Sunset Valley Elementary School Community Meeting: October 21, 2025

001All right. Good afternoon, Sunset Valley families, staff members, and community members. My name is Elena Varo. I'm your very, very proud principal, and I just want to thank you. I just want to thank everyone um from the bottom of my heart for taking time out of your busy day to attend this community meeting to just get more informed, feel um like you had an opportunity to voice opinion, ask a question. I'm very thankful for Matia Seura, our amazing superintendent, and his leadership team um for scheduling this and their agendas and creating this opportunity for all of us. So, I'm going to transition um the microphone to Christina Gwyn, who will um go over our norms and some logistical things for our meeting. Okay. Hi everyone. Um, thank you so much for being here. I'm just

002going to kick off the meeting with a little housekeeping. So, if everyone uh or anyone needs to go to the restroom, I'm sure many of y'all know where to go because this is your school, but if you don't, it's right out um this door and around the right corner. Um, so we'll have our agenda. We just did the principal welcome. Um, I'll go through some of the meeting norms, some introductions, and then we'll get right to it with a little bit of an overview of um, what we're here to discuss. And then we have pulled some of the comment card information. And we'll go through some of the comment card uh, questions and answers, and then we'll open it up for a larger discussion. And I do want to just start off, I know um,

003Matias may say it too, but just thank you to this community. y'all have been so communicative and uh so open with us and we really appreciate it and I think it's going to set us up for a really strong conversation today. So with these are the meeting norms and I won't read every single thing but I'll um kind of read through the um bold. So we are building the future together. Um this is a really hard conversation. These are really hard uh spaces to be in and I think even acknowledging just that that we are all working together is really important. Um honoring time. So we're trying to keep it to at least a minute. We have about an hour and a half here. Um and so if we can just make sure to um

004think through how making sure how we can get as many people um on the mic or get their questions answered as possible, that would be great. Um honor each other. um honor process, honor intent and impact, honor space and voice and stay solutionoriented and then embrace transparency and empathy. Again, really difficult conversations and I think if we can just come to it um with that empathy, it's going to be really important to finish. Um so again with the meeting purpose, we are here to answer questions and talk about those future solutions. So, we will be going through some of the comment card um submissions. There were quite a few and so our team has really gone through and pulled some some have multiple um people that have submitted them and so we've kind of looped

005them into one question. Um and then we just want to again get a shared understanding of the rationale and then gain some insights as we move forward towards that next deliverable um that'll be coming out next week and then also uh as we work towards that final proposal next month. And so with that, I'm going to hand it straight over to our superintendent here. Use this one. >> I don't know how to turn that one on. >> Oh, it is. Okay. you can. >> Well, um, so first off, I just want to say thank you, uh, for being here this afternoon. Um, and also want to acknowledge just how difficult this conversation is. Uh, you know, I'm I am someone who deeply deeply loves our schools. Um, and many of y'all may not know, but

006I'm from South Austin. I grew up just down the road. My kids went to Sunset Valley. Um, I had my first parent teacher conference here in this building. Um, I walked the halls all the way through and I I just want you to know like um this is hard. It's hard for lots of individuals in our community and also within our staff. Uh I'm hopeful that you know we can have a conversation and we can talk about you know all the things. But I want you to know like I am committed to doing this the right way no matter how difficult it is. And what we're attempting to do is to evolve as a school system and get to a place where our precious resources, and they are precious, um are allocated to our students

007and to our school communities that need them most and at the same time provide academic experiences for all of our students across the city of Austin. And when we talk about what that looks like, it's having strong neighborhood schools. And we can define what that is. And I want to be really honest, like we have incredible schools everywhere, but not every student is getting what they need to be academically successful. And that's not a the fault of this administration or this board. It is a compounding effect of 144 years of decisions that were made before this moment. And so when we talked about what this looks like, we talked about a plan that was going to address multiple things. And this plan does that. Um, and it's not a perfect plan. There's no such thing.

008But we wanted to align feeder patterns. There are parts of Austin, you know, some in West Northwest Austin that have clear feeders where the entire middle school goes to the high school. You see that at Merkasen and Anderson. You see it at O'Henry and Austin High. You see it at Kuritzky and Buoie. Where do you not see it? You don't see it in East Austin. You have middle schools that go to four and five high schools. Communities get broken up. PTAs can't stay together. It's incredibly disruptive and we have never as a school system taken that on. This plan addresses that. We also have to acknowledge that there is a strain in our stability from a financial perspective. You know that we've been running a deficit budget and we'll have conversations around well Matias like

009what did you do like two years ago or five years ago? I want you to know that we the board and myself have been very intentional about paying for the things that align with our values. and shedding the things that we know we could and still protect our schools. And we did that for the last two years. And we're at a point now with the disruptions at the federal level, the compress the pressure we have from the state, we simply cannot continue without introducing real risk into our system, financial risk. And I want to be really, really clear. One of the things that causes the Texas Education Agency to act in many cases is not accountability. It's financial solveny. right? The first rating and we can talk about that. And so this plan attempts right

010to reduce the number of empty seats we have in our school system and that includes boundaries and consolidations. It also attempts to not overburden any one specific part of Austin. you know, over last, I would say 20 years, there's a real argument to be made that the East Austin and Eastern Crescent really kind of took the majority of the burden when it came to any systematic improvement. And so because we're also looking at programmatic moves, in this case, wall-to-wall dual language, we're able to position programs to be successful for years to come, create um access for those students, emerging bilingual students specifically, who haven't had it, and ultimately do two things, right? Position the schools programmatically to be successful and not overburden anyone side of the city. uh when it comes to consolidations. The other

011thing that it does is we are in a real real struggle right now to address accountability. So you all know that 23 24 and 25 accountability ratings came out within three or within five months of each other, right? And yes, there's been disruptions in the systems and yes, we've moved the system. You know, we three three or four years ago, we had, you know, 70% teacher retention rate. Now we're at 88%. When I first came on board, we hired 24 principles. Now we're hiring between five and six a year. The system has really responded and we're seeing outcomes move. But unless we address these turnaround plans, and we can talk about what those are as we move forward, we risk our ability to maintain local control. And I tell when I tell you this, it

012is really important for me as a leader of this organization to ensure that our trustees, the people that you elected, have the ability to continue to determine how we educate our 70,000 students here in Austin ISD. And if you look around the state, it is a real risk. It's not something I am um willing to to kind of diminish. I'm honest about it. We're going to own it and we're going to take it on and we're going to ultimately be successful. But I want you to know that this plan considers that movement as well. The last thing I'll say is there have been challenges within our tr uh transfer policies and they're just messy, y'all. Uh we have transfer policies that have we've had to, you know, really kind of retire because they weren't compliant

013legally. We have some that were made, you know, in years past that have drawn students from East Austin to different parts of Austin. we have um transfer policies and procedures that have overenrolled some schools that should never been overenrolled, right? And so we really have to take a good look at that and this plan considers that as well. I want you to know that um all of this is coming together in a very multiaceted complex plan. But I will say that if you took any one of these things in isolation, it would not look the same. It just wouldn't. And we can talk about what that would look like. Um, I'll cover this slide and then I'll have Christine um talk about uh kind of more details, but for um Sunset Valley Elementary School, as

014you all know, the plan um includes the movement of the wall-to-wall dual language program to ODM Elementary School uh within the zip code. Um I know that community very very well. uh and it attempts to move the um access um from where it currently is for emerging bilingual students to a place where we have a higher population. We know where they live, right? Right. And we also know that it is um historically been uh challenging for those families to get access to these schools. And when you think about where for wall-to-wall dual language wallto-all language programs are and their current emerging bilingual student populations, they are moving in the wrong direction and they're they're low. And so um this this plan will ultimately add more seats. And because we have to assign students who are

015currently assigned to Sunset Valley, we are reassigning those students to both Boone and to Cunningham, both incredible neighborhood schools. Um, and I I just want you to know that we don't look at anyone school in isolation. I know there'll be questions about Jocelyn, there'll be questions around Boone and Cowan and others. We look at the region as a whole and understand that we have to think about how any one of these moves impacts the others. We'll share with you our logic and our approach. And again, it's not perfect. We are able to refine and make adjustments. Um, but I I wanted you to to kind of know the thought process for how we got here. Uh, and the driving factors um that we wanted to make sure were considered as part of this plan. So,

