Austin ISD Board of Trustees Work Session: March 24, 2026

001Good evening. 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 Tuesday, March 24th, 2026 at 6:04 p.m. A quorum of the board is physically present at Austin ISD Central Office to conduct this meeting. This meeting is being broadcast on cable channel 22 through Spectrum and Sound Broadband and on channel 999 through AT&T U-verse. Closed captioning in English is available on these platforms for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. Welcome and thank you for joining us. We have provided an opportunity for limited public comment this evening. This is an opportunity for the board to take part in listening to our community. While we wish we could respond or provide feedback, the Texas

002Open Meetings Act does not authorize a board to discuss or act on comments or complaints from the public if the subject is not on the meeting agenda. Members of the public wishing to participate in the public comment portion of our meeting called a dedicated AISD phone line in advance of the meeting to audio record their remarks. And tonight we have one person who left a recorded message. We will now play that message for public comment. So please listen carefully. This is Sharon Vein, the parent of two AISD graduates. I'm very much looking forward to hearing more about next steps on the academic baseline and framework. I cannot overstate how important I think this is for the future of the district. When parents know what they can expect for their children and see that it is

003being delivered at every school, all else flows from there. To that end, I encourage our public conversations to be rooted in straightforward, easy-to-understand language instead of acronyms and pedagogical terms. Your audience for this is the community, both the ones who have chosen AISD and the ones who haven't yet. Help us believe again in the promise of all our AISD schools. Thank you. Thank you to our caller. This concludes our public testimony and you are free to share any other comments or questions on items with our board by email at [email protected]. And we will now begin our work session. Superintendent Segura will kick us off. Yes, thank you, President Boswell, and um trustees. Uh, I think we have some uh technical difficulties with broadcasting. Just on AISD TV, but we have it on Facebook and YouTube.

004Okay. We have it on Facebook and YouTube. Okay, so it's not streaming on TV, but it is on Facebook and YouTube. Okay, and we'll if there's a change, then we'll inform the community in the uh if we get that back online. Not sure what the issue is there. Uh so thank you, trustees. Um today uh we're going to have a work session. Very much appreciate uh the ability to have a collaborative um conversation and a dialogue as we cover um different areas uh within our work. Uh and so I will have um with me uh Ms. Katrina Montgomery, our CFO, uh who will um cover and lead the budget portion of the conversation. We also have Dr. Mary Ann Maxwell, Assistant Superintendent of Academics, that will lead us through uh the majority of the conversation

005uh when it um when we're discussing academic vision and and framework. And I will kick us off. And so uh one of the things that um we have 3 hours of time allocated. Uh the we'll have a little bit in the beginning for uh work that's kind of overall, then budget, and then we'll tackle um academic vision and framework, which will have the majority of the work effort and time here. >> [snorts] >> So one of the things that I think is very, very important is that we communicate it to our trustees and to our community and to all of our staff all the work that's occurring within Austin ISD. Um when we talk about district priorities and initiatives and projects, uh they all um consume resources. They all require thoughtful strategies, and they all

006require uh shared understanding to ensure that they're successful. And one of the things that we're attempting to do as we communicate with you all here are just the various efforts that are occurring in parallel within Austin ISD. Uh and many of those have been communicated to me uh by way of the superintendent review or the work that we've done around the scorecard. And many of those are also ongoing efforts that have been going on for some time, but it's important to remember that they have not gone away. Like the work is still there, and if we don't acknowledge that it's it's a significant lift within the system, then we can very easily kind of overwhelm and reduce our ability to be effective in implementation. So it's really, really important that we are always honest about

007what we're taking on and how much of an effort each one of these um um kind of um initiatives uh or priorities are. And so uh what we're going to do today, as I said before, is break down the conversation. Uh we'll first talk about district priorities as we understand them. We'll talk about budget, and then we'll spend the majority of the time discussing academic vision and framework, which will be led by Dr. Mary Ann Maxwell. Uh we'll have 120 minutes allocated for that, uh and certainly happy to make adjustments along the way if needed. So the purpose of our priorities, as I kind of just alluded to, was I think it's really important that we communicate the allocation of resources, right? Everything in that we do in Austin ISD consumes resources. I think of

008resources as teachers' time, principals' time. Uh funding is certainly a resource. You know, all the um you know, materials, all the things that we have uh and that we have to rely on to to move the work. Um there's there's a they're not infinite, right? They're finite. So we have to always be thinking about that balance if we're going to progress the work. Uh recognition of system strain. You know, one of the things that I think is really important that I do as a leader of the organization is to really understand when it's too much or when we're pushing and moving the work in a way that is not going to ultimately move us in the right direction, but perhaps introduce implementation risk. And if we're not implementing with fidelity, I think the community and

009our staff lose trust in our ability to do the work. So it's really, really important that we're always talking about that and having that conversation. >> [snorts] >> Fiscal and calendar year alignment. You know, I I I think it's often um uh not well known that there is a ebb and flow to the school year. You all know it as trustees. You know, we always approve the budget in June. You know, we start the school year off in August and September. We have uh you know, we know when enrollment starts. There's always kind of a cadence to the school year. But uh and that drives many of our efforts, but there are also these other things that are multiple-year efforts. And when you begin to look at where we are at various times in a

010school year, what you realize is that sometimes in the summer, when it feels like things should be slowing down, in fact the system as a whole is is operating at a very, very high level and consuming a tremendous amount of resources. And [snorts] I think if we're not talking about it, then we can think that something should be added um when in fact uh it shouldn't. And so it's really important that we talk about where that alignment occurs. I know you are getting ahead in this in the in the in the binder, and I I I that's great, but um uh we'll get to that those details in in a moment. And the last thing I want to say is transparency and community uh and and really the work around engagement. You know, when we

011talk about initiatives, we're talking about 18-to-24-month time horizons, right? So they're going to eclipse multiple fiscal years, multiple calendar years, and it's important that our trustees and community know when the milestones are going to come back to the board by way of a perhaps as a contract, perhaps as a policy change, perhaps it's a amendment to a budget item. Like these things should be known well in advance, so they make their way into uh our budget or into our calendar. Uh and so if I surprise you with something and say, "Hey, you know, trustees, this needs to happen now to support this initiative," I've not done my job, right? You should know well in advance that this aspect of the work is going to come before you at this time, and here's the reason why.

012And and so that's the the purpose of the work that we're we're going to be sharing with you today. When we work through uh the current um kind of identified district priorities, uh I I attempted to create a graphic to show what is currently kind of on um what we're currently taking on, right? Uh certainly, as I've heard from the board, uh accountability. Uh we've we had this communicated by way of a constraint. It's also been communicated to me uh as part of my um kind of evaluation process. You know, in order to protect who we are, in order to ensure that our students are are growing um academically, you know, we need to to drive down the number of DNF campuses. And that shows itself by the TAP work. It shows by the investments

013we've made in our schools. So that is a huge, huge lift in the system. We've talked about that, but it's important that we always refer back to it as a district priority because it requires all of our attention, shared understanding, and a commitment to allocation of resources. Enrollment. Enrollment is something that uh I've talked about um for quite some time. I think given the uh number of things we've been taking on over the last 2 and 1/2 years, it really hasn't been given the full attention. Uh but as we kind of stabilize the system, as we think about enrollment and the unique opportunity we have moving forward, you're going to see a large focus of the administration to ensure that we are very thoughtful, we're strategic, we are doing things that maybe we haven't done

014in the in the past and recognizing that perhaps spending dollars here will ultimately put us in a better position because we will be able to attract families who perhaps have left Austin ISD or attract families who were never in Austin ISD. And I think most importantly, retain those families who are already in Austin ID Austin ISD. And so that is a big initiative. It's something that requires alignment between all of our divisions. And so you'll see that continue to be communicated in this way as a as a district priority. Uh, academic vision and framework. Dr. Maxwell spent the majority of the time here today talking about that work. It's something that we've committed to do. They'll ultimately be lots of things in the system that have to be refined, updated, or modified due to the

015work that we do together. It's a long time coming, I would say, when you think about the last time we went through a strategic plan and vision, the last time our policies were updated. And so we're looking forward to the conversation. We're looking forward to the work. But it is going to be you know, something that we all have to understand and be committed to in order to get this done. I what I don't want to do is to start a process and not finish it or not have it have the impact that we expect that it will or that we want that we would like it for it to have. >> [snorts] >> The last thing on the top line here is special education. Uh, we have obviously achieved a significant milestone just a

016few weeks back when we were released from the TEA agreed order. What I want to remind everybody and is that the work still continues. Uh, we have as a system I think done something that many didn't think we'd be able to accomplish, but now it's very, very important that we maintain that work, but also build from it. You know, I I view the first two and a half, three years of that work as you know, getting the systems in place, you know, moving and ensuring compliance. But ultimately at the day, if we're going to uh, embrace the inclusive the inclusive model and and own it the way that we should, we have to build from the foundation that we've put in place with the system improvements. And so that's work. It's a lot of work

017and I I'm fearful that if we forget that that work is still going on, then we'll add something to to our overall workload and that could be compromised, which I'm not we're not going to do. Uh, on the bottom, we have budget and I'll tell you why this these are organized in this way. Budget is something that is it's cyclical in in nature. It comes about kind of in a in a fairly defined time frame. It is work that ultimately is approved by the board, but there is a lot of work in it. There are hard decisions that we have to make. It is something that you'll see us come back to the board with ideas, with considerations. And so it is something that will continue to be a priority of ours until we are

018a stable system and we have gotten to a balanced budget and have built back up our fund balance to a 20% threshold. So so that is going to continue to be a priority for us as a district. A lot of work, a lot of conversations that occur around that. At any time a decision is made, the implementation of the decision consumes a lot of effort as well, right? And so I think it's really, really important that we continue to have that in there. Uh, when you think about the work we've been doing as we support our families through transitions by way of consolidations, these are very, very thoughtful plans that have been built up when we are bringing school communities together and it's really, really important that we execute in those plans and we do

019the work well to ensure that our families and students are successful starting the August and you know, starting the 26, 27 school year. And so you think about the staff movement, you think about you know, ensuring that our families have the options that we'd committed to them, making sure that we are providing adjustments where we need to and then you know, operationalize that in the summer so that everybody ends up where they need to be with plenty of time to welcome our students and be like ready to go. It is a huge, huge lift. Uh, and so I I don't know that we're often talking about it that way, but it is a significant lift and we have to get it right. Uh, because we just have to. Bond work, 2022 bond program. A couple

020years ago we passed the largest bond in the history of Austin ISD. In that bond, there are dozens of large, you know, 50 to 100 million dollar projects and over the work over the last two and a half years, we've seen the design complete, you've seen construction begin and they're going to start to deliver. And so when you think about this summer and the following summers, you're going to see the largest movement of staff, students and and really facility movement within Austin ISD history in our 145 years. So it's really, really important that we do that well. It's a commitment to our voters to hit these timelines. And so when you kind of juxtapose, you know, the timeline associated with transition plans with the bond work, you realize that the summer, this summer is the

021single biggest move that we've had in the history of Austin ISD bar none. And the logistics around that are something that have to be attended to or else we will not be successful in March. And then I think it's always important and and I want to kind of acknowledge that strategic communication is something that is an area of of kind of improvement as a district. There's so much going on, but we don't necessarily do as good a job as we could when it comes to telling our story, aligning all the work, communicating the why and connecting all the dots. And so it is not necessarily an initiative, but it is a system improvement that we're committed to doing. That's why you see it there in a dash line. So you're not going to see like

022the type of project plan that you would see with the other initiatives, but you will see a considered effort to to improve that area of the system. And so just so before I leave this slide, I just want to communicate there are things that are going to come to the board for updates and we're going to get feedback and there are other things that we are going to be providing monitoring updates. And so they're just going to be different because of where they are in the plan, right? Like the initiatives, the administrative work, you know, we're owning that. We'll provide updates, but the the type of input is just not required because it is more managerial and administrative than it is governance. So that is kind of why we've organized it in this way. It

023doesn't mean that there's not going to ever be input or updates. It just means that generally speaking you would expect them to kind of be coordinated with the board in that way. So when you think about what this looks like, okay, well every one of these tasks, every one of these initiatives and projects and priorities has hundreds of lines of tasks across and it's important that everybody within the leadership team, all of our principals understand the focus of these tasks, what they mean to the system. But you have to be very thoughtful as you build these out because if you're not thinking through all the different elements, then you may not realize that the different system the different systems that are actually required to ensure success. You know, budget and talent strategy have to come

024together if we're going to talk about transition plans. If they're not aligned and there's not a shared understanding, we're not going to be successful. If it comes to academic vision and framework and we're not allocating the bud in the in the budget the funds required to make a change that we're committing to, then we're not going to be successful there. So if if we don't detail the entire plan, we're never going to understand the complexities of what it's required to actually implement. And so for our board and for our community, this is precisely the same methodology we used and when we started the 20 well, I would say the the special education initiative, right? It's it's that type of effort because that's what's what's required when you're taking on these kind of sorts of large

025um, initiatives. And so when I go to the next slide, this is just a Gantt chart to show you kind of what the work looks like. And for those at home, some of our our trustees will have documents like this in their binder. But you go to the next slide, what this shows is this is ultimately going to all kind of distill down into a representative graphic that we can share with our community, we can share with our board so you know, where the large milestones are within each initiative and how they overlay kind of onto a calendar so that our trustees know like, you know, during this period of time, these are the three things that are are are really ramping up or consuming significant resources so that we're just mindful, right? We're aware.

