank you for the effort and I look forward to seeing what's next. >> Yeah and um you know one of the things uh trusty seeing that uh Dr. Mary Maxwell and I talk about a lot are, you know, we talk about baseline. Um, where we are right now is what we do and what's legally required. >> So, I I I want to be really cautious about saying something is baseline until there's consensus around what
071is the baseline >> because when you look at that uh like the math example, right, that we showed up there, there was advanced al advanced algebra 1, algebra 1, advanced algebra 2, algebra 2. And um at the end of the day, you know, that is what we currently offer. It's not what we've agreed to as the baseline. >> What to the left was was what's legally required. >> Um and so I just to back to tying this back to Trusty Hunter's comment, you know, when we look at a reduction in in in staffing because that's what this whole thing ultimately is likely to be impacted, how it's going to be impacted. You know, I think we need to think about these are the things that are in between the two that we expect to be
072at every comprehensive high school. Um, and then perhaps there's some level of autonomy to offer these others. But these other suite, these things that are above and beyond, add complexity, perhaps a certification that's maybe difficult. Perhaps it's hard to fire, I mean, hire someone for that role. >> That is where we really need to have the conversation because it does get broad very, very quickly. Um, and so I just want to be clear like we don't I don't think we have currently a baseline academic program. What we have is what we've been doing. >> Uh, we have the LRP which is very aspirational like it's very very big and and frankly we can't afford it. >> Um, so in between is where we're going to land as we go through this process. So just to
073be like I see that but there are plenty of things that we do that go beyond that we currently do like the PLC is an elementary like we know that's a thing you know it's not and that's you know I don't know if that's something that would merit being in the academic baseline plan. I personally think it would be because it's to me it's just like whatever you would expect at a campus. So some of it yes is legally required some of it's legal legally required and we're currently doing it at every campus and then there's other category like to be determined right >> but >> creating the placeholders for all that is is very helpful for me to see right >> but um >> man this is not but where we are now and
074where we're going to get over the next six weeks before we approve a budget is not like I don't think there's anything in here that's going to help inform me on a budget vote. I mean, do you honestly, Matt, is there anything by going whatever you're going to do with the academic baseline plan that's going to help inform a budget vote? >> Um, I I don't I think the mapping is what is most helpful, right? Um, as we talk about um where current programs exist uh that maybe aren't tied to courses because we looked at the example that was courses, but there are lots of other things that are at these campuses that we spend resources on. Uh so I think from in that regard um because we have been talking about ban one and
075ban two and we have been talking about um you know lessening the impact for those communities that have been historically served. So I think in that regard this effort does help but I don't know that it helps change meaningful meaningfully the total reduction that we have to take or in the way that we would take it because again most of this is driven by enrollment and and that it's kind of like you have the enrollment. How do you apply those resources against what you want to do? Um, and that's where I think this conversation really begins to take root. >> That's fair. Well, >> I think that's a fair quot. >> Yeah. I would say like during the next few weeks as you continue developing the academic baseline, if there are ways that you can
076help us, >> see how this is informing the budget process and making that really explicit. Like that to me was kind of the the whole point of doing this now, >> right? >> Um, and making sure this happened before a budget vote. But if it's not going to inform the budget vote, then I mean fine, it'll help for next year, but it's not. So any ties that you can make to this as we're talking about the budget would be really helpful. >> There are sections um there's an enrichment section which really addresses after school programming um and things like you're talking about like uh extracurriculars um as well. Well, there's a technology section that does talk about, you know, um and and I I think in in that sense it would help inform budget decisions
077because it is more high level based around um values and the direction that we would want to head doesn't have necessarily any specifics in it like and no more onetoone or you know any anything like that because we're really establishing kind of where we're going and what we consider should be happening at all campuses is that sort of main goal in my in my thought of the baseline. um and that's that can be used to inform those decisions. But we've had lots of conversations, just another one today about technology and um you know its appropriateness in the classroom and and where it belongs best for being developmentally appropriate and AI and all the things associated with that. >> Thank you. Anyone else? >> Um leaders. >> Sure. Thank you. Um and then you know I
078think a lot of this is going to kind of I'm hoping to hear more in the budget. So just um you know talking about our our academic baseline like as a parent of an elementary student I'm very very familiar and as just like I would say an active parent in the Austin community of what's offered at our elementary schools and I think it's an example of where we do a really good job offering strong programming everywhere. Um, so I would say the maybe debacle with them, the the rotate, there was like the three-day rotation. So that precedes me, that precedes my time on the board and my time as a parent in school. Um, and I I know about it because when I was a candidate, I had like little kids like standing up in
079a, you know, community meeting telling me that they were like concerned about their about that changing and how they thought it was really cool that no matter where kids went to elementary school, they had the same offerings. Um, and I know that our community had a lot of creative solutions for having like equitable offerings at all of our elementary schools and having planning time for teachers. Um, so I think when we move into the budget conversation, I'd like to see that. So that's kind of, you know, a standard of service. So when we're starting to divide things up into like band one, band two, band three, and four, I think like I understand like the purpose of that is to, you know, maybe offer think offer more at schools where there's higher need, but I
080think that also kind of runs into another like shopping situation where it's like, well, do I want my kid to have more reading or do I want them to have more art? and like I don't know what the answer is for for different families. Um but I I can see that kind of devolving. So I think when we're talk so I guess I'm bringing up now I was going to hold on to it but because of standard of service um I have more questions about the ratio and budgets later for elementary school. Um, but when I'm and I think that the the conversation with standards of service are or what we baseline academic expectations like the issues are really different from elementary, middle to high school. So it's hard to talk about it like in
081one thing. So talking about elementary and if we're looking at like what a baseline of services. So talking about developmentally appropriate and talking about technology. So technology ties into the budget. So, I think we do have to have those those convers have some of those conversations now about where we can make cuts because I'm hearing from elementary parents in Austin ISD that that's a a concern of having too much technology for their kids, having inappropriate ratios in the classroom. Um, it's something I hear from my friends in Flugerville ISD. They do not like the AI stuff their kids are doing. They are very concerned about it. um and and you know kind of thought that was happening everywhere and that's like we have a really good reading program here like really good. My my child
082was taught to read by a person and by books um and and we love that. So they were just sort of like shocked that we weren't doing that here. They that's it's a big it's a big issue. Um because there are parents who are paying, you know, $40,000 a year to go to schools that have AI but also like go to Paris, >> you know, so and so those folks are like self- selected and so they might be having really great outcomes, but that doesn't really have anything to do with our budget because I think we would have great outcomes with a $40,000 a year. Like we could do some we're already doing amazing things with with much less. Um, so that's just kind of my starting out point and um, yeah, I look forward
083to hearing more about the budget. >> Thank you. Additional questions, comments, trust. So I think maybe um tagging on to something Trustee Singh said, you know, looking at this timeline, I see, you know, approval vote on November, program decisions finalized in December, you know, moving into 27. And um and I guess looking at this budget, I'm already starting to think about next year's budget and where we will be next year this time. And so one of the things I would like to see in this work is how much stuff, you know, we're looking to guarantee can can remain in place as far as the planning around this when we get to next year's budget. You know, I don't want to catastrophize, but I am assuming that we will be, you know, by March of next
084year already in a discussion of what the budget reality is for next year. And so in that sense, this baseline, you know, I want us to be plotting for something that we can guarantee we're able to implement and not that we do this work and then when we get into next year, we go actually we might not be able to offer XYZ on those offerings. Um so that way, you know, if we get more money, I more than happy to spend that money on on additional programming outside of this. Um, but like those elements about like, you know, whether it's AP classes and and how that staffing allocation is going to get used on those campuses, I don't want that to get skewed um when we get into to next year's budget conversations. I I
085think as much as we can pull this into this year's great, but um yeah, I just want to be cognizant as as we move to that. I I really would hate to be voting for something in November. It says November 19th and I can imagine going in on the 19th and being like, you know what, the reality now looks very different than what it looked before. I I would hope that I would be looking at it going, man, I think we might be heading into a better situation next year. Um my fear is that we wouldn't and then the plan that we're voting on all of a sudden we're making last minute changes. >> Yeah, I think um trust that's like my biggest fear. It's it's the it's acknowledging that um in years past there
086hasn't been a complete tie between what we're doing academically and the cost associated with it, our ability to control our costs and our staffing allocation model. Um those three have kind of been going along for quite some time kind of independently of one another. uh over the last couple years we began to tighten it up. But at the end of the day, you know, as you move forward, I do not want to be in a position where we're committing to something that is aspirational just because it's something that sounds good. Like it needs to be something we can afford. Um, I think what we run into sometimes is the LRP process, uh, as as it as great as it was, and it is a great document, uh, many of those things, um, just aren't able
087to be accomplished because we don't have the resources to do it. Uh, and that is one of the tensions that we see as we move through this process. And, and I think um, and so I'm right there with you. That that's exactly where we want to be. And so my hope is that we get through this budgeting process, we modify our timeline in next year's budgeting process. So by the time we get to November, there's ideally, you know, alignment on the assumptions, alignment on um kind of the direction we're going to go regarding any reductions and there isn't a misstep there in proposing something that we can't execute. I mean, that's that's exactly what it should be. >> Okay. I I appreciate that. And I just want to call out uh bookending that is that
088you know particularly for staff you know looking at this in November you know them hearing confidently that this is what we're going to staff for. Not saying the exact number of positions or whatever but I mean they understand the offerings they understand you know what we're going to be looking to staff. Um that would be my ideal on that. And then the families as well as I think everybody has parited you know that they know what's available on those campuses next year. And I think the I I I the reality is that it's going to be less. I mean, I I just I don't know of another way to say it. You know, when you have fewer resources, um we want to do what we can extremely well, but for the last many years, we've
089just kind of overextended ourselves and and as we tighten up, whatever we do, we need to do extremely well. Um, so I hope to have that clarity as well as we move forward uh into future fiscal years. >> Thank you. Additional questions, comments. >> Okay, I just have a couple that I'd love to run through quickly. Um, um, I appreciate this work. It's really helpful to kind of understand what's coming, what people are thinking about. Um I see a lot here about talking about what we are going to be offering that baseline idea of kind of what is there. Um but I don't see as much and it may be like you said there's a lot we're not seeing if that how and I think our community is asking for both right >> um and
090you know what does um what does it look like what's our technology approach what is our hands-on learning approach what is our um philosophy about testing and how often we're testing and what that looks like you know what what is our philosophy about all of this and I I hope that as we do it I know there's a lot of educational language in what we're putting forward and that's a language we speak that helps inform our budgets and helps connect to our scorecard and all of that. But I hope we're also able to tell a narrative for families to say like what's school going to look like. >> You know, I think we speak one language and families there's a lot of choice, right? And um families choosing schools speak a different language and they
091want to know like what does my kids day look like? What's my kid going to do all day? How does that look? Yeah. How are they gonna are they going to be reading novels? Are they going to be what does that look like? And so um I hope we can can kind of do parallel work to help our families understand that. And I hope we're going out and asking families who don't have kids in the district yet, asking our students, asking the people who are in our classrooms, closest to our students, who are doing the work um to help our students achieve in all these ways. Um I hope they're part of this process. Um languages other than English, I just want to flag we've heard about a campus, a middle school campus that isn't
092apparently offering that. Um, I don't know if that's true or not, but I just want to flag that that's something our community has raised. Um, the high school graduation plans, um, I know at one point we defaulted every student to the distinguished plan as a district. At one point that was board policy. It doesn't I don't believe it's board policy anymore, but we that was our default and you could opt out, but we opted you in. And you know, if you look at our taper reports, we have some campuses where almost everyone's on that distinguished plan. We have some campuses where maybe only 70% of our students are graduating with that distinguished plan. And that by definition, you're going to have fewer advanced math opportunities, fewer advanced science opportunities because students fewer students are taking
093advantage of that fourth year. >> And I think that structurally can build in fewer opportunities. And if calculus isn't making, maybe it's because there isn't an expectation that you do the distinguished plan. And you know, again, I think we we expect families to know a lot and not every family knows that you can't you're not eligible for the top 10% rule in Texas if you don't graduate that way, right? And and then our kids are missing a lot of opportunities, especially as our state has invested, if you're a family that makes less than $140,000 a year, some UT schools are free to you. >> Um, you know, some of our our some UT system schools. So, um, I'd really like to think together about that, about how we're structurally building in fewer opportunities some places.
094If you only need 22 credits, the menu is shorter. If you don't need that fourth year of science or math, the menu is going to be smaller. And and maybe that's why calculus isn't making some places as opposed to kind of saying this is kind of our baseline, our default. Um, and I would love to talk with our policy committee and the administration about whether we want to think about kind of making that statement again to our students and our community. That's that's what we hope you'll do and you can choose something else. Um, but just kind of communicate that way. Um, you want to say something? >> I was going to ask when was that do you remember when that policy was modified? >> I don't know when it was modified. No. >> Okay.
095When it was modified to go back because it sounds at one point it was okay. that I I and I could be wrong, but I believe that we had a board policy quite some time ago that that was just that was our default. Um, and I could be wrong, but yeah, we have people who can tell us. So, uh, yeah, I'd love to know that, too. Um, really appreciate the conversation about out of school time and kind of those whether it's, you know, activities after school, extended day for our families who need that. We know that a lot of charters are offering that. We know that families are hungry for that. Um, so I think those are my um my main comments about it. So, thank you for the work. I look forward to seeing
096more of it and and learning a little bit more about, you know, kind of what this is going to look like and how it's going to convey information to our community. Thank you. Um, and inform the choices we make together as well. So, thank you. >> All right. >> Okay. We ready to move on? Okay. >> All right. Um, so, uh, you want to sit here? >> Sure. All right. >> It's always good to have you around, Dr. Maxwell. >> All right. So, um we're going to transition into the uh budget portion of the conversation with the remaining time that we have uh with our work session. Um so, the first thing we're going to do, if you flip to the next slide, is just kind of remind uh our community and our trustees uh
097regarding the process. This has been uh a very involved process. uh we you know were evaluating everything on the expense side regarding compliance. Uh we had lots of conversations with our departments and vertical teams. Uh we looked at um different strategies to um kind of offset costs and then at each and every point we kind of validated to make sure that the number we were seeing was a number that was actually being spent. Uh that is something that uh I think we can always do better. uh I never want to put a number in front of our trustees or in front of our community that I know isn't truly uh a reduction in cost. And then we tried to um evaluate each of these expenses and determine, okay, what was it going to look like
098uh and and how was it going to be felt by our community once that reduction uh was considered and brought forward? And then if we're going to u make the reduction um how do we do it in a way that uh limits the impact to historically underserved um communities? and and as we've said before, we leverage this support and resource index uh in our bands um to get there. So, uh what we're going to go through tonight um are just kind of higher level uh reductions by um or uh what you have and I have handed this out to you all is a detailed list of the backup of that information. It's a working document. Um what actually is not often uh what is not known now is that each one of those documents has
099a much larger document that shows every single expense uh within the division. Uh and that is probably a four or five inch ring binder. Um and so I'll hand it off to Katrina to take us to the next slide uh just to kind of re orient everybody to where we are and then I'll go through um the reductions by org. >> Thank you superintendent Sigur. Um this next slide is our FY 2627 preliminary budget and one of the um items that was asked is that we could bring back a budget looking at 16 and 17%. In a previous board workshop, we landed on a 15% fund balance, which means that we'd have to we could we would need to reduce $177 million and we'd have a a negative $4 million that would go to our
100deficit. If we change that number to 16%, the reductions would have to total $184 million. Um, and that would give leave us contributing $3 million to our fund balance. And then to the far right, it's 17%. And so we'd have to do reductions of $192 million to contribute contribute $11 million to our fund balance. >> Yeah. So, thank you, Katrina. Uh so the next set of slides, trustees, um what we're going to do is go um by um org or just a grouping of orgs if they're small. And what I'm going to do is highlight some of the things that I think I want to make sure our community is aware of and our board is aware of. There are lots of little things. Um but these are the bigger ones that I I think
101we want to make sure we create awareness around. So we'll start on slide 23. Uh this is the superintendent and chief of staff office. Uh the way these slides are oriented on the top you'll see the existing uh proposed kind of prior to any reduction 2627 budget. Uh you'll see the number of full-time equivalent or full-time employees tied to that budget the um costs associated with the staff and then the non-staffing budget and then a total budget. And so within uh the superintendent chief of staff some of the reductions that I want to point out um we are um reducing and removing the deputy superintendent business and operations position. And that was something that uh we previously talked about, something we proposed um to help improve uh system efficiency years ago. Um but given where
102we are, not something we can move forward with. Uh we have discussed, I think, openly um the uh kind of change in our approach to uh our auditing um efforts. Um for the last many years, we've used outside um uh consultants to help with that. It's a fairly expensive um line item averaging between 300 and $700,000 depending on the year. Uh we're going to kind of revert back to what we did several years ago and have an internal um uh structure that reports uh to the board. Uh TA monitors uh we exited the TA greed order. So that was a $90,000 expense that we no longer have to carry. Uh, steady state is a contract that we had to support the three restart campuses as part of this um as part of our uh tap
103turnarounds for Bernardet Webb and Doby. Now that we've transitioned to an 1882 partner, that expense is no longer necessary. So that's a reduction uh several hundred,000 there. Uh you're going to see um in each of these uh departments and you have them in your backup like detailed reductions around travel, food, um uh you'll see over time. You'll see these little budgets. They're buried everywhere. We've went through every one of those items and and reduced them or in many cases eliminated them. So you're going to see that come up multiple times. Uh but wanted to make sure uh that that you saw that that it's across the board. Uh and then at the bottom uh we are um uh looking to move away from the um current uh print shop um that we have within Austin
104ISD. Uh for years we've had two and then a couple years back we went to one. Uh every year at least the last several years um we've had to supplement this um org uh because it's not able to fund itself. Um the idea at one point was that they'd be able to um to kind of offset their costs by providing these offerings to our um principles and to our staff. The reality of it all is that at the end of the day, we're using less paper. Um the the offerings don't quite align with the needs and we've just we're not able and we're not in a position to support this moving forward. Um and so uh just to um kind of want to communicate that uh to you all. Uh and then also throughout all
105of this though we don't have it here um listed because we're not quite ready to to go there is just structural changes regarding the org chart um those will come out um here before too long but not explicitly stated within each of these slides here. So moving on to slide 24 which is finance uh the number of FTEEs 48 total budget 22.09 09 million. One of the things I want to call out are campus bank fees. >> And can I just ask a quick question? Um, are we >> I see the table at the top with the FTEES, the dollar amount. >> Is that the full budget and then the reductions are listed or are the numbers up there the amount that's being reduced? >> That's the full budget. So, we don't have a dollar
106figure in front of us for the amount that's being reduced. >> So, so you don't have it's not on the slide. Um, one of the things that's happening um I mean like I mean our staff can't see. I mean, there's hundreds and hundreds of lines. Um, we validate the lines. We we were considering putting summary. Um, but then the reality is that there's lots of other items that are not within these bullets. They're beneath them or kind of not at the same level. Uh, so we do have like subtotals currently, um, but they're not listed on the slide. You do have them in your backup. Um, and so, and again, I think one of the things we're trying to balance are the direct costs reductions and the staffing cost reductions, which are not finalized yet.