016Christine, you want to kind take us to the next? >> Yeah. Thank you, Superintendent Sigura. Hi, everyone. My name is Christine Steampport. I'm the operations officer for Austin ISD. So, I'm just going to take you through a few slides which you probably already know, but I wanted to kind of get us on the same page here. And I know that we want to have a lot of Q&A today. So, I'll kind of go through these quickly so we can get to that. So, um, as we know as a part of this proposal, what would this mean for my school, Sunset Valley? Um, the building would be closed, proposed to be closed, and the neighborhood students would be reassigned to Cunningham and Boone Elementary. And that's if you are living in these new boundaries. and we'll

017get to what that looks like. I know Superintendent Sigura just spoke a little bit about the schoolwide dual language program and how that would be moving and how we're going to have district-wide um choice programs. So, that's something different for Austin ISD and we'll get into that a little bit more as well. But so that this technical pro this technical school program would be reassigned essentially to ODM Elementary. Next slide. So, if you live in the Sunset Valley uh elementary current zone, like I said before, you can apply you can um either choose to go to your zone school or you can apply for a priority seat at the um schoolwide dual language program at ODM. Uh if you're a transfer, you can continue, you can return to your zone school or apply for a

018priority seat at the schoolwide dual language program at ODM. and we have made it very very um clear that we want we have enough seats not only for the emergent bilingual students living in the ODM zone but also the program students here at Sunset Valley. So just wanted to be really clear with that as well. Um next slide when I'll bring us to the boundaries and so this is just showcasing some of the collateral documents that we had in the proposal and that proposed package as you'll see on the left this was the Sunset Valley boundary as it currently is. And then on the right, this would be the reassignments if you will. So the green here is now the reassignment. If you live in this area, you would be reassigned zone to Cunningham. And

019then in the pink area, the hatched. If you live in this zone, you would be reassigned to Boone. And so those are kind of some of what that looks like there. Um, next slide. So we're let's get to the meat and bones of it. I'm going to pass it to Christina and she's going to start us off on our Q&A. And so we're going to start with some comment cards and some larger themes of what we've heard from you all. And I want to echo her sentiments, too. It has been an amazing feedback and organization that you all have had, and we appreciate the thoughtfulness and the thoroughess of your communication. So, I just wanted to say that, echo that as well. >> Okay. And before we get into it, I'm going to put some

020of our trustees on the spot to welcome them and thank them for coming. So, we have our uh board secretary, Andrew Gonzalez, and then our um district 7 trustee, Dr. Kaufman. So, thank you for being here. [Applause] Okay, so we're going to get into the comment cards. Um first question, will all of Sunset Valley fit at ODM if current students stay for DL programming and other schools like Becker families also choose ODM over Sanchez? So, >> thank you so much. Thank you for being here and it's nice to see some familiar faces from the last meeting where we were here. So my name is Evette Gardinas and I have the honor of supporting campuses with multilingual education and early learning. So to answer this question and we heard uh Miss Steampport say that we do

021have enough seats at ODM for if we just basically took all of the students that are participating in dual language at ODM elementary and took all of the students that are participating in dual language here in Sunset Valley. We would have enough seats for for both campuses. Um the other question um is about like schools like Becker. So, I do want to say also that we have a commitment to uh really prioritize, right, the families from Sunset Valley to be able to go into ODM. So, just wanted to make sure. >> Yeah. And just to put a finer point on it, we made a commitment to um uh reduce wherever we could any disruption and I certainly recognize and our trustees have committed to me clearly that anytime that you break up a community uh

022that's a disruption and so that is not our goal. That's not our intent. Um, we know that this plan includes a move and so our objective would be to as holy as possible those who chose to continue together all gu be guaranteed a spot at ODM. Uh, but I also want to acknowledge as based on the comment that there's questions from other wall-to-wall deluage programs. If that was the case, uh you all or the those who are here at Sensit Valley would be approved automatically and then they would be a a priority um kind of below if that makes any sense because we want to make sure we provide the space here. Now for the Becker transition to S Sanchez Elementary School, the inverse would be true, right? where they would have perhaps the guaranteed

023transfer and then if a Sunset Valley student or family wanted to go to Sanchez, they would be prioritized just right behind them, but that would be way above all the other transfers that we would be considering. So, we are wanting to be very intentional. We making adjustments. I know some of the language in here is a little softer than you probably want to hear, and that's because we're really intentional about version control. We've already been able to make adjustments on transfer language, committing to um uh different things that weren't in the original plan. We just I can say that verbally that we're getting very close. I just can't say yet that it's um it's in the plan, but I can promise you that it's very very close and that's the direction that we intend to

024go. >> Okay. Most of our emergent bilingual families are zoned and walk to our campus. Will they be given the transportation to ODM to ensure they can take advantage of this opportunity to move with the community? Sunset Valley is more than two miles from ODM, though not each family may be two miles away. This is a high equity priority for our campus and a way to ensure the community and strength of the program remains. Thank you, Christina. Um, in our original version, we did not have that included, but that is something that, as Superintendent Sakura is alluding to, we're hearing very loud and clear that that's very important to families. And so, that's some considerations that we're doing, not only just with Sunset Valley, but with other schools as well and looking at, okay, uh,

025if that can be done right, what are the cost things associated with that? So, that's something that we're still looking at. Um, but we've heard loud and clear that that's very important to many of those communities. >> Yeah. And so just to I don't want to just to be really precise about this with the four elementary schools that are receiving Walto language programs you know Wooten Pickle Sanchez and ODM one of the things that we are very close to being able to incorporate is committing to having transportation with within that area to ensure that our emerging bilingual students have access. Right. So being close is helpful, but until they have transportation, it may not be um at a point where we know they'll take advantage of it. Uh and because we're moving towards a district-wide

026um solution, uh that typically wouldn't be provided, but that is an adjustment that we um are heavily considering and I think we'll be able to get there. This question seems to me as though if there's an emerging bilingual student who is outside of the receiving attendance boundary and perhaps not even living within Sunset Valley attendance boundary, what that would look like. And in that case, it would be very nuanced. Um I can't say for certain that we'd be able to provide um transportation. Um that's not something we have currently in policy. Um, you know, I recognize um the challenges that may bring uh but that specific element of that question. Uh we don't have the ability to provide transportation in that instance. Um you know, just because of kind of the cost associated with it

027and the fact that it may be just one or two students. But we would then look to see, okay, where does that student reside? Is there a dual language um opportunity that is closer to that student or do one of these other wall-to-wall dual language programs actually offer um you know just uh access in a different way than the ODM would. So I it is top of mind uh and why will we go through the process the transitional matter we'll make those adjustments and move forward. >> Because ODM will be nonzoneed will all graduates then metriculate to their different middle schools or is the district planning a dual language feeder pattern as well? How soon will we know what the plan is for that feeder? This will help ease famil family's concerns. >> Yeah, thank

028you so much. That's a great question that's been coming up. And again, as we've said, we are reading all the comments on the comment cards, um all the feedback that's coming in. So, we are looking at feeders, right? We've heard Superintendent Sagura talk about feeders for other campuses, specifically for our um own zone campuses. We're also looking to establish feeders. So that that is something that we're currently um mapping out and um and so again I'll just share with you we are also looking at kind of natural feeders right of where a school would go to um but those are still pieces of conversation that we're having. We understand again it's important for continuation of program right so that is something that we are considering as we're having these conversations. >> Okay. Thank you. Okay.

029Now, I am extremely worried about my other daughter who received special education, speech therapies, and thanks to the teachers and therapists who have helped us with the whole process, my daughter has received help since she was 2 years old. She has started school at three and that is a huge advantage that she has had. How can we be sure that this sense of community and support will not be affected? >> So, I'm going to introduce Dr. Cherry Lee um who is our assistant superintendent of special education. She's been the person who's been leading all of our work in the response to TA agreed order and really stabilizing our system. I do want to point out um that the allocation of staff is not something when it comes to uh you know those individuals who are

030certified whether it's diagnosticians or um you know teachers that are uh certified those are in her purview not in the talent and strategy purview because sometimes we there are questions around you know will the plan doesn't include uh special education staff transitioning and that is because we place staff based on student need and that is a different process that is within her purview placement of staff that support students who receive special education services not in the same purview as Brandy Hosk who's our um talent strategy officer who oversees the all the other um placement of staff. So that's one of the I think little clarifications I want to make before you took over the floor. >> Thank you. Thank you for being here uh this afternoon. And so to this question, all speech therapy, occupational

031therapy, physical therapy, dyslexia intervention, behavior supports, personal care services, which it could include nursing will continue with the child. The child's IEP or their individualized education program will guide all the services and supports that that student receives. So for students receiving special education that are at a that is at a campus that is going to be consolidated once the plan is approved, we will be holding ARD meetings which are the meetings where we determine those specialized services for students with families in the spring so we can make any adjustments as needed. And those services will follow the child to the students newly zoned campus. For families that are opting to stay with the dual language program or a language immer im immersion program, we will determine if those services can be provided at that campus.