026That that is really the intention of this graphic. This is not the graphic itself. This is a an example of what it will ultimately be as we refine the plans and progress. But I I think it's really important. I would like our community and our board and our and our staff to see this is when the large milestones tied to board actions are. These are when the large deliverables are tied to the administration are and we'll just lay those out over the course of the year. And again, you can't get to this level of like you know, understanding until you do the detailed work within the project plans. So next steps, provide board and community updates. Develop key performance indicators, KPIs. You know, I am someone that that truly believes in KPIs, but the true

027definition of them. I think sometimes KPIs are used in different ways and and not aren't truly performance indicators, they're just metrics. So um, we have lots of them that we track. Uh, my goal, uh, as we move forward over the next couple weeks is to kind of lay out the ones that I'm recommending, uh, that I will be sharing with the board on an ongoing basis by way of board update or by way of, um, kind of, uh, superintendent's update. Cuz there are lots of ones that I track that will never need to get to the board, right? I mean, they're they're like granular in nature, um, and and there's lots of them. So, that that is what's going to be coming next. Uh, manage priority timelines uh, is part of our work, and then

028update board documents as appropriate. Uh, we use board notifications, we'll use, um, superintendent's update, uh, and and we're going to just ensure that the important milestones uh, and the KPIs that we're showing to track progress continue to be communicated cuz it's important to know that there's a lot of work going, a lot of really great work. And if we're not talking about it and sharing, um, sometimes it could get lost and, um, and that's not a good thing. So, so that is what I wanted to share, um, regarding the overall, uh, kind of effort your, um, binders you have, um, different documents. The one that you'll have over each section is a, uh, is a list of tasks that identifies, um, kind of larger milestones tied to each project plan. In some cases you do

029see the draft project plan, in some cases you don't because they're very very dense. Like the 2022 bond program project plan is not in here cuz that would consume a thousand pages, right? Um, but the milestone schedule is. When you think about transition plans, right? The transition plans have an overall document and then each one of the schools has its detailed document. So, that is available but it's not in this document. So, we try to kind of find the appropriate level of of detail that can be consumed in the binder, provide the high-level update, um, and then when you think about, uh, an example of some of the deliverables or project documents for, um, accountability, many of those are embedded within our turnaround plans. Well, those taps are are it's kind of stand on their

030own and there are many of them. So, just to insert those here would not necessarily be a probably good use of paper since you've seen those and have them. But I wanted you to know that each of these has project plans be behind them, but what you're seeing primarily are the higher-level milestone schedules, but there's also a lot of detail in those as well. So, I'm going to pause there before I hand it over to Katrina, our CFO, to take us through budget. This is really meant to be an orientation of the work. Um, y'all have all shared with me, um, y- uh, y'alls, I said with the board's, um, kind of, I guess, identified, um, district priorities. My objective here is to share with you that I think we've been aligned for a long

031time cuz this work didn't happen overnight, right? We've been progressing this. Uh, but it's a commitment to share with you all how we're going to track that work over time, uh, and then also create the space for feedback as appropriate. So, what questions do you have? And then I'll hand it over to Katrina. W- we're good on time for a couple minutes, but any thoughts, questions, comments? Trustee Singh. Oh, sorry, I didn't mean I called on you. I don't know if you're ready. Oh, sorry. Hey. Um, thank you. >> today. I know. I'm so Yeah, we're wearing jeans, see? That means we're casual. Um, so I this is really good. I appreciate this and I'm excited to know that, um, you're going to be sharing with KPIs. Um, cuz there there are a few things

032that kind of stand out for me that I've been highlighting and I'm like, I I would like to know what the KPI is. So, can is there a way that we can share those with you or have a conversation? >> if Yeah, I think, um, so what I was wanting to do cuz every trustee I think is going to want to provide a different level of input. So, my my thought would be you have the binder. Um, each trustee can spend as little or as much time as they would like. Mhm. And then, um, I'll create a timeline if you just provide to me that feedback just because, um, some of these are very very dense and some of them we don't require a whole lot of feedback and some of them probably require more.

033Got it. So, um, I I've talked to the team about what that's going to look like. Um, it'll probably come in the next board notification, but if certainly if you want to, um, redline something and send it along, I'm happy to do that. If there are questions specifically about which KPI are we using to track which thing, uh, or which task, that's probably a different level of conversation, but certainly I'm welcome the feedback. Okay. Because what as I said before, my goal is to give to you a set a set of KPIs that I'm going to track, um, to ensure the work gets done and it's important they align with kind of our board's expectations of what KPIs could be, but I can't if there's a KPI that needs to be created that doesn't currently

034exist, I don't have a system collect it. That's also something I need to share with you. Right? Is that helpful? No, that is. Can Are we going to, um, present by as well? Are we going to have time tonight to actually have a conversation about what we're seeing in the work plans? I think it is a good idea to make some space if we feel like we have time for it. So, if is it for all the work plans or for one >> I just looked through a couple pages, but like there's a little like Yeah, so I wanted to see if we could take advantage of our time together because I have some thoughts and I am curious to know what other if it res- if my thoughts resonate with my colleagues and if

035that seems like a good use of our time as well. I think if it's higher level, like kind of approach or strategy, then yes. I think if it's like, you know, this task on this day, you know, that I there's a lot in here that are definitely higher level. >> And we haven't set time to go through like we're going to talk about the bond, we're going to talk about enrollment, >> That would be good. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. into the budget and into the academic discipline of it. Okay. And so, that's for later in the conversation. Oh, it's right now? >> want to do it now? Okay. So, and this is again, I think this is awesome. This is a great gives me such a good

036picture of all the intense work that's happening. So, kudos to all the staff. Um, I really appreciated the special education. I only got through like four pages of this, but the sped stuff looked really good. Um, and I liked the sped stuff a lot because you gave me percentages. So, it said like X percentage, you know, cut the number of um, contractors by X dollars, you know, cut, you know, make sure X percentage of ARDs are done within timeline, you know, that kind of stuff. And so, that gives me something beyond just do ARDs, you know, on you know, it's like, okay, we can it's like a distinct output. And so, there were a few places where I was like, I kind of wish we had like that level of granularity. Um, and I'll just

037give some examples. Um, but for example, we talk about, um, I guess on page two, conduct assessment of data analysis um, on the BOY and the MOY. And and what I see here is like a list of things that the staff is going to do, but there's no way for me to be like, okay, so what per- you know, and it says things like, you know, analyze the data and adjust instruction accordingly. Um, but how do we know if that's been done well? You know, like that's the implementation fidelity and like the out- measuring the outputs. And, um, and so, like that's the kind of thing where I'm kind of like, hmm. And then there's a lot of reference in here to things like training uh, for our teachers and staff, but how do we

038know that that training has been done well? So, is there like a satisfaction survey or some kind of feedback that you're going to get from teachers to kind of close that loop all the way? So, that's kind of how I think about KPIs is not just here's our big to-do list, but here's how we know we've been successful in completing that list. So, that's kind of like the overall theme. >> Yeah, so so I appreciate the comment. I think there's a balance because we're looking at a milestone schedule within a large, like, effort, right? >> Mhm. So, professional development's a good example, right? So, let's say we're going to complete professional development for all elementary school teachers or educators and we know that that's going to take place. The model may be a trainer trainer

039model where we do, you know, content mention instructional coaches first, and then we roll that out. We have it over three months because I can't, you know, you can't get all educators initially cuz there's only so many PD hours that we have. So, we do do surveys. Um, we do collect that information. Um, the question becomes are we wanting to understand the number of educators that complete the professional development cuz that's a KPI based on just a performance of completion. The other is satisfaction and I I think when it comes to satisfaction, I sometimes wonder about how much, you know, bias there can or can't be in a survey that is just about, well, do you think it was good or not? Um, because there are things that we want to make sure are covered

040and there's things that are and so, I think that's a really good, um, a really really good comment. I just don't know that I could get down to level granularity by subtask, create a KPI around that cuz the KPI would be around PD in general, right? And then we can share with you the data sets that we're using to drive the KPI, which it would be, you know, some ratio as a if it's truly a performance indicator. Um, because like one thing we did with special education is, you know, we wanted to make sure that, you know, when it came to the, um, the modules, you know, we had that percent complete. Um, and, you know, we had to it was 100% or nothing effectively. But over the course of, you know, month one, month

041two, month three, month four, I could see, okay, we had 22% in month one, you know, based on where we are in this professional development day and what Dr. Cherry Lee has shared with me regarding her approach, I know that these two days in the third week of February are going to yield a significant number of the staff because they've already allocated time in their professional development hours. So, that number I expect to increase. So, it goes from 22% to like 76%. So, then I got to cover 26% or 24% in the next 2 months. Yeah, no, I get Yeah, no, I get I get I'm just giving you an example. Yeah, [laughter] and so like and and there might be a simpler example too. Like you have a lot of tasks in here around

042enrollment. >> Mhm. But I and and maybe it's in here somewhere, but at the end of the day we want to increase enrollment. >> Yeah. And we need a target. >> We have a Well, so >> Okay, but like so that that's the kind of thing that I'm like I would expect would be a KPI um of some sort. Yeah, uh so I wouldn't use that as a a KPI would track progress on a task. I that would be a goal or percent of goal like to to meet. So, like on the strategic plan that the text that's behind the schedule, that's one of the places where we can we set the target and then we say, "Okay, you know, I get if if like one example that we talked about was tours, right? So,

043we have implemented tours at our um at our schools. It was something that we agreed to do. We worked with our principals to get it done. And so, one of the things we track how many tours have actually been completed, right? That to me it's it's a the we have the denominator, we have the numerator, we can track progress over the period of time. When it comes to a goal, right? If we want to increase by x percent of students, you know, you I forgot what the number is like 4,000. Um you know, we're not going to know that number until the end and I'm not going to track you know, like I I'd be kind of um extrapolating on what I think that is along the way until I actually got there. So, I

044would say I would want to know the KPIs that are likely to drive enrollment um and kind of set those aside and then say, "This is our goal." And if we do these KPIs and these KPIs move, we would expect that target to be met. Um so, I we're thinking about it the same way. I just um need to maybe share with you the KPIs that I'm thinking about. >> Yeah. Uh kind of have y'all test them, stress test them and say, "Matthias, this this is a good number, but it maybe I'm thinking about a target versus a KPI." Just cuz >> it could be. Yeah. So, I think that I'd love to hear from some of my colleagues, but you know, we I know that we've talked previously about um knowing, for example, how

045many students are enrolled by certain periods of time. You know, by certain dates and and you know, things like that or how many parents, you know, there's something in here about putting out a parent a family engagement handbook, which is awesome. But there's nothing that tells me how many parents, especially how many parents of our economically disadvantaged students have accessed it. You know, and so like that that's the piece where I kind of think of it whether whether you call it a KPI or a target or a goal, like to me it's just closing the loop to know that we've been successful. Yeah. So, I don't know. Am I the only one that's thinking that or are there folks kind of does that resonate with with anybody or That resonates. I mean, we need to

046build it and we need to be sure it's being used and that's working. Yes. Yeah, I think the only So, one of the things I struggle with sometimes is committing to something that we can't currently track yet. And so, like the question I would have is what system would I put in place to confirm that a student identified as economically disadvantaged has accessed this. Right? So, right now if it's in a portal, I'd have to place it in the portal where I I had to figure out how to ensure that connection that is that is that I could build a data set from. And often times when we talk about KPIs, the actual data sets to build it up doesn't exist because the system doesn't yet exist. And so, I always want to be mindful

047of what I can produce now, what I can produce as a system builds up. Um so, there may be some that I think we could do now and there's some that maybe I won't be able to build out until I actually have the system in place to collect the data. Like that's a an example like there were you know, uh so, there's lots of them like that. That's the way that I think we have to think about it, but I agree with all the comments. It's just which one of those Cuz if if we agree that this is the KPI that we absolutely need to do, and I agree with it, then we better build a system to be able to collect it. And that's going to come at an expense somewhere in the system.

048Perhaps it's technology, perhaps it's budget. And so, that that's the trade-off that I'm constantly thinking about, which is why you don't often hear me say yes immediately. >> [laughter] >> And I I would say to Trustee Singh's question and your point, like I don't I have no interest in measuring things for the sake of measuring or creating complicated ways to measure and I don't know if this handbook I see the handbook listed, but it's, you know, note. And so, I don't know if the handbook is guidance for our campuses on authentically engaging families and expectations. I see a list of expectations of what you you know, are thinking campuses will be expected to do. So, I don't know who the handbook is for if it's, you know, this is how we engage our families or

049if it is families about how you engage. Um but what are we going to see coming out of all of these things to show us that what you're doing, the plan you put in place is working. So so And I would rather see, for example, on um our campus improvement plans a requirement on what you do with families in response to that handbook and some measure of how you're you know, are you having events? Is your CAC fully staffed with families who are shared decision makers on your campus? Kind of what are those things that we know and what are you doing to hold staff accountable for putting in place the things you create. That's my real interest is sure that we don't have something on paper that happens some places and not anywhere because

050we're not making it a priority in your systems. Yeah, and I think that's that's uh that's the work. I mean, I think you hit the nail on the head. I mean, I I think it's we need to be able to track the things that we have to track. We can't track everything. We don't have the resources to be able to pull that off. Um and so, I think that's why the cap So, there's KPIs, there's goals, you know, I need to track progress on the work. And there's also progress on the goal and those and those are not always the same thing, right? Cuz the tasks independently drive the the KPIs or the outcomes that will actually move, you know, accountability or enrollment or whatever the the thing is. So, yeah, I think it's a

051great conversation. Uh so, I would encourage you all uh if you have time to just share those thoughts with me and as we build up the KPIs cuz I have KPIs. There's lots of them that I track, but I can't track them all all the time. It just it would not work. Go ahead, Trustee Singh. Well, so I guess before my comment question is is is this an actual living document that you're using or is this a bespoke thing that you made for this meeting? No, it's a living document. >> Okay. Um great. I like that. So, um you know, considering if if this is, you know, If you thought I could make this that quickly, I I would have been very proud. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, I mean, it looked like a Jira schedule

052or something. So, I I assumed it was like a management software, but um you know, I I think what would be helpful for me is in differentiating these. Like I I like how it's color-coded and it's broken down, but I think to Trustee Singh's point is the difference between um KPIs that are going to be milestones and the ones that are going to be objectives. Like in in IEPs, that would be the way you would do it. So, like if you're working on a literacy level, you're working through milestones of increasing the literacy level. But if you're looking at maybe um I don't know, organizational skills, you might have three or four objectives within that goal and you say, "Okay, we need to accomplish all four of these things for the goal to be done."