107So, to show a portion of it, um, it's just difficult kind of where we are in the process, but I certainly recognize, and we've talked about this, the the desire and the need to just have the dollars out there as you went through the process. Um, what you have is all the dollars here, but not broken down by slide here. And I think it's we don't have like we have this finder but our community doesn't. And so I think that's the >> the question is just kind of how people are understanding what we're looking at. So thank you. Just wanted to be really clear about that we're the top line is not the savings. >> Correct. It's not the savings >> and the savings aren't shown. So thank you. >> And that's why you're hear
108me continue to identify by dollar amount where I can verbally. Um but uh no that is that is definitely um something we will be showing um here shortly. Uh so uh moving on to finance. Campus bank fees. This is a little bit less than $100,000. Uh these are fees that we carry across all of our accounts. Um, so certainly the accounts that we maintain within Austin ISD uh that um support AISD 199 funds, we will pay for those fees, but these are fees that are tied to all the other accounts that are actually activity funds or PTA funds. These are the $35 fees that you get or $90 fees that you get um over the course of a year uh to actually maintain the account. I mean, we all have checking accounts, but given the
109scale, it's it's a very very large number. Um, by practice, these probably should be paid for by the um uh the the funds in the account. Uh, but that's not the case. We we've always paid for them centrally. Uh, but in aggregate, it's a very very large number. Uh, property insurance. Um, this is something it's a $2 million line item. It's a reduction. A couple years ago, about two years ago, we talked with our board um about um reducing um our uh premiums annually, just recognizing how infrequent these types of events are. Uh we began to to populate a fund. Uh and um by doing so, we've been able to reduce the annual cost. That's a $2 million reduction. Uh professional service related to investment reporting. Uh this is uh a consultant. This is a
110a fee tied to a consultant that Katrina, Miss Katrina McGomery has that helps us with reporting. Um we're able to to do without um that support um with no like impact overtime general supplies. You'll know what those are. Um one of the big ones in the bottom uh software uh regarding um budgeting. So in Austin ISD just historically I've shared before we have lots of different platforms doing different things. um they all help us do something. Uh we're trying to move towards an enterprise level um system where we have fewer partners doing more things so that we can limit these one-offs. Um this is one of those ones that uh is a reduction. Uh certainly um we we don't know how how it's finally going to finally end up regarding the total costs. Uh but
111it is several hundred,000 in in reductions. Um, and the hope is that over time we get to a place where we have fewer tools to do all the things opposed to having lots of different tools that do lots of things. Um, moving on to talent strategy. Uh, there are going to be items in here that kind of cross between other divisions, but I certainly want to pull a couple out. Um, upbeat climate survey. This survey has been in place for several years. Uh this is something that um uh was previously tied uh to I believe some scorecard requirements as well as um panorama which is another thing from several years back. Um we're going to go ahead and move away from that. We can um support this internally. It'll look different. Uh but we believe
112that we can get the information we need um to ensure that um we're meeting the needs of our system. Uh leadership development pipeline materials and substitute cost. Uh we have lots of them. Uh there are many um plat um systems that we have in place. Uh we're we're this is more of a rescale. Uh this is still a very very much a focus for us, but we don't need the same complement of resources and partners to to actually achieve our goal. And many of these have been brought in house as well. Um I do also want to um point out that we're taking a um significantly reducing our recruitment efforts that are outside the region. Uh I think it's a it's a you know when we came out of the pandemic you know we modified
113our budgets to to attract staff from all over the state and elsewhere in the country. Uh we're not at that point now where we need to do that. Um given our staffing rates given the number of um highly qualified incredible educators in the region. Uh we feel that we don't have to travel um in the same way we used to to actually meet the recruitment requirements. Um there going to be some um the way this slide is this set of slides is actually structured is we have some um backup slides to this specific org because it's such a complex org. So uh if we go to the next one um the staffing allocation controls uh so we have the um modifica the adjustments and staffing ratios. Uh you can see that here. But one of
114the things that I I want our trustees to know is that our staffing allocation model um is weighted. Uh and oftent times we don't um kind of hold the line when allocation is is given. Uh an example of this and I'm going to give a an example that has happened for a long time and it it it's there is a reason that it happened. Um we work with our principles and we determine where enrollment is going to be. Uh and we in years past would roll over snapshot data. Uh we would take fairly um you know favorable numbers and we would use that to build up our budget. We're not at a point where we can rely on favorable assumptions. Right? So what we're doing now is we're using the information we have from our
115enrollment system. We're having conversations with principles. We're looking at um you know who was there and what's the historical kind of buildup of the school. Some schools you know families enroll late and some schools they enroll very early and within our staffing ratio there are new allocations that get released once you get a certain threshold if that makes any sense. Uh if you get to you know a large enough elementary school you get a second allocation for a counselor or assistant principal. Um, and if you uh are um getting a new allocation for a teacher because all of your classes have filled up across your grade level um you know that that that requires a new teacher and and that's fine. What has happened in the past is we sometimes will release the allocation before
116the number is actually met on enrollment. So, let's say we're five out um and we're having conversations and we come to an agreement that we're five away, but we're going to go ahead and release it. The challenge we have is sometimes we don't get that. We don't fill it up. This the enrollment doesn't come or it does come and then shortly thereafter it declines, but we've already released the allocation and then we go through leveling and that's very painful. So, we don't do it. And this over time has um got us to a point where we have overstaffed based on our own like um staffing model if that makes any sense. Uh because over the course of a year there's an eb and flow to enrollment and we as a system haven't been as precise
117as we needed to be and that has been costly. Um, so I think the the end of the the day what I want to communicate is we have to be tighter when we implement our staffing allocations uh and not create as many exceptions. Um, and so if we do that well, you will see a pretty significant reduction. Uh, district-wide stipens. This is something that we've talked about. Uh, we made a commitment um on multilingual and special education a couple weeks ago and I've been very clear that we're looking at all of it. Um, and I think this is going to continue to be an area of exploration, but as we go through them, uh, these are some of the reductions based on the previously identified, uh, kind of alignment for special education, a million dollars,
118uh, bilingual, $896,000 travel, uh, $214,000 reduction. Uh, that is another area I think we can probably explore further. Um, I want to tell you what we did. We actually went through every single position in Austin ISD and determined whether their job description job description required that they travel or not or whether they should be traveling or not. Uh I will be honest, there were a couple instances where someone wasn't getting a stipen and they probably should have been getting a stipen and so we went ahead and made that adjustment. Um I think the problem we had previously is we went by um level. So, if you were a director, didn't matter what you did. If you were, please don't, you know, be upset, but if you're in I'm not even going to say department one
119versus department two, uh, you know, you got a, you know, $7,000 stipend because of the level, not because of what you did. And when you look at the person doing the work or the job itself, one was at central office 90% of the time, while the other 90% of the time was at campuses. And so we eliminated the um travel siphon for the person who was not expected to travel and maintained it for the person who did. Uh and so we went through the entire system. Uh I will tell you you you'll see even differentiation at um at all levels. Uh and certainly those individuals who are supposed to be at schools or executive directors that are supposed to be at schools they were maintained. Uh and in other areas we actually reduced because the
120type of travel um was not as extensive as maybe the siphon uh um maybe showed if that makes any sense. So we actually had to break it up quite significantly. We did it by level and by group. Um so just that a cell phone siphon uh that's eliminated. We went ahead and just removed that totally 235,000. Uh the other one uh department chairs uh $934,000. Um there are lots of ways this has kind of gotten into our system as far as how it's applied. Uh we have aligned it um and and made reductions uh where we thought was appropriate. Again, it's by like it's it's job level um adjustments. Uh so I just want our trustes to know this was not a um homogeneous approach to any level. It was literally looking at the job
121making sure uh that we had a clear understanding of what it required and then making adjust adjustment appropriately. So yes >> um for our community you're not I know we've gotten a lot of concern about the special education stipens and some of the others that $1 million does not eliminate special education stipens. we are continuing to offer >> that is a reduction >> stipens in many of these categories just not exactly in the same way we have I think it's important for people to understand what it is and what it isn't and and I don't know if we're going to get a position by position >> list at some point but I think um >> yeah we can uh we can provide that so when we released the uh notification about two weeks ago we
122talked about our commitment to continuing with multilingual and special education stipens but to realign them uh to have um those individuals who are closest to the classroom providing direct instruction to have to maintain the 7,000 if it was a special education and then adjust from there. And so this is a reflection of those adjustments. Uh this is not a if it was the full stipens that number is much much bigger than the 1 million. So thank you for that clarification. Uh this is simply the reduction based on the alignment um that has previously been discussed. >> Thank you. I appreciate you clarifying that for our community because I know a lot of people have been concerned about that. >> Yeah. And so uh the estimated total just on those and again this is another area
123of exploration. I'm not saying that there are going to be other things that we explore within stipens. I gave a slide a couple about a week ago where he said we had over 150 different types of stipens. Uh these are kind of categorized um because these are some of the bigger ones. Uh but I know Trusty Foster has a comment but I did want to touch on um substitute incentives before either after your question Trusty Foster or or before whatever. Well, no. I I I think that the substitute incentives is going to sort of double down on on something that I'm appreciating and I and I want sort of lifted up. Um, a a big piece of sort of feedback or wondering or questioning um that we get right now is, you know, why don't
124you do this or what about that? And what I consistently see is evidence of that kind of granular work being done. And so, first I want to say I really appreciate that granular work, but it gives rise to even the need for even more granularity as President Boswell. So, we'll can we be clear about when we say 1 million in special ed, that does not mean the elimination of the statements. That means an estimated cost savings, which means you all are doing granular work and presumably thinking and working really hard >> to get the stipens tightly aligned to the work. Um, and the same with for instance the travel have the stipens that exist tightly aligned with what's actually going on. And then you pointed out that there's even instances where sort of by your
125theory of action around how we'll do travel some actually got added in which is a matter of like equity and alignment and just kind of getting it right. Um and yet I imagine that with this even as you produce greater efficiencies and greater equity there's probably still greater pain in here. That is to say, there were folks doing really good things that are not now remunerated, rewarded in a way that's appropriate to what they're actually doing, but this is just part of the hard cuts. Is that an okay or accurate characterization of kind of what's going on here? >> I think that's a a very good way to describe it, Trusty Foster. Um, I I want to just acknowledge that stipens are part of compensation. That's how they've been used in Austin ISD for the
126better part of a decade as far as I can tell. Um, so it's not lost on us that every time we make an adjustment that it is going to be felt as total compensation for someone's work in Austin ISD. um you know and I I can't speak to how we got the the way the rules I mean the way the tools were used previously but if it's a stipened by definition uh it needs to be tied to the work um and we just weren't that tight. So then the tough question that comes up is for whatever historical reasons and sometimes there were actually good reasons like we need to find a way to get somebody more money or get you know a group of folks more money and this was a vehicle. So it's I
127don't have an automatic negative value judgment of the use of stipens but it's a sort of like however we got here here we are. So a concern that arises is that if you happen to be compensated a certain way you are more vulnerable because we can hit that and if you are compensated in this other way it's kind of locked in is what it is and so you kind of get shielded from the pain and I worry about a sort of a problem creeping in that if you happen to have been the one unlucky lucky enough to be paid a certain way were able to affect budget savings there and not somewhere else. So that I I think that's is that a potential issue and if so how is it mitigated? >> I don't I
128think it's potential issue. I don't know that there's a lot of ways to mitigate um and that's I think that in general when you go through a budgeting process like this it's it is in some ways disingenuous to say that we're going to be able to mitigate um much of the pain. I mean, we we will do our best to to mitigate closest to the classroom. Um, that's been our charge, but some of these things are just painful. They they just are. Um, and then once you kind of go down a a an exploratory like rabbit hole, you know, you can say, okay, well, the person who's driving, it's more wear and tear in the car. They've been, you know, like there's been a lot that goes into just that alone. Uh, so the person
129who hasn't had it, who who's had the siphon but didn't have that same impact on their daily life, you know, were they, for lack of a better word, you know, compensated, maybe out of alignment with what, you know, their counter is who's actually doing this? And so, um, I don't have a good answer for you, Trusty Foster. It It's all horrible. It's all really hard. Um, and there isn't a way to mitigate every expense. It's just not possible. Well, I I I actually appreciate the kind of honesty and the transparency in in saying that and it's it's just something we're going to have to I think feel like we have to constantly look at and I'm glad you all are doing the work because I I have faith that you will keep looking at as
130a granular at this granular level and we're going to have the ongoing communications challenge to explain this because the other side of being this transparent and going this deep is that It's going to continually innocently and honestly and for good reasons raise more questions. Well, what about what? What about? And there might be very good reasons. Um, and it's going to be a, you know, it's going to be a slog to to >> maintain that which we are committed to, which is our transparency, because it's going to raise questions. Well, gosh, why not this? And then we got to, you know, figure out how to talk about it. So, um, keep doing what you're doing. I'm sorry for derailing us for a moment or or no >> for chiming in. >> Uh no, welcome the
131questions trustees as we go through this. Um so I did want to touch on substitute incentives. So uh one of the things that we I wouldn't say discover but one of the things we really spent some time like trying to understand better was AIC's historic approach to incentives when it came to substitution substitutes. Um what we found was that once you built up all the incentives and there are many of them there were if you uh are substituting a title one school $10 more per day. Um if you are in an SPS unit or if you're in a life skills unit it's $5 more. Um we even had a siphon for an incentive for if you worked on a Friday. Uh if you worked over 20 is it 20 days? Yeah 20 days. Um then
132there's additional incentive. If you went 45 days you got another incentive. Uh, and then one that I found out not too long ago was that if you worked 125 days a year previously, then you got an additional $20 per day that entire year. Um, they were Yes. So, so there's a lot. Um, and what happened was you quickly found yourself in a situation where you're compensating substitutes at a higher rate than our TAs. Um, and then you actually had stratification. you had less than 60 hours of credit, more than 60 hours of credit, a college degree, certified, and then a retired teacher. So you had all these like stratifications going this way. And so it's like a four-dimensional matrix. Um so we had to simplify it. Uh it was clear that we had been adding
133and adding and adding. I do understand that after the pandemic, you know, there was lots of vacancies. Uh certainly we still have vacancies now, but maybe not to the same degree where we need to incentivize have. Uh so he made some adjustments um that we're going to be sharing as far as proposals. Uh it'll be it'll I don't want to speak kind of incorrectly here but it'll be kind of degreged certified um and then non-degreed essentially. So three categories uh and then uh there'll be a reduction in the number of incentives uh um as you build up in the 125day incentive for the previous year that's going away. Um, now I think it's another area of exploration because again we're still have we still have gaps to cover. We're still trying to get to that
134mark. So I'm just sharing with you that we've already found this, but I think there's going to be perhaps more to um find here and this does not include the total cost of substitutes which is roughly 20 million >> per year. Got that right? Uh 20 million per year. So this is just the incentives. This is just the kind of the add-ons. Um so go ahead. Sorry. Uh two comments, but so real real quick short one is on the travel stipen is that including um for itinerate related service people when they're driving to different campuses is that covered there or is that in the sped siphon or is that >> this is separated out? Yeah. So so this it depends on the position. I I'd have to I mean we have a the way that
135it works is if you're traveling you can and don't have a stipen you are able to um bill for mileage. we that is still the case. Uh if if your position uh makes it such that it is just a better balance because you spend so much time filling out paperwork for mileage that the siphon is going to be deployed to offset the fuel and the cost of traveling within the system after you start your workday. Um so I'd have to go back to that specific but it's not embedded within a special education stipen. It is it is a separate stipen. >> Right. Well, so I guess my my question that we can be answered later is I want to make sure that for like our speech therapists and you know um adapted PE, you know,