032There's a few specialized services that include early childhood special education and life skill service programs that are not offered at every single elementary school. Right? Life skills in a full continuum of services is offered at every single middle school and high school. But life skills and early childhood special education services are not offered at every single one of our elementary schools. So there may be some unique circumstances where we are considering a centralized placement at another school for those specific services. But again, speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, behavior intervention supports, those services are provided at all of Austin ISD campuses. >> Thank you. What is the plan for the transition of special education teachers? Can you say if there are not included in the flowcharts of the plans presented? And I think that's what

033Yeah. >> Yeah. So, we are carefully looking at all of those uh staffing allocations right now and at this time there is no plan to reduce the number of positions uh for special education uh teachers or teaching assistants or speech pathologists and we'll be looking very very carefully um to determine where those persons will be serving. Many of our providers like our speech therapists and our occupational therapists, our diagnosticians, our school psychologists are serving at several campuses. Now, they might not be serving just one campus. So, we'll be looking very closely at uh the campuses and communities that where they're serving and then where there will be, but we are not planning in any reductions of staff in our special education uh service team at this time. Okay. I don't understand why Joselyn is being

034kept as an open campus instead of Sunset. The campus building score is much lower than Sunset. The grounds are much smaller and it's located on a dangerous street. The Sunset Valley campus benefits from a large property, ample parking nearby, and close protection from Sunset Valley PD. Plus, all roads are neighborhood roads. So, we had multiple commenters with that. >> Yeah. So, um I always get anxious when we talk about other school without the school around. Um, but I want you to know, as I said before, this was a a regional approach to um all the moves in an effort to to address the goals of the overall plan. Um, again, we wanted to identify ways to become more efficient. We have lots of schools that are utilized. We have um transferin rates that are very,

035very high and also in an effort to stabilize programming long term, moving programs wall to wall to where there are more higher numbers of emerging bilingual students. When it when it comes to JSON, what I'll say is uh it it really came down to the movement of the other schools. Anytime you move a school, there's going to be things that occur next to it. In this case, you have Cuttingham and Boone, you have St. Elmo, you have Joselyn to the north, you have Galindo, Dawson. There's just a lot that occurs. And you think about, you know, we can talk about the facility, you can talk about access. We created the rubric to identify where we had misalignments and then we took a regional approach. Um the other thing I'll say is um you know when

036we identified the campuses and the programming in those campuses uh we felt as though um Jocelyn and the um programming that uh is supported and it's going to shift. I want you all to know it's going to shift uh slightly than what it is currently. Um it's not going to be a zoned campus. is going to go to an unzoneed campus and be the Mandarin kind of offering to the south as Riley currently is to the north along with DOSS. And so if we if we would have thought about okay what does it look like to kind of completely transition you would have been really struggling to create that access to that programming in South Austin. And so uh what I'll say is um it wasn't uh one or the other. It was really, you

037know, the complement of moves in order to try to move towards our goal of of of addressing all these things simultaneously. Um certainly happy to spend more time talking about, you know, different details of it or Matias like why did you pick this street or this street? We can have that conversation. Um but that was the overall approach. Um I don't know Rachel if there's anything else you'd like to add specifically to it. >> Okay. I mean I that's just the I mean I I know that people want like why this or not that there it is it is didn't come down to a rubric. You know we I know when the rubric came out when the rubric came out there was a lot of conversations around I'm I'm sorry sir but when the rubric

038came out there was conversations around is this a consolidation list and we said no it's not what it identifies as where we have imbalances in the system and then we went to work on a regional basis and understood that every school impact impacts another school and so this is the solution or the plan the draft plan we arrived at um for all the reasons I just mentioned and and also um you know others Okay, moving on to the next question. When are these proposed changes going to start? How many students are expected to be in each of these classrooms? And is there a legal maximum per classroom? >> Thank you. I'll start with that and then I'll um pop over to my colleague um Jennifer Pace to kind of talk about classroom capacities. So, this

039is propos this is proposed to start in August of 2026, so the beginning of next school year. So, we are really trying to work with a short timeline. Um, we understand that a lot of school districts do this right in two years and we are doing it in a year. But I think what is most important is that to ensure the timeline gives families time to plan and make decisions and make choices based off of families and your decisions and your life. Um, so that this would be in August of 2026. And kind of to the two other questions about how many students are expected to be in each of these classrooms, we are not changing any student teacher ratios whatsoever. And I wanted to just highlight that and for the legal maximum I will

040defer to the call. >> Yeah. So it's 22 to1 studenttoteer ratio. Um that is not what we typically see in Austin ISD. Um because students don't come in unique compact 22 packages. It doesn't work that way. You might have 18, 19, and 23. It really depends on kind of the allocations and the principles um kind of leadership of that campus. So it it does vary. You can exceed that with a variance from the Texas Education Agency. uh we we really really try not to go down that path. Uh we seldom do it. Um that is available to us, but that is not part of the plan. It's something we're considering. Uh the last thing I'll say is um uh regarding the 26 start of the school year. I I I want to kind of address

041this because there's been conversations around, you know, how much time is this taking and does it it feels rushed and it feels, you know, there's a lot happening in a relatively short period of time. What I would say is that it's urgent. Um, we started communicating on this plan in February and March. We knew that we would be here in November taking a vote or at least I would be presenting a draft plan to our trustees for consideration. I want you to know that what's really important for us or for for the for for me is to make sure that we don't take away the one thing that we know our families need and that's time to plan. You got to have time to plan. And so when you think about where we are as

042a system, we are already preparing for the 2627 school year. Enrollment is about to start. Registration is about to start in November. So that starts in November. It goes all the way through March. If the delay in vote occurs in December, then I've lost we've lost one out of the four months that I have. And then your frustration with the enrollment system and process is going to escalate. And I know how frustrating that is. I know it hasn't been perfect, but if we don't have the time to execute the plan, then I'm only going to introduce harm into our to our families and to our students as they move into the the next campus and then continue on through their academic journey. So, it's really really important for me to be honest about what you

043lose or what we lose if we delay vote or delay action. The other thing I'll say is um I am not going to ever ever ever um propose or commit to a significant change in the spring semester. We've done that as an organization. Many of y'all may not know this, but just a couple years ago, we've made some pretty significant changes. We took sixth grade out of Mendes and Martin in in April. We took international high school at Eastside early college high school um in the spring semester. We struggled through the summer to even have a successful launch and I would argue that it didn't it never be was successful. Uh so that's not something we would do. Um so for for us this timeline um is is appropriate. Uh if we miss the timeline

044then I I would argue that you know opportunities would be missed and risk would be introduced. Uh and we can talk about what those are. We can disagree or agree, but I want to be honest about how we're assessing timeline as all of this works, but I want to make sure our families have time to to to process to plan and our staff as well. We've made decisions on timeline. I would like to have our principles placed at these schools by December. I think that you all would want to know, you know, if this plan is going forward, who the principal is. And so that's something that cannot happen until the bo board takes the vote. So, and and the reason is is because we can't commit until that action has taken place. I don't

045have the authority to close the school or to to change boundaries. Only the board does. Um, which is why this sequence of timing is important. If the principal isn't isn't named in December and isn't named in January, then now they're six weeks behind hiring their staff or going through transition planning and working with their other community that they're going to be working and and planning with. So, to me, um, I just want you to know that that is there's a lot happening in the background. I want to make sure we can execute at a high level um and support all of our families through this transition. >> I would also like to know if the value of the land and potential profit from its sale or redevelopment played a role in the decision. If so,

046the community deserves to understand how those factors were weighed. I'll >> answer that. >> Um especially when schools with lower Rubik scores were not selected for closure. >> So the answer is no. not a not a single point in the process did the value of any one of these tracks of land come into play. Like that's the honest truth. Uh it never did. And in fact, if that was the case, you'd probably make an argument that these weren't the right ones to do um when you think about it. Uh so never part of it. Um we um have been clear that if we are able to move forward with a vote, we'll go through a process and plan with community. We'll plan with our board. uh will determine what makes sense um for uh that