053And that strikes me as similar to what you're saying. On some of these, it's a clear I need to hit one metric after another and they build on each other. And others are we need to accomplish these five tasks and then that in itself and then I think to the point um that you were making is just achieving the initial goal, then you would hope you would see the the downstream success after that. Um on something that would be a a milestone-based one like going back to literacy, like that's much more clear. Whereas you know, um you know, again, going back to an IEP, sometimes maybe you would achieve three or four objectives and you would have one lingering objective that just didn't get met and you would reframe the goal around that one piece

054that didn't get met cuz you'd say, "Okay, why didn't this this, you know, one skill or one task or whatever is an outlier." Um but I think looking at some of these, I could see the differentiation between some of them are just we need to achieve these series of tasks and then we're considering the goal complete. Um that doesn't necessarily guarantee the success after the fact, right? It just means you've put in all the structure and you would hope that it would perform. Whereas something that's more milestone-based, you know, you're going to see the general progress because you're in increasing as the task is is being accomplished if that makes sense. It it So, um it does. I just I worry about um how we're using milestone KPI goal because they're very defined. Um you

055know, and and I when I think about this level of work and again, you know, the bond program, the sped work I mean, this is something that is familiar, I think, to me and and several of us that have been in these huge initiatives. Uh when we think about a milestone, you know, we're thinking about a point in time when a deliverable is accomplished, right? That is critical or on the critical path to meeting the overall objective. Like getting to the board, you know, um for a policy change that's required for enrollment, right? If I don't get it at a certain point, that means that I can't modify our processes, which means I can't update the enrollment platform, which means that I can't actually enroll any student using that new that new um approach, right?

056So, that'd be a milestone to point time. The technical tasks around updating the platform, those are going to be 60 different tasks that are all mainly within technology and I need to make sure that I have each task identified so that when Oscar tells me, "Hey, I'm going to be able to hit this in time for you to be able to take the forward policy", assuming it gets approved at this point, and then actually deliver the platform, those 60 tasks aren't going to have KPIs necessarily, right? It's going to be you know, you know, coordinate with with vendor, identify the budget, maybe you know, get a proposal for the additional cost of the modification, allocate the budget to it, you know, if we have to go to a procurement process. Like there are a lots

057of tasks to actually just do that one subtask in enrollment. And then you think about the goal. Well, the goal is ultimately to drive enrollment up and just getting the policy and enrollment platform improved is one aspect of all of it because there's the much more important part, the engagement part. There is the community um you know, the retention part that we talk about, like, you know, making our campuses more accessible. Those are all other tasks that are tied to enrollment goal moving up. I mean, the number of students enrolled going up. Now, so I think that's where I probably need to be better at clarifying how I'm defining the milestone, um what KPIs I would use to measure progress in certain elements of the work cuz you wouldn't apply it in all elements of

058the work. And then um where we have goals, define them clearly and and like this is the goal, right? Um just because I I think that's what I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I get it all um >> [clears throat] >> kind of moving. I think like looking at what Dr. I'm assuming Dr. Lee created uh for the sped milestones are really a great model to follow cuz they are very different. I mean, you know, for example, reduce contract spend by 60%. You know, she didn't list all the steps she's going to take to do that. She just said, "This is going to happen." And that's great like for

059for a trustee. Like I don't care how you're I I don't I don't have don't want to have anything to do with getting into the weeds of that work. So, like, I mean, I can see how it's useful for you to have every single task listed out of how it's going to happen cuz obviously you're the superintendent. You've got to manage that enormous task. As trustees, I just want to know how are you going to know you've been successful? Oh, okay, reduce contract spend by 60%. That is all I need to know. Likewise, like with um you know, enrollment or whatever else it might be. Um I just need to know like top line. And and maybe one way to limit it cuz I also can feel the stress. Like, "Oh my god, we're going

060to have to do build all these systems." No, no, no, it's not about doing that. But I think it like the board has identified a handful of priorities. And I think if we use that as our like container, um and spend some time over the next couple weeks kind of within that saying, "Okay, what's most important for the goal that like the most important outputs or whatever the measures um that we can use as a heuristic to be like, "Okay, we're on track here." Uh for this stuff. I think that's I don't think it's going to be this huge thing. I think it's going to be very limited. Like, here's like a few things that are aligned with priorities we've already identified that we would like regular updates on. That's how I kind of envision

061it. >> And I think that's that's how I would propose it. So, as we That's why there there KPIs and milestones aren't in So, we have the project plan, right? You saw So, our chair Lee has probably the most robust because it's had to be that for the last 3 years and we've been building on it, right? So, there's the larger plan, there's the strategic plan, and then you kind of distill down the milestones which are shared here. And then the the hope is, you know, this just shows you the kind of larger task in sequence to drive all the work, but this is pulled out of a larger document in a larger planning effort. And then what should be on top of this are all the KPIs, right? So, you know, we we do

062have them all. I think it's important to just to do exactly what you said. Like, for these things that we agreed to which are district uh priorities and initiatives between the administration and the board, these are the KPIs that we Yeah. think most represent the work progressing the way that we expect or that you expect of me and I expect of the system. >> Absolutely. Um cuz I then I can take that and then turn around and say, "Okay, the board said this, but we're That to me means these 20 things in this way or five things." Is that helpful? So, I what I'll do is I'll work with the team to figure out kind of the space to create that feedback loop from you all. So, if there's an area that you want to

063explore deeper, or I can say, you know, create some space or just send them over to me. I'll create the mechanism for it and then we can uh kind of progress the KPI forward, but again, we have a lot of them. It's just want to create that space for it. That's great. Thank you. And I think we have one-to-one meetings um with you where we can go deeper into things that we have interest in and so, I appreciate the chance to go deeper into whatever that may be. Good. Are we ready? We're going to We have time to go deep then into the budget and a little bit the academic vision. Um specifically listed here is theory of action. Um So, do we Are we ready to talk about the budget? Yeah. And so, we

064have um just for we have 40 minutes allocated for the budget. I think we're probably a little bit tight um but we'll be okay. Maxwell pick us up. Um I want to take a second to introduce my team. You know Adriana Saavedra, she's our senior executive director, and then Jessica Hart is our director of budget. So, you see me here all the time presenting, but these are the ladies that are spending numerous hours and we're working together talking about um the budget. So, um the goal for today is for our budget workshop is to align the board on student-centered priorities and secure clear direction on budget strategies. Recognizing that achieving a balanced slash surplus budget now requires deliberate tradeoffs that impact services and outcomes. So, what we've talked about which is a little bit different

065before is we've talked about getting to a balanced budget. But now we need to start talking about contributing to our fund balance. So, a couple four of the actions we're going to do today is confirm and refine board guardrails, align on student outcomes and priorities. For FY26-27, the information that you're going to see today is fiscal forecast. This is not preliminary budget. This is not the recommended budget. This is the information that I shared with you about a month ago. So, we're still projecting off of that information. And then we're going um want to provide direction on budget strategies. Thank you. So, um here are the guardrails that we discussed in August of 2024. Um Adriana and Jessica, we have like a little handout for you, but these are the guardrails that we were set

066was set um by the board in August of 2024. Ensure cuts in any area are equity-driven. Consider the long-term impact of cuts and reductions. Ensure that teachers' voices have been heard in the decision. Center literacy, align to student outcomes, and listen to people impacted before cuts are final. And so, these are the guardrails that we talked about. So, we're going to spend a few minutes answering these three questions. We would like your feedback. One, um do these still reflect the priorities of the board? Are these still in alignment? Okay, I see some yeses and some nos. >> [laughter] >> Any adjustments needed? And any considerations? So, us three will be here to kind of walk through it, but we're going to give you a few minutes to just take some time to go through and

067make some adjustments. What this is going to help us do is make sure that we're planning the budget for 26-27 in accordance to how you see the priorities. And what I want us to remember here is that the way we spend our money truly shows our values. So, we have to make sure that we're aligned with what our guardrails will be going into the planning for 26-27. Yeah, I think when it says like, you know, teacher teachers are heard, I think we have to be really specific when we say stuff like that. Like, do we hear you and then we are going a different direction or are teachers being a part of the decision-making process in the budget? So, that is what I would like to see cuz cuz I think I we see that

068a lot when we say we engage people, we let people talk, but you know, whatever happens is is going to happen. And then with equity-driven cuts, like I I don't know what that means in this district. Like I've been here for 3 years in this position and sometimes I feel like that means whatever is convenient for it to mean. Um so, does that mean like Yeah, I don't know. Like, who's being impacted by the cuts and and is everyone I mean, really like we I want to see that people are everyone is getting what they need and acknowledging that that some needs are greater than others. Um Sorry. Okay. Oh, go ahead. Sorry. Yeah, I was just going to um kind of piggyback on that and I would say you know, potentially as as opposed

069to just teachers staff because, you know, there there's a lot of staff besides the teachers, I think. And then I think along the lines of being heard in the decision would be I I I would say incorporated in the decision. Not necessarily that we're going to do every single thing that that they say, but that there is some effect from what they said demonstrably in whatever decisions we're making. Um and I would I would also kind of echo the element on equity. Um for us to find a way to define it more specifically for for the task at hand because there's lots of different types of equity and equity you know, based on the application looks very different. And so I think that's that's the I think we should focus on what the intent of

070the equity is here. Um particularly given the circumstances that we're navigating. There's a lot of different ways that we could apply that equity lens, I think. And so being really intentional. Um Yeah. I was just going to say um add on about centering lit- literacy. I think I don't know if I would call I mean, yes, literacy is hugely important, but so is are the other things that we've identified on our scorecard. I would probably put something first that names our scorecard. You know, we spent so much time developing that and you know, put so much thought into that. So I think the first thing is whatever we do helps to support the goals and and that we've set out at the goals and the um What are the other things called? Guard the what?

071The the constraints. Yes. >> [laughter] >> The goals and constraints laid out in our scorecard. Um I think that's probably my major feedback, but yeah. Anyone else? And so what I would also I think all of this is is really difficult for me cuz I think the district does a really really good job of saying like, oh, we're doing it based on this, but it might not be the way that the board expected it to be done or wanted it to be done or what our community expects. Um so like even thinking about centering literacy, um to some people that means curriculum. To some people that means there's an appropriate elementary child teacher ratio in classes. Um and or that the the principal who's an instructional expert um has enough clerks in the office so

072they have time to be in classrooms. So I I just would like to see some more specificity and it's almost April and like I I have no idea um what's you know, what what cuts are are coming down on our campuses. Anything else? Yeah, I mean, I would echo that that literacy alone is narrow. We know that we're struggling with numeracy. We know that we're preparing kids to to go on to other things and we know that we're in a moment when we're fighting to protect educational richness in our schools, right? We're fighting to protect a culture that's not just about testing, that is about so much more. We have fought as a community for strong arts programming for, you know, a diversity of choices for our dual language programs for um all the ways

073we're preparing our students and really preparing our students very well for what comes next um as we're seeing. And I think we've we're seeing the literacy work, the numeracy work finally now take take root. Um not that that isn't important. I think it's necessary, but not sufficient. And so I think making sure that we're not um defining things too narrowly and to I think the point to what does literacy mean? Does it mean map growth? Does it mean star testing? Does it mean learning to to write um effectively and giving the chance to read novels, too? Like what does it mean to us? Uh and I think that really our community has a lot of answers to that. Our educators, our families have a lot of answers to that. Um but really thinking about what

074we're trying to protect. Um and at the same time the flip side of that is I think we have to acknowledge, too, that we have a lot of campuses in turnaround plans. We are having to direct a lot of resources that direction and that's a budget impact as well. So. Um I you know, I recall this exercise a year or so ago and I really appreciate it and I appreciate sort of where we got to in that moment. And now almost can see it as like a second round. And so I really and I really appreciate the comments I've heard up to this point. And what it what I hear or what I heard was with regards to say the last one first, listen to the people impacted before cuts are final. Um what I

075think I heard was an opportunity to change the word listen um somehow to indicate whether it's a checklist listening is a checklist or indicate whether that is an insertion point where the insights derived or the insights heard get folded in. And not that it be guaranteed to be folded in, but a little more action orientation than than listening sounds like an opportunity. So, we know when we listen to people impacted before cuts are final, what's what are we listening to hear? Are we listening to hear something where, mhm, that's an opportunity to make a tweak. Especially, I think our community is getting stronger and stronger at being um alternative minded or like, here's another suggestion minded. You know, we don't have a community that's saying, just don't do that. We have a community that's saying,

