Bedicheck Middle School Community Meeting: November 3, 2025

001All right, good morning and welcome to Bedichek Middle School for our superintendent talk over consolidation and closure tap plans. And so, I just want to thank you for being here this morning and to be part of this conversation and to have a space to ask questions and understand more about what's happening to our Bedichek community here. And just, you know, thank you for being here for this piece. And without further ado, I'm going to go ahead and introduce our superintendent, Superintendent Segura, is going to come up here and go ahead and get us started. Oh, sorry. We're going to do it this way. >> Good morning, everyone. We'll get to the superintendent shortly, but I'll just get us going in terms of the agenda and what to expect from our time together. My name is

002Ali Giller Ducey. I'm the senior executive director of communications and community engagement. So, we're going to go over some meeting norms and the purpose of this meeting. I'll do introductions of some of the folks that are here to help answer questions alongside the superintendent. And then we're going to give an overview of the proposed changes specific to this campus, as well as if you recall on Friday, we released a revised version of the draft plan. So, we're going to talk about what changed from the original draft to this next version that we're working on now. And then y'all have submitted questions, many of you, through our comment card. And so, we pulled those questions, looked at which ones came up the most often, and we have those prepared so that we can go over there

003those. And then if you have any follow-ups to that, you're welcome to can be a conversation. And then there should be plenty of time for just open questions after that. And then we'll talk about next steps. So, for our meeting norms, we're here to build a future together. We want to acknowledge the challenges of the current situation while focusing on ideas and solutions that make our district stronger, more equitable, and sustainable for years to come. Um, we want to honor time, so when we do get to questions, we're going to ask that to the extent possible, speakers try to limit their comments to about a minute. Um, that allows there to be enough space for everyone to share. Um, we want to honor each other, so speak to, not at one another. Um, we want

004to be respectful. Um, avoid interrupting. Um, I will call on people, and if there's a follow-up, we can pop around a little, but we want to try to honor the order that we're called on. Um, honor the process, so we want to try to stay on the agenda. Honor intent and impact, so we may disagree on ideas, but we hope that we can all agree and assume that everyone's here for the same reason, which is um, to have strong, equitable schools for all of our students. Um, we want to honor space and voice, so if you do speak once, we're going to ask that we get to others who haven't spoken yet before we get around to the same person again. Um, we want to try to stay solution-oriented, so um, we know that there's

005a lot of probably concerns, but if we can think about what it would take to to um, to solve for those concerns, that really helps us cuz that's what our job is going to be, whatever is voted on in November is then to implement it successfully. So, we're looking to you to tell us what it would take. Um, and lastly, um, we're here to embrace transparency and empathy. We know these conversations are difficult, but we are here to be open, honest, transparent, and as clear as possible. So, if that if you ask a question and you feel like maybe we didn't answer it, let us know, you know, say that wasn't quite exactly what I was asking. Um, we want to make sure that you do get your questions answered. Um, and the purpose of

006today's meeting, like I said, we want to respond to questions submitted via the comment card cuz those are things that came up again and again. Um, we want to have a shared understanding of what is proposed and on the table right now, and then we as the administration want to gain insight that are going to inform potential refinements to this plan um, before the November 20 vote. And so, with that, I will pass it over to our superintendent. And because we have this tree here, we're going to ask that you stay on this side of it so the camera can get you. We are, just so you know, recording this meeting in English and Spanish and it'll be posted to the website within about 24 hours if you want to share it out with anyone

007who couldn't be here. >> Thank you, Ally. Um So stay to the left of it. Right here? >> Yeah, just don't go too far that way. >> Okay. Um so appreciate all of you all coming out this morning uh and having a conversation around uh the plan um you know, kind of all the movement as it pertains to Bedichek Middle School. And so we want to create a space and a dialogue with you. Before we get into kind of that, you know, Q&A, I do want to kind of have a conversation around why this work and why this work now. One of the things that we've been talking about um as a school district between the board and the administration for the better part of 2 years is that um we need to ensure that