047community. You've seen us now at Peas Elementary School. That was a desire of us in our community and our board to actually have students still be in the building. And we did a deal with United Way and now it's an early childhood center, right? We have housing in certain parts of our of of AISD now to support teachers that can't otherwise afford to live in Austin. Uh we'll also look at other solutions. So, I just want you to know that was not part of it. it never came into play. Uh it was not part of the rubric, not part of anything. Um we recognize that there will be a process that we'll go through. There'll be, you know, potential revenue opportunities. We've been really clear. We're not estimating what those are, but we'll go through

048that process with community um not um kind of separated from uh the local community. >> Okay. Hold on. Okay. What I don't understand is reszoning those of us who live south of William Cannon and west of Westgate to send our children to Boone rather than Cowan. Living west of Westgate means the fastest route to Boone would likely take many families south to Davis, approximately 500 ft from Cowan before continuing west towards Brody Lane and another 1.5 miles to Boone. I implore the district to consider shifting Boone um eastern boundary to Long View Road so that our children may attend a school in their neighborhood with their neighbors. Awesome. Um, yes, this is one of >> Can you introduce yourself? Hi. I'm sorry, guys. I forgot to do introductions earlier, so I'm just going to have

049all the speakers introduce themselves before they speak. >> No worries. Hi, I'm Rachel French. I'm director of planning and the project manager for our consolidations work. >> Um, this is something we are looking at. So, this is a great example of exactly the kind of feedback that is so helpful right now. And so, that is in the queue. We are meeting with our demographers every day. this week non-stop. Pretty much looking through these very detailed examples of just making sure that it's a if it's a little change that only affects a few blocks, easy, right? We just have to make sure there's no what we call feathering of like a little it might look like a little change, but it actually then doesn't align with maybe the middle school or it actually creates the school

050next door being too full or too empty. And so, as long as all of those things um are resolved and not an issue, then we are very much making changes. And so just thank you for that level of detail because that is very helpful and so if we are able to make that change it would be reflected in the um edited version that you'll get to see next week. >> Y thank you. Um okay, another one. I strongly urge AIS to revisit boundary lines for Barton View. It's clear that our area has been uniquely carved out and reassigned in a way that does not align with our established community connections, natural geography, and daily travel patterns. We are also the only neighborhood north of Highway 290 not assigned to Austin High. In addition, Barton View

051appears to be the only small neighborhood reassigned to three entirely new schools, while most other schools are transitioning together with only one new campus. Pretty much the same answer as last time. So, thank y'all for pointing this out. We are looking at this area um and it is in the queue. We will probably look at it. I mean, we will look at it this week. Um, and so I don't have a more definitive like yes, we can do this because as you imagine, we have 3,000 plus comments we are looking through, but this is absolutely something we've heard, we are looking at, and if we don't make the change, we will tell you why. Thank you. Okay. I'm curious if the district would be open to allowing the four schoolwide 2-way DL campuses to form

052a 1882 partnership network, sharing things like curriculum, PD, staff, family engagement, and more. I think it's important these schools report to the same principal supervisor, someone who ideally only works with these four campuses. A partnership would also bring in extra funding which would offset some of the program cost and allow for that narrow span of management. And before you start, I'd love for you to also clarify for everyone what an 1882 is in your answer. >> Uh yeah, so an 1882 partnership um was approved by the state legislature some some years ago. And what it allows school districts to do is to partner with um a diff different types of schools. It can be a charter school uh that's in um uh kind of good standing. That would be, you know, like I don't even

053going to name them, but it could be like a charter school. It could be a campus or a school system that's directly tied to a school improvement model. You might argue like third future would be an 1882 partnership. The school, the partner that's um currently at Mendes. So 1882s um have evolved since they came into play. uh the access of funding and the way that they get funded and supported by the state has changed. So when I looked at this question, when I read it now, um I'm not convinced that there's actually a huge opportunity for funding. Uh it's actually um it's it's harder than than maybe it seems. It's just to kind of create a network and then create an 1882. Uh we wouldn't be able to do it ourselves. Uh we would have

054to have a partner come in and and they would be the 1882 partner. you would do a contract with them and that's how it would occur. Uh I will tell you that principal Navado uh and the other principles one of the things that we did by design uh was ensure that they all were kind of out of the same um leadership uh tree if for lack of a better way to describe it. Um you know I had actually had the pleasure of hiring her. She's an incredible leader um and has done an incredible job. So she does actually connect very closely with the other wall to uh four wall-to-wall deluage programs. I think there's opportunity on my side to strengthen um and improve how we support these programs as we move forward because we are

055going to be adding more seats. What I will say is adding a supervisor um you know an executive director to four schools uh schools that um haven't historically uh had the same needs as others would bring a ratio that would be atypical. So typically if we have schools that have um not performed and maybe have um accountability ratings or just other challenges a 1:6 ratio is what we would use uh for elementary schools just generally you know um like a 11 to 12 to1 and then high schools uh a little bit less and so having a 4:1 ratio for supervisory um support would be um challenging but I will say that uh avet um here as the um lead over multilingual education is kind of functions as that from the academic side. So I don't

056know if it's worth you kind of sharing your role in organization or kind of what you'd envision, but for the 1882 partnership side, it's just not that simple. There is a lot to that um to this question and it would take some time to get there, but I understand kind of the desire embedded within the question. >> Yeah. So for this, I actually also wanted to invite Jennifer Pace. We can tag team this one. I'm excited about this question just to talk about the curriculum, right, and the professional learning that goes into this. There has been such a shift um with our curriculum writing. We're using high quality instructional materials and then also just the the partnership between multilingual education and our humanities and STEM team, right, for writing very aligned curriculum that is looking

057at biiteracy, that's looking just really thinking about the dual language student. So, um, it's been such a great partnership and that's why I wanted to have Jennifer Pace come up. She's the assistant superintendent of schools and I I can't honestly say that years ago I could pass it on over to her and she could talk all about curriculum and professional learning, but she can do that now. And I just want to mention also before I pass the baton, just the professional learning. So, we engage in a lot of professional learning. um their district days and then campusbased we have professional learning communities where teachers work together right at grade levels to talk about upcoming lessons to preview to talk about data so there's a lot of collaboration when it comes to the instructional pieces >>

058thank you um it's great to be here this evening and I would just add that um we are very focused on professional learning for our executive directors as well who are supporting principles um and being uh mindful of the dual language model. They're not just in our wall-to-wall campuses like we have dual language in many of our campuses. So, all of our principal supervisors are um very familiar with the program and continuing to learn and be um strong supports to principles. So, regardless of principal supervisor, we are all on the same page thanks to this partnership. >> Thank you. Okay, we have two mi two more comment card questions and then we can open it up. Um, how much taxpayer money was spent upgrading Sunset Valley Elementary over the summer only for AISD to announce

059the school is slated to close next year? How should parents have confidence in AISD when such poor planning results in the waste of taxpayer dollars in a time when the district is in such a huge deficit? Families need to know how much bond monies was spent this year on schools slated for closure and how this happened. Thank you. And thank for thanks for that question. I think that comes up with many of our schools because our 2022 bond was quite amazing in the fact that we were able to touch every Austin ISD school with a project whether it was a modernization or what we call targeted projects where we're just updating right a new roof, an HVAC project, but more specifically is our security um items. So, our secure entry vestibules, our camera upgrades, um

060other life safety things, those are something that we're always going to do for Austin ISD. We're It doesn't matter how long a student needs to be there. Now, did we start consolidations when we had our bond? Absolutely not. And I think Superintendent uh Sigura can speak to that. I I think any school district never wants to be in the situation that we're facing right now. And um our 2022 bond was amazing, but we're we we still have also a compliance piece with TEA. Um there is a Texas school safety center and it's something now that the Texas Education Agency has recently um made sure that we are compliant in many school safety features including secure entry vests. So that's something that we just were committed to as a district and we were in our bond

061when we passed it and then the state kind of went thereafter with a compliance piece. So, I I don't know if you had anything to add to that. >> Well, so I I do want to add um you know, just to be clear, as as Christine said, if there's a student in our schools, we're going to do everything we can to make sure the AC is running and make sure they're safe and and that requires physical improvements. In 2019, 2020, 2021, when we were planning 2022 bond program, we did not know the 23 legislature was not going to fund schools. We did not know the 2025 legislature was going to kind of pass off what they believed was an HB2, you know, investment and really not really, you know, move the needle significantly. Um, you