136that are traveling campus to campus, um that we're not cutting their travel pay. >> Oh, yeah. >> When we're looking at these numbers, >> oh, we we looked at every position. Um so I I we've gone through with the team. We certainly will provide the details behind it. Um and it'll be uploaded as part of our um our staffing. uh manual. Um but yeah, we'll provide that. Um and there's every position in Austin ISD that had one tied to it will be in that document. >> The second comment I have just quickly on the substitute incentives and I'm I'm curious to see how you're building that in kind of a two-parter. One is I've had staff say in relation to to seven of eight that they would rather, you know, they would fill in for
137sub physicians if we were cutting sub, you know, cutting from the subpool to maintain the six of eight. And I'm not necessarily saying that that's what we should be doing. I'm just telling you something that people have said that they would rather have staff filling in for the missing subs and save that money so that they can maintain the staffing ratios. I know staffing ratios I think is the next slide. So I'm bringing it up because if we adjust the substitute incentives in a way that results in even less subs and then teachers are having to fill in for subs anyway when I've already heard teachers say that they would be willing to fill in for subs if it was saving them something if there was a benefit to it. I'm just bringing that to
138your attention because that's going to play really poorly with staff if they're needing to fill in for those subs. The reason I bring it up and and surely this is anecdotal is, you know, I I I've said before I started off as a sub in AISD and I worked through those incentives and that was precisely why I subbed so much was because there were those tiers. And the first long-term sub assignment I took uh had been vacant for three months. They had finally gotten a teacher staffing assignment that there was supposed to be one more teacher in the classroom. It had been three months. It hadn't been filled and it was already going into the spring semester. So there was no one was going to come in. I just showed up on the campus one
139day because I filled in for the sub position. They had no idea that I that I had even gone to sub and then I became a long-term sub there because precisely I knew I would get the bonus when I hit it. So that incentivized me to to fill in that position. I understand the complexity. I mean it was a whole game that I enjoyed figuring out. Um the the point I'm making is that in in refining that I'm sure there's revision that can be there but as a former scores in SPS and I used to you know have point systems and all these things for the students. It should still incentivize subs continuing to go through the system because that is why you know we subbed is we knew that if we hit 60 days
140we would get that pay increase. That that was motivating. Um, I think it can be refined and simplified 100%, but I I just want to make sure it's still motivating the subs to show up because again, if staff is having to fill in for vacancies, like we're spinning classes and sending some of the kids here and some of the kids there and the teachers are eating that overhead, uh, I think it's going to result in in some push back because we need to even that out. >> This is uh, so first I would say is there still going to be incentives? We're still having that in our in our plan. Um we are simplifying. Uh and the other thing that makes this very difficult is um speculating on the what if would happen if this
141occurs. And when you look around the region and kind of different structures that other school districts use, how how many substitutes we have in the pool, how many come to every day, the cost year-over-year. um after the pandemic it it really grew and um when you look at the number of vacancies in general that we have now it's very different than what we had in 2022 2023. Um and so I'm I'm very I'm c I'm c certainly sensitive to that. I can't speak to kind of how to quantify the other thing that may happen. Um and I I hadn't heard that. No one's told shared that with me except just right now as far as like what that could look like. Um I've heard concerns around like if we can't staff and but you know
142that it would be felt that way. Um so I think having incentives is important. Uh and the other question becomes do you need to adopt a completely different model to where you start moving towards TAS um and having permanent you know effectively permanent subs right which would modif mitigate that aspect of it. Um and that would still be at a lower cost than what we're spending now in total subs. Uh so I think there's different ways to explore that further. This is not a a finished product. Um, but I wanted you to know at least what we've um we feel comfortable at least at this point sharing as far as um still maintaining the incentives um not doing so in such a way that um keeps substitutes from coming to Austin ISD, but certainly kind
143of controls it in a way. Um I think 125 days the previous year is one of those ones. You know, it's $560,000 that we were spending. Um I I I can't think of another incentive that we have in our system where the previous year's amount of work contributed to it. Uh so it's very inconsistent. It's not in any it's not anywhere. It's not in our manual. It's not doesn't exist anywhere except in just a code. Uh so these are the sorts of things that unless you get into the weeds of it, you're never going to find. Um and so I just I I hear you and I I appreciate the comment. I just um kind of hard to quantify what that is, but we'll definitely be checking forward as we move along through this process.
144Yeah, maybe my last thought on it would be, and this is for any staff maybe that are that are watching or listening in, is to get feedback from them about how they're feeling uh regarding the ability to staff TAs or ability to staff substitutes and and some of those ratios because like you're saying, there are other options. Um, and I've I've heard some feedback from that, not an overwhelming amount of feedback. Uh but it would be helpful to get the staff to weigh in on that because that's I I think directly going to affect the experience on the campuses. >> Yeah. >> Um so uh continuing on um again just kind of sharing some of the numbers associated with those items. >> I'm sorry I've had my hand up. I'm not sure who's watching the
145Zoom. >> Be great if I could. >> Yeah. Um I need to hold right here for just a moment. So, I need some clarification from whomever is over HR currently because maybe I'm misunderstanding something. When I was a classroom teacher and I subbed on my planning period, I got paid for it. I don't know what this is y'all talking about. People like would rather like I don't y'all going to have to explain that to me because I don't know how that's supposed to work. If I'm subbing, then I'm subbing and working. So, I'm getting paid twice or I'm not subbing. So, that's the first thing. I need some clarification on how that would look. And I know Fernando just put that out there, Matias, you're like, "Oh, okay. Let me think about this." That's fine.
146But if that comes up around again, I'm going to need to know how that's done. Um, the second thing is is that everything that we are doing right now, I have asked the administration from the beginning, and I'mma ask them again, stop calling it a reduction. It's a pay cut. Say it because people want us to say it and say why we're asking why we're having to have this pay cut. If you are a substitute and you are in AISD and you're finding out today, my question is when does this take effect? Because if it takes effect in 25 20 I mean 26 27 you've kind of just screwed me because we know how hard it is to I I tell you what my son is a sub and it took him like seven months
147and a lot of phone calls just to get like the paperwork through. Right. So I'm still currently a sub. I need to undo that. I'm still currently a sub in Flugerville. It was really, really fast, but it took me a long time to actually get a job in Flugerville. We're basically saying, I won't say we're saying what I feel like, what I'm hearing is that, hey, there's not too many places for you to go, so you're kind of stuck. Let's and if that's not what's intended, then let's make sure that we clarify that and and come a little bit cleaner with that because that's what it sounded like to me, not anybody else, but that's what I heard. And if what we're saying is, hey, we're asking everyone to take a little bit of a
148cut so we can keep the ship afloat, then let's say it that way, right? Not because what I heard was it's not that it's not that many jobs out there, so you got to stay with us because people have options. A new McDonald's just opened up in the hood. Chipotle opened up on Springdale. There's other places people can go. People are subbing. Fernando is exactly right because of that that scale. And if that scale is going to change, then we have to let people know as soon as possible. Or if you really want to know, I don't know if you guys know this, there's a Facebook group Facebook group called Austin ISD subs where they talk about like issues and which is kind of sad that we don't have something like that for them. they've
149had to create it for themselves where they are training themselves. They're asking questions. They're saying what's a better school? Who's a good principal? What should where should I go? What should I do? Like getting with those people and saying what what could we do to ensure that you stay with us? But also help us through this crisis, right? I think that's important to talk to the people who are are closely affected by that. So that's just what I say. When we have these adjustments, these pay cuts, let's talk to people about them. If Fernando's hearing from people, then then get with him and say, "Who said this? Was it a group of people? Was it one person? What does this look like?" Because if we can do something, save money and not frustrate people because
150again, it is also May. It ain't like you about to get no teaching job right now, unless a school district is just not, you know, staffed up. So, I'm asking us to I sound like I don't want to say tong police. I I want us to make sure that we're saying speaking truthful, speaking exactly what things are and then recognizing the sensitivity that's around the things that are happening, especially in the economy right now. So, if we're going to adjust subs, how soon can we let them know? If teachers want to sub, like, how does that work? Like, legally with HR? Like I said, it might be a thing, it may not be a thing, but let's have that ready to go if that comes back around. Thank you, >> Trusty Hunter. Steven Stapleton, interim
151talent strategy officer. We still have employee incentive pay, which is where a teacher at any level is eligible to sub for one period a day if they if they need to fill in. So, at secondary, that's a 90-minute block. at elementary um we know sometimes often classes are split so there's a way that that employee incentive pay is split among those teachers in which students are split >> excellent thank you so much for that >> thank you trusty hunter and I I you know it is very diffic it's very difficult to communicate all of these things um you know I I like I said earlier it is a compensation decrease any stipen is it's going to be felt that way uh cut reduction ction. Um, I can use whatever terminology. Uh, I I am endeavoring
152to be incredibly transparent. These are cuts. There's no doubt about it. Um, and it it's not about, you know, that someone can't go somewhere else. It's the function of can we pay what we've been paying and we're all collectively having to take reductions as a system. That's just it. And some of them are going to be more impactful than others um or be impacted to a greater degree than others. Uh that's just the truth. Um okay, so uh I'll continue on um to staffing ratios and planning time. Uh you've seen this slide, trustees, uh in our community. This is just uh sharing um kind of the the total impact. I know Trusty Hunter had some questions about this last time. uh if the we apply the ratios um kind of the it's estimated impact of
153allocations the vacancies the non-certified um to Trusty Hunter's point regarding um kind of the expectations in the in the law around ensuring that school districts get to fully certified uh teacher um uh uh teacher um placements. Uh that's something that um we've we certainly are thoughtful around and and you're right there there isn't a lot of flexibility but given the numbers we are able to navigate this I think in a way that limits disruption campus by campus and it really is going to come down to our principles um kind of looking at uh you know how they're staffing um what vacancies exist um kind of how they incoming students are going to be supported um and then sharing with us their recommendations as we navigate that. On the next slide, staffing ratios. This is again
154uh something that we've already shared. Um just wanted to make sure it was clear to everybody the direction that um we were headed. Uh we our goal has always been to protect planning time as best we could. Uh I certainly know that there's been feedback um over the last couple weeks around could it look differently or the different things you can consider. Um we certainly recognize that the additional planning time that we currently can support uh has uh improved outcomes uh for our students uh and that's a good thing. It's a very good thing and it and it certainly is moving us in the right direction. Um so we we definitely uh acknowledge that this will have uh an impact over time. um which is why the approach of you know multiple year and then
155by um uh um band uh was something that we wanted to to bring forward. Certainly want to acknowledge trustee trusty Willy Chu's comment around um bands versus you know kind of something that is applied to the entire system. Uh recognizing that you know with this differentiation you're going to have a different experience uh across the district in some schools. uh and you know we were trying to make an adjustment where uh the schools have historically um just um not been supported in the way that we would have hoped. Uh so that's the the current staffing ratios that are being proposed. I'm not sure if you want to take it some moments to to expand on that. I don't want to kind of rush through it. It was we've presented it before but wanted to answer
156any questions that you may have uh before I go on the secondary. >> Yeah. Um, and so you can put the slide back up because that would help me ask the question. Okay. Um, so when So this is a a question that I'm I'm getting like probably all of us are getting a ton of emails and this is a question I cannot answer without help. So I'm definitely going to need um need some help with this. Um, so these are current ratios. So are there no so if I'm saying if I'm just looking at current year so would there be no fourth grade class if these are current ratios that would have more than 22 students >> Currently >> no you could have a class that has more than 22 students currently. >> Okay. So
157how what is like the biggest class of like what >> what triggers like so how's that then that's not like really the ratio >> well >> can we talk like I guess let's talk about with a lot of specificity >> yeah so it's a great question so this is this is something that we calculate I actually have the numbers here um so the question becomes when does the next allocation and the next teacher become uh made available to the campus >> and so I don't know if you want to go grade by grade or like However, we can. >> Yeah. So, so the way that, so the way one of the ways that I think about it, um, and maybe this is helpful or not, uh, if you're at, um, let's use 22 to one,
158uh, if you have two grade levels, >> kindergarten through >> Fourth currently, correct? >> Because if it's prek, if it is 23, that does trigger another allocation because of the law. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So if you at 22 to to one ratio, if you have um two uh classes per grade level, um then if they were both full without any overage, you're at 44 students, right? 22 * 2 is 44. >> Um if you added the the 23rd student on one of the classes, that would not trigger the next allocation, >> right? And the reason that it wouldn't is because the 44 plus the one is 45. divide that by three, the student teacher ratio goes way way down. Um, right. So it would be 45 over three. Someone can do the
159math for me. And so our histo I'm sorry >> 15. And so the practice has been that uh you um I'm sorry >> that was >> Oh, I didn't I was I usually do math really really fast. >> But I understand this this is a lot right now. >> I I actually do math really fast. I'm surprised I didn't do that that fast. These guys are giving me a hard time. I'm usually like just doing this in the back of my mind. Um maybe because I don't want to get it wrong. >> Yeah. >> Um and so so the our practice has been uh we wait for two additional students to get to every class before you actually bring the next um allocation on. So you would get to 48 if it's two teachers before
160the third teacher would come and then it would be 48 divided by three which would get you closer to 16. So 16 um uh uh 16 um students per teach per classroom and you would have three classrooms. >> Okay. So can I pause and ask a question because also yes I'm very like overwhelmed right now so I want to make sure I'm getting >> which I like to do math in my head too. I'm the math teacher me and you're the math people but I want to make sure. All right. So currently right now in a classroom a K through four classroom um the maximum number of students in a classroom would be 24 1 to 24 that that would be the preference without that would be ideal without adding another like a TA. I
161mean there are modifications to that but generally speaking you would load up each class before the third allocation is released. Do we have any elementary classrooms that have more than 24 kids in them right now? >> Yes, absolutely. So, some sometimes at campuses if they go over that 24, the principal and consultation with the teachers, sometimes they don't want an additional allocation. Maybe it's later in the year, maybe there's a strong connection with the students. And if the classrooms go over 25, when that baseline is 22 and at two points in the semester or two points in the year, once in the fall and once in the spring, if that class size is over 25 on average, that teacher can elect or those teachers can elect to get over 25 stipens essentially is what it
162is. So instead of providing an additional FTE or additional teacher um with the teachers with consultation with the principal can opt to do that instead. So there are classes that will be over 24. >> Do we know like what is our biggest elementary class right now or K through fourth class? Like what what's like the largest number of students we have? >> I'm not sure as of today. I know that on our list the largest one was at 26. There were two at 26 the last time these numbers were ran. >> Okay. And so was that so I was going to use another example um >> just because one of the things that I I try to think about is when you add the next allocation to to not have the total student teacher ratio
163um variance drop so much um and and you have uh that's going to occur when you have fewer classrooms right u so we have some schools uh this would be like a doss I mean some big elementary schools where there are five teachers teachers per grade level or four teachers per grade level. So if you had five teachers per grade level, and these are some big schools, but we have some that get near a thousand. >> Uh you have 110 um at 22 to to one, you add two per grade level, you go to 120, you divide that by six, then you're now at 20 students per grade level. So you go from 24 down to 20. And that's just a function of how many how many classrooms were able to carry two additional before
164you triggered the the next allocation. And so that methodology um is done uh I would say we it should be applied consistently across AISD. I can't say for certain that it has been for for for a long long time. Um because you would want the this grade level to kind of build up uniformly. Uh but sometimes that doesn't happen. Um but we we are getting better at that. Um so so that's how we we do it and that's how staffing works. >> Okay. Um can I talk about so the proposed >> Yes. >> which so let me first start. So would K through 1 are there going to be would there be any changes >> to staffing? >> No ma'am. >> Okay. So 2nd through 4th going to 24. So walk me through. >> Yeah.