008all of our students have what they need to be academically successful. But also recognize that there are many other things required to become academically successful than just what pours into the classroom. Right? We need to make sure we have services. We need to make sure that we have programming. We need to make sure we have alignment. And the reality is that in Austin ISD there are very strong neighborhood schools, but there are also schools where families choose to leave that neighborhood and go to a different area. And when you think about where we are, uh there are lots of pressures that we have as we move down this path. The first is that we don't have funding. Y'all know that. State of Texas, federal government, the challenges we've had have made it really, really, really

009hard to ensure that we have those resources to deploy where they need to, right? Focusing on the students who've been historically Secondly, we have to recognize that the accountability system is changing. It It just is. And if we're not responsive to it, uh we could very much introduce risk that could take local control out of Austin ISD. Right? And your trustees are here to provide that clear direction for the school district. And we need to ensure that that continues. The other thing I would say is, you know, over the last many years you've seen enrollment in Austin ISD decline. A lot of it is is not um There are things that contributed to that that are outside of our control. The city has changed. We've been here for 144 years as a school district, and

010the city has evolved around us. And our schools are in certain locations, and students move, and there's adjustments, and and the cost of living has continued to increase. And so, all these things have put a tremendous pressure within our school system. And so, if we want to get to where we have strong neighborhood schools, with all of these pressures that we're having to manage, then we have to do something comprehensive. And so, this plan includes several elements. I'm going to name them. There's really five. The first is that we were endeavoring to ensure that we had aligned feeder patterns when this was all said and done. Well, what is an aligned feeder pattern? An aligned feeder pattern is where you have, you know, one elementary school go to no more than two middle schools, and

011then one middle school go to no more than two high schools. You can imagine where that occurs. Right now, we have that in Austin, but it's not in East Austin. It's not in North Central Austin. Right? We have schools We have middle schools that go to three, four, and five high schools. And so, think about the complexity of and the lack of alignment or how families and communities get broken up when they move through our education system. So I really wanted to make sure that our boundaries in our realignment our work here align those feeder patterns. Two, we really wanted to address challenges around our transfer process. Whether it was a policy or a standard operating procedure, there are policies in place that have led to outcomes that were not intended. And so we have

012to be honest about it. We have to understand if we need to make adjustments, you know, what those adjustments look like so that moving forward we have the ability to manage those transfers in a way that doesn't create imbalance in our system. And so you'll see that in the plan as well. Three, we have too many seats in Austin ISD. Even with adjustments in capacity and accounting for all of our student needs, we still have over 20,000 empty seats. Right? To put that in context, that's 3,000 more than the Moody Center. Right? Take the entire Moody Center then add 3,000 on top of that. That's how many seats we have open in Austin ISD. And so what happens is when you have that many empty seats, it becomes very, very costly because of how we

013support our school system. And the only way to reduce our cost is to consolidate. Right? In 1996, we had about 73,000 students. And we had about 96 campuses. Now in 2025, you have 70,000 students, but you have 112 116 campuses, I'm sorry. And so you can really see that we grew in certain areas and we contracted in certain areas and unless we align everything, we're not going to be able to provide what we need to our students to ensure success. The other thing that I want to talk about, the accountability system. Right, we have to be really honest about our schools and acknowledge that we as a school district have not ensured that our students and our schools get what they need to be academically successful. This is not our students' fault. It's not our

014families' fault. It is just a series of decisions or indecisions the last many, many years like compressed with the pressure from the state that has arrived to where in this plan we have to be responsive to those risks. And those are risks. When you have you know, unacceptable accountability ratings for consecutive years and given how many we have because of how big we are, if we don't manage those correctly and if we don't support those students and ensure that we get there, it could be very challenging for us to ensure local control. And so, uh, the last thing I'll say is we wanted to also ensure that we aligned programs in Austin ISD. There are programs that have been built and they have been supported, but over time because of changing demographics, the student who