062know, at the time we were running into a huge, uh, deficit of educators in the classroom. You know, we had to make investments in our educators, which really helped us move the needle and recover from that period of disruption. So, when it comes to globally, could we have known that we were going to be here? No. And that's the honest truth. I I was in a similar I was over operations at that time. I never would have thought that we'd be at this point. You would have felt as though given the pressure in our state and the lack of funding in public education, we would have had some relief. What's exacerbated this is the um the disruptions at the federal level, y'all. Like um title two, title three, and title four funding is hitting us

063hard. $10 million, you know, were frozen in a really relatively short period of time, which impacted a vets team that supports stool language. It impacted a hundred other people in Austin ISD. These are people who have given their career to supporting educators and all of our students. And then overnight, I have to manage that disruption. So, no, I could not have anticipated this. That being said, we take every dollar we're spending very thoughtfully. We we we work out deals with the city of Austin. We construct quickly. we can construct in a way that very few can and I hope that you've seen that in 2017 and 2022 bond program and if there are other questions around our ability to construct compare us the city of I mean compare us to other school districts is what

064I'll say um I would say that we actually do a very good job um but no we wouldn't couldn't have known um and certainly we recognize that um if we could have known maybe would have made different decisions but again uh we did not think we would be here >> and superintendent to add to that we also have a community bond oversight committee they meet monthly we talk through every single project where it is the status of that and the financials. So that's something also that we have a district communitydriven committee to make sure that we are going through what we said we did for the voters. And so we'll be looking into what that looks like in the future on how those bond dollars could be reallocated in in another way to follow the

065student which is our goal. Okay, final question from comment cards. I'm deeply concerned that pre-K students seem to be have left out of the plan. As we review the proposed plan, we see only kindergarten and above students would be guaranteed a spot at ODM. I urge AISD to include preK students in the consolidation plan to ensure that the wall dual language model remains truly comprehensive, that that families who have invested in this program aren't left without a clear path forward. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, we can tag team. Yeah. So, I just wanted to share that. Thank you for urging. Thank you for the comment cards. Um we are definitely looking at prek, right? And that continuation of programming. So, um you you're likely to see uh a change right in the next draft uh version that

066will go out. >> The only thing I would say is that the prek students were included in the plan. the um progression um into the program it based on a transfer will be clarified in our transfer policies. Um so my objective is to be hyper clear out of the 20 different scenarios that a student could encounter or family could encounter through this plan. We're going to have a very clear um kind of response on how that will impact transfers and what we can do to ensure that that disruption within for your family is minimized to the best of our ability. But the plan had always considered prek for the wall to 12 to language program. The transfers um and kind of our ability to respond to those had not been um kind of addressed in

067a in a direct way. So we're making that adjustment. >> Okay. So that concludes the comment card. Before we get into the um questions, I just want to um bring your attention to kind of what's next. So today is actually the first day that Superintendent Sigura has been visiting campuses. Y'all are number two. We were at Martin this morning. Um, we also just added a board workshop next Wednesday. Um, so Monday there will be a um an online meeting that will be districtwide. There will be um a East Austin focused meeting on Tuesday, the workshop on Wednesday, and then um a board voting meeting on Thursday. So very busy, lots of um ways to catch us. Um and then next Friday is when the updated plan will come out. Um, and then that next week

068on November 6 is when the board will have an opportunity to discuss that updated plan and still moving towards that November 20th final date. Um, so did you I'm sorry. Yeah. Well, is that I think it's just that. Yes. Um, okay. So, if y'all want to start, does anyone have any questions? And I will say we are recording this um so we can share it with your community, anyone that's not here in English and Spanish. So we will be taking the mics to you. So please use a mic. Um I saw you Yeah, I can do it. Okay, I saw you first. So I'll come I'll come to you and then I'll kind of switch sides. So >> hi. So uh you had mentioned the registration time period. Um, it was my understanding that this

069was going to be delayed in this upcoming year so that we could know the actual full plan and the staffing before registration started. Is that not going to is it still going to kick off in November? >> Yeah. Well, so our transfer um our registration process starts in November. Uh I do want to be really clear. We're being very intentional given the fact that these communities are going through a a a different kind of out of an an atypical experience with registration. So when we release the plan, you will see kind of our milestones to be responsive to the registration process. um because of every all the other schools in the system at large uh we have to go in and make sure that whenever you uh go into the the system if you were

070at Sunset Valley you know you would have the zone school that you could go to if you were a transfer into Sunset Valley and I think it's 53% here then you would have also the opportunity to go to ODM and so that would be part of it so I have to improve the system to make sure that that's addressed u and so those kind of adjustments will be incorporated in to your point, will the entire staffing plan be complete before you register? Uh, it depends on when you register. Um, but we will protect the backside like we will give you options and outs. Let's say that you say Matias um based on the plan I believe that we want to go to to ODM and you based on the timeline we have um for enrollment.

071you kind of select at that point and then for whatever reason you decide that's not where you want to go like we would support you kind of making that adjustment because we know it's a it's a change in what you were expecting. Uh so there's some details to be to be worked out with it. Um staffing plans in general aren't really set until late spring which is why it's so important for me to get the principal set in December. um because you start the enrollment process, registration process, but it doesn't actually end until uh late into um February and March. So, we you'll have that opportunity. It it shouldn't be too much of a delay. Sorry if I lose my cool earlier. Um so, I have a couple notes here. When the first comment or

072round of comments went out, I was more worried about Coington, which well, she's gone now. Uh, but I have two students here and I understand that they might not continue to go to the school, but I believe that Sunset Valley is a great place for a school. So, when the rubric which you guys put together came out, Sunset Valley scored the best out of all the other elementary schools in the area and the only one that it kind of like lost points on was zone was too empty. Um, it's unfortunate that now we're in a situation where schools almost feel pitted against each other, but Joslyn is a uniquely bad in a uniquely bad condition and in a uniquely bad spot. We could go over there right now. It's Sunrise is doing some some good

073stuff and it might move, but the the homeless community is going to be over there seeing people defecating, exposing themselves. Maybe they're just, you know, using the restroom or whatever, having mental episodes. It's caddy corner away from a gas station which sells liquor, has a big marijuana leaf on it. Cork and brew is right there. It's it's like a Fox News viewer dream of what every Austin school looks like. And it it looks like a jail. There's no parking. It's on a small piece of property. We have I'm on Sunset Valley City Council. We have a police department that is here for drop off, for pickup. Officer Brownlow comes once a week to talk. Oh, s sorry. Sergeant Brownwell comes once a week to talk. We have a beautiful campus. The uh Austin uh sorry,

074Sunset Valley City Council gives $20,000 a year to the PTA. We support the school. We want them here. When I was on the ODM or sorry, on the call earlier this last week, I think it was ODM parents didn't even want the program moved over there. And so I just I completely don't understand how you take away this school from this community. Sorry, I'm going long. Uh, when it is successful and we want it and we show it with our money and our like voting everything else. I don't know. I just that's me. [Applause] >> I just didn't know if you wanted to. I mean, I I can respond that you if you'd like. Uh so what I would say is that um there are so many schools that are being impacted that have very

075loving communities. I just want to be really really clear about that. There are lots of people who love Joselyn just to be honest with you. But so I I just you know I want to just be really really clear that that's not we recognize that yes Sunset Valley um you know the city of Sunset Valley supports this school and we want that type of support for every other school in the city of Austin. not happening right now. I'm at a point where I do not have the ability to resource every school, not just Sunset Valley necessarily, but 116 of them. And so when you think about, you know, where any one school is, they're all going to have challenges. Right now, what we know is that yes, there aren't enough students that live in its

076attendance boundary to ever fill it up. That's just the honest truth, right? I mean, that is that is just the truth when you think about the program, right? So you're what 24% emerging bilingual and it's and it's been difficult, right? And it's moving in the wrong direction. So for sustainability purposes, you know, to get to a 50-50 model, we have to provide access. And so I I just want you to know that it's it was never one thing over the other. It was a complement of things that ultimately drove to this recommendation or this plan. But though people there are families that love ODM, they just may not be able to show up because they're working multiple jobs. They may not have different access. I'm just I want to be really I mean I'm just

077I know you want Let me finish. >> No, I I'm just telling you that every school has a different experience, a different community and I I just don't want to disparage any other school and I just and I just I feel as though this plan we arrived at this draft plan. It is a draft plan with a process that we had built up over many months and had been formed by other large efforts including the long range plan, the equity assessment, the bond program, all these other things. So, it didn't just like start from nowhere. Uh, and this is where we are now. We're going to take feedback. We're going to make adjustments and we'll move forward. Um, but I just I don't I don't want anybody here to feel that I don't understand or