076you told us you were listening, so please don't do that and here is a potential alternative. So, does our system bake in listening to potential for alternatives? So, that was with the fifth one. Um It kind of goes to number three, too. Ensure that teachers' voices have been heard in the decision. Um could that be something like incorporated? Where our listening leads to listening for new possibilities. Um And then I heard pop- people say have rai- raise things around equity driven. Ensure cuts in any area are equity driven. Something that's been helpful for me, but I don't know that it's a shared notion is to become increasingly, I guess granular's our new word that we like and if we become increasingly granular in breaking things out and into say for instance in this instance wants

077and needs. And it's really tough because sometimes when we're talking about wants, we're actually talking about wanting things that feel basic and feel really important. But where we are in our budget is that we actually need to separate want from absolute need. And and and full acknowledgement of this is being really tough because sometimes people want food that actually tastes good. And all I have money for is food that gets you nourished and it tastes like doesn't taste good. But I'm not in the space of wants at all. I'm in the space of needs and I'm going to make sure that food is nutritious, right? So, if we ensure cuts in any area are equity driven, part of that means we've looked in and we've said, this is bare-bones essential, we can't touch. This is

078a thing that's really really good and if at all possible, we're keeping it. This is something that's really good and kids deserve it. And it's a want against these other things that are even more fundamental. So, somehow in our guardrails capturing that granularity of analysis and really positioning us and I guess it makes your life a little bit a little bit easier if you can put back to us here are these three things and here is how they fit and here's what bucket, you know, or here are the three things, you board tell us what bucket they fit into, kind of thing. Um So, those were three things, but really just absolutely based upon what I've been hearing so far and it's all stuff I agree with. And I will say last year for me

079specifically, I don't know if everyone else feels this way, it was really helpful to have the circles, the whole circles half circles and empty circles that tied back to our goals and our constraints. That was really valuable as we evaluated different options to see how it would directly impact um the things that we had chosen to focus on most with our student outcomes. I one one more thought on um on the fourth bullet point for centering lit- literacy and considering the you know, successful work that we've done on the early childhood and the elementary literacy, if it wouldn't be um more fruitful to say something like building upon or connecting back to literacy. Like if we're already starting to see that success at the lower levels, how any of the other elements are tying back

080into that success so that we're expanding upon it. Um you know, I think as as we're particularly going through through budget and guardrails and things, those items that are tying back into the literacy initiative or building upon it or using that as, you know, the foundational parts seem like we're getting um I I would think more benefit from them than maybe some of the bespoke stuff that doesn't connect as as directly. Um So, I think that's a different way to look at re-centering is is using that more as a pillar that we're building upon. Okay, we're ready for what's next. Okay, thank you very much. So, board reflect Oh, sorry. So, the next one is the next slide says budget processes and considerations. So, when we're looking at the budget Thank you. When we're looking

081at the budget, we're going to look at it in a different in a few different sections. So, instructional priorities, maintain our core academic programs. That's kind of what we were just talking about like what what is important to us. Under student support and services, um is it mental health and counseling and nursing. Um is it special populations and intervention intervention supports, um access to extracurricular and enrichment opportunities. That's another thing Those are the items or questions that we would ask ourselves under student support and services. And then you have financial and operation. Um we always want to minimize disruption to our campuses. That's something that we take into consideration when looking at and planning the budget. Limit reductions to staffing where possible. Um we know that how important our staff are, especially um our staff

082at our campuses. And so, we want to make sure that we're limiting um the reductions or disruptions. Maintain operational stability and identify efficiencies and cost savings. So, that's what we've been doing over the last few years is identifying efficiencies and cost savings. Um all priorities will be evaluated within at available resources and board established guardrails. So, that's what we just talked about is that we have to make sure that what we're what we want what our priorities are align with our funds that we have from for the district. So, here's an example. Um Matias and I were talking the other day and so, we kind of talked about this slide. So, this is just an example that we came up with. So, this is a input outputs and then what is what are the outcomes?

083And so, when we're looking at staffing, um what how do we improve upon staffing? We look at compensation. How are we compensating our staff? The benefits that we are providing for our staff? Are we giving our staff professional learning? And then their available leave. And so, if we do all of these inputs well, then the output should be a decrease in teacher vacancies, right? And we should have a decrease in substitutes. And we all know why that's important because we need qualified teachers in the front of our kids and we want them to be there every day or as much as possible, not being out a lot. So, the student I outcome will be an increase in teacher retention and an increase in student achievement and academic growth. So, this is just one of the

084examples of how we're going to look at what is the all the way what is the input, the output, and the outcome. Not just saying this is a way that we can save $20 million. What is the input saving? What is the output? And then how does the outcome impact our students? Yeah, and and I I this is an important example because I think it just shows the complexity of how many things contribute to an outcome moving. It's not just one thing and we talk about this all the time. It's not the teacher in the classroom is one of the if not the most important thing, but there are lots of other things as well that we all have to ensure, you know, are supported and are resourced if we're actually going to be able

085to do what we need to do our way. And so, um when you think about this example, multiply that by 100 other examples in Austin ISD. And the reason that I wanted to share this is because it sometimes we get into this weird habit of looking backwards and saying, "Okay, well, this this many years ago, we had this many employees and we had um this many um uh this was our total cost." And and I and I think, "Well, yeah, that's true, but we also had a lots of lots of vacancies and we know at that time vacancies really harmed our ability to support our students." And so, I think context matters, the full story matters. And so, I think when we show this relationship, it's it's clearly, you know, uh it's easy for us

086to show everybody how multiple things impact the entire system. And when you look at that list, right? Compensation was a big part of it. That's a huge huge you know, element of our budget. Benefits, huge huge element of our budget. Professional development, other large item. These are huge items. So, impacting any one of those, we can't tell you precisely what impact it's going to have on the outcome, but we know that it will have an impact, right? And so, that is that is the the balance that we're trying to to kind of strike here as we talk about budget adjustments moving forward. Um so, as we move forward and look at different considerations for reductions, we're going to show it in this way so you can always understand how it's ultimately going to impact outcomes.

087Uh and I think that coupled with the um measel chart that shows how the cut impacts a scorecard, that's what it's called. Um so, the It might need a new name. >> [laughter] >> Uh yeah, it's been that for a I don't know, since '50s or something. So, we'll call it something different. The I don't know. Um so, anyway, uh just So, I just thank you for sharing that, Katrina. I think it's a good example and we'll have more like that as we move forward and talk about actual reductions. So, the next slide is our assumptions that we used and we've looked over this, but I want to spend a little bit more time on this today. You can see '23-'24 our budget the numbers the numbers that we used in our assumptions to plan

088the budget for '23-'24 '24-'25. And then let's look at '25-'26. So, the enrollment that we planned for um '25-'26, which was um last fiscal year or this fiscal year, was 72,303. Um we pre- we planned with a 2% vacancy savings and our average daily attendance would be at 61,100. And at snapshot, which is in October, our enrollment numbers were 69,207. So, that's roughly like a 4% decrease. And our average daily attendance is 62,522. So, what we've talked about and um Victoria's here to help us kind of talk about the enrollment projections. The enrollment projection is pretty much a flat or 69,550. That's the projection. And so, what we want to do when we're planning the budget is we want to be as conservative as possible because losing 4% of enrollment this year has impacted us,

089right? It's increased our deficit, which we know. So, what we're going to do is we're going to do our teacher staffing on what the in- projected enrollment numbers are. And we're going to talk about this a little bit later how Victoria's going to continuously give us updated numbers. We're meeting with talent strategy, Denisha and her team to continuously tweak those numbers so that when we get to the budget, this is really what we feel that we're going to be at. For now, we're saying that we're going to we're going to reduce in budget in finance, the adjusted enrollment will be the 66,768. Our vacancy savings, we're still going to do a 2%. And then our average daily attendance is we're going to say it'll be at 60,314. So, what this is doing is this is

090providing us a cushion so that when we get to the end of the if when we get to next fiscal year, if our enrollment decreases and our average daily attendance decreases, it won't be a complete shock to the system. So, we're trying to make sure that we're um planning ahead for our teachers. Our teachers are our principals are able to staff our campuses appropriately, but that it's also is not a large impact if the numbers fluctuate for um the budget. The last column I want to talk about here today is the property value change. So, in '25-'26, um we were told that the property values would decrease 2%. They ended up decreasing 4%. So, again, that's another item that decreased or increased our deficit. So, we're being told by um Leanna, which is our chief

091appraiser, that the range is between 3 and 5%. We meet with her tomorrow. Tomorrow? We meet with her tomorrow to go over preliminary numbers, but right now we're doing the 5% projection because what we've done in the past, she said two to four, we kind of did average and we we continuously it's just one more thing that we have to tweak. So, when we talk about why the deficit increased, this is some of the reasons why. So, we have to continuously do better at planning and budgeting year over year. Can can you speak a bit up? No, yes. Is it good Okay. Um What again is the adjusted enrollment? So, the adjusted enrollment is how we're going to plan the rest of the budget outside of staffing for teachers at the campus. So, we're going

092to give Denisha and her team are going to provide staffing for teachers on the 69,550, but everything else on the budget is going to be on the lower number, the 4% so that we can have a cushion there. Got it. And and I didn't catch that the first time and that is a really appreciated nuance. So, in other words, our we're protec- protecting our kind of ratios and quite frankly our staff by going with this larger number and anticipating a larger number. But we're also the hedging is to go assume a lower number for every other aspect of our functioning. And there's a kind of quiet acknowledgement if we go one layer deeper, that's still not that much wiggle room because the staffing is 87 88% of the budget. So even as you make that

093really nice nuanced move, you're talking about now it's the 13% side where we're playing more conservatively. So it's the best we can do, but it's not as huge a dollar savings as one might imagine. Right. Right. And so we have to be we want to make sure that when we're look You we want to be as precise as possible, which is very hard. But we also as a district have to stop finding ourselves in the spot where we pass a budget and this is really what we think the numbers are at the moment, right? And then we get hit with large a larger property value. >> we hold that slide that the the the last graphic or the last And and I didn't mean to interrupt you, but as we were speaking I would like

094that slide to be up. There no, 14. 14. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, I'll keep over you. Oh, okay. So we have to be we because what what happens is you guys know, it is very hard to say these are our strategies. We're going to come in at 19 million. We we feel good about this budget cuz we're not coming in here passing a budget that we are we're not in agreement with. But then you have all these things that continue to happen that make the deficit larger. So we need to start budgeting differently. And one of the ways is to say that if we're looking at enrollment, we're looking at staffing allocations, we're looking at all of these things, we're talking to Carla about average daily attendance. How to do all of these things taking

095maybe the larger projection for our property value decline than we've done in the past because that lead gives us a cushion so that hopefully my 66,768 number is way too low, right? But Matias and I talked about it. If it goes up to 67, great. If it goes up to 68, great. But we've had a cushion there and we've also kind of insulated our staff at our campuses. We didn't bring our campuses down to the 66,000 for staffing. So I want to be like super honest here. Um and I asked you last time we talked about budget, are we talking about a permanent contraction or are we talking about, you know, a a flux where things are going to go up and down? Um There are two numbers there that scare me a lot. And

096one is around attendance and one is around property values. So to speak to attendance first, um and I get I'm pretty sure the answer is probably going to be yes, but are we looking at as a for instance, our immigrant and new immigrant population and varying likelihood of variations um that could in fact be quite dramatic and have quite dramatic impacts so that I wonder if 66 is a >> [snorts] >> conservative enough number. And likewise other things impacting enrollment. Uh we've all been paying attention to vouchers and many folks have sort of predicted vouchers wouldn't have quite as much of an impact as one might imagine. Really it's just a tax break for people already enrolled in the voucher program or excuse me, already enrolled in private schools and I think early numbers are

097sort of bearing that out, but there still is an impact. So when we go, well here is the legislation, what's the potential impact of this legislation? Here's immigration, what's the potential impact of federal immigration policy and then whatever number three, number four. So I'm asking about enrollment. Then the second thing, um historically sorry to ask this, but what are the largest property value drops that we've seen? Great Depression, 80s, 2008, and is 5% the right number in terms of how bad it could get. And I'm and I guess the final thing the stopgap is like at what point are we done? At what point are like can we not observe absorb a 12% drop? That's unheard of. That's never happened. And then it happened. Can we absorb it? 62,000 in one year? That's unheard of.

098Well, it just happened. Can we absorb it? So I'm I'm really kind of worried about those two numbers and I'm worried about a frank consideration of worst case scenarios. Um [snorts] [clears throat] of years. Uh and I also want to be sure that we are we spent time today talking about how we're projecting projecting to end this year compared to the budget we approved last June. I think it's really important for the public to see if we're off or if we're not. But when when we talked to our one-on-one about this um Matias, we had talked about showing the math of how we cut get the 69,550 um because you know, just doing a simple quick regression analysis shows that number should be closer to 65,000 rather than 69,000. So I'm not quite sure. >>

099to let us go to the next two slides. So >> you've done that. Well, the the methodology Okay. But like in a nutshell, why are we predicting more students? Um I I know that ADA is predicted to be lower, but why are we predicting higher enrollment when we've got all this other stuff going on? Um Did you want to jump to the methodology slide? I think it's 17 maybe. Thank you. Uh so the way that we um did the projection methodology this year, um oh, there we go. Okay. Uh is for um the continuing grade levels on every campus. So K to four was basically like that number was rolled into first through fifth. So if there were 50 kids in kinder, it was projected for that school to have 50 kids in first grade.