165So, it's the it'd be the same um methodology where you have 24 uh to 1 * 2 is 48 >> uh for two um classes per grade level. You add four students because you two more per grade level. I mean per classroom. So now you're at 52. You divide it by a three and it's roughly 17 a little over 17 students per um per classroom. And so that so we would use the same kind of loading across the and I don't have another word to describe it, but you're kind of building up the the grade level the grade by classroom. So there's not over like four in one classroom and one in the other. You really want to kind of build them up um kind of evenly. But when you add that third allocation, the
166uh student teacher ratio across the grade level just drops to 17.3 when it was previously 24. Uh and so the bigger that you get, the less that that swing occurs. So using the same example of five, you would go from 24 to one. Uh and then after you added the uh the six allocation, you go to 21.6 or 21 and then one class would have 22. Uh so so that's how how it works. >> Okay. So I'm trying to figure out class sizes. Okay. So if I have, you know, all my classes have 24 and then I have another student, >> 25. >> Yeah. >> Okay. And so all the classes now, so they all get one other student. They're all at 25. Now we get one other student. So there's a class of 26.
167So what happens now? >> Uh nothing nothing would happen at uh at that point. All the other classes would need to get that 26 student. So it would go 26 and then the the next one would get their next student. They would go to 26, the next one get a 26, 26. And once they all have 26, then the next um uh teacher allocation be released. Because if you didn't do that, then you would have the five plus the six and then added to the the total number of students divided by the new allocation would drop the student teacher ratio down to like eight, probably 18 or 19. Um, so the reason we do it this way is because from a methodology perspective, I I I really want to make sure we're consistent. Um, and
168and only move up an allocation when the the entire grade level has adjusted appropriately. We've seen examples where one teacher will have four or five extra and I think it's sometimes we've seen because of the stipend that or the um an incentive. I guess it's technically a siphon. Um in in reality, we really should have allocated that next teacher. Um but that's again a conversation that occurs with the principal occurs with staffing. Um it's not one that's done kind of unilaterally. It's it's it's really done in conversation with the team. >> So next year will teachers who have um so Keith, excuse me, will will teachers who have over 25 students get a stipen? under this proposal. >> No, >> we'll have to scale that up based on the ban. So, just like on the
169over 25 piece, we have to look at that stipen for that overclass size. Since our baseline is changing at the ban three and four campuses to that 1 to 24 and the next allocation won't trigger until the 26, we'll have to look at scaling that stipen up for those groups. So when would you get a like a large class state in? >> I mean what's it be at the same >> 20? So you could have like a second grade class of 29 students. >> Um is that how >> well so that wouldn't have that I don't think I guess if we opted to go that route after further analysis then technically that could happen. However, anytime that the ratio triggers an additional allocation, stalent strategy will always give that extra allocation. It is by the
170determination of the campus leadership and OTL and with their ED to determine if they want to do this do the stipen piece. It's not something that's widely done, but it is an option for a campus. Sometimes there's space concerns or sometimes there's just student home room concerns as well. considerations. >> And then like there's considerations with like we have all of our classes are inclusion classes because they should be and like just like how are students getting the services they need like with these larger ratios? >> Well, I mean I think that's where you know this is this is a challenge now depending on how the schedule is built out. I mean the rostering of each uh grade level needs to be thoughtful just like a master schedule in secondary. Um there have been times
171where we've seen an imbalance in the way uh the minutes are delivered and you realize that it's really a function of how the schedule is is built. Um so you I mean you wouldn't want to overload any class. I mean you really want to balance the needs so that you have enough time within the the class. it it just I mean that's that's how we it's managed >> as far as a control I don't know there's a control I mean it's really the campus >> but I think like this this like has been the control >> and and it's like and like it's pretty hard to do it right now with this at all of our elementary campuses. So like I know it it probably doesn't like even like seeing that last week I mean
172it's just it's very overwhelming. I'm like, "Okay, I already know we have classes with 24 kids, but then this doesn't mean there are classes. It means there are classes with with far more. Can you walk me through fifth grade? I'm like afraid to even go there, but um I need to hear about fifth grade." >> Yeah, I mean, fifth grade, um I guess it's a little bit different because of the the way the state and and the C not that there's a I mean, it's just different because by law there isn't necessarily a ceiling. Um, >> I mean there's no ceiling on any of this by law because we've opted, you know, we can >> and and we've, you know, visited charter schools where we see 50 kids in a class with a adult monitor
173and like an AI. >> Yeah, that's not what we're doing here. >> I know. I know. I know. But I would say this is like I mean I would say like this with the budget is like like what like this is like kind of like where the line is coming for like this is like what I've wanted to protect. This is what I don't want just to say I guess I just will speak for my like this is like every year when we've come to this like I've said no I've said no I'd rather look at anything else um than planning time than these ratios um >> you mean you'd rather look at planning time than these >> No like I'd rather look at anything like like this is like the quality of our kids'
174education and this is like our our teachers working conditions that make it almost I mean it's an almost impossible job >> and then like having it's like I don't know it's like being a stay like a mom of a newborn and people are like you can't take your shower anymore whatever you're like whatever it was that had you like holding on um because this isn't just like maybe some of the classes are bigger this is like there are fewer adults on the campus like this is losing like major positions at schools. And so even like so we have a sub if a if a teacher is gone and you split the class which has happened to every I mean it's it's happened to to my child at a school where like substitutes really like to
175come. We have um parents who who come up and sub and we h like we have really good subs. We have retired teachers that like went to the school who like the kids love. So this is pro I I would just assume like our school probably has like is easier to to staff. It has you're like oh I know I call Miss Jeff. I call you know I call Miss Daniels. You know you know who to call. Um but still the class gets split. So me thinking of a second grade class that already has 26 and then a class of 26 gets split into that and these are kids like learning to read. Um it's it's just such such a ripple effect. So I'm I'm going to ask about fifth grade. I'm sorry I'm going
176so like so how big could our fifth grade classes be under this ratio? >> Absolutely. I'll speak to that. So under fifth grade right now, so you a lot of times in fifth grade principles do opt to have larger class sizes anyway above the ratio. So it's very typical even currently to see class sizes above 25. They would they would rather do something else that allocation or they don't need that. And so at 27 so this past year the last snapshot we took out of the 251 fifth grade classrooms we had only 15 that were over 27. So to kind of put that into scale. So that would be I think a 27 1 to 27 ratio under the proposed again for the band three and four campuses that plus two is now that 29.
177So similar to the 1 to 24 where it went to 26 before triggering the triggering of an additional allocation would be where all sections in that fifth grade at that fifth grade level were at 29 and as soon as that last section hit the 29 then it would trigger that new allocation. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I think Trusty Willie Chu, I mean, you're you're getting at, I think, the the heart of what makes this so impossible. Um, there is no way to cover this budget deficit without impacting staff. It's just not possible because the the deficit is so large, our resources are so small. Um and and so you know we we struggle because we we are trying to find solutions that limit impact uh and and protect plenty time to the best of our
178abilities but there's no solution that does what I think every trustee here and myself wish that it could do which is not be not impact staff. I mean it's 87% of our budget are people and the vast majority are at our campuses. um you can get rid of whole divisions and it would not make up that difference in ratios. Um I mean that's just how it is. Um may I jump in on this? Um sorry I understand what what the superintendent is saying here about the reality of of the budget interplay with the staffing. Um what what strikes me is how measurably we can look at the impact as as we do this um and not just in the sense of acade academic achievement testing. So, we have previously received um a sped aggregate report
179and looking at this and pulling some of the numbers, this may be off. Um districtwide total for special education students, a little under 15,000. Is that is um looking at elementary specifically since that's that's what we're talking here. Um where is my number around 8,000 little under 8,000 um looking at the disagregated amongst the disabilities high probability of students with sensory processing as a as a symptom or symptomatic of their disability. So we have a little over,00 students with autism eligibility um likely to have sensory processing issues. We have a little under 700 with OI. OI has very frequently ADHD which also is going to have sensory processing disabilities. Um you know we can look at how many students are receiving OT. OT is the primary service provider for sensory processing disabilities and that's going
180to be you know heightened again for these elementary campuses. My concern is you know we could be looking at between a thousand to let's say 1,800 students that might have sensory processing related issues or needs that could be exacerbated as these classes get larger. even just two more students, but we're, you know, that's the allowable size and then the buffer that we're talking about from when we reorganize. And so balancing between the two, if if we're making these type of changes, how specifically are we looking at how many students are going to lose access to GenEd throughout the next year? I I'm not presuming to say that I'm guaranteeing students are going to lose access. I am saying that I think it's likely that at least some if not a significant number of these students
181will lose access to gened if it's too many kids in the room. I mean it's just what it is. And even in staffing allocations if you put a TA or an inclusion teacher, you know, that's not lower that's lowering the ratio, but it's not lowering the number of people in that room. And so I get fully what you're saying about the reality of staffing and how that affects budget and also that this type of change can affect the access for those students. And so, you know, I want to be cognizant of that. One, to see how much we can limit the ratio changes specifically because of those students that are going to be affected. And then two, whatever, if any, staffing changes that we're being very deliberate to look at people that are falling out
182of gened because of this. Um, because I I do anticipate that some students will fall out of gened if we increase the number too much. Particularly, that 27 number for fifth graders concerns me. um because of developmentally where those students are going to be, how that classroom is going to function. And if they're hitting, you know, 28, 29, 30 students in there, I don't see how a kid with sensory processing issues or or difficulties is is going to make it and, you know, be able to sustain in a classroom. Whereas, if I had them in a classroom of 22, I think it would be much more realistic for them to be able to access that classroom. Um, so I just want to point that because this is a a what I'm seeing is a significant
183number of students that potentially are going to be having their access reduced. Um, an increase in the amount of OT that we start looking at requests for related to those sensory issues. Um, so I I just want to yeah call that out. Thank you. Additional comments, questions. >> I I think let's just I I would like to like probably get get through the presentation and then for all of us to be able to talk and and give feedback. So, thank you for answering my questions. >> Okay. >> And thank you for Thank you, Trusty. >> And I will have some comments about the ratios, but I can wait. Yeah, I'm happy to say that. >> Yeah. No, I mean we that's what this is for. I mean, it's for a dialogue. So, um you know,
184I can continue on and then we can get to the end and you know, we'll bring up whoever needs to help me answer questions. I >> try to know as much as I can, but it's a very very big organization and >> um >> would it be more helpful for me to talk about it now with there? Okay, >> we can continue on. It's it's it's um I want to be mindful of time as well. So I want to get through it and then the things that maybe don't require a followup we can continue on with. Um so I I'll briefly touch on staffing ratios and and playing time in secondary. Uh we've seen this slide before. Uh just reinforcing um kind of the approach uh that was proposed moving towards a six and a
185half out of eight. Um our secondary principles are actively working on developing uh strategies to implement uh block scheduling if they uh believe is is best for their campus which can still be achieved at six and a half out of eight. Uh certainly recognize um the challenges around kind of differentiating on a campus uh based on the course that is being taught. Uh I'm very um mindful of it. I I don't know that there's a lot um that can be said that hasn't been said already. Uh but just want to reinforce that every single person, you know, is is valued in Austin ISTD and and they are there to serve our students. Oh, Miss um so just uh moving on to uh technology. Um uh the division as a whole is $14.6 million. um uh
186not not the biggest of divisions but we are making some material changes. Uh we are um changing and renegotiating our contracts with vendors. Uh just acknowledging that scope has changed over the years uh and that needs to be adjusted. Uh our master scheduling software um that we use that we brought in in 2024 was very helpful. Uh we've been able to learn and and build from it. We don't need it the same way we did before. We're still going to use it, but it's it's a rescaling um more than anything else. uh transition away to enterprise level supports. You heard me talk about this earlier on in the presentation. Uh this is a consistent theme that you're going to see from me. Um we we just have spent lots of dollars by division acquiring platforms
187that sometimes don't speak to one another. Um and then over time there's a partner that has a similar solution, but that similar solution may not fit exactly how we want it to fit. and then we end up spending a tremendous amount of resources getting the one that we have and making it tailored to meet us. An example of this would be Enroll Austin. Uh enroll Austin um is a platform that we've had we've spent dollars modifying. I think we can all agree that it's needs improvement even still. Uh so the reality is if we're going to reduce our costs um we need to think about you know taking that platform and integrating into another system that is larger and within AISD and then reducing that cost. So you're going to see us uh propose that
188um along the way. Um uh the other one that I I did want to make a point on our um reduction of uh device manager stipens. So this is one we're being very thoughtful around when we ask ourselves a question. You know, if we're going to align technology and our devices to support what's developmentally appropriate and also what is needed for academics, we need to acknowledge that we're going to have just less devices, right? They're not I mean as a as a total number now, it's not going to happen overnight, but the management of the stipens, the travel associated with supporting I mean the management of the technology, the travel associated with supporting technology is going to change. Uh and so we want to be really clear like it it is going to move. Um
189it is kind of hard to quantify on day one. Um but there will be a reduction. So we want to go ahead and call that out. We'll be able to quantify it, but it's not going to be as precise as you might um hope that it would be just because at the end of the day they they exist now. We do have technology because it's required for summitive assessments. So there's some level of support. Um but as you move forward, you're not going to see it in the same way that you have right after the pandemic, right? With onetoone. We're moving away from that. So uh so again this is one of those divisions where um and we do hear criticism around technology but at the end of the day this is a data there's
190so much data that we manage in Austin ISD the security uh the systems as a whole that we have to turn over special education uh so um there are reduction opportunities uh for sure um millions of dollars but it's not like it can be done away with um and and we are making uh those reductions strategically as we move away from one to one devices, office of the general counsel. Uh little smaller department. Um but some notes that I want to certainly share. Legal settlements. Uh it's a line item that we've had uh in the budget. Um what we're proposing to do is to um create a riskmanagement um fund for lack of a better word. Uh these things um happen from time to time. They're usually very uh small or manageable, but we do
191budget for them. Uh and they roll over year by year. So you can you never really know, but when you look at historicals, uh they tend to um be manageable. And so we would like to move that off the um general operating um accounts and move that into a fund, not unlike how we're doing with the uh um uh property um kind of insurance fund. Uh and so once that's built up, it will no longer be a reoccurring cost. Uh I will say that the reason it's it's actually carried in two different locations. is carried within teaching, learning, and leading within special education because we have uh kind of settlements there. We have settlements in the superintendent's office and also in legal. Uh this one is specifically to pay for legal expenses tied to a
192settlement if that makes any sense. Um so just be really clear and and transparent about what we're looking to do because it is it can be infrequent. Uh uh public information act requests um PAS uh we have a lot of them. uh they are managed out of our general counsel's office. Uh we're modifying uh um kind of our approach to technology. It's not a reduction in service just to be clear. We we are very um continue to be responsive and and and get them out. Uh there's been an uptick this year as you can imagine all the things that we're tackling. Uh but uh we we believe that there's a technology solution that is less costly than we're currently currently using. Uh so that's what that is there. Um and then uh some part-time hourly
193support. Um you'll see this within every division. There's hours allocated for additional support. Uh that's no different uh in legal when there are big upticks uh and work that's required. So smaller budget but wanted to be really clear about what we're looking to reduce and it is uh hundreds of thousands. Uh school leadership uh these are smaller um departments. These are the the leaders who directly supervise principles uh and then their support staff. You can see elementary, secondary, and school office and school improvement. Um, this one's really tough because, uh, these are really, really small budget items. Um, they just are. Most of these are are tied to staff. Uh, we are looking at, um, just kind of ensuring that we have the appropriate um, uh, supervisor to to um, uh, principal uh, ratio. Um,
194I certainly have heard comments around the number of levels between principles and the superintendent. I think given you know where we are and the work that we've done to move academic outcomes uh this is an area of exploration but um there's just not a lot of opportunity for reduction as we focus on priority 1A being academic outcomes uh but we are making reductions there's overtime there's uh different things that we do and have done out of practice uh that we're reducing um one thing that's really small but it adds up is every time you do a hiring and you bring community together uh we would offer kind of refreshments and food um because we do a principal profile, right? That's where this comes from. Uh so we're just going to have to back off and
195and go with a different solution and that's okay. Um and then also whenever do professional development for principles, bring everybody together. Principles have a very hard job like many of the staff in Austin ISD. So we try to give them refreshments as we can, but we're just at a point where we can continue to do uh that level. So there'll be something, but just it's it's been scaled back quite a bit. Uh so moving on to academics. This is a pretty big um uh um division here. Uh there are lots of things in it. So I'm going to be kind of time I'm going to take some time to work through them. Uh so um professional development substitutes. Uh so we're this this division um often has uh line items that are for substitutes to
196be allocated for campuses to support professional development. So this professional development occurring at central office um the divisions the departments within this org will say hey Matias as principal of the school you know we want two teachers to come to this professional development so the department will pay for those substitutes. Uh so that is generally how it works. Um in some cases the principal will want other staff to go and then they will use their local budget uh to to supplement and that's kind of how it builds up. So what we're saying here is um as we look at the uh kind of required professional development opportunities over the course of the year, there's an opportunity to rescale it. It's not going away. It's very important, but it's going to be rescaled. Um stipen realignment
197for AVID coordinators, uh health sciences, robotic teachers, department chairs to align with new district-wide uh minimums. Again, this is just part of the realignment with overall stipens. uh general supplies, transportation. Don't want to spend a whole bunch of time there, but we do pay for transportation uh for for different um events. Um one thing I do want to point out is that we are um looking to reduce uh and eliminate um uh the um district-wide celebrations. This one's kind of hard. Um but the heritage celebrations that we have uh over the course of the year, um they are it's it's an expense. um you know if we're looking at every expense uh we we carry those to the district level it it requires resources to do um we're going to move them to the campuses
198so um we have trustee awards that I know sometime sometimes um you know they're trustee awards and we uh very much appreciate celebrating uh our students and so we're talking about is taking what we have done at the district level and moving them to the uh high schools and having them be tied to that event. So um uh sorry. So uh so instead of having district district and then um campus, what we're saying is let's just do it all at one time at the campus level. Uh we've had the conversations around um you know celebrating the student in front of their peers and and how meaningful that might be versus having them come to central uh like to the pack or something like that. Um it's one of those things that's that's uh it's hard.