078value the immense support that Sunset Valley has from its community. That's what makes this so frustrating and why I'm so mad about it. I I'm just like the fact that we're here is very um it's just I just I can't I just hate that we're here as a school system. So, >> thank you. Thanks for being here. Um my questions are kind of combos of these two but as a community since we are upset about moving why not reassure us that we get if our administration wants to go with us then say we're going to offer it to them so that we can make the decisions you know it would be great we love our administration and we'll support you if this is we don't want to take over no one wants take over so

079if we say if you can come to us and reassure us and say parents we need your support your administration gets to go with you if they choose to. Now, obviously, if they don't want to come, we're going to but if they want to come with us, why not reassure us? >> So, I I want our families to know that and your comments your questions is is a great question and trust me, if I could tell you right now, I would string to the the as I possibly could that you have that commitment from me to do that. Um, I will tell you that I've met with your principal, Principal Nato. I've met with all the other principles who are going through different changes. Um, what you want is what I want. The challenge is

080is there's not a board vote yet and we still have feedback we're getting from uh our community. So it it it may change, right? And the one thing I don't want to do is to create disruption and confusion when we don't have certainty in the plan. So we're in this period of time. I have principles right now, especially when it comes to the turnaround plans where they're engaging. They want to engage. They want to start planning like, "Okay, how are we going to support these students? How are we going to plan transition into the school year? What do you need from me?" And I'm I'm hesitant to just like let them go because if it isn't the vote, right, and we don't actually get there, then every pe lots of people are going to be

081very frustrated. Um so we're in this moment of time where um what you want and what I believe this community wants is what I would want to see achieved. Also, we just are not quite there yet with the board vote or with where we are in the plan. But I want you to know like that is one way that we can ensure stability as best we can in these transitions. I just can't share with you kind of the conversations I've had with Miss Nevada or the conversations I've had with our trustees or just because we're just not there yet. But I that's that is precisely what we would prefer to see happen. But again, each person will get to make their own decision. Um but I value our staff. I value our principles. They're incredible.

082I hired her. I mean, I want her to be with us. There is no doubt. Um and so I I I want you to know that we are thinking about that. I just qu can't quite commit because of where we are in the process. >> Hi, thank you for being here and thank you to the Sunset Valley community for being really respectful and kind and thoughtful and everything you guys have been providing. Um, if the majority of the highincome families from Sunset Valley move to ODM, how will this impact the critical title one funds and the community services like dentists and etc. that the community gets and needs. So, title Yeah. So, um, so Title One dollars, for those who who may not know, um, they're dollars that are allocated to the school district based

083on our total number of students who are identified as economically disadvantaged. Right? So, we identify them, we get information, and and what I'll tell you is um, four or five years ago, we were over 60% um, uh, 60% um, economic disadvantaged. Um, as a city has changed, we've gotten to 56%, 55%, 54% and we are desperately trying to stay over 50%. I will tell you the immigration uh laws changing um has adversely impact us. Uh we're about 2,000 students down now down right now for this school year because we have um immigrant families who chose not to come and we have immigrant families who chose to leave. And so all of those families, many of I won't say all them, many of those families would have been in that uh uh that kind of group

084of students who are identified as economic disadvantaged we have to get over 50%. So we are just so if you have forms and people are asking about these forms, that's what they help us do. If we get over 50% then we get our title one allocation and that title one allocation gets distributed based on our this is the district's percent of emerging by I'm sorry um students identified as economic disadvantaged by campus. Two years ago it was based on census track. So you had schools that were in certain parts of town that um had high transferin rates that were actually not economically disadvantaged from a majority of student population but were in a census track that was identified as um having uh a high percent of families who were um economically disadvantaged. So we've taken

085that over and what we said is the money will follow the students. So now what we've done is said okay based on student need you know any um uh student population that exceeds 30% uh uh of the student total student population that is identified as economic disadvantages get funds from AISD we then uh so moving to ODM based on the numbers that we have we will we will exceed that so I do expect title one dollars to be allocated to ODM um and so I think we'll be able to to address that but we're the ones that own the 30 to 40 the federal side is 30% % we actually go north of that to like 38 40%. But we the AISD sets that the federal law federal side sets the minimum and then we

086can go above that. That's how it works. Um I do feel confident ODM will have title one dollars. I also want to be really really clear. It is highly likely with this administration and the way that the U Department of Education is going that the title one funds will move towards block grants. If you move towards block grants, it's no longer necessarily based on um the number of students that you're serving, the types of student needs that you have in your school district. It's based on proportionality uh as an entire state. So, there is going to be movement in that realm regardless. So, it is something that I'm desperately trying to hang on to, but it is changing. The changes at the federal level are impactful, and that is one way that they are going

087to be impacted moving forward. Uh we do expect title two and title three and title four dollars to go away at the end of next year. That's already been public and we do expect to be tighter controls around title one dollars. So my goal is to get all of our schools to be at a place where we do not have to rely on funds that we know will be disrupted. Uh and the only ones that we can really rely on are the um you know the what the state gives us by way of the basic student aotment. So so that's kind of how we we're approaching it. I hope that's helpful. Um, but we do believe that we'll be able to have title one dollars allocated. And then the partnerships for wraparound services, whether it's

088after school care or a pantry, all those things, we can do that independent of title one dollars. And we do it now independent of title one dollars. >> Okay. Before we go to the next question, I do want to clarify when uh he said uh the administration, it's the federal administration that manages the title. >> Sorry, not sir. Thank you. Thank you for being here, Superintendent Sigura and officials and trustees. Thank you for being here. I just wanted to follow up on one of the first questions that you addressed. There is a school that uh will remain nameless that doesn't like where their wallto-wall dual language program is moving and as a way to hack this system that you have that you have laid out here. The rumor is that they are going to transfer

089in the spring, thereby becoming legacy students for the next year and then taking away our priority seats. I want to know is the district aware of that and if not um can you come up with some kind of mechanism so that that doesn't happen and doesn't basically screw us all. >> Yeah. So um we we have we I will tell you that I'm aware of a lot of the um ideas that I will say that are out there um with all movements. Uh I had not necessarily heard the spring transfer mainly because of how our transfer policy works. Um once you're out too far into the school year, transfers have to go all the way to the board. Um there isn't a formal process. They effectively become a hardship um transfer. uh those are few

090and far between. So there wouldn't be the opportunity to do like a mass transfer. Um all those would actually effectively under current board policy go to the board. Um my team reviews them. I make a recommendation to our trustees. We talk about an executive session and then we come out and make a vote. Uh I would tell you that anytime that there is a desire to circumvent um use the word hack. I don't know if I use that word, but uh to to kind of maybe do something that's not in alignment of what we're trying to do or maybe out of alignment of our values. Um you know, we need to understand that and then figure out like how can we address that? So, I appreciate you sharing that with me. I had not heard

091that. I do think the current transfer process would limit that in in many ways. But when it comes to um ODM, what we talked about is because that this is the school that will receiving the program. Our expectation and my expectation to the team is that those seats are protected. Um and then anybody that's comes from another wall to wall language program would be after that and then anybody outside of those would be kind of next. So I appreciate you sharing that. Um thank you for for that input. >> Thank you for being here today and thank you to our trustees for being here today. I have two somewhat unrelated questions. Okay. My first question should be a softball question. So the consolidation plan says that and I have a prek4 student. Okay. >> Um

092so it says prek students will continue to follow current policy. Current policy for dual language programs is that if you're enrolled in the prek school, they will be given automatic entrance to kindergarten with this transfer to ODM. >> I was unclear about what you said earlier. Is my prek4 student >> Yes. protected? Yes. >> Yes. Okay. Yeah, and we're and that's where it comes back to the scenarios. There are lots to the gentleman's point, there are lots of ideas and scenarios that we're learning that people are trying to navigate. So, we're going to put extreme clarity and to your example, we will provide a precise response and it'll be yes. >> Okay. >> Softball question. Um the second one and and forgive me on this verbiage if I don't have it down correctly. Um, but

093it's my understanding that Sunset Valley doesn't have certain instructional support and that Sunset Valley has certain gaps as we hypothetically um move to ODM as a community. How is the district going to ensure that we're able to secure some of these instructional supports that we currently don't have? I think that um we would all agree that Principal Navaro is an excellent principal and that we want to set up [Applause] and that we support her. Um, if if this move, if this vote happens, we support her and want her to have a strong foundation in our community to have a strong foundation. So, is this something that the district has contemplated um districtwide, but specifically for >> So, a couple things. Um, when I first came on board, it was clear there's misalignment within academics and

094school leadership. uh what was happening was there was uh in some cases good things coming out of academics but they weren't making their way into the classroom. Uh and some of that was because we didn't provide the professional development or support to our our principles, right? They're the academic leaders in our schools. Uh at the same time, you know, we had a real gap. We didn't have aligned curriculum. We had, you know, some students experiencing something in one part of Austin. They would rent would may rise by 20%. they go to a different school, a different scope and sequence and and they were just not supported in the way that we should have. So over the last two and a half years with Dr. Maxwell coming on board, many of youall may not know Dr.