100Um there's there is quite a bit of mobility in Austin ISD, but as a starting point, um most of our campuses um at those points. Don't like there's not a whole lot of um net gain or loss at that point. Similarly with six and seven throwing into seven eight and then nine through 11 rolling up to 10 through 12. Um then for the entry grades at each band for pre-K, K, six and nine, um we used a four-year snapshot average. Uh so I took a four-year average of um those class sizes at the snapshot date for um each campus uh and the grade levels that they had. Um then the adjustments have been made uh on an ongoing basis. So initially the students that are attending closing campus were closing campuses were added proportionally to

101the receiving campuses. So for example, if they had um an incoming average class size of um 100 at the receiving campus and 100 at [clears throat] the um [snorts] at at a closing campus and it was like 50/50, so then it would be 100 150, right? Um then the projections were adjusted with the actual outcomes from the transition enrollment round. So at the outcome of that for example, we knew how many students had been actually granted seats at Covington for example and so the proportion the um projections were adjusted with that. And again, [snorts] um literally this week uh we looked at the number of students with confirmed registrations in the system up through yesterday and um any campus where their number of confirmed registrations um had already exceeded their projection, I went ahead and

102adjusted that projection to make sure that we are staffing appropriately. Um campuses that have not yet met their projection, I didn't move them downwards uh at this point, but um we are watching those metrics. Um we've got about 37,000 um students confirmed at the moment. Can you go back to one more slide in front of this slide and then speak to that cuz that's both of these slides have to be talked about together. >> Sure. Um so we looked at some three-year trends uh of mm the enrollment um picture overall for the district, right? Like each campus, each grade level and picked out just a couple of very high-level messages. And these messages have also been um part of informing the enrollment strategic plan and the actics and tactics that we are actions and tactics

103that we are moving forward. Um so we see that certain elementary campuses have demonstrated consistent enrollment increases. Um we do see that the transition from eighth to ninth grade uh is an interesting point. The ninth grade cohort consistently exceeds the size of the previous year's grade cohort. Um [snorts] when I kind of quizzed the principals at the last principal meeting, it was just about 500 brand new ninth graders were coming into the system at that point um right before the break. Uh the transition from fifth to sixth grade is an opportunity that we are working um across departments to um address and that is where um the sixth grade class is lower than the fifth grade class that came before it. Uh and we have seen and are are working through some like understanding of

104the broader social trends and things in the city and uh things internal to Austin that um comprehensive high schools have have seen multi-year um enrollment decreases. Multi-year enrollment >> decreases. Well, uh adhering to, you know, what folks are talking about about moving forward. Um for me, I'm just not feeling optimistic. Well, I'm I'm hearing a lot of really great initiatives, granular work to say, well, what's happening with eight and nine, what's happening between five and six and a lot of concerted efforts. And I think so many of these things are bigger things than us and bigger than our systems. Uh they're tsunamis and we're like, you know, how can we shore up the dam and it's a tsunami. So, you know, I I'm I to to Trustee Singh's point about the conservatism, I am 150%

105there on the conservatism when it comes to the budget, which is going to mean hard work for us, but I'm kind of freaked out. Um and don't have to do it now and I guess I'll ask for like a additional briefing on the real estate side of it, but I don't understand how we are not giving it 50/50 that the floor is going to fall out of our real estate market. I mean, I don't know a better way to say it. And how big does it I don't I'm just not I'm not an economist. I'm not any of that stuff that would have an expertise. I guess I could go and look it up pretty quickly, but what are the largest drops in real estate in a single year? And what are the likelihoods of

106it happening again? And then from there, what's the impact? Um so I would love to get more information on the real estate projection side and um would love for very conservative budgeting, honestly. So, I do want to address really quickly conservative budget. So, we have been budgeting conservative conservatively. I want to I want us I don't want us to walk out of here thinking that that we have not, right? So we have, but I also want to say that it is a balancing act because one of the things Matias and I talk about, if we balance too conservatively and we cut too much, then what how does that impact our schools and it's harmful to the system. So it's it So when we say no surprises, that's not possible. We just have to figure it

107out year over year over year. Yes, thank you. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. Yeah. So, we just need to figure out how do we do that that we can continuously be as conservative as possible and it's going to be year over year, we're going to have to get tighter. So like this year, we're not going with the middle of the stream of the property value decline. We're going with the 5%. That is one of the ways, but what's going to happen is that means we're going to have to reduce more this year. So those are the things that we're going to have to continuously talk about and work through and it is going to mean deeper reductions, deeper cuts because we're using um we're being ultra conservative now. Thank you. Um so Just just >> your

108question and then anything else that you really really need from us before we move on. So let's hear Yeah. It just really quickly, I would maybe slightly reframe it when we're talking about the conservatism um or worst-case scenarios. I what I would like to hear is what is the next contingency and then the next contingency and the next contingency. Um you know, for me as an example, I would say staffing is, you know, the most critical last thing that we can cut and and particularly on the campuses, you know, that's the thing that's getting the families to come back is the staff that's on those campuses. And so Worst-case scenarios aside, I you know, if if we're 10 million short here or if we're 15 million short there, you know, I want you know, I

109would I would hope to see um it doesn't have to necessarily be a menu, but like what are the options we have? So, you know, I can be looking at which red button do we need to hit that is going to save the staffing if it comes down to it. You know, that to me that's worst-case scenario is we got to cut and cut and cut and we have that we're not um scrambling, so to speak, for for one more idea that we at least have some choices even if they're not the most palatable or the ones that we'd want. I I know that it's protecting our you know, the bottom line over here. I really like that. Thank you for that. Um so what else do you need from us? What I don't know

110what else you have and what else want to run through with us, but I'd love to make sure that we're answering what you need answered before we move on. There's really not anything else that I need, but um we can skip um Dr. Ballas, can you go to slide um 20? And all of these are in board docs. Yes. For everyone. Miss Miss Montgomery, would you like us to go around and just kind of quickly tell you like our priorities and what what we want to protect? And And I would say I I've also going to piggyback off off of Trustee De Real Estate. Um like as the other like as the financial professional here, it's like a when people say like, oh, this this did not happen because of anything that Austin ISD did.

111Um Austin ISD is doing an excellent job with the resources that we are given and with the constant chaos that's caused by the state and by the economy that we don't control. Um and you know, you you can you can look at a family and say that they are irresponsible because they are dipping into their savings to buy their kids groceries or you could say that they are being responsible in not being negligent towards children. And that is what this administration has done. And so that's I'm I'm always going to like push back on that because I I know how hard we work to be very financially responsible. So I I like it so far here. Every worst-case scenario that could happen is what are our priorities. So I'm going to tell you mine. Um

112and my priorities are our campuses being optimally staffed, optimally functional to take care of kids day one. So like I I love that, you know, our staff from central office has gone down to Dobie and Webb and Burnet to help. Um that those need to be our priorities day one. That could have would have should have happened day one, not just when star test scores are coming out. So, I want that to be priority priority that each and every campus is supported. There are students who need extra support at every single campus. There are students experiencing poverty at every single campus. And that's always going to be what I want to see. If there are any cuts to campuses, like so I don't even want to hear the word overstaffed at campuses cuz there are

113no campuses that are overstaffed. When my mom taught kindergarten in the '70s, every kindergarten class had an aid. That's just developmentally appropriate. That's how many staff members you need. But that now sounds like a luxury at this point, right? When that's something that would really really benefit kids. So, I think not saying that those that schools are are overstaffed when our staff members are probably even our kids wouldn't wouldn't agree with that. So, thank you. Thank you. If anyone else has priorities to share, we can. And I also want to be sure if there's anything that you think is essential to show us that we also Um >> Yes, I would like to talk about this one slide because I think this is something we need to look at for 26-27 when we're planning and

114then that will also then give you an will give you an opportunity to talk about to answer the final question. So, for 26-27 when we presented it before, our revenue which is the slide before, but our revenues less our recapture less our operating expenditures is $166 million over. So, we're spending projected or for for the fiscal forecast for next year is $166 million. And what we're we're committed to doing this next year is contributing back to the fund balance because what we don't want to do is we don't want to stay at 15% and then next year get to the 20%. So, you'd have to cover 5% in 1 year, right? And so, the target for 26-27 is $171 $171 million. That's the target of reductions needed for fiscal year 26-27. Thank you. Okay. Um

115And just so people know, like this is reduction after years after year after year of reduction. Yeah. Being squeezed and as Trustee Willits said, not just us. Right, not just us. Really really important to know that. And it's our job to do the best we can with what we have. Mhm. So, what we try what we wanted to accomplish here today is to show you some strategies that we've already been talking about of how to reduce the 100 $171 million. So, in property monetizations, you have three properties there for a total of $56 million. The one part that I do want to talk about is we don't want the property to just continuously get bell us out for year 1 year. So, if we if we sell three properties for a total of $56 million,

116those are properties that we no longer have if we monetize them, but we don't want to use that to bridge the gap for that year, right? So, what we've been doing a really good job at is we've been doing a really good job at reducing our spend, but not reducing the budget. Okay? And so then for departments, we have a $22 million amount here, which is $20 million worth worth of department vacancy collapse collapses. And then remember how we did the property insurance last year? So, we saved $3 million on our property insurance last year by having higher deductibles. We're going to talk about doing that again this year for a total of $2 million. And one of the things we've said every single time I've come in the front of you is we did

117not want to we don't want to impact campuses. So, this year for this fiscal year is the first time we impacted campuses for non-staffing. So, when the enrollment numbers decrease year over year, we've never impacted campuses. So, this is the first year. But now we're starting to say that even with us saying that we're going to strategically do reduce campuses by $17 million, we still have an additional $76 million worth of reductions that need to be made to the budget. And so, how quickly are we going to get detail? Um That campus bucket is big and vague. And how soon I think our community really wants to know. Our campuses need to know. We need to know. I think we're starting to hear from community partners from kind of out there in the world. How

118quickly are we going to have a public conversation about what that looks like and where our priorities are cuz I think that is um pretty urgent. Yes, so some of the reductions that we have here are staffing allocations and then some of them are changing our planning periods. So, we're trying we're we're we're needing to figure out how do we impact the campuses as least as possible. But what I also want us to be clear is is that there Go ahead. I think she's asking about when we're going to come back with clarity around the reductions. So, we have the board ad hoc committee. We met with them last night. We're meeting with them again. So, I I think the question is, you know, when does that list of items, right, kind of organized in

119a way to Trustee Dorryose's point comes back to the board so that we can say, "Okay, these are the things that we've evaluated based on the feedback from this work session." And um and so, I think that's the like when when will we come back for that part of it? >> Yeah. Thank you. Um I would say that we could come back in April. So, we've added another and we have a couple of our ad hoc [clears throat] members here today, which is we appreciate them being here, but we're going to we've added another session with them because we wanted to come talk to you first and then we're going to have another session with the ad hoc where we're talking about each specific item and that meeting is April 6th. So, probably the information

120session after that. >> come back. >> Thank you. And what we can do, Trustees, is either create a space like this after the meeting depending on how heavy that meeting is. I do think this type of conversation is appropriate for the budget because there's a lot of dialogue back and forth that's helpful to us. So, I'll work with Katrina, but it'll be shortly after the board ad hoc committee, but no later than the board information meeting. Okay, thank you. Yes. And and we're happy to have a conversation that is helpful. So, thank you all for all of that. Okay, do you feel like you have some information to go forward? I think if anybody else has priorities they want to throw out there, like that would be helpful to our Trustees seeing Um I don't

121I I like what um Trustee Willits said, so second that. But I would say I thought we were going to get a clearer statement on how far we are from our budget. Is that happening on Thursday? >> Thursday. This is 26-27 and then 25-26. Got it. I would say I would say um I would be interested in understanding better what um if we're going to make changes to that 2-mile radius for bus transportation. That's just something I've always um I like to keep an eye on. So, I think I'm curious in regards to the last slide and and how we're looking at addressing the funding balances, if it's worth putting more explicitly some goals around trying to raise money from outside the district, whether it's you know, community and even just a modest one. I

122think in line with um what what I feel I've been saying about the property development, you know, that that's a model that if we're going to keep using it, we need to have a functional process around it that the community you know, that is successful with the community. I think fundraising would be a similar one, whether it's you know, private partnerships, third party, like even just a modest goal to start that initiative because I think to the conversations that we've been having tonight, if things get worse financially, whether you know, for any one of a myriad of reasons, that is a tool that the community's been asking us to engage with for quite some time. I don't think we need to set a huge goal like we're going to raise $50 million, but just having

123something more explicit with the idea that if if we can find a process around that that is functional that we can expand upon. So, even if we just just set a goal the same way, you know, you don't always meet the targets on on how much the cuts are going to be. I don't expect it to magically meet the target on fundraising, but something around that I think would be helpful. So, Trustee Dorryose said, "When you talk about fundraising," I heard you reference things that were tied to revenue generation, but not explicit to fundraising. And so, I I think that it would be appropriate to set perhaps a revenue generation goal because there are things that we've done that have generated revenue. There are things that we've done over the last year and a half

124that haven't quite come back to the full board regarding, you know, different strategies including naming rights, including, you know, we've done lots of things. So, I think a goal for that would be appropriate as far as fundraising. Perhaps it's a separate conversation and maybe you have two goals cuz one we control entirely, the other would require, you know, a different level of support. But I do agree maybe a modest goal would be appropriate. And there are things already that we we could actually show as contributing to that goal. Yeah, and again, I think just starting that as a more explicit consideration that we can build upon as we need it. Thank you. Anyone else? >> [snorts] >> Okay. Appreciate it. I I've written feedback in my handout. Thank you. All right, thank you all so

125much. Appreciate it. All right, thank you, Katrina. Thank you. All right, we'll now um segway to Dr. Mary Ann Maxwell to take us through um conversation regarding theory of action for uh our economic vision and and framework. Uh as a reminder to our community and to our um staff and certainly our trustees, uh this is a commitment. It's a strategic effort. Um it's one that hasn't been completed within district in in quite some time. Uh it's incredibly important that we do this work so that we understand how we're going to support our students and how we're going to ensure that this the house was incorporated into everything that we do. Uh and so uh this is an important first step. There are lots of steps along the way uh that much of that is detailed