199Um, I I I love these events. We we have them. We've had them for years. Uh, but when we're talking about all cost, this is this is a cost. Um, uh, and little things um, build up, you know. Um, and and they seem small, but I I want to be really clear like small things add up. Uh so um we're what we're talking about is moving some of the expenses here like lanyards and stoalls to the um graduation budget because that is um offset um uh by parking and we've actually reduced that cost. A couple years ago we're spending a million dollars for graduation. Now we're like 250,000. Uh and so we've gotten a lot better uh as we took it in house. So so that's really what those expenses are. Um software licenses. Um
200this is transitioning CCMR tracking. Uh this is just back to what you heard me talk about before when it talks about enterprise level. This is one of those things that is kind of separate in aside. We are paying for it. It is hundreds of thousands of dollars. Uh but we have a platform that can do um the same thing. Uh it's going to look a little bit different. Um but with because we're paying uh for that platform already at enterprise level, uh it just makes sense to roll it all together. Um and I also want to recognize there going to be frustrations. I mean, anytime you have a change in a platform, it's going to be frustrating, but we can't afford the tailoring and we can't afford to have just two solutions that do the
201same thing. Um, it's just not something we can do. Um, uh, we have, um, uh, Abbott Summerbridge program staffing model. Um this is something Trusty Hunter I mean I want to be really honest. We are looking at scaling back um some of our partnerships that we have uh and none of them are we eliminating. We're not eliminating them totally. Uh but we are uh aligning them to the schools that have the highest need. And so when the details come out you'll see kind of a scale back kind of in that um using that strategy. And you'll see some of the details in the document that you have. Um but but really what we're trying to do there is just say, you know, we're we're spending, you know, sometimes $2 million, a million dollars, uh all
202for very uh important reasons, but if we have to scale back, how might we do it in what programs in what locations must be protected? And so um so that's that's incorporated. I sound somber because this is really hard. Sorry. Um uh the other thing I I wanted to make sure I touched on um was uh uh pre-K supplies. Um this is just a function of just cleaning up um how our orgs work. Uh there are lots of different buckets of dollars um spread out. So we're just going to bring them all together and through that process uh we'll see a reduction. And just to be really transparent trustees, whenever we look at an expense, Katrina and I always look at, okay, what's been spent this year? What was spent last year? And often times
203what you'll find is they were the budget had 5,000 but they only spent 2,000. They spent 2,000 last year and 2,000 last year. So we we in no way um you know kind of made these decisions uh thinking about like impact first like as far as like um kind of dismissing impact. We always felt like what have we been spending irrespective of us coming in and evaluating it and then going from there. Uh so in many cases what you're seeing is just tightening up of what we've already been um uh not spending if that makes any sense. Uh so moving on to uh special education. Uh you already heard us talk about the um the stipens associated with uh special education supplemental pay and materials for evaluation clinics uh due to being fully staffed. This
204is just you know part of our recovery plan. we had to have um our uh evaluation clinics built up. Um as we've recovered uh the need um and those costs aren't the same as they were. You think about it two years ago, three years ago when we were building up uh the expenses were just different than they are now as we've stabilized. Um supplemental pay for IEP writing at campuses due to increase in campus staffing uh and fewer vacancies. Again, we're just able to bring this in house. Uh before we had different line items to carry those uh those expenses. There's no need to do it uh as we move forward. doesn't mean that it's going away. We still want to have uh that flexibility if Dr. Cherry Lee needs it, but generally speaking, we're
205able to reduce the budget uh for them. Contracted services, reduction in amount needed for evaluations and transition services. Again, this is just a continuation of the work we've been doing over the last two and a half years as we reduce our reliance uh and bring those um resources and those and that support in house. Again, part of the strategic plan, part of what we talked about as the TA agreed order. This is just kind of showing the dollars uh adjust as we can become stable uh and move forward. And then uh we were relying on some outside resources for family engagement tied to the strategic plan. Uh we're just going to bring those in house. It's already been happening organically and it was part of the plan long term. Uh but uh just wanted to
206take the reduction on the cost side so that um everybody kind of knew that that was something that would be considered. Moving on to police. Um police department uh 160 uh FTEES. Um this is again before adjustments. Uh so this is you know prior to any reductions that we're considering here. Uh one of the things we are taking a reduction on uniforms. Uh historically u police departments pretty common in the state of Texas and around the country where if someone uh is part of the police department and comes on board we issue a number of uniforms. Uh so we're challenging that and just saying do we need the same number? Can we reduce that? And there is a significant savings there upwards of $50 $60,000. Um firearms uh it's something that historically we have um
207purchased uh um as um police officers join Austin ISD. Uh what we're doing is saying, "Hey, there's a here's a um a required um firearm specification." Uh and you may use like one of these in this uh specification list. It's it's common. It's done elsewhere in the state of Texas. Nothing like new to to to the state. Um it just allows us to to reduce that cost. And that's probably $30,000. Um this is a bigger one, transition to commission security officers. This is one I want to make sure I uh make uh speak to our trustees about. Um in compliance with HB3, um we have made a commitment that anybody who is uh carrying a firearm in Austin ISD is an Austin ISD employee and uh I am very much in agreement um with that
208uh approach. So nothing in here has us moving in a direction that is hiring anybody but an align employee um to to carry a firearm uh to ensure compliance with HB3. The reality of it all is that um the officer uh position uh in a school district is just different, right? We don't have students in our schools year round. uh elementary schools are just different than secondary schools uh in size and complexity and just the student being uh you know supported. And so one of the things that uh Chief Sne and I looked at and have incorporated into our plan again with collaboration with with finance is to move towards a commission security officer. This is someone who is an AIC employee, someone who goes through our training, uh, and someone who is licensed to
209carry, uh, and is a security officer versus a police officer. Uh, there's a designation. It's different. Um, so they can't issue citations in the way that a police officer would. Um, uh, so it is a different approach. Uh, it is very much still in compliance with HB3. There are other um urban school districts who uh use this uh approach. And what that allows us to do is to reduce our overall cost, which is the delta of new officers that would be hired to meet the obligation for elementary school um uniformed officers. Uh so um again as as I've said before uh we're committed to ensuring compliance with HP3 uh the hiring process the you getting cadetses uh you know through the program into Austin IC the training it is all very costly uh but very
210appropriate. Um, this strategy is one that reduces costs, allows us to kind of manage that imbalance that occurs whenever a police officer is employed year round but doesn't have the same uh work year round because students aren't in school. Uh, it's just it's an acknowledgement that it's just different. Um, so that's one. Uh, accreditation fees and conferences and then regulated regulate police vehicle use. Uh so vehicles um in in police departments are are used and taken home. Uh there is a a reason for it due to being on call. Uh we're going to add some controls to that to drive down the cost. Um typically if you live within 40 miles, uh you're you're allowed to take the vehicle home. Um as you can imagine with fuel fuel costs rising and all the things associated
211with it, uh we just can't continue on in the same way without some additional controls. So, we've talked and uh Chief SE and I and Katrina uh have some some controls in place and that'll drive that number down. So, the number itself is over $100,000, but we're going to be able to bring it down uh pretty significantly with that control. Um so, that one's, you know, that's a smaller department, but pretty significant change structurally uh with what we're talking about. Uh and then also it's not on here. Um but just looking at structurally um kind of the reporting structure within the police department. Uh moving on to operations. Um this is a bigger division. Uh this is where custodial lives. This is where uh groundskeepers uh plumbers, electricians, uh lots and lots and lots of
212folks um in this department. Transportation is here as well. Uh one of the reductions include um white fleet fuel cost. So, white fleet are the vehicles that are used by plumbers and electricians. You see them running around Austin ISD. Uh they're housed out of the service center and then have a hub down here at the southeast terminal. Uh so they're always secure, but they are allowed to take home be taken home whenever there's a on call. So if it's a winter weather event, if there's something like that, um we allow them to take them home. So uh we we changed our policy a little while ago, about two years ago. Sorry, not policy. We changed our our um our internal procedures. Um what we're going to do now is add some more controls just to
213make sure that we're following and seeing that reduction that we expected to see a couple years back and it has gone down. But um just again just reinforcing some things. Districtwide transportation. This is one that's going to I'm sure spur some conversation. Uh the as you recall um our magnet um schools last year moved from a district-wide um transportation model to a hub model. Uh one of the things that we are exploring is a transition to a partial fee model model. Um many school districts don't even have transportation for magnet schools. Uh um this is again you know this will be um Lassa uh and Richards Keeling and Lively. Uh we've we certainly recognize that um not all magnets are the same. Some are just schoolwide, some are within a a campus like Lively and
214Keeling. Um but we are wanting to explore a feebased model. Uh it would be differentiated based on whether the student is identified as economically disadvantaged. You know, we have uh the ability to do that. There are school districts around the state of Texas that do it already. Um Periland ISD Joy Joy Joy Joy Love Joy, sorry. I see um and there are many others uh and it's also common around the country. Um so what we're saying is is there an opportunity to look at a model uh that that does that. Um we've heard from our community meetings that this is a pretty sensitive subject here. Um but it is a cost. Uh it's one that has been talked about for quite some time and uh and you know I think is requires um some some
215evaluation. And so we are looking at it as a as a reduction. So I do expect it to go down. Um I don't know that it'll go away by any means, but it to get the model right and to do it quickly enough I it's going to require a little bit of more um evaluation. Uh point4 and one mile campuses. This was um this is not codified in a policy. Um some years ago about I think 2022 2021 I think 2022 um previous administration identified a set of schools uh to um provide transportation between point4 and one miles point4 is elementary one mile if it was a secondary campus and just for awareness purposes our transportation model is 2 miles and out. Uh so this is saying okay if you're within the two miles you
216know point4 to two you would get transportation for a set of schools and if you were one to two for another set of schools uh you would get transportation um it's it's at a cost um and uh when we look at the wrership um you know it's just not at a at a level that um can be sustained. So we are looking at a reduction there. It is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Uh the other is late activity buses for middle school and high schools. Um this is one of those ones where uh it we use this um it is something that is not used the same way across the district. Uh when you look at writership it is quite low in many cases. School buses are going home empty. Uh you know
217that's just the reality. We have the writership numbers. um they're in the documents if you want to link you know uh so we are looking at a reduction there as far as um that expense uh um ALC transportation this is one that um uh I wanted to bring up it's about $700,000 total for for ALC um transportation across the district um as you can imagine the location of the student um kind of changes over time and every every week there's like a new new set of routes. Uh ALC al ALC and um is unique in that it has transportation. Uh most other alternative learning centers in the state of Texas do not have it. Uh they rely on the family or public transportation to get the student there. Um so we are looking at a
218$500,000 reduction. Uh we would maintain it um for JJAP uh just because it's pointtooint. Um and given the new location of ALC uh right on uh CAT metro line uh and after working with um Jay the principal um this is one of those expenses that writership wise is very very low. Um in some cases it's two or three students and it's not like you can route them together because they're all over the city and so by the time you start the route and then get to the end if you were to fill the bus up you would actually be way behind the bus the the bell schedule. it just it's just not easy to fill up a a bus. Um so we are looking at a reduction elimination. Uh the others transportation, community based vocational
219instruction and go project transportation. Uh they're we're continuing on um with these but we are trying to uh um see reductions and um promote alternative um ways to to move students. One of the things that's not often leveraged, and this is true really in Austin in general, is we there's an over reliance on buses um where in many cases a van um or a different vehicle can be used. There's lots of reasons that's the case. You see it in athletics, you see it here as well. Um fine arts is that is another place. Um has a lot to do with the CDLB. um we've offered transportation um training, but at the end of the day, you know, we are asking staff to to to get a CDLB, which has a meaningful change in just kind
220of how they how they they live. It's just is a different expectation when you have that license. Um and so, uh those are reductions. We've worked with Dr. Cherry Lee, we worked with the departments. Um they're not going away. Uh but we do believe a rescale there is appropriate. Um the other ones I just want to talk touch on briefly are custodial substitute restructure. We have um substitutes uh well so overtime right now is being used at a pretty aggressive rate when it comes to custodial overtime. Uh what is happening is uh there are um vacancies and the custodians that are there will pick up the the time and because they're class they're classified uh they receive overtime and that overtime number grows quite large over the course of the year. And so what we're
221proposing here is to change the model and then hire um eight uh custodians centrally and have them be um kind of distributed uh um at the discretion of the executive director over um the service center. So right now that doesn't happen, right? Right now you have to rely on someone who's probably already worked 40 hours to go and and pick this time up. But if we centralize it, there there will be a savings over time. Maybe that immediately in year one. There'll be some like small savings, but we don't want to count on it. So, but there will be like technically you could probably get $100,000 savings, but I don't want to count on it yet until I can see the model and like be built out. Um, but we do believe that this will
222help reduce overtime cost, provide flexibility um as we operate. Um, so that is another reduction. So, there are millions of dollars um here. The details are in your package, but those are the big ones that I wanted to make sure I I shared. Um, so, uh, transportation, as we move to slide 37, I know I'm taking much time. >> Can I share one bright spot about transportation and operations is that districts all over the state are having to put in three point seat belts. Oh, >> yeah. >> In every bus for every student. >> It's a big financial issue for a lot of districts. I know trustees all over the state who are dealing with it right now. Um, thank you to our transportation department for starting this work a very long time ago and
223we have had threepoint harnesses in our bus. We have built it up over time. We've used bond funds. It's one of the many things we got ahead ahead of in the same way we did with our bond with our safety and security upgrades with the vestibules and the fencing. So, I just want to um appreciate the forethought. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. And we're just as a we're also um fully aced um by way of the 2022 bond program. Uh and so there are lots of school districts that are you know still trying to catch up on that front. So thank you to our community for allowing us to make that investment. Uh I'm going to go through the next slides a little bit quicker because I feel I just realized that I
224touched on some of this already. Um transportation districtwide. Uh just want to point out um some adjustments. Um I I do want to be really clear for Garcia and Bertha sat means it's going to be a different strategy. Uh right now there's just lots of like I don't want to say exceptions but there a lot of adjustments made um on transportation routes by school. An example would be like East Side High School has districtwide transportation. Uh that is atypical for a comprehensive high school. Uh it was done initially I think to promote enrollment um at East Side. when you look at writership and kind of the way that it's broken down, it's not um the transfers kind of it's at a point now where I don't know that that is actually is needed. Uh and
225it is atypical and so when you look at the you know kind of with the current expenses associated with it we do feel like that could be um an elimination. Uh Bertha Satle means and Gus Garcia uh this is one that we're um we're not quite settled on what the strategy may be. We certainly recognize these are unique schools. Um you they're magnet they're not magnet schools but they are choice schools. Uh we are working with the principles to find an alternative um kind of uh cost reduction strategy that doesn't totally eliminate transportation. Uh you know I I I've talked to principal Mahia and certainly Roby and the reality of it all is that transportation impact could really really harm the school um because their enrollment is so small. I mean the Roman is is
226is really really fragile at the moment and as they build up and get stronger. Uh we don't want to do something that that kind of keeps them from being able to to to get to that stable um state. So just want to be really transparent. We are looking at it. Um there's no final solution yet. Uh but we are um kind of exploring different models. Um I'm going to skip well I'll talk about magnet and choice campuses next. Uh I did touch on this already so I apologize. Um, but just to share in full transparency, the cost for 2425 was 3.9 million. Uh, that was when we were full districtwide. And then in 2526 when we went to hub, uh, it was 2.7 million. And so if we were to look at a different structure
227or if we were to look at a feebased structure, um, you you would likely see that um, come down u significantly. Uh, but just kind of give you perspective on the scale of the cost. um transportation point4 miles and one miles for secondary. Uh this is just listing out the schools that I referenced earlier. Um you can see here that uh the schools that were listed u for elementary and um for secondary and then um and again some of the backup has more information. Uh transportation you already hear me talk about late activity buses. This is just sharing with you the regulation uh that is tied to >> Can I make one just quick comment? Yes. About um the one mile for the secondary schools. We had a safety and security meeting this week and
228a group of people uh associated with Travis High School came um sharing some concerns about the navigation center moving right across I35 and they are already starting to feel impacts of students afraid to walk to school some things um just because there's an increased number of people with high needs in the neighborhood and uh had you there was a discussion of exploring uh some kind of special situation there. So, I just want to put that out there as we're talking about this. Um, that that was has been a conversation >> kind of came up. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, thanks for sharing that. I I I knew about the change in navigation center and the relocation. I hadn't um I wasn't able to catch up with the team after the safety and security meeting. So,
229thanks for sharing that. I'll follow up. Um, uh, late activity buses. This is again just referencing the policy and then the schools that that have them. Um, and then so before I I close out because I I do want to make sure I create time even though I've been long-winded here uh regarding additional consideration. So $182 million is a big number. Uh we've certainly made um some in rows. We've we've been able to do a lot of work, but we're not quite there yet. So, we are continuing to look at non-teer staffing ratios, organizational structure, uh, something that, um, I've I've committed to doing, we'll continue to do every year as we refine and and and kind of get right sized. Uh, additional monetization opportunities. That's something that came up in the last board meeting.