095Maxwell. She is our assistant superintendent of K12 academics. She has completely redone um all of our supports within academics and I would argue we probably have one of the strongest academic teams that we've had in a very long time. Avette is on her team. She may probably echo what I just said about Dr. Maxwell. She's in our schools. She's probably more visible than any assistant superintendent of academics like that it's ever been in Austin ISD. Uh if there are gaps, we need to know about them. Your principal and uh and a vet will be the ones kind of identifying where they are. And then in the transition plan, which we're going to be very precise with this is what I would expect to occur and if that's something that's a gap that has to be

096filled, then we're going to fill it. Um I can't speak to specifically what those gaps are. I would need to understand that from your principal uh and others, but yeah, I mean that's that's the goal here. I mean, right now we are fragmented. I mean, we we we've made some significant moves over the last two years, but there's still a ways to go. So, yeah, and and if you see something, send us a card, say, "Hey, this is what I heard." Um, and maybe it's been addressed, maybe it's not addressed, maybe it will be addressed, but it's important that we know. Seriously, it's very helpful. Christ Oh, sorry. >> Thank you for being here. Um, I'm incredibly grateful for your team and our board of trustees for creating these opportunities and all of the community

097engagement that you've done. Um, so, thank you. I just want to understand a little bit about the turnaround plan because ODM will have one of those in place or No, >> no, no. So, a turnaround plan. Um, so I I didn't mean to stop you. Did you do you want to finish the question? Was that question? I guess I just want to understand how you plan to elevate the um academic record that ODM currently has because we're going to be coming in with a diff, you know, a different scenario and I just want to continue the academic kind of excellence that we are already achieving here at Sunset Valley. >> Yes. So, so there are two things I would say to that. The first is um do not base every school on their letter grade.

098Um, we have incredible schools doing incredible things uh that have, you know, maybe they don't have an A or a B, but they have a line out the door, right, of people waiting to get in that school. And there are people right now like advocating just as much as you are um to protect their school even though it has that rating. Um, so for us, you know, we want to have strong neighborhood schools. We want students who are just great humans, that advocate for themselves, that view being bilingual as a superpower, that feel comfortable, you know, talking to people who don't look like them. Like that's what we want in Austin ISD. Now what I would say is um you know if because the schools have letter grades that they have it's because the system

099has failed like we as AISD have have produce the outcomes that we see right that that's how it's designed and so we are desperately trying to to take ownership of it do it our way and our way requires time we can do it there's other school districts around the state of Texas who've decided to do it a different way right we're protecting librarians we're protecting planning time we're protecting our curriculum People don't realize there are school districts right now selecting curriculum that I know for a fact would not work with this community, but they're doing it because they can save $8 million. And so, um, when it comes to turnaround plans, two UA and three UA schools are the ones that get turnaround plans. A UA for is is unacceptable. That's just I didn't do

100that. That's what the agency did. So, UA um and it and it's a combination of things. It can be two Fs. That could be two UAS. It could be three D's and one F. That would be two UAS. Once you have two UAS, you are required to develop a turnaround plan. You then typically would have one year to plan and develop it and then you would have the third and fourth year um to implement and then ultimately get out of that accountability um position by year five. Because of the way 23, 24, and 25 came out, 24 accountability and 25 accountability are on the same timeline, which makes it a little more challenging for us. And so we have three UAS that would include other schools many of them that you know and so for

101there we have to have a different approach uh because we cannot get to a place where we ever get that fourth or fifth. What I'll tell you is not that I am I'm I don't necessarily believe in the accountability system in the way that others do but I want to be honest like I want our students to be successful in any summit of assessment they get period right but to do it our way. Um in 2023 we had 30 Fs in 24 we had 29 and in 25 we have 23. We have I mean our system is responding in a positive way. Um ODM does not have a turnaround plan right? So they they did have a little bit of a drop um um academically and there's a variety of reasons why they may occur.

102Um but we are providing the supports uh there you all are going to help contribute to that assuming that this plan moves forward. So I want you to know like that's kind of what you see from time to time. We are modeling that there is no turnaround in place at this point and I don't expect that there ever will be one at ODM. Um just to be really really clear. So is that helpful? >> Okay. Thank you. >> I just do want to note that we're bumping up against time but we started like five minutes late so I am gonna like go over a little bit because I've committed to at least three people. >> Yeah. Yeah. Whatever is needed. Oak Hill Sunset Valley. Valley. and Joselyn overflowing. And real quick in English, y'all, um

103I think we've done a lot of work within the Sunset Valley community recently to reach out to and understand the very diverse needs and perspectives of our emerging bilingual families. Some of us come from beyond the wide oakill. Some of us walk to school and are not comfortable or do not feel safe using AISD transportation even if provided. So even if all of us would love to move as a community to ODM with our beloved principal and our teachers and staff, not everyone will be able to make that transition. So I'm asking for as much information and clarity on the plan for Joselyn so that families can have that information, make informed choices upfront, which school or educational model will be a better fit. What's the difference between dual language and immersion specifically? and then

104we can really have a stronger dual language community across Southwest Austin including whether it's in this building or Joselyn or ODM or beyond. >> Yeah, great question. Uh so the first thing I would say is um we have dual language programs in 50 57 of our elementary schools. Um so this is a wallto-wall dual language program but there are school we only have 78 elementary schools. So 58 of them have dual language programs. And so by board policy, if there are over 18 students who are emergent bilingual um within a school, then we will begin to offer that. And we have done that. We committed to it. There are school districts around the state of Texas in central Texas that have moved away from dual language. We are desperately trying to find the resources to

105fully fund it. So that's just who we are. So that being said, we will have and there will continue to be lots of opportunities for dual linguage program in Austin ISD. Again, they're all around South Austin. Now, we understand that Sensitive Valley is unique and that it's a wallto-wall dual language program. Uh and and we certainly understand how unique that is and how beautiful it is and we want to support it. There are lots of, you know, there could have been ideas about going away from it and that was never part of the conversation. Uh we just want to make sure that it's vibrant for decades to come. Uh that is really our our our core um goal here. What I don't want to do is to get to a point where the number of

106emerging bilingual students gets down to like 10% 9% and then all of a sudden we're in conflict with board policy because I want y'all to know that there are laws that have been passed the state legislature that require every educator to be certified. Now, it's going to be kind of a ramp up, but I think it's K through three the first couple years. And so what's going to happen is if we have a dual language certified teacher and they're not in a school in a in a classroom setting serving dual uh emerging bilingual students then I'm going to have to pull them right because I cannot by law I have to make sure that we have a certified teacher in every classroom in Austin I we have 5 over 5,000 classrooms and so this is

107a when we talk about urgency that is something we haven't run into but it's coming the law has already changed the the certifications um are limited. We're right now frantically f trying to find, you know, those educators to to serve our students, and it's only going to add pressure to it. Um, so, so that's something that we don't often talk about, but it's real. It's happening. And I do not want to be in a position where I have to pull programming because I don't have educators. I would prefer to stabilize the programming to ensure that I have adequate educators. And where it doesn't need to be in Austin ISTD because the students aren't there, our trustees support the administration's work in like acknowledging that it probably shouldn't be here. it needs to be where our

108emerging bilingual students are and then wherever we can provide that opportunity provide other families that support as well. When it comes to transportation, we transport over 20,000 students every day. And so I would really want to understand why families are not taking advantage of that. Um, you know, we certainly understand that there are different means that families have and different, you know, opportunities to access schools, but we we transport student, we're bigger than CAT Metro. I mean, we we transport kids all day, every day to provide access. If there's something that you're seeing that you believe will be helpful to making our families more comfortable, you got to let us know because I I'm not aware of what we can do, but I can tell you I will explore it. We're committed to exploring it.