126in the plan and we'll provide more documents around it. But for this specific first part, um I'll have Dr. Marianne Maxwell kind of take us through the the work and the conversation. Can you can you get that? If not, I can get that. Hi, thank you. Good evening, everyone. Um and so we will um go through a few slides just to uh set uh some of the basics and foundational understanding and make sure we're all on the same page with the terminology. But really most of the rest of the time is going to be you all uh having an opportunity to have some discussion. Um just, you know, uh sharing one at a time, also having some discussions with each other, uh coming to consensus for a few things and then um starting to build

127a theory of action for teaching and learning. So that's really what tonight is focused on. We won't walk away with a draft for theory of action uh uh for teacher theory of action for teaching and learning, but we will walk away with all of the components that we need to then uh develop a draft together and then continue to come back to all of you, to community, uh to staff to get feedback so that we can continue to iterate that draft until we have final vision uh a version of theory of action for teaching and learning um that we would be able to submit for board approval. Um okay. So, well, we started with our vision that we've been talking a lot about lately, which is really um making sure that Austin ISD has excellent

128neighborhood schools and that each school is vibrant and well-resourced and meets the needs of every child. And really the basis of that is talking about teaching and learning and the foundations for our academic work. So we've talked too about the academic framework and some of the components that go into that. Really this is just a a cohesive instructional road map that ties together curriculum, instruction, assessment, professional learning and program alignment across all of our schools. And then we've uh discussed some of the critical components of that before as well. Uh this was all in a release of the academic framework critical components and some initial vision and and drafting around that that we released in the uh fall of 2025. So those four main components have to do with curriculum and instruction, assessments, professional learning

129communities and professional learning. So those are the main areas that we've looked at really building into um building up and improving so that we do have strong neighborhood schools everywhere in the district. These are uh individual components, but they all should work very closely together. And curriculum and instruction, it uh seems like one small component, but everything involved with curriculum and instruction has to do with uh what teachers have in their hands every day, how we're delivering instruction, but also all of the programming that we have across the district and what all of our schools have in all kinds of our programs, whether it's that's happening during the day, whether we're talking about courses, whether we're talking about after-school programs and other programs that we have available to our students, uh fine arts and athletics

130and everything. So, just want to set that that we're not just talking about math and reading. Um not that we don't think those are important, but that we're not just talking about that when we're talking about curriculum and instruction. Um another big piece is assessments. That's that longer-term work of really building an assessment framework that works for Austin ISD, that is meaningful, um that allows us to uh spend the time really talking about assessments and what they mean to us and what they mean to our students and our families. Um professional learning communities, which we've talked a little bit uh previously in the in the latest board meetings about the work that we're doing there. Which is really just the venue for collaboration on campus campuses to get a lot of this work done. And

131then professional learning. So, how we're continuing to invest in our system and build up a a system of building our teachers, building our instructional leaders and building ourselves as district leaders so that we are learning together and that we are growing together and that that takes a strong professional learning system. The initial piece of all of that though starts with the work that we're doing tonight with academic visioning and building a theory of action for teaching and learning. It exists in our policy, that's actually AE local. Um it's been a few years since um we looked at sensibly at that policy. I think there have been some adjustments made to it. Um but uh in light of what we talked about tonight and what we know we've been focusing on lately with our district priorities

132and where we need to focus and and have some improvements, um that theory of action for teaching and learning could really use a a a good look and some some good strong discussion and some suggestions for how we might build one that that really works for us now. So, um some of the uh development here, this is just a a very high-level overview of how this theory of action is going to be developed starting tonight with the board workshop to really develop some guiding statements for that theory of action. And then take leaving tonight, we'll go back, administration and board members will work together to really synthesize what we've talked about in this work session and develop that theory of action. Next step is to engage with uh ourselves again, board, staff and community to

133get feedback on that proposed theory of action. So a similar process that we're going through tonight, we'll go through a version of that with multiple groups talking about how we got to where we are with the current draft and um asking for additional feedback and additional considerations uh in that draft. Uh and then we would uh go into uh review that feedback that we've been collecting and then engage in final uh uh Matias used the word stress testing earlier. We're going to use it again tonight here, stress testing that theory of action and then refining it and then submitting for board approval so we can um codify that in Austin ISD policy. >> [sighs and gasps] >> Um okay. Are there any questions about that process? We'll go into a little bit more detail after

134we do tonight, but are there any questions about that process before we head out into um some foundational discussions? I just have one, which to me there seems to be a a feedback piece missing where for us to create one and then get feedback rather than getting feedback, using that to create one and then getting feedback. It it seems like hearing from the people closest to the work and the families who choose our schools and the students in our schools um would be valuable to me. I mean, I can speak with what I know of our community, what, you know, we've heard in other ways of gathering feedback, but um it feels top-down to me. So, I think that what if we maybe go through the exercises tonight and then can talk about tweaking the

135exercises tonight won't draft the theory of action. It'll just come up with some of the guidelines, some of the foundations for the theory of action. I know you all have done um in some uh work groups together looking at if-then statements, right? So that's what we'd be looking at tonight and we'd go through the similar process with community and with staff. Um we could One of our last questions here is what what else would you like to see in this process? And so this is a process just that we're proposing tonight. It definitely uh is is here for your feedback. And so it could be that we go through this session and then we go through very similar sessions with community and staff and gather all of that feedback before we start that first draft.

136Is that what you're thinking or suggesting there? Mhm. Yeah, I we'll take feedback and then and make adjustments. Um I I think uh President Boswell, one of the things when we, you know, that I I certainly recognize is that you all as representatives from the community have lots of great insight. Um and to start a process, we have to start. And and I think what I have found in just the work that I've done in the last 8 years is, you know, when we have these conversations with community, it's really helpful to to be able to share different aspects. Um so I think that approach this approach will work. I feel confident in it. Um we want to engage with the community, um but I think it's also important to know that at the end

137of the day, it's going to be codified in board policy and we need to figure out a way to capture the community voice and have it have our community respond to things. Um and so we think this this will yield ultimately the product that we need to to get the work done um in the time that we have identified. Uh but again, we're happy to make adjustments in timeline if if needed, um certainly. Mhm. Any other questions before we start? I think just one clarification is that this the theory of action is is one aspect. I know Dr. Maxwell hit this. Um this is one piece. This is it is like one section of this larger effort. So I don't want our trustees to leave and and think that this is it. There will be

138a lot of work over the next 18 months. Uh so this is just one one component of it. Um so, get ready. Mhm. Yes, I would say [snorts] at least 18 months, too. Um and and definitely not the only place that we uh have identified for uh lots of sessions for community feedback, either. So, when we get further into um defining what we're doing with our schools and programs and um how we're seeing programs across schools, but also programs within schools and offerings that we have, that is a huge community piece as well um because I know there's a lot of um good feedback and I I just don't think we could even get through the process without um engaging community and and staff um in that process as well. Okay. Um okay, so basics,

139what is a theory of action? So, this is an if-then statement. If we do A and B and C or just A and B uh then we expect X to happen. So, around the if portion of this statement, it's basically here's what we're going to try and do. These are the actions that we'll be taking. Around the then, here's what we expect to happen as a result. So, in other words, while the if part of the statement describes the actions or strategies being implement implemented, the then part describes specific observable changes that indicate success. So, we would want to have some of then statements that really help uh help us identify and measure what we want to see ultimately in our students and in our student outcomes uh that that would be something we could

140uh measure or identify in some sort of way. And I don't necessarily mean measure by an assessment. Um there are lots of ways to measure things, but as long as we believe that this could be a measurable outcome, then it would really help strengthen that that then portion of the statement. So, um I have some folders here um that I'm going to come pass out and then we uh actually have some slides on this, too. These are three sample theories of action. So, uh one is drawn from an existing district and I believe that you have seen this first one before, and then there's some two other examples. I'll actually show them Oh, thank you, Josh. Um I'll actually show them on the slides here, and then we're just going to give a few minutes

141to look through these uh sample theories of action and talk through have a discussion around what you see as the similarities of these uh different samples. What are the differences? What makes if-and-then statements either easy or difficult to operationalize? That's a really important piece because we do have to These are actions that we take and we do have to be able to operationalize the if part uh of this theory of action so that we can get to the then part that we can measure. Um and then also, this is not an exact There are only three samples here. There are I mean, tons of samples as theories of actions, and there This is not they don't exactly necessarily encompass everything that we might we might want to see, uh but they do have some things

142to think about. They're They're structured a little bit differently. So, this first one has um some it it I think it uses specific language. It talks about the art of teaching and learning. Um it also has a graphic on the side uh and some theories of action do this in separate parts. There it actually talks about specific um inputs for that that make it uh make it um actually actionable. And then talks about what the um district would be investing in so that and it has a broader then statement talking about critical our students graduating as critical thinking global citizens. And the next couple ones are focused a little more on on specific areas of focus. So, this one uh would be focused more on curriculum instruction. This definitely could be a piece of a

143a theory of action instead of a whole one. Um and then so that the idea here is to improve academic rigor. So, if we provide high-quality standards-aligned curriculum and targeted coaching and collaborative planning time, then teachers will deliver rigorous consistent instruction, which result in increased academic proficiency and closing opportunity gaps for all students. This next one is built the same way, but it focuses on the whole child. It focuses on MTS and really identifying needs of every child and some of those um actions in the if part and then the of getting to the outcomes in the then statements for uh some some things that we see, but also some measurable results. Um and so, I'll give you a few minutes to read over those handouts and then um like everyone has a chance to

144read them, then we can have some Let me know when we're ready to open it up for discussion. All right, any thoughts on similarities or differences that stand out to anyone? I mean, there's three big differences. The first one is the only one that mentions caretakers in the home. The second one is extremely like top-down. If we tell them what to do and they do it, kids will learn. And the third is the only one I see that really incorporates uh you know, cultural responsiveness. Mhm. You're asking for similarities? >> Yeah, just any similarities or differences that stand out to you. Especially in in kind of thinking on >> [sighs] >> would any specific pieces of these make it easy to operationalize, difficult to operationalize? And then the last question, of course, is are there

145any key ideas or structures that are either in here or not in here that we think should be in Austin ISD's theory of action and why? Yeah, and Dr. Maxwell, I think it's [clears throat] always important to just reinforce when we say operationalize, what we're responding to is you know, what the previous iteration of the strategic plan looked like. And and if you think for those that were around back prior to 2020, you know, there was an effort similar to this that progressed to a certain point. Uh and that was really rep it inclu- you know, needed. I think it was it was intended to go from 2020 to 2025. And at the end of the day, what we received or what we built was a um, a mission statement, uh, value, uh, and then

146a series of strategies. When you look at the strategies, they're almost impossible to operationalize. Like I don't you can look at them and and you can sit there and think, okay, well, how what does this mean in Austin ISD? And I think when you look back at that moment and the fact that the pandemic happened and a couple other things, we were never able to truly incorporate what that body of work represented at the time. And we do not want that to happen here. So, you're going to continue to to hear myself and Dr. Maxwell and others talk about, okay, when you say this, this is how we would actually enact that or this is one way that we could consider that so that when it is extreme clarity, when this becomes board policy, you

147know how the administration's going to respond and what's going to happen because these words are now like part of our combined at work. Like I mean, I just wanted to kind of reinforce that because when we talk about operationalizing the the words. So, I have some thoughts. Um, I like the little graphics. They're easy to follow and I think that's actually really important that whatever you do, it should be there should be an a logic that's easy to follow. So, um, this one, our AE local, I didn't really like it. I felt like it was very vague until I got to the one two the one two three four five where it's actually talked about self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship. I was like, okay, that I can I can that resonated with me. Um, because

148it gave me a hint about what we were hoping our students would it centered our students. And I think that's maybe what was missing for me from these is I was like, is this centering the system or is it centering students? Mhm. And what I was missing in was like, what is our belief about students? Um, the only hint of what our belief about students is that shows up is um, that they increase their their outcomes. And I think they're right they're a lot fuller they're a lot more than that. And then, um, then I kind of had this idea. Like I like the if I I understand the if then structure, but I'm wondering, instead of saying, if we provide, wouldn't it be interesting if we instead said something like, if students experience? And

149then it talks about like the actual student experience. Rather than like what that centers the student. Like if the student experiences a sense of belonging or if a student experiences, um, an engaging curriculum or if a student experiences teachers that, um, they can relate to. You know, that represent their ethnic background or you know, whatever it is. It's kind of like it kind of shifts the whole thing. Uh, and so I thought I don't know, I thought that could be a fun sort of brain exercise to to think about. And we'll have the opportunity. I just and and so you know what's coming, we will be like creating some if statements that could be structured that way exactly, right? Mhm. Um, not exactly the prompt between like the similarities and the differences, but in noticing.