230Just want to be really clear that, you know, we'll be sharing updates with our trustees. Um, benefits, uh, is a very, very, um, large expense for Austin ISD. Um there have been expenses in the past that kind of came as a surprise uh you know just as you make these commitments with partners. Uh so I do believe that's an area that we have to explore just given how big that number is. Uh so um Katrina um and talent strategy and Stephen and others are are working through that. Um and then you know there there may be come a time where we just say okay we're not going to do any travel. We're not going to do any um you know food or there are some things that we can do. Uh but I we're really
231trying to be sensitive to just the needs of a workforce that is doing such hard work. Um and recognizing that is a profession. uh people need to be um supported and um there are just some things that maybe sometimes feel like they're unnecessary but are that small thing that really makes someone feel valued um and appreciated when they come together. Um so sometimes like a $200 food um line item in a small department may not feel like a lot um and just get rid of it. Uh but sometimes that $200 is you know used to buy coffee in the morning for you know a group of people coming together to to to do professional development around any number of things. So just I want you to know we're going through that level of detail. Um
232so I think we're kind of near the end here. Um I'll talk briefly about timeline. Um there's lots of work sessions and we'll have you know more time to talk about this but we are having to move forward and build out a final budget. I won't speak to uh the policy um uh requirements um as we move forward, but I can tell you that Katrina and I and the team here are really really focused on limiting the disruption and as we move over the next couple days, we'll have a clearer understanding of what that's going to look like campus by campus because right now our principles are doing that work. Uh and so when we have that um we'll be able to share with our trustees. So, do you want to kind of round up
233the slides or is that it? Sorry. >> Okay. Uh, so again, just referencing the staffing reductions. This is a presentation a slide we've shared before um uh regarding um just if any contract is is broken um due to program change or due to uh a financial constraint um we want to make sure that we follow policy procedure. uh there are obviously impacts of this uh whether it's um creditworthiness or some other risk or challenge that we may encounter. So we want to be really transparent which is why we're doing everything on our end to make sure we manage it appropriately and and you know avoid it uh at all possible. Uh and so just as a reminder kind of what the the requirements are. Um and then I think we can probably go to the
234yeah the data survey findings. You want to speak to this? I've been talking like a whole bunch. I'm sorry. >> No, you're fine. You're doing good. Yes. So, um this is a survey that was done by the team, our 2627 budget data survey. We've gone over this a little bit, but you can see to the left is um that we've had over 6,900 um survey responses from our community as well as our staff. Um caregivers was one of the largest responses, which we're very proud that our parents took the time and caregivers took the time to respond. Some top priorities identified were protect the class size and classroom staffing, preserve planning minutes for teachers, maintain nurses, counselors, librarians, and TAs. And then some common themes that we saw was reduce central office and administrative costs
235before campuses, review contracts, duplicate programs, and software subscriptions, and increase transparency on spending, staffing, and outcomes. So these are all things that we're working on together as a leadership team. And this final slide is our budget comment card. So our survey ended and so then now we've opened up a comment card. Um from May 5th through May 14th we've had 650 plus responses. Um some of those are um some of the feedback themes are staffing and compensation concerns. There's fear regarding stipen reductions, staffing changes, increased workloads, and impacts to retention and morale. Align central office reductions, continued requests for visible reductions in central office pay, um implementation, um clarity and transparency. So, what you can see is the themes are still consistent. Um planning time and workload impacts. There are concerns regarding increased class sizes.
236Again, this is the same theme that we we received from the survey. Um, protection of core academic program, um, support for preserving baseline academic services, equity, fairness, and local flexibility, um, and transportation and magnet programming. Our superintendent spoke um about this a second ago, but strong support for magnet transportation with continued requests for cost transparency and exploration of participation based models. So, um that is the end of our um presentation and we know there's lots of questions so we're ready. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um who wants to start? Trusty Foster. I I just wanted to go back to the um uh policing uh and and it's simultaneously a huge area of expense um as per you know Texas law. Um, and for some of us, one of our points of pride is that we
237have a specially trained police force. So, TCO, uh, the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement requires, I think, 736 hours or something like that of training. That's a minimum to be, you know, a certified police officer. Um, and so I would assume, and I haven't asked what our training hours are, but they have to have at least that floor. Um, with uh APD, for instance, um, with reforms over the years, APD is sitting at about 1300 or,400 hours, maybe even well north of that, but I know it's at least 1,400 hours the last I looked. And that is an attempt to alter and positively reform policing. And the, you know, the reality for us is that we want officers who are child development focused, who have specialized training around mental health. There's there's a lot of
238specialization that goes in. Um, and I bet just as a, you know, a matter of cost and everything else, we're probably not hitting 1,400 hours. We're probably hitting something south of that. Um, I guess I really need to understand and and this can be an additional follow-up conversation, but if we transition to something else that is allowed under HB3, um, that just immediately raises a lot of flags for me. And I know the law allows several different approaches. And maybe this is yet another area where we need to be really creative, but let's say you said, "Okay, well, we're gonna hire um offduty folks from Flugerville, Round Rock, APD, and bring them in um and and somehow that affects savings." Well, they don't have the training that our officers do. And if we say, "Well,
239we're going to get folks that aren't police officers and bring them in and reign them." How? like it's just this is a this is a really um really important area. Um we're talking about ar we're talking about armaments on our campuses being carried by somebody. Um, so I don't know how to make the point fine enough, but this is something that I would have to look at really, really closely and I imagine the solution is there. Um, but I'd have to hear about it. So, could you just talk a little bit re are there nent plans already? Do you kind of have it worked out or where are we on that? >> Yeah, I mean, we've worked out um we've worked it out. I mean, I I think um what I would say is inviting
240other officers from other departments is not going to save you money. It's not going to save us money, period. Um and secondly, they they are not going to be Austin ISC employees, nor would we be able to control their training. Um what we're trying to acknowledge through this process is that the police officer position um typically warrants a certain number of calendar days. And the reality of it all is that a police officer has um you know typically there's um you know there's the vehicle, there's the uniform, there's the expectations around citations, there's there's a lot that goes with it. When you talk about um supporting our elementary schools, the question becomes, yes, you want that person to be employed by a by by Austin ISD. that person should absolutely be trained by our police
241department and be an employee of the police department and be licensed to carry a a a firearm in our in the state of Texas. Uh but do we need the um does it have to be a full officer? >> Okay, so limited scope of duties, >> correct? >> Limited hours on the job. >> Correct. lower pay. >> Uh well because because lower number of days I mean so think about it's it's >> lower pay because of lower number of days but not the rate. >> Both both are true but I want to be clear like if you took >> both are contributing it's not just one or the other. >> All right. So I'm being value neutral as I just name these. >> Yeah. Um, so lower training, uh, lower number of, uh, hours in
242service, probably lower rate. Um, so I can see the savings all over the place, and that's awesome. Um, and so I assume that the protocol for training an AISD police officer will be kind of adapted, modified to account for the fact that there's a limited a more limited scope of duties for this otherly named law enforcement person. >> Yeah, that's right. Um how are we going to like manage the buildout of the training to assure because if it if training is if you got a knowledge piece, you got a skills piece, you got a disposition piece, you got a temperament piece. Knowledge, skills, disposition, temperament. Those last two are one of the things we have to really heavily screen for to make sure that we have the right person carrying a weapon. So, it's it's
243when we say lower rate and when we say less days, which means you're going to have to find a summer gig, you're you're you're shrinking the pool um of folks who could who would be interested in doing the work, you know. So, it's it's just raising. So yeah, keep going. >> Yeah. Oh, I just I mean when you say fewer days, I mean teachers I mean like the calendar every almost every employee has a different calendar number of days. Mine is different than others. Different it's it is very different across the entire organization. Uh so I don't want the number of days to to be viewed in a way that is somehow less than. I mean every position is just different. Um uh I think one of the things that Chief Sneed has been very
244intentional about is building out the timeline to ensure that uh if we go down this route that this path that it's it's successful. So it's not a implementation August 1, 2026. Uh you know we've worked with Katrina to kind of lay this out to where it gets built up within our system. we put we we get the training and the and the leadership in place to build out the quote unquote department uh in a way that is very thoughtful. So this is not going to have you know 20 people like in this category starting in August or September or October. it is really kind of reconfiguring the department to allow this um resource uh and to have it be implemented in a way that's compliant with HB3 but not in the same way that um
245we would have previously. Uh so the details around it um I can certainly have um chiefne send to you. I would hesitate to maybe send them broadly to everybody um because of what's included in training in in our buildout, but certainly I can have him send it to you all or um or to the full or you know an exec session. Can I give an update on how to do how we would do it? I yeah I would be um it's a it's a super super important area obviously in a super kind of fraud area and so for me anyway I don't know the you know the um all of us are trying to go through as much stuff as possible so I don't know if other folks have an appetite for the information but
246I would be very specifically and pointedly interested in um the kind of plan and the build out and the timeline and um modified training, what that looks like. And you know, with Chief's Sneeed and and with the folks that are here, I have full faith in them. And so that's like a real blessing to this conversation is that I have full faith in that crew to to do the work and you all to do the work. But uh I'd like to see it. >> Yeah. And I think I mean, Trusty Foster, you charged me to be creative. I can't continue on with the status quo. It's not financially possible. >> Yes, sir. Yeah. >> And so I just we're looking at things that allow us to be compliant, respond to the differences in elementary, middle,
247and high, make sure they're retained as Austin IC employees so they understand our values. We build out a training plan and onboard them in a timely way. Um, but I I do not and I please hear me, I'm not advocating for anybody to come in and somehow be in our schools that isn't an OIC employee or, you know, is not trained in a way that we would think is uh appropriate to serve our students. And yeah, and even naming that as we go will be really helpful. Um, so thank you for that. Thanks. >> Thank you. Additional comments, questions. >> Sure. I'll try to be brief because I know that we're very much over time. Um, you know, I've met a lot of children, students that have um dysfunctional relationships with school. I've never uh
248met children that have dysfunctional relationships with learning. And when I think about students that are enrolled at ALC for whatever reason, I just I have a hard time imagining if I'm a student from Akens that I've got to cross three highways in a river to get to Sims. That's very far away. And if I already have a tenuous relationship with school, then I don't want to harm that. You know what I mean? And and I at the same time, I hear what you're saying about it being in the spreadsheet, it's it's listed as 500,000, but you said 700,000. I don't know which one it is, but it's still a significant amount of money. And so I I hear that, but I also just want to think about Yeah. who is being impacted the most because
249when I see a transportation cut like that versus one to magnet programming those are two different populations of students that are going to be impacted really differently you know based on that change um so that's that's the one thing I was also uh happy to hear about the um the fee adjustments for the magnet buses I wanted to ask if that extends to late buses also because that came up um trust and I were at a meeting with the and Richard's staff this week. Um, and you know, it's one thing to provide magnet programming, right? But if we aren't removing the barriers to access it, then it's essentially just like a publicly funded private school experience. So, how are you ensuring that the students that are there still can get there and can access all
250the things that happen there after the end of the school day? Um, so I don't know if you could talk about that if that extends to that too. >> I I think it could. Um, I don't I can't tell you that I have worked through the the um proforma of how I can make that work. Um, because a lot of it's going to be based on the fee that you actually propose. Is it a siding fee scale? Is it a yes or no? I mean there are different models that are out there. Um you know and then it builds up. You know one of the things we've seen is some school districts have if you have two students then it's a lower per student cost. If you have three students lower um after school I
251think the challenge is that after school it's not going to come anywhere near to even offsetting the cost. Um because the so few students ride and it varies over the course of a year. Uh in some cases when there's a footballs going on and you know there's there may be eight or nine kids maybe 12 15 kids uh in other times like even in the spring semester when we pull the data there's two or three kids and sometimes zero kids. Um and so yes we we absolutely are going to be looking at that structure. Uh the other thing that's come up trustee um Gonzalez and and I dare say this but could you apply a feebased model to all middle school and high schools? um you know what I've only shared is magnet but could
252you apply it to like every high school um especially if you differentiate between um either free and reduce your lunch or students are different economics advantaged and then you can think about well how we do our lunch program I mean you could use a very similar model because we're doing it now we're just using it for a different part of the system um I haven't proposed that uh but the question becomes because that's how other districts did it they did as the district, not just magnet. Um, one of the things that I was really struggling with is, okay, what's the entry point? You know, is it something that we can kind of lean into and start and then grow um at the magnet and then at a point in the future evaluate and expand. Um,
253I'll tell you that when $182 million is the gap, anything is on the table until it's not. Um, but I didn't list that on here because I don't think it's baked up enough to to really bring forward, but I'd love to hear y'all's thoughts on that. Um, but yes, it could be applied to to after to late buses. Um, that's the long-winded way to say yes, it can be. >> Okay, cool. I don't also you don't have to answer everything that I'm raising here. I just want to raise it for the sake of raising it. We don't expect you to have it, you know, every time. Uh, but I appreciate it. So, thank you. Uh, the the other thing that I wanted to raise up to Trusty Boswell's point about um Travis High School because
254that also came up with the the campus meeting that we had there. the it's hard for me to um think about the impact of these things in the abstract and so I'm curious what the staffing reductions look like campus specific you know um because I can say I'm okay with this theoretically but then if I see how it affects a district 6 campus that I've heard from specifically about their concerns and it's really bad then now it's I I can't go along with it as as not you know um so when it comes to security I don't know what the adjustment is for campus based security guards at Travis High School if there is one if there isn't one um if there may be um I just think about the move that that campus is
255going through and for next year they're still going to be on the one that they're at and it's a very unsecure campus that's really old there's lots of different ways to get onto it >> um so I would just hate to see something like that lost while they're still at a vulnerable place um but Again, you don't have to add. >> Well, I think that one's I probably got to answer just because it's security related. Um yeah, so one of the things that and I Chris did text me um just to to just to make sure it's clear because I was surprised when you said this, President Boswell. Um I just want to make sure I I I respond clearly u when we talk about transportation because I mean we bring a list of of
256um corridors and intersections that are hazardous to you all to approve and then that ends up becoming part of the route. Uh, and so Chris Hubiday, our executive director of transportation, just shared with me that, you know, students, Travis or not, have transportation across I35. Um, and so I just don't want to leave the meeting. I I unless you heard something different, I will confirm, but he's he's very very like knowledgeable. Um, so I needed to maybe dig in a little bit deeper about the specific comments. Maybe there's something else there I can address. when it comes to security uh at our campuses, that's something that we um kind of just looked at in the fact in the base that how many allocations we have. Um that's not one that we're looking at adjusting. Uh
257so um you know I I at this point there's not I do not foresee us making an adjustment that is security related when it comes to you know but we have looked at all costs just if that makes >> Thank you. Yeah, I I appreciate that. I felt like I remembered seeing it somewhere earlier in this process being discussed but I didn't know if that made it into what's in front of us tonight but somewhere that I can't see. >> Yeah. And then when it comes to per campus allocation or per campus uh I do have that based on allocations uh and certainly can um provide that uh under separate cover to the trustees um just because it is staffing related. um you know it but what it essentially does is is expands on that
258table that says elementary high um non-certified vacancies and then impacts to to to student ratios or to um allocations controls uh that that we we can certainly provide. >> Thank you. Last thing, um, I say this lovingly, the the spreadsheet that we have that has, you know, a little bit more detail into it. There's a lot in there that if I were in this position last year, I would have done that, you know, and so I'm surprised to see it at this point this year that it's that it's happening. Um, and so kind of to Trusty Whitley Chu's point and some of the things that Trusty Hunter earlier said, it's, you know, it's just hard not to imagine this job being fundamentally like undoable by some of the things that are being proposed. And so
259I would just ask that somebody go back and look a little bit harder and see if there isn't something else that could be done to avoid some of the more costic elements of of what we have in front of us. Um but that's it. I'll stop there. Thank you. >> Yeah, I mean I don't it's hard to even know how to respond to that. Um, I would say, you know, if we were talking about five and 10 million, you know, I I I could certainly make an argument to this or this. I think because of how big we are and how big this is and just the lack of funding, just where we are as a state, it's it's difficult to not um to find things that are just not found. I mean, we've spent
260this is like what I do every day. This is what we've done every day for a while now. on and and this level of detail, you know, existed previously, but um the no, we've never ch you have to challenge it from the expense side and you have to be u not from the the budget items the budget level side and that is a very difficult thing to do. I don't know that anybody has ever really attempted to do that before. It is it is hard. Uh and you said a little bit more detail. I mean this thing is dense. Um, and so I think uh we're looking um you know, but I also want to be really clear like this number doesn't quite get us home. There's a lot more that has to get done.