109Um, so I just want to share with you those two points. Um, and uh, and as we think about overflow. I don't want anybody to think that we think JSON is overflow. What we're trying to do is to create a complement of opportunities in South Austin, right? Maintain a wall to wall dangage program that'll be vibrant. to create an immersion program that also includes Mandarin to provide a south option to the north option at the same time provide dual language programming elsewhere in South Austin. It's it's everywhere. I mean, when you look at the schools that have it, there are many many schools that have it to give access to our families. And if I do it that way and go unzoned, we can keep more schools open. If I don't do it that way,

110then we're going to ultimately have to close more schools. So, so that's kind of the balance and why this is one like multi-layered effort. >> Yeah. So she can she Yeah, I know enough to be like she knows response. >> That is a great question and there'll also be more clarification on that right in the in the new draft that comes out. So dual language programming really is looking at our native English speakers and our native speakers of a partner language, right? So the partner language would be Mandarin, Spanish, Vietnamese. We've got all three of those dual language programs in Austin ISD. That's pretty impressive. Um so it really is looking at biiteracy right students are learning content in both languages and our emergent bilingual students have the opportunity to learn language and content together

111right so it's not a separate class or or you know a separate period they're learning it together in an immersion program um it follows a similar kind of design but it really is primarily for our families and students that are native English speakers so it's that Spanish immersion where they're not necessarily surrounded by peers that maybe speak the partner language. Um, but that's also a false assumption because our families are very unique, right? And there could be partner language speaking in the household. But primarily these are students that are native English speakers, highly proficient in English, and families who value language learning, right? And rather than wait until middle school when you can take your Spanish one, Spanish 2, those classes, Mandarin one, Vanderin 2, you're also learning at elementary, right, content in language. So

112the main difference is it's really focused, right, in supporting the the native English speaker um in and fully immersed in another language. >> It this the design is very similar. So there is uh still instruction right in English in the target language. Um but again the design is similar to what it looks like in a dual language program the students participating in an immersion program are are non-emergent bilingual students. >> And so just to be whenever we place whenever we think about location of emergent bilingual or wall- to-all dual language we wanted to also make sure that there was enough students to support the dual language programs that were already in place. Um, so you'll you'll notice that um that uh when it's when this plan ultimately if it does get supported and we actually

113see it come to fruition, um we do not expect to take away any dual language um offerings, right? That could easily happen if you go place a program and then all of a sudden all the dual language emerging bilingual students go to that program, you create pressure elsewhere. Like we made it a point to place these programs at a place in in a part of town where we knew that we would have stability long term. That was helpful. >> Hi. Um, first I just want to say I do not envy your job right now at all. So, um you're in a really hard position and thank you for all the thought you've given to this um whole process >> when I think you know I can speak for myself and I've talked to a number

114of Sunset Valley families who were frankly shocked right when we saw that the school would be closing and um a lot of my questions have been addressed. one of them that I just like I was confused about the role that safety played in the conversation and frankly after hearing some comments here tonight I am like flumxed I am more confused than I was when I came in so a couple of things that I've heard here tonight one of the things that I heard you say was that if there's even one student in a building we will do everything we can to keep that student safe and I appreciate that And as a parent, the most basic thing I want for my ch my children is to feel safe at school. And I think that many

115other parents would probably echo that. Um, I'm not disparaging Jocelyn. I'm sure they have an incredible cultural community. I'm sure they the education that happens there is wonderful. But facts we can't get away from are there are needles at times on the playground. If you spend any time looking at neighborhood forums, the amount of public indecency that happens in that area is significant. And it's not just going to the bathroom kind of stuff. It's sexual in nature. Police get called. They don't always respond. Um or they don't respond quickly. A um APD is overburdened. We also know that's a problem. There are tons of policy problems right now. And so I guess my question is we have this school where the police station is.3 miles away, two and a half blocks, a six-minute walk, a

116two-minute drive, maybe three minutes with traffic. And it's also a fact I heard you say that we don't have enough students who are zoned in this area to fill this school. What I'm really confused about is if Jocelyn is going to become a nonzoneed school and it is factually a less safe area with a building that AISD says is not up to the same building standard as this building, then why wouldn't that nonzone school be put here where it's much much safer? So, I would like to understand the safety component of this decision. Um, even if our wallto-wall dual language program as we know it moves to ODM, why would we not have the program slated for Joselyn here? And um, and that doesn't even touch on the things like this school being essential to

117the cultural fabric of Sunset Valley and Sunset Valley having shown up as a significant partner in ways even beyond funding. Um, so that's my first question, which is probably a lot to unpack. But the second part of my question is if this school does close, what happens to the building? What happens to the land? And is it at risk of becoming a giant parking lot and basically an extension of the concrete that we see next door? [Applause] Um, so I will start with the second question first just because uh, no, we're our we're our goal is not to add more parking anywhere in Austin. I mean, honestly, in fact, I'm trying to get rid of parking at Burger uh, if I can. Um, you know, the so that's not the case. Um, regarding what it

118looks like, um, we have a process that we'll go through. you heard I'm not sure I think earlier I was talking about how peas ultimately became a early childhood center or that we've we've done different things unique to the community based on the needs but also balancing kind of the needs of the district and there are many needs so there's no desire to turn it into anything other than what the community and AIC can agree to that makes sense like I've had examples where we've had these conversations and someone says Matias just turn it into like a dog park I mean I would hope our community understands that's not something that I would be ever to take to I would never take that to our trustees, right? But I do want to activate spaces. I

119want to make sure that we recognize that there's a history, there's a vibrancy associated with this location. Um I hope that you've seen us at least since I've come on board to be really thoughtful about what that looks like. Um so I can't tell you what it will what it be will be or not be because that's going to require all of us like having that conversation and ultimately our board of trustees weighing in. So that's that's the process we would go through and we do have a precedent for that and a process for it. Um, regarding safety, you know, this is this is one that that is difficult because, you know, our number priority is safety, but we exist to educate. Um, there are lots of schools in Austin ISD that anybody could argue

120was less safe, more safe. You know, it is a very slippery slope. I mean, I just want to be I Sarah, I I just I I get that. I'm just telling you that when you look at different data sets that we have in general, um, you can anybody can compare any two schools. Uh that being said, you know, we talk about um you know, all the things that played into it wasn't just safety. It wasn't just any one of these things. Um it just it just wasn't. Um you know, I'm certainly aware of the physical improvements at JSON just the way I'm aware of the improvements that have been here. I mean, I understand those things. Um so I I just don't want I would argue that because I speak with principal Chowin all the

121time. I know that community very well is also uh and they will tell me that they they themselves feel that is safe. Now what people outside that put pressure onto that area that is a different thing but talk to the principal I mean principal Navaro she knows Nato she knows principal Chowin there are community members there that are advocating for that school and they safety doesn't they understand that there are things around them there are things all over the city that are outside of our ability to control um so I just want you to know it never came down to a single thing um but I I do want to acknowledge that uh if you want if I need to produce more clarity into um like how any one of these elements was addressed when

122it came to a specific um school. Um we'll attempt to do that in our response, but I will tell you that as you expand attendance boundaries to add more livein students or you do any adjustment, you begin to get to other schools and then all of a sudden you could have boundaries that are wholly within other schools and you could walk right past your school and not have to be able to go there. So we wanted to really understand the feathering effect that would occur. I mean, honestly, because of where we are in the boundary to the north with Ben White and the river, there's just not a lot when it comes to expansion. Um, you know, and and so there are a lot of things that came into it. If I need to add

123clarity in the plan, I will do that. Uh, but I just want to be clear. It didn't come down to any specific thing. It was just a regional approach. Uh, and this is where we arrived in the draft plan. >> Okay. Um, I know that there are a lot of more questions and we are unfortunately um over time. So, I do want to encourage everyone to um submit a comment card if you haven't already. Uh we are looking at every single one of those and are trying to incorporate um any feasible ideas into the next proposal. Um and that will be open through October 28th. Um so, I don't know if you want to close with anything. >> I just want to say um thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I very much appreciate how

124you have approached this part of the process. Uh it's not lost on me. I mean, I'm from South Austin. and I'm born and raised down the road. I love y'all's approach. Thank you. This is hard for you all. Um it's it it it is hard for staff also. There are lots of people in our system that also have kids in these schools. Um so we appreciate you. Thank you. We're making adjustments. We're making refinements. And just thank you for your time. Thank you for showing up.