150Is that okay? Sure. Um, so, our AE local, um, we haven't always had strong systems that would ensure opportunities for equity. Like if your system's weaker, you can you have gaps and you have spaces where things can fall through the cracks. And so, we've needed dramatic improvement in our systems and I think we're definitely definitely getting there thanks to y'all. Um, and you know, this is managed. This is, uh, this is operating on like a if we build a really good system and we manage it with fidelity, the stuff will like trickle down to kids. Um, which on one hand I'm totally with and then on another hand I'm like, that's not quite the valence or vibe that I'm particularly feeling. Um, I don't want to be managed all the time. Um, I want an

151opportunity to create and to love and to live in the possibilities. And where we are now is we're going to manage the heck out of it and we're going to squeeze that rock until it produces, you know, the the the whatever. And then the whatever is like the kids going to be able to self-regulate. And the kids going to be able to stay in like, forgive me for this, but the kids going to be able to stay in their box. They're going to be able to stay in their lane. They're going to be able to follow this line. They're going to be, you know, they're going to get this student outcome on this test. That's not what I want. Um, for my kids, definitely not for me. Um, so, self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills,

152responsible decision-making, those are all good things. But I don't see a kid like just blooming in the possibility through this. I see a kid who is docile and compliant and follows the rules. And I'm just not not really that's not where where I want to go. Um, so, this is like a highly competent document as it is. And yet I'd love us to push through and operationalize that competence into a sense of opportunity and possibility. Mhm. Um, and that means the teacher training looks a certain way and it means teacher support looks a certain way and teacher expectations look a certain or expectations of teachers look a certain way. And, um, where it hits kids, I really love the framing of an if statement that centers kids first. Mhm. And has us see it through

153the lens of when a kid receives a type of support, this is what we expect to see happen because a rose blooms when watered well sort of thing. Mhm. I would say, um, in response to what's been said and in res- in response to our caller today who said, please don't make this full of eduspeak. Um, the examples I see here, especially the two at the bottom, are pretty eduspeak heavy and I don't think they're going to tell our families who we are, what we believe and why they should choose us. Um, I think it speaks to people who work in a building like this. And, you know, when you say high-quality standards-aligned curriculum, that doesn't mean a lot to our families. When you say robust multi-tiered systems of supports, you have to spend a

154whole lot of time with us to understand what that means. Um, I think the sample theory of action at the top, you know, captures some things, but I don't see how that gets to people graduating with critical thinking skills cuz it doesn't say a whole lot about what is in those that curriculum, what how we are approaching that work. Mhm. Um, we could just prepare kids who are really good at taking a test. You know, it doesn't say a whole lot. Um, culturally responsive gets you a little closer, but it still doesn't say what kids are experiencing in the in the classroom and on the campus. So, um, I do really like the idea of finding a way to capture what we need to capture um, and talk about systems because that is obviously part

155of this, but talk about what that means for our students' experience and define it in a way that gets closer to those hopes and dreams, right? Because what we're really talking about is our hopes and dreams for our students. Um, what do we want our students to get in the 13 years, 14, 15 years they're with us? Um, and what is our hope for them? And and we see it when it works well, right? We see it at graduation. We see it when we go to campuses. We see it when it works well and sometimes we see it when it's, you know, a much more narrow vision of education and and I think we fight hard as a community to have that big, you know, exciting, um, the thing that everyone's really running toward instead

156of just like, okay, this is okay. And and I I really hope we can get to something that speaks a language our community relates to as we're capturing this. And I really love the idea of that student experience. Um, when we do this for students, when our students have this at school. Um, cuz that is what it's about. Thank you. I agree with the call that Trustee Singh put forward for more student specific language in this and more specificity in defining what that student experience is. And I also wonder, based on the examples that you've provided, is that common or is that expected for a theory of action or is there a space to do that within the framework of a theory of action? >> at all. They're just They're They're actually two examples that

157were chosen because they are very different and so it allows for like thinking through different different languages, different um approaches to this. You can look at When you look at this across school districts, they all look very different and so I mean a theory of action in general is a an if-then statement. So, that usually is the structure for a theory of action. Um but as far as districts go or what we're looking for here, these are just two, you know, examples. These were just generated to to think through if we focused on this or if you focused on this, this could be a theory of action. They're actually intentionally like have a very narrow focus for that reason so you could see what it would look like if it has a very narrow focus

158versus if it has a little more of a broad focus um and some different [clears throat] inputs that are going into it. I don't know if you want to add anything else to that. I I think uh yes, you have I think we the board when we arrive at the end, you know, there will be the opportunity to create the tailoring that's required to make it truly Austin uh AISD. I I will always be the person who looks at this and say, "Okay, me as a leader or some future leader or some future administration, how are they going to interpret this?" Because I don't have to look back too far for an attempt to do this and have it not yield what we wanted. And there a lot There's lots of broad language in the

159previous iteration of this that was approved in 2020 to take us through 2025 and certainly the pandemic had an impact, but I don't want us to look back 5 years and say, "Hey, all these things that sounded great because they were too broad and too vague, we were not able to implement." And so I think as long as we're kind of having that conversation and we're understanding what this looks like and how we're interpreting it, I think we'll be in a good spot. Um but you know, we don't have to look too far back to see something that didn't work out so well. And again, the pandemic was huge so I want to acknowledge that. Um I just want to throw six big terms into the mix. Um I just I would like to I

160mean, what I don't see in these that I'd like to see is uh a whole child focus that goes beyond academic outcomes. I would like to see development developmentally appropriate practices that address kids as human beings and learners. Um I would like to see beyond state testing. Meaning yes, we want to give the kids to succeed on state testing, but not at the expense of or not in place of higher outcomes. Um I would like to see a focus on families as partners. Um like the dual capacity framework, but like looking at it as not just as people to be informed to be people to be partners in the their kids' learning. Mhm. Um I would like to see teacher professionalism so we're not deskilling teaching, but we're emphatizing even as we face and uh

161huge number of uncertified teachers and new to the profession that we still honor and focus on developing the teaching as a profession not as robots. >> Mhm. And I would like to see joy in there that we enjoy that learning is done in joyful places through joyful means. So, those are very vague, but I think those are the kind of guiding principles I would like to see in something. So, I have kind of two lines of thinking on this. The first thing is around structure and syntax. Mhm. Um this first one is just to me out of order. You [snorts] This would look exactly like the other one if you said, "If we provide principals, instructional specialists, district-wide, blah blah blah, then we would be supporting the art of teaching and learning which would result

162in students graduating as critical blah blah So, that's just a syntax difference in the structure on this. >> Mhm. And I think it reads better when you do the if, then, and then result. That's very clear and and aligns with taking actions. The way this first one is written is out of order to me. Okay. So, that's That's just a structural comment. Um the other thing that I like about this, you know, I'm still always going to, you know, go back to SBS and scores and kind of the that type of instructional setting. This middle box to me is the setting. You know, if we're looking at a unifying principle across the district, all the classrooms are different. Every school campus is going to be different, but this middle box is kind of the the

163universal element. Every classroom is going to deliver deliver rigorous consistent instruction or every classroom is going to, you know, provide students with specific academic and social emotional inter um interventions in a safe So, there's a setting that promotes the result that you're getting in the third box. And then the first box is how do you create that setting? That's That's the way I see these three and even if I'm restructuring that first one, the setting is an environment that supports the art of teaching and learning, right? It's a little vague on that on that first one what the environment is, but I think if we looked, you know, kind of back-chaining this is, you know, what is the result we really really want? What is the setting that promotes that result? And then how do

164we support creating that setting? You know, that would be to me the way that you would chain those. And you know, how you phrase it whether you're saying we're supporting the teachers that results in the students getting something. If we say the student needs to get this thing, then we back-chain to what do we do to support the student getting that thing? Um but all of those to me in that middle box is is the key component is, you know, we're going to be successful if we create this type of learning environment. And I think that ties into um Trustee Kauffman's comments about, you know, I want an environment that's joyful. I want an environment that's engaging. I want an environment where the student feels safe. Um because again, I think those are some of

165the critical elements for a student being um not not just the student, but the student being receptive to learning and the teacher being able to teach to the best of their ability. I think that there's some strong environmental factors and then the if we provide is how do we support the staff? How do we support the students? How do we, you know, even in the physical sense, create that environment so that then we can have that performance that results in our in our outcome that we're looking for. Um last thing I'll say on that is, you know, again to beat my drum here is I I would have kids come back to scores or SBS doing turnarounds or doing, you know, uh you know, that they they kind of in for the rest of the

166day and they would perform well in my classroom because we were consistent. And the issue is they would go out to classes and every classroom was slightly different. And beyond just the normal scope of variation, you know, when people have different rules and different expectations, you know, that's very difficult for students. So, if that's the outlier, what I'm looking for is what is the consistent setting that we're sending these students to? And again, I I think safe, you know, obviously good instruction, but you know, safe, joyful, welcoming so that they can then perform. And that's how I would look at framing this. Mhm. Okay. Any other thoughts on this part? Um yeah. Yeah, so when I when I look at this and um yeah, hearing Dr. Kauffman and Trustee Guerra y Estades' feedback, um you

167know, I think there there are guidelines that that do this. So, what our families are like So, MTSS and all these other things are tracking um referrals. That's all like super specific and that's stuff we're already required to do and our families want us doing beyond beyond those requirements. So, um and I I strongly believe that if we follow um human development and family science proven practices, I mean, this isn't just a belief. This is This is proven that if our students have what they need, they will achieve the outcomes that the state requires us to above and beyond what the state requires for them. And these standards already exist. They're already evidence-based at a national level. You have NAEYC, um the National Association for the Education of Young Children, and you have AMLE, the

168uh oh gosh, it's the for the middle school. It's for adult adolescents of up to ninth. So, there's already these standards um that exist and that are really affordable because this is just a group These are just the experts who are doing it. So, I think looking at those experts and having our our schools and our be a place where we are training professional experts. That's what teachers will want to stay here. They'll want to come here. Um right now, I think a lot of the developmental appropriateness comes from the I would say the campuses and parents. Like the teachers and parents want that and they feel like they're having to fight for it within our really restrictive state system. Uh or from from the district where there's having to be this compliance. So, I

169want a theory of action that um develops that and and allows it. So, when I see stuff that's like, "Oh, they really consistent instruction." I don't know what that I want expert instruction. I want, you know, in you in your class it was you were consistent. You were an expert. It wasn't that every scores classroom has to look exactly the same. It was But what was consistent was the safety was was those things. So, I think it's something that's so beyond above and beyond. I walk into one class and they're finishing the sentence of someone else. Um so, I really hope that this is an opportunity to have um to have that that North Star be something else than the literal s t a a r. >> [laughter] >> Okay. Thank you. Um we actually

170combined uh what we were going to do next cuz we already started looking at our district's um theory of action, which is really just kind of a look at that, what we have currently. Um if you haven't taken a look and and thinking through uh it is there is there something that, you know, we are seeing it in this conversation that we're talking about that is missing from our current theory of action. Um cuz I don't know if you want to devote time for that specific instruction if you just want to go on to creating a then statement, some then statements, and some So, then in that order. We're going to start with student what we want to see in our students as the ultimate goal, and then um from that backwards design. If we

171do that, then what are the actions we need to take to really make sure that our students get there in the end. Do you want to take time on our current theory of action or do you just want to move on to the then statement? Crafting some then >> love to speak about our current theory of action, which I was not on the board when this happened. I was a a community member, and I think a lot of people didn't love the process. Okay. Um and I'm not sure it says a lot. And I'm not sure I think it's probably a to me a good thing to start fresh and think about what we're looking at and where we want to go rather than where we've been. Can I Can I ask a question on

172that? What was the process at the time? I Do you remember? We can talk about it later. It was a consultant who hadn't >> [laughter] >> We'll We'll talk about it later. It just I I don't feel like it was I wasn't the only one who felt that way, and there were probably people who loved the process, but I don't I'm not sure we're in a very different place. Um and I would love to start fresh. Sure. I apologize. Now I understand my confusion cuz I was responding when I read the compared the the different theories of action, I was I put ours in the mix. So, I was jumping ahead. I guess I made clear that I don't like our current theory >> [laughter] >> Right. Yeah, that's our that's our current one. Any

173other thoughts on that before we move on to then statements? Okay. I I thought one thing that was interesting um just an observation that I had as I've moved into this role and in my previous role is a very few people in the organization actually knew what our theory of action was. Um my hope is that when we get to a point where we actually have it defined, if it's one or two or three, whatever it ends up being for us, like we collectively know what it is, our leaders know what it is, we can speak to it, like we you know it this just didn't become that for whatever reason. Good. And I [clears throat] I don't even know if people knew that it was in our policy. And so, I think this is

174a unique opportunity, and and I I think you'll see us begin to talk about it in that way once we get to that point. >> Mhm. Okay. And I would say like on onto that, I would say more more than just like oh, everyone knows it like it's this like scary weird chant or something that we do. Like everyone feels proud of it, feels ownership in You know, like this is something we all like. >> [laughter] >> Um I think that's exactly right. I mean, I I think No, that's all well said. So, you would suggest us starting with the students? Absolutely. Yeah, that's that's what it needs to I I would suggest that starting with the then statements, thinking about our students first, and then and then the actions that we would take um

175as a as a board, as a district, as a as a community that we eventually agree on like these are the actions, these are the critical actions that we will take to make sure that our students have this outcome. So, this next exercise is about that. Uh fast forward 5 years, um if the district is wildly successful, what will be true about all of our students that is not true today? And so, let me let me also just say a little bit about that statement. Not saying what what isn't true about any of our students today, but rather every single one of our students we would want this to be true about each and every student. So, some students it may be true about today, but some it may not be true about today, which

176means those are the things that we need to define. What actions should we take then to make sure every student um is is this in the end, right? Um so, this is an activity called think ink pair share. So, you're going to think first uh a little bit your on your own. You're going to write You're going to That's the ink part. Um what you think some t- top two suggestions that are outcomes, and those are the then statements. You're going to pair up uh with whoever you're sitting next to or if you want to talk with a a board member across the room, that's certainly fine. Um and then just share what you have. You may think you sometimes you just listen to what somebody else has said, and so you might revise what