261And so on other consideration benefits, I mean there there are some big items that we're still going to have to tackle. Um so I just don't you know we we're looking I I don't want to disrupt if I can help it and I honestly don't want to be here like having to do this. >> Thank you. Yeah. I think no one wants to be having to do this and people all over Texas are having to do this and yeah I know it's it's shared um by our community by yeah a lot of people so trust >> so I have like a real yeah I so appreciate how difficult this is and I appreciate the way that Andrew um that trusty Gonzalez was able to sort of convey it in such a nice way. So I
262think the problem part one of the many challenges here is like at the time that we are cutting trans proposing cutting transportation some of these things like that's going to impact our attendance numbers and and I know you've thought about all this kind of stuff. So as you go back and think about where else could we possibly cut you know, ha has there been any talk about doing an acrosstheboard reduction for staff that are not working on campuses or staff that are making above a certain amount or something like that. I mean every this is no shade to anybody who works here because I know you all are putting your heart and soul into this but when I think about like the accountability piece of all of this like if we have kids who are
263not able to go to school because we're not providing a bus that's going to impact and these are going to be the kids who are most struggling in math and reading and everything that we're accountable for. I mean is is there have you have you considered salary cuts in other areas? Yeah. Well, one of the things I put on here was reorg reorgan reductions. There are I mean I didn't share the number of um allocations that are being pulled out of the budget because that's not the I mean that's not I don't think it's appropriate thing to show at this moment. Um but there are um lots of positions I would say I I wouldn't I'm not going to say people because I think it's all people that that gets shared and reset and that's
264not always accurate. We think of terms of budget. Um we think of allocations. We think of the impact of those reductions and how that is people. But um at the end of the day, it's always a balance of the two, right? It's it's positions that haven't been filled and positions that are filled. Uh and those two being reduced over the whole ultimately drives our budget down. So yes, 100%. Um you know, we're giving up, we're looking at reductions, we're taking position cuts. Um, are you asking if I talked about like a reduc reduction of salaries? Oh, so just like reducing everybody's salary at within central office, >> not everybody's, but you know, just going through like I don't I I just don't know and I hate even saying this because I respect deeply everybody that's
265working here in HQ, but you know, >> we were able to talk about it. So, you know, for our teachers and so I feel like it seems incomplete to not even like broach the subject and so I'm just bringing it up to to hear the response not because it's something I want to do but as we go back I think you know futes have been like go back again go back again and this is kind of to me the elephant in the room like we haven't really talked about this particular thing. >> Yeah. So um so I I am I am open to all ideas. I think what is hard is whenever we somehow I don't want to say devalue but we don't recognize the impact of people in this building um in the same
266way that because because we could do that we can get rid of the whole building and you still would not get close to covering the budget. Um and I think that's what is hard to share with people. Um, we are looking at reductions. There's no doubt. Um, if you want to say, well, should I reduce everybody's compensation by 10% at central office? Um, only in this building because you wouldn't want to do transportation, you wouldn't want to do the service center, you wouldn't want to do custodial. I mean, they're all coded to central office. I think that number ends up being uh a relatively small number um given what we're trying to accomplish. Uh, and to me, does that is that just a reason to avoid the real work of trying to cover a $182
267million deficit when at the end of the day, the only way to cover it is to just, you know, acknowledge that staff have it's just a reduction in staff. They're cuts. Um, I mean, I that that's a really hard one for me to answer. I mean, I I we stipens were evaluated, those are compensation, those have been reduced. Travel stip cell phone stipens, those are all gone. It's just um I think that's a that's it's going to be difficult to do all the things that you want to do because it goes both ways I think is what I would say. Um but yeah I mean I'm looking at reorg structures and reductions in staff. >> Yeah. >> Um can can I just to parrot on that is I think something to consider is the kind
268of social emotional effect. You know, if if it was something where it was like everybody above this salary is getting a 10% reduction, everybody from this next pay grade 8% 5% like graduated down because I think the thing that is missing in the social emotional part is that everybody's in this together. And when I get the the minutia of this and you're saying that it's not enough money, I I what I'm saying is that in this presentation, there's not enough of the human element for the staff to get it because the the weight of what is being emotionally asked of the staff, and I'm not saying that it's not being asked of the people in this building, but I am saying that the classes that are going up in size and that, you 27 people
269in an elementary classroom and stuff that is its own reality too and there's more of those people. So that burden just the psych psychological effect of that is large and the value of those people feeling like everybody is in this together because as much as I exactly what you're saying if you cut this whole building it doesn't fill the void but if we lose a certain number of that staff it it doesn't matter. I >> so I don't I I can certainly consider that. I just the assumption is that the work for people here hasn't gotten it hasn't changed over time I think is not accurate. Um you think about I mean because that's because because it is getting harder for our staff at our campuses. There's no doubt. Um but it's it is not
270easier here. Um because I just want to like be really careful when I say that because it has gotten very very hard everywhere. um this reduction this the these what we're talking about is is certainly very very hard and and there's no doubt that it impacts our classrooms. Um, I just have to think of way to to do that because if I were to propose something like that, my question would be why not just address like there's there are these things that are big that are out there that we have like like stipens to me is one, you know, like we there's millions tens of millions of dollars in total stipens and we sat here and had a conversation around how an adjustment downward for one, you know, group was was perhaps not appropriate, but
271but there's like literally you know, 25 $30 million in total stipens. I would rather, you know, look at the things that are not people or the things that are not um tied to base salary. Yes, they are part of compensation, but base salary, I think, is something slightly different. Um um but I can certainly, you know, look at that. It's just I I just don't want to make it sound like it's not like it it is horrible everywhere, you know, and and people in this building, their jobs have not gotten easier. That that's kind of exactly my point though is a lot of campuses that I've gone to lately I ask did you notice on this campus the reductions at central office from last year. I ask that a lot when I go around and
272to hear the different answers on people and most people say yes. They did notice the difference at central office and then the next thing is they say well you you should have cut other positions or you should have done something different at central office. And so there is a disconnect. they are feeling it, but they don't they don't uh I'm not trying to speak for everybody, but I don't think the community is feeling the same impact. And part of it is because we're doing such good work on being very specific, but not everybody understands that it's across the board. Like I mean there there's a missing piece there on everybody feeling some sort of unity around this. And so that's that's where I'm going trying to connect to Trusty Singh's comment is that there is
273an element of this that is about the morale of the people and and doing something in in some effect that is going to have everybody feeling that they're in it together. >> Yeah. Yeah, I mean if if let's say that I mean for hypothetical let's say you you took a percent reduction across the whole maybe you scaled it in a way and covered up the difference you know I think I I view that as a very like logical pragmatic way to to attack a whole the whole deficit. The problem is this is a living organism that is Austin ISD. Um it just is. And then people and then it comes down to well what is this dollar amount versus this dollar amount and and I I worry about that um because every job is different.
274There's no doubt the hardest job is the one in the classroom. Uh but at the end of the day, you know, everybody's role in the organization serves a purpose. And um and you need you need everybody not maybe the way that we did before, but everybody needs to be on the same page to get the work done. Um, I mean, I I I don't I think I can we can look at that. I'm not saying I'm I'm against it, but I I want to be clear like the people in this building, people on our principles, our staff, everybody, it it is not easier anywhere. Um, and in in fact, a lot of people here, you know, are doing work that they could do elsewhere for a lot more money and less stress, and they choose
275to do it here. Um, so I I just I just want to be really careful when I explore these sorts of things. Um, not to say we shouldn't, but I got to be >> Thank you. Who's next? Trusty. Um, can we pull up slide number 26, please? Um, so, so when I'm looking at I'm going to go like elementary, middle, high school. If I'm looking at the elementary estimated cost savings that it's are these the estimated cost savings for the 2026 2027 budget >> for correct based on ratio changes >> based on ratio changes and planning time codes. Oh well well so uh not uh planning time codes for secondary for >> so I'm looking at ele so elementary >> there's no the planning time is preserved in elementary for >> so this is based
276on ratios >> correct >> because there's like a year one and a year two >> this is just 2627 >> all right um so middle that would be based on what's that based on >> uh it would be on the the schedule. I think we we actually call that with six of what do we the middle school that the middle school principles are >> we talking about the middle school um >> yeah eight out of 10 sorry >> five by five that's what I was looking for but yeah it's not it's it's um uh yeah so it's it's uh Do you want to speak to it you probably speak I can Yes. So, there are 10 middle schools that we've identified that will um implement the 5x5 or the 8 out of 10 model for
277next school year. We met in level meeting yesterday. We had breakout sessions and we mapped out what that plan would look like with principles so that we could collaborate on some general commitments and then allow them flexibility to plan for interventions and other things that may be school specific. So speak to planning time. Can you speak to planning time in specific at the middle schools >> for the 5x5 or so the planning time for schools? >> Additional plan time. Yeah. >> Yes. Um for core teachers the planning time will be 6 out of eight and for non-core teachers the planning time will be seven out of eight. So there are some teachers that will receive an additional planning period at campuses. For a middle school, if you are on the 5x5 or the eight out
278of 10 schedule, then you will have two planning periods. So, you'll have that those teachers will have that additional planning period um every day. All right. So, what is my finder? So what are the estimated reductions? Because I guess the methodology because like I I understand why these are more precise because these because the administration is trying to make decisions or needs to make decisions about how we're staffing for next year. Um and then this is like okay the question like it's not It's a draft. It's we're still figuring it out. Um but because these ratios and this planning time, so I'm not even going like year one and year two because that's also I think kind of a discussion we need to have right now too. Like one this board cannot decide the budget
279for the 2728 school year. >> I'm not asking you to >> right. So, but this like year one, year two is causing like a lot of chaos in our campuses, like complete chaos for our staff, for our campuses. Um, and so like I think even you we don't know what our budget could be and we need to to staff our schools like appropriately. >> Yeah. Um so Trusty Willy Chu um the only reason that we broke it up into different fiscal years is because we were going to diff we we we differentiated based on um the school's historic needs and then we differentiated based on so that was band one band two. uh we differentiated based on whether you the school needed support because they were executing a turnaround plan. And then one of the
280things we heard from principles loud and clear was um you know and we heard from our community was protect planning time and and that's what we did to the best of our abilities for 2627 school year. What we also heard and what um and what we wanted to be really honest about is that uh you know there are there were conversations around this concern that if we because we right now we're proposing real estate as a reduction offset. So at some point in the future that reduction in real estate is going to have to be offset by um fixed costs being reduced. Right? That's just what it is. And what we heard from principles was and what we heard is that could you spread this out over a longer period of time um to kind
281of lessen the impact and uh so we came up with this strategy. So two years doesn't we're not supposing that you commit to anything in the future years. Uh and then we also heard from some principles around, you know, if we're going to do seven of eight in a future year, just let's just do it all now because hiring someone and then going through a process and then like that's just not a good thing to do. Uh so that was really for kind of future planning and indicating it's it's nothing we're asking the board to commit to, but I want to be very transparent that in the event that we have to go down this path further, um that is likely a place that we would have to go. Well, I guess let me just
282kind of like be very clear right now to you. So, this like year one, year two, like this is we need to scrap that. We need to to focus um on what our ratios and planning times are are going to be for having a standard in our schools for having a standard of quality. And so, that's not where I want to start with budget cuts. So I need to know like where are we here with like like what is this number? >> Yeah. So um well we're north of 100 million with everything um the 65% you know we're collapsing one of the things I will say is we collapsed all vacancies um within our system. Uh we've gone through the process and identified which ones we really needed to retain. Um but we're we're north
283of a hundred million. It's about I don't know like 110 112 uh currently. >> Um you know there's still uh and the reason it's it's ambiguous because like it like this like the transportation conversation right that could be a $2 million savings or it could be nothing. Uh and these items add up quite quickly. Uh so so that's why um I apologize for the lack of clarity on some of the details. I do apologize. There's just a lot that >> you're answering my questions and and I appreciate it. Okay. But that's that's really helpful to me just to know okay with this it's about 112 million. Um because looking at these to me to me this is like last resort death march cuts. And so even with seeing this, I think I would we can
284my not just my preference but like our community's preference is to go deeper is to find 20 more million from this before touching this because if we're talking about doing seven of eight for secondary and talking about afterchool buses, we're not going to have any need for after school buses if you do seven of cuz you have already worked your teachers to death and they're going to have to be planning. They're going to have to be doing all their other jobs to do their job after school because our our high school teachers, like if if you've worked in a high school, like their planning period isn't like some quiet room in their class time in their classroom. It's students coming in for tutoring, coming in for help, coming in with their lunches, working on their
285projects. Like they're counseling students all the time. It's them going yeah to meet with the counselor if a kid is having a crisis or to you know to to connect with services because even if we have these external groups in the school like because you know I worked I worked at a very high need campus where there were like all kinds of organizations that were contractors and paid the still students still came to me I'm their teacher and they care about me and I'm the one who found out like oh you didn't read your book because at night you have to turn off the light because well you know after you know, your stepdad is in jail now and he's kicked her mom out because she's the one who called the police when he beat
286her up and now you're he I'm like, "Oh, you're homeless." Like, the kid doesn't know they're homeless. They're like, "I I live in a home. Like, I live on someone's couch. I'm not homeless." So, you know, I'm doing that and answering all those emails like the the workday like isn't going to end for those folks. So all the stuff they're doing after school, they're not going to be able to do like they're doing a lot of unpaid labor like as it is. Like when you and I go to went to Bernett Middle School and had that that meeting late with like those amazing educators who were who were there. They were already there. There was so how many kids were out on campus? They don't want to leave Bernett. They love it. Um so this
287is like it for our teachers. like our teachers in Austin ISD are the are the best. They're the they're the best around. Um they are doing more. I don't want to I don't want to say all teachers in Texas aren't working hard, but like are aren't working hard as our teachers, but the teachers in Austin ISD like put forth really like an effort like no other for serving our kids. Um and they just want their jobs to be possible. Like they're not asking for like cushy things. they're asking to like do their job well. Um, so this to me just isn't isn't it? Like even though yeah like I'm I I share the concerns about these other cuts but there's been nothing that I would say I would trade having like a reasonable class size
288a reasonable class size and having just the you know the basic planning and I don't even want to call it planning like it's like going to the bathroom sometimes um or I mean just like these if you yeah if you go to Macall if you go to any high school if you go to TRA like those classes are full during a teacher planning time. Like you can't really even tell that that's what it is. So, um yeah, I'd like to hear like other trustes thoughts because I mean we we have to give them the administration guidance on on where to go. >> You're probably good. >> I mean, I will run down and just share my comments um quickly. um a handful of things. Um and thank you for mentioning the buses of Trappus and
289the highway being a hazardous condition. I think that um is we can that can be communicated. Thank you for that. Um so a handful of things. Um I want to be sure we're not missing we're not making changes that are going to cost us. I saw in the big list of of lines, you know, line by line. Um, moving PEK and changing it, but I think PEK as it exists brings more per student funding, CCMR funding. And I just want to be sure, um, you know, all of you know the formulas and know, but I just want to be sure we're not cutting things that are going to harm us in other ways, right? I think transportation and and uh attendance is, you know, just really understanding and really measuring as we're making these changes,
290having a really clear understanding of what one cut might cost us, uh I think is important. Um I I do have real concerns about the loss of planning time for middle school and high school and the impact that it's going to have on our students. I mean, I think we're hearing educators, you know, people have invited us to campuses. We're doing two-way community engagement. I think um what I hear from our educators is that's going to be hard for me, but it's going to be hard for me because of the impact it's going to have on my students. And we're hearing that over and over and over and with real specificity that I'm not going to be planning. I can't plan lessons that are as engaging. I can't go as deep into content. Um I
291won't be able to assign thoughtful papers and grade them in thoughtful ways that actually help my students become good writers. um you know lots and lots of just real specificity and and I think we have avoided we have remained a six of eight district um for so long because it is something we believe in deeply and I I know you've brought it to us not as an easy proposal and I know it is again and again and again kind of the biggest single rock right I mean I I understand that's why it comes back and I'm I'm struggling um just with what I'm hearing from campuses and struggling with kind of who we are if we do that. We can't pay our teachers more right now. Um and and this proposal for so many of
292our educators is going to make them work harder for the same amount of money. I mean, it's um and it's going to take time from them. I I have concerns about when things like arts are going to get done. Um, you know, I did ask to see if, you know, holding on for one more year if we wanted to think about monetizing something else so we didn't have this hit in the same way. Um, and it remains just something I'd like to either at least understand so we can weigh it um together. Uh, and I know we have to, you know, not finding cuts is not an option. I mean, I absolutely I'm not naive about this. Um, but I'm also not naive about the impact it will have, right, on the quality of what
293we offer. And at a time when we're doing so much good work, we're doing so much good work um to have more of our students reading to, you know, really address longstanding challenges at our schools and and I don't want to do anything that takes us backwards. And I I worry and I know that the plan works to protect the highest need campuses, but we also have a history of, you know, limiting resources and seeing a campus slide backwards of seeing a campus fall into that category. And I really don't want to put us in a position where we're we're taking kind of things that generate quality away and seeing some of our campuses fall fall backwards rather than grow forwards at a time when we're trying really hard to do that. So I'm I
294am struggling um with the staffing changes quite a bit and I know we all are but it's yeah it's I'm I'm struggling a great deal. Um, you know, and I I think even with partnerships scaling back, our biggest need, are we creating new needs? Like where are we? And I know that's that's our struggle, right? Um, I have a with the planning time, I'm struggling to understand how things like arts get done. um when our teachers were going to do that when they're also planning, you know, are we going to need to pay for more subs to come in while our teach so our teachers can leave the classroom to do that at our secondary schools? Um you know, are there things we can strategically abandon to help if if this is where we ultimately
295land? What can we strategically abandon? And how are we asking the people closest to our students? um what could help balance this burden a little bit for them to give them time back? um what can we take away right and from from their workload um and hearing it from them and I'm not sure there's been a systematic safe way to do that um you know we used to have late starts we used to do other things um I'm also hearing from the community sharing concerns they're hearing on a campus um we think orchestra is going to be limited we think choir is going to be limited. I'm hearing from individual campuses, I think, preliminary talk about which teachers might be going, right? Um, you know, I heard today that there was a teacher who has
296already gotten a letter of some sort saying that they won't be there next year. Um, and I don't know that that's related to cuts or that's a new staffing allocation, but unrelated to the cuts, but um, you know, I think we we need to make sure our community understands like will whole programs be gone at certain schools? What's that going to look like? Um, so I mean, I I feel like I need more information and more time and more certainty that this is our only option before we go there. Um, I still haven't seen um, you know, I've seen the talk about devices, but I still haven't seen, you know, edtech exploded during the pandemic and what are we getting value from and what are we not and I I don't see anything in the
297list yet that's kind of losing any of our I see other software, but I don't see the software that's keeping kids on devices um, in the list. And I'm curious if that's part of the conversation or not. Maybe I've missed it. Maybe it's not something I'm seeing. Um, yeah. But I I appreciate the work. I appreciate the precision of a lot of it, the granularity of a lot of it. I know it's it's all you're doing all the time when you have a lot of other things to do. Um, and I'll have some more um some more questions I can share in writing. Um, yeah, but but hearing what I'm hearing from campus the campus level and from families, like I just I'm having trouble figuring out how we even move forward in a way
298that's true to who we are. So, thank you. I was just going to say like this is so like this is such a hard time and I feel the emotion, but I think like you know we need to to get a sense of if this budget's going to pass. like you're gonna have to, you know, like I think a lot of us have serious I mean I don't know. I know I have serious reservations about some of these things. Um we're running out of time. The vote is scheduled for when? >> 18th. >> The 18th. We have to pass one by the 30th. And so I guess my advice would just be like talk to each of us and you know like figure out what needs to happen to like we've got to pass a
299budget >> like there's no doubt and I don't but but you know it's it's got to be one that um for me I I I feel like there's too the the I'll be honest like just from everything that I saw today the thing that is sort of bothering me the most is oddly the transportation because like at the base of it like we've got to get kids to school and I do I maybe I don't understand fully but like I don't really see how like this is a cut that maybe won't pay for I mean I think it's going to create a new set of problems so I just I just don't I need to know more like how are we going to work that out? I mean, that's going to that's going to decrease
300our average daily attendance most likely. And it's often going to be the kids who are already struggling with attendance. Um, and cutting the transportation to charter schools, >> magnet schools. >> I mean, I'm sorry to m Yeah, sorry. It turns them into charter school. Like, that's what I was thinking. That's why I said that. But it basically turns them into like bastions for the privileged. And so like I don't know superintendent like okay so for let's talk about the the magnet transportation for a second. If you were to do some sort of sliding scale does that mean everybody would still be able to have a bus? >> Well so right now it's a hub model. So we would just continue with the hub model and then >> do a sliding. I mean we just we
301would be just modifying the um structure and how we implement the existing model. They're not >> last year we changed from districtwide to hub. Yeah. >> Right. And that was very that was a painful conversation as well. >> Um >> and that's cool. Like I'm cool with that. I mean we've already made that cut but at least kids were not having to >> drive all the way across town you know >> and the hubs. We continue with the hubs and just if there would be a fee >> um you know for transportation uh if if you did not qualify for free transportation just just like food just like lunch in many ways. Um, >> you know, I'm trying to figure out I mean, a sliding scale becomes challenging. Uh, just >> that's fine, but like
302I just want to make sure we're not in a situation where kids who can't afford a way to get to school will now no longer be able to go to one of our magnet programs. Period. Like there would be no option. >> I if again this hasn't been this feedback is important because if I it's important because there's lots of ways that you could do this. Um the way that I was you can eliminate all of magnet transportation. There's a reduction there. You can keep the existing model and look at a um kind of a fee and no fee right based on the students uh identified status regarding being eligible or you can do a sliding scale. So based on um the determination and we do get that information by way of the free and
303reduced lunch uh data that we collect but not every student fills it out. Um there's things that we do at um for food where if enough students qualify within a census track and a group of schools, that entire school gets free lunch, right? So there's lots of things that we can do. Um >> I I want to signal that something's got to change. We spend $7 per mile and we get a dollar. >> I mean, that's just I don't I don't have a way to say it. >> I just feel like it's so late because like this would mean that a lot of families wouldn't be able to send their kid to that these schools if they didn't have any transportation. and it's pretty late in the year for families to find figure out an
304a plan B, you know. So, if you have a child who is planning to go to Ann Richards, but they are totally reliant on a bus even with a hub model and they're like, "Okay, we can manage that, but we cannot manage driving a kid to the school to drop them off. That means that that child effectively won't be able to go to that school." And it seems that's essentially like we should it's too late in the year I think to make that particular change. I don't know speaking for myself but >> I I'm I'm too late to make it for next year. >> Yeah. Like think about it. If you if you were going to be going to a magnet school and >> and if I was low income >> and you were reliant
305on a bus >> and if I was low income, I was able to get the waiver. >> Yeah, if you get the waiver, that's cool, but it wasn't clear to me because we've been getting emails that sound like it was it was going to be >> I haven't shared this. I mean, this the details the feedback here helps define the details. So then I'm just saying >> I have not proposed anything. I left it open the way >> I'm going to I'm going to express a little bit of frustration um out of love of people. I mean um so what I heard was we might go a certain way >> and there's ways to do it and there's ways to do it that would insulate the pain because I'm going to say from an equity
306standpoint like I want to see the pain insulated. So, I'm hearing I didn't hear like a full proposal, but I heard we could slide and scale it. We could, you know, figure out a way. So, that's the kind of thing I want to hear kind of thing. And and I feel like I'm hearing it and I and we're not there. But the hard reality that I think we have to face is that I I just hate to put my mouth to these words. We are going to reduce the quality of service next year. It is going to happen. It is impossible for it not to happen. So if our line in the sand for budget approval is it can't impact the quality of service, we ain't gonna pass a budget. And if the line in
307the sand is that our beloved teachers and staff don't get hurt, we're not going to pass a budget. This is going to hurt. And so I I I uh and I I don't I'm I don't think that we are fully appreciating that everybody's in pain, including the administrators who are doing this work. And I I we and I I know the hearts of all of us on this board, every one of us from the from working with all of us for these years. And I know that that everything comes from love and care. And I sit here with my blood pressure at 155 over 110. And I should not be here right now with my blood pressure spiking like this. But I'm going to stick it out because I just got to stick it out.
308And I remember some of our upper administrators that I would look at and I would say that dude needs to go home. He going to have a stroke. And I don't think we fully get that all of us are in pain and that every word should be from love and every word should be from a full appreciation of everybody's doing their best. And I deeply respect the work of all the people in the room. All of the people in the room. But let me just state it positively. Thank you for what you're doing. Keep doing it. Um take what Trusty Singh, what Trusty Whitley Chu, what what every trustee who's here and not here is saying, understand it's out of love and concern. Um and and to the extent that any of us including myself
309come in a way that that the love doesn't lead as trust would say understand that it's the love um because I kind of look out and with my weak eyes I can still see the pain in your eyes off of some I'm just going to be transparent off of some of what we say on the dis and I know, I know I know we say it out of love and concern for our communities, but I don't think we're always aware of how it hits. And so, I just kind of want to name that. And I've been sitting on that for a long, long time. And I might have made somebody upset and I don't mean to and we can talk more about it. Um, but I just need to express an acknowledgement of what you
310all are doing and how hard it is and and I that I see you. Thank you. Thank you. Um, Trusty Hunter is on Zoom. Uh, I would suggest that we hear from Trusty Hunter and then wrap. How do we feel about that? >> Great. You want to get up and go? >> I think I think that is fine as long as the administration has what they need from us from this meeting because I mean I know all of us are are tired. We are sad. Um and we and probably sometimes mad even though everyone involved in this process like this is not no one wants to be here. No, like no one wants to be in this position making these cuts and no one in this room and no one on our campuses and none
311of our families are the reason that this is happening like that's causing this pain. But the reality is we are the ones who have to decide and and like our families and schools and teachers are are and staff are suffering and are are going to suffer. Um, so I just want to make sure that this that the administration has what they need to have um to to make to make decisions, to make adjustments. >> I mean, I think anytime we have a conversation with our trustees, it helps move us move our work forward. There's no doubt. Um, I think there are some things that there's definitely not consensus on and you know I I I have to pass the budget. There's no doubt. Um, y'all have given me clear expectations. 15% fund balance. Got to
312make sure we um do what's required to preserve this organization we all love. Uh, and do it in a way that produces the least amount of harm. Um, everything we've done this far is is thoughtful, but there's a lot of work to be done. I mean, that's just the honest truth and it's just it's really a function of scale and the we can choose not to be as thoughtful or detailed. Um, but it it's it's required because I I agree with Trusty Willie Chu that should not be on the table unless we've gone through all of this and we've gone through it and we continue to go through it. We'll go through it again and again and again. Um, I just don't want our board to think that there are things out there that somehow
313I've missed as far as 10, 20. I mean, it just doesn't exist in the way that I think that sometimes I wish that we did. Um, but no, it's been helpful. I think there's still more work to be done as I knew there would be. Um, and we'll continue to do it. >> And I think we know there's no magic hidden cut that we just haven't stumbled upon. We've been cutting for years and we've been cutting things that hurt for years and I think we know that and and you know I know us and I think we are committed to getting to a budget that lets us go forward and committed to making the best horrible decision you know the best painful decision we can. So um Trusty Hunter I know you're online with us
314and that you have something >> yeah no I will be super quick. Um I think that when um our CFO uh Katrina was going Montgomery was going over what the community has said, I feel like they were pretty clear on what they were asking for. It sounds to me and and and maybe the people who are there uh that that that's in this work every day can go deeper into it, but it sounds like to me that parents are saying or that families and communities are saying that they are willing to have less and I'm speaking about programming if it means protecting six out of eight. If it means protecting librarians, that's what I hear from them. If you're something different, then we'll have to find out like what who has the misunderstanding. But that's
315what I'm hearing. Again, I I can't walk away from this and I want to speak to what Kevin is saying. We tell our teachers all the time to build relationships and I have a relationship with everybody in that room. And I think when we do that, then there's there's there's an understanding of where we're coming from. Um, and when I say this, I don't have to pre preface it with anything. We are operating higher than we possibly the service that we're giving is wonderful. It's beautiful. It's too high. It's too much. We have magnets that operate as comprehensive high schools. Magnets were never intended to operate as comprehensive high schools. We have to look at that. We have um programs where um maybe we have an academy and then we have three or four more
316programs. We have to look at that and we cannot put that off because that I understand there's contracts and things attached. Yes, let's let's look at that out. But we have to look at the programming. And until we look at the programming, I don't think we're going to get the community to to see what we're trying to see. They're asking for the same thing that I'm asking for and I'm asking for it because they're asking for it. So, we really need to look at this programming. We really need and I know that you said you're looking at a little bit of that and determining like what needs to be where, but we really have to. On the transportation thing, I drive my child to school every day. I do that because if I don't, she
317might not go. So for families, when we talk about transportation, there's a lot more. I think uh Trustee Singh and Trustee Gonzalez have said pretty much everything about that. But sometimes the fact that it's just another barrier and it's an easy barrier to for us to overcome if we can find it somewhere else. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay. Are we in a place where we feel like we can have enough clarity? >> I want to give like a little more. >> Can we look at Can we look at my slide? >> Ratios. >> Yeah. >> Go back. Um because again the the year one and and year two I think is is causing chaos and so I think we need to decide um so when we're talking about secondary like the the issue there
318is our is our master schedule um and and is planning. I would I'm very interested in seeing um what the cost reductions of 8 out of 10, five out of seven, something that preserves more than the minimum planning time um early release days, late starts for for both for elementary, you know, and secondary. And and not saying that these are the idea that like whatever the ideas were that were brought forward when I I wasn't I wasn't here when you know we had the three-day rotation. I know that like our our teachers are just really really smart. Our staff is really smart. They brought forth lots of ideas. Um there are different ways to do to preserve like I just really want to see more creative solutions like ex having longer recess that doesn't I
319you know if you've read um wayside school Lewis what's it he's like one of Arthy's favorite Louis Zacker there he was the yard teacher because they didn't have people with master's degrees monitoring recess they had the yard teacher um like having longer lunches, extra like I want to see like those are the kind of creative solutions because this is this is just going to break us I think like what's proposed here year one year two and um bigger elementary classes uh I I was really grateful to hear more of the details around the transportation because we yeah we have so we have some folks who like now they can't go to the magnet schools if they don't have transportation. And we have some folks uh like I have people who have told me, well, I
320will go to a school that costs $45,000 if I don't get free transportation, which I you know, those schools don't c have free transportation either. Um private schools. So, you know, if if that's if that's the choice, um you know, I'm I'm interested in in models that are like like fair to our families and our kids. So, thank you. Okay, we good. Okay. Thank you all. Um and I know you have to get up tomorrow and do some more of it. Um and I really I appreciate it. We're we will we will be with you somehow someway. Um I know there's no easy way through this and there's no magic way through this. Um so thank you all. Thank you to all of my colleagues and thank you to our community who's weighing in and
321and working with us and um and I know it all comes from a place of real care for and real love for our schools. um and and when that's why we're all here. So, thank you. Um uh we will recess the open meeting. We have an executive session on the agenda. Do you think we can Is there anything we must do? Attorneys, trustees, superintendent. >> Um I sent y'all an update in the board notification. Just read the real estate portion of it. >> Okay. Okay. Do you want to do a quick like 10 minute? >> Um, yeah. >> Would that be helpful to you? >> Kenneth says no. >> No. Kenneth says no. Okay, good. Okay. Um, Senator, do I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? >> So moved. >> Journed at 10:22 p.m.
322Thank you all.