177you have a little bit uh cuz we learn from each other when we get to talk about things. And then we're going to actually be able to each share out, and as we share out, uh I'm going to go ahead and record transcribe what you're saying so that we are transcribing all the possible then statements that we could have. I'm saying top two uh then statements, you just may have a top one then statement that you think this, if we just did this thing, that that would be good. So, at least one uh per board member, and and maybe two up to two. Um and then we're going to do a little activity where we um prioritize those then statements to really think through which of the pieces that we really would want to uh

178be incorporated into an ultimate then statement. So, think about those most important outcomes for our students. Um these are these are all measurable outcomes, but they are also um larger than just measurable by assessments. We How would we know that a student is ready for post-secondary? Maybe something yes, we can measure with CCMR, but there could be other things that we see in our students that we think, okay, this student is now ready for life. Um and then write those two your top at least one or two then statements down on a uh you can write use a post-it note or some scratch paper that you have, and then we'll pair up in just a minute to discuss. So, I'll give you a few minutes to write those, and then we'll we'll pair up. Any

179clear? Does that make sense? Then statements that we want. Okay. >> students as well or then students Yeah, I think then we I guess we think of the students experience framing um then students would experience reduced performance gaps. for student populations. I feel bad cuz this is like way too flowery and it's a lot of words. Do I need another piece of chart paper? >> [laughter] >> But for me, but this is this is what I believe. So I'll just read it first before you >> Okay, maybe I'll then so you can truncate it. Then students will be able to tell you with confidence and joy what they are going to do after high school and will have the knowledge and skills and dispositions to realistically get there. Okay. Then students will be able to

180tell you I mean we could write it as is. I don't think we need to >> with confidence and joy I mean might need to write smaller though. Then students will be able to tell tell you with confidence and joy Communicate so yeah, tell you. Sure. tell you with confidence and joy Mhm. what they are going to do after school or after high school after they leave us after after high school. Will they be able to get there? Mhm. And will have the knowledge and skills and dispositions to get there. Okay. >> We'll call it the KSD framework, trademark it, make it all edgy-speaky. Thank you. Who's next? Yeah, and part of the reason I thought of that is cuz I remember I was like, "I know I've had this conversation before." But a couple

181of scorecards ago >> [laughter] >> this was one of our goals, and we came up with a very complicated way to measure it. I don't even know if you were part of all of that. >> not part of this. But um but I actually did kind of like it because it was something that wasn't just a test score, but it showed that students developed a competency and an interest besides academics. So, we were looking at if they did like a CTE or if they did um music or sport or something over multiple years. >> Mhm. I see. Yeah. Yeah. I see that. Andrea and I both had one that was more narrow that um than every student will be connected to at least one trusted adult on campus. One of us said one, and one

182of us said two. And it's measurable because we have campuses already who that are choosing to measure it. Um and to build on what Trustee Whiteley has said about the NIAC and the AEMLY the high school kind of analog to that as schools of opportunity. And that's one of the things that they really um have found is a really strong measure of schools that really work for students. So, I had I had students would be active and engaged in their educational process. And I think that was a broad umbrella for a whole bunch of metrics that you could do, you know, you could look at attendance, you could look at course completion, you could look at graduation rates, student retention, you know, kind of across the board. Um but the idea of being that students

183are actively engaging in the educational process every day. Right. Um what occurs to me is that students have needs all the time. So, an outcome is that students get what they need when they need it. And that's very vague, but that's kind of needs to be vague because what they need could be academic, what they need could be uh therapeutic, what they need could be There's so many things. But it is not true today that kids get what they need when they need it. And that's a great challenge. Okay, then Oh. Can somebody give me a mic? When they need it, right? What they need when they need it. And I have one that's not um specifically a student outcome, but is an outcome that profoundly impacts our students, which is uh that every student

184will attend a school where parents are engaged as partners. Yeah, then every student will attend a school where parents are engaged as partners. Okay, another one somebody would like to share? Did we get through? Mhm. Um then students will have the tools and confidence Then students will have the tools and confidence to uphold our democracy. Mhm. >> [sighs] >> Uh Okay, did we capture all the then statements? Andrea I like this. Um then students will be Microphone, please. Then students will be active, creative, critical-thinking learners. Okay, active, creative, critical-thinking. One of these keeps going up. Critical-thinking learners, I think. Okay, did that capture all of them so far? I have another one about belonging, which is uh that then every student will be engaged in coursework or extracurricular uh beyond the basics or beyond what's

185required. Capturing something about being part of a community, having a sense of belonging, and and to what Trustee Oduye was saying about um being active and engaged in their education. Uh I just said uh then every student will be engaged in coursework or extracurricular beyond the basics or beyond what's required. Everyone will have a thing. Sorry. Sorry, I had to look back again uh to see. Okay, um I think if we Did we capture all of the then statements? Everyone's Looks good? Okay. Uh can we put the Yeah, thank you. Um Okay, last piece here is to uh do an activity that helps us visualize consensus. So, what student outcomes of all of these, what student then what then statements Thank you. I think we're Yeah. Uh what uh then statements do you think are

186the most important? We're going to use affinity dots for this. So, in your folder, you have colored dots, you have more than you need, but you can't use all of your dots. You can only use up to three cuz you have to prioritize. What would what would be the three that you think are the top ones that absolutely should be included? And once we Color does not matter. >> [snorts] >> Yes, come up to the chart and put your dot next to the statement. >> [snorts] >> Okay, so that helps us just see which ones we would prioritize most because we can't choose everything, right? Uh, you know, four dots on this one four dots on this one, I think we would definitely prioritize. Uh, and then look through. We've definitely got three dots on

187some of them. This one clearly has the most, right? So, we would want to, as we're going back after this as we're going back after this, uh, we would definitely want to as a group take a look at these again as administration and board members and think through, okay, what would this how would we word Smith these things together then to capture a then statement that really does uh, show what we prioritized and then, uh, kind of really demonstrate what we want in our students as ultimate outcomes. Okay, and then, uh, I know we're running a little bit behind, so I think the next activity is identifying uh, oh, sorry, that was my computer and not the I did I put it in my pocket? Yes. Uh, create coming up with some uh, if statements.

188So, uh, thinking through based on these prioritized then statements if we were going to craft some if statements then think through the actions that we would need to take as a district that would get us to these prioritized then statements, get us to what this would look like for ultimate student outcomes. So, as an example, and I just pulled these from the, um, sample theories of actions that we already had, if we invest in principals instructional leaders of their campuses, if we provide quality standards aligned curriculum, we had another option earlier, if students experience, right? You could word it that way, but starting with that if statement and then but some kind of action that we are doing on our parts that would result in the outcome for our students. So, each of you will

189write three if statements on sticky notes and then we're going to group all of the put all those sticky notes together and then group them into themes for our last activity. So, three if statements for the actions that we would take each on a separate each on a separate sticky note. Give you about one more minute. Okay, so, >> [clears throat] >> uh, as soon as you finish your three sticky notes, there blank chart papers over there just to give you some space. You can put all of the notes on the chart paper and then you as a as a uh, group will look through the sticky notes and group them together by theme. So, as example up here let's say you there are three different notes about, uh, teacher professional development and two more

190that have to do with teacher coaching, that becomes a theme. You put all five notes together and the theme is building teacher capacity. So, we're going to end up with some themes around the if statements. Trusty things. I just got volunteered for that. [laughter] Okay. >> [snorts] [laughter] >> Maybe we'll have some volunteers from the dais that want to come up and put them together as themes. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, that'd be great. >> [laughter] [laughter] [snorts] >> Uh and Dr. Kaufman's already started. And then will one of y'all uh Pace or Wilson or Emerson, will y'all take a uh a chart paper, um pen, and just identify what the theme is and write it above it or right next to the group. >> [snorts] >> Okay. I think what we'll do is go ahead

191and and uh wrap up. We're going to end up with three buckets, three different buckets. Okay. Um So, ideally, right, you come up with very specific if statements, but they're usually emerge some common themes. And so, you would think, okay, how would we be able to use these separate if statements and incorporate some of the language in these if statements that go with these common themes to create a strong if statement that, for example, I can't read all the Well, I see the last one says teacher support and development that focuses around teacher support and development, but it has some specificities specificity from those if statements that's connected, right? So, you got some themes that help you prioritize, and then um next step along with uh writing the then statement that reflects the prioritization here,

192you would write some if statements that reflect uh the themes of the if statements that we got tonight. So, I think we have four buckets. What are they? So, Dr. Wilson, will you read the buckets to me, left? Student-centered classrooms with real-world learning experiences. Okay. Family and community engagement. Curriculum academic support. Okay. Okay. Uh-huh. Mhm. Whole child development. So, that might It doesn't They don't If it doesn't group with another one, then it would just be its own theme. Mhm. Okay. Uh Safe inclusive teaching learning environment teaching and learning environments and then teacher support and development. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much, ladies and board members. Appreciate that. Um Okay, so we talked about this a little bit um at the at the beginning, but we'll talk about um next steps again.

193So, a little bit of that process there, now we'd go back and start developing a proposed theory of action um and and draft some if-then statements that represent what we did what the work what the work that we did here, and then go through a feedback refinement and stress testing where we're collecting additional feedback uh doing some logic tests. Does X actually logically lead to Y? Uh are we missing a a big variable? And then a resource check, um which is a big piece of it. Do y'all feel like that accurately represents the themes? Tuning to find a mic. But I don't wear a tie. I was wondering if um if it's artificial or if it makes sense that these end up being grouped in a a kind of way that's kind of holistic. So,

194we didn't end up with this, but you could have like admin, campus, classroom, or something like that. Okay. >> Like different levels at which you would do these sort of actions. But shaped out to be like parent, community Mhm. um teachers and I don't know, I'd have to think it through, but I want I wonder if if holism works for a theory of action. So, in other words, if at this level it's parents, if at this level it's community, if at this level it's kids, something like that. I don't know if it groups that way when you play with it. It might. Or or if that's even important. Mhm. Well, I think um in the process uh and I think this is describes it this way, too, you could come up with a couple of

195versions of uh theory of action that might capture it a few different ways and see which one really more reflects the thinking of the group. Um and then ultimately uh final piece would be adoption alignment um into board policy into our local policy and really start setting that vision for um how we think about teaching and learning and and build build everything from there. So, uh last questions. I know we're running over time here. So, anything else that you hope this process includes or considers or any additional thoughts, questions, um things that you want us to consider moving forward? I would just say that I I really appreciate this activity and exercise and the thoughtfulness around its construction and I really like I think Superintendent Segura, you said something about like living into this. I

196would want us to if we spend this time and encumber folks time that we create something that truly reflects who we are, truly reflects our aspirations and our hopes and our sort of visionary guidance as a board, and that it becomes like a a document that's breathed. And, you know, kind of something that like so many of us are like a a a local like I had to reread it and like I was kind of kind of [snorts] appalled. And, maybe that's why I haven't read it in 4 years. But, I would love a document that I actually go back to. And that a principal or a teacher or a or a principal like a even a student could pick it up and like see themselves and feel good about it and be like, "This

197is my district." So, I I'd I'd like this process as something that creates something that we truly take on. Yeah, [snorts] I I I think there's something interesting really you said and I think you're certainly reinforcing it. But, when we get to the point where we have theories of action that are in our board policy, I would expect as we present to the board or lay out budget items or talk about initiatives, you'll be able to crosswalk that aspect of the work with like these elements within the theories of action. Right? It should It should be embedded within our system even to the point where when you look at documents, right, that we're producing in the administration, they clearly tie back to an element in it. Like there are best practices. There are entities that

198do that. Um some school districts, not many, but if you do do that and you get to that point, I then think you have a a truly like sound system where everybody understands how it's all connected and I I think just generally speaking that's not hasn't been the case for us. Uh so, I I'm I'm right there with you. I I totally agree. And also, I know we're talking about next steps, so maybe other things that you'd want to incorporate. So, we presented before a road map of the overall effort. Um this is one like aspect of it and I think as Dr. Maxwell mentioned earlier, it's important to reinforce the programmatic component, right, which is going to consume a lot of time. Right? With our with our community, with with you all, and there'll

199be space for it, you know, dual language, you know, magnet programs, single gender programs, you know, early child I mean uh other college high schools like all of it. Right? That is a big big thing that we have to talk about. Um and uh and so, that is also part of the larger body of work. So, I just want to remind everybody like this is one piece of it. We presented previously on a road map. There's more details in here, uh but certainly want to hear feedback not only on this piece, but all the other pieces and and that may just require more time with the document, right? No big But, um wanted to make sure that was clear. We good? I I would just say one thing for the hope on this process would

200be that particularly around this theory of action that the final product is very intelligible, like very accessible. Um you know, just throwing out there as a a metric like I I would be really happy if our final statement was something that the average middle schooler in our district would be able to understand by the time they're, you know, those 3 years that they have a a complete understanding of it so that they understand what they're doing in high school. Um we're listed for an executive session. I don't think there is anything can't miss or do you have something we have to talk about? >> I I 5 minutes is all I need. >> Okay. Yeah. Okay, we're going to have a very brief executive that's okay. Okay, so we will now recess the open meeting

201at 9:16 p.m. move to a 5-minute very brief executive session pursuant to Texas Government Code Sections 551.074, 551.072, 551.073, 551.087, 551.076, 551.0821, and 551.071. When we finish with executive session, we'll briefly return to the open session to formally adjourn the meeting and the adjournment will be recorded and included in all replays of tonight's meeting. Okay, we will now reconvene at 9:38 p.m. Do I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? So moved. Uh okay, the meeting is adjourned at 9:38 p.m.