015was the focus or the the primary student group who was founded to support that program has shifted. And we talk a lot about our emergent bilingual students and the fact that we have wall-to-wall dual language programs where the student population, number of students who are emergent bilingual, who are were meant to be the focus of that program have continued to decline, decline, decline, decline. And that's because they don't live in those areas anymore. And so if we're going to stabilize those programs, we need to move them and provide access. So, um, I'll I don't know what happened, but I'll kind of go over on this slide. So, as y'all know in the plan, um, it does contemplate um, you can go to the next slide. Uh, Bedichek Middle School closing uh, and then uh, at

016a later date reopening. We're going to talk about what that looks like. Uh, your trustee, the trustees uh, and I have been talking about, you know, what that looks like. We'll talk about timing. We'll talk about what needs to occur between now and then. Once we go through the closure we have to assign the turnaround plan, the TAP from Bedichek to another school. And the way that that occurs is by which school receives the majority of the students. And based on where Bedichek is surrounded by middle schools, Covington will receive the majority. One of the things that we changed between the first plan and this plan, or I'd say one of the things we revised is that Lively has been uh, taken off the list as a receiving school. And that's really a function of

017just having too many splits and wanting to align the feeders in this area. Um, not just, you know, the balance of students. It was really trying to figure out where we could limit disruption. So, we we did some work and made sure that we could um, have fewer schools receiving. The other thing I wanted to say is um, on the next slide, if you go to the real quick to the Yeah, so uh, we are looking at um, I want to be really clear. I recognize how important Bedichek Middle School is to South Austin. Just to be honest, I grew up in South Austin. I know this area incredibly well. This is an important important campus for Austin ISD. But the reality is I have to make changes if we're going to evolve as a

018school district. But the board and I have talked about, you know, re-envisioning what Bedichek could be you know, after we get through these series of decisions and transitions. And so, one of the things that I want to be really clear about is I cannot turn around and start a school next year. Right? The Texas Education Agency has to approve what that school will be. So, there's time, there's planning, there's feedback from the community, there's alignment with need. And so, one of the things that we're working through right now is how to put enough definition in the plan so that you all can hold me accountable to deliver, as well as our trustees, but also recognize that there may be things that are not in here that come about by way of having conversations with the

019community and also having conversations with staff and understanding our student needs. So, we'll talk about that. It's kind of a a challenging um place to be just because you want to provide certainty, but know that if we provide too much certainty, it could ultimately be challenging for us to uh be successful because we haven't gone through that process with you. >> Matthias, real quick, I just want to let you know it sounds like um some students are planning on a demonstration, so they may be making their way here soon. So, we can maybe we can keep going, but I think once they're nearby, we might want to pause and see if they have any questions or message that they want to share with you. >> Okay. So, >> And this is about the updated transfer

020policy. You want to talk about >> um we've we we're making lots of changes in our transfer um uh procedures and uh and our approach. Uh one of the things I want to be really clear cuz it wasn't clear in the first plan is that if you are a transfer student into Bedichek, you will be automatically approved to any one of the schools that you choose to go to other three receiving schools. So, if you transfer in from outside the district, let's say you're from Kyle and you come to Bedichek, and most of your students, families, or friends are going to Covington, we would automatically approve that transfer. Right? I do not want families to be disrupted. This is already a big enough disruption as it is. So, we're making that commitment. If if the

021students go to Paredes and your child wants to go to Paredes and they're transferring into Bedichek, we would approve that as well. So, I just want to be clear that is a change that we've made. The other thing that we've changed is that if you are a rising sixth or ninth grader, or let's say you're in fifth grade and the entire time you thought you were going to go to this middle school, or if you're in eighth grade and the entire time you thought you were going to this high school, we're going to go ahead and approve all of those transfers and not have the boundary changes control. All right, we we want to make sure that we let communities know you've been planning, you've been preparing your student, we're going to go ahead and

022approve that transfer and just make that across the board. We've looked at the numbers, we can do it. Now, over time we'll have to kind of, you know, we'll get back to a balanced uh transfer strategy and and and manage our policies in a in a better way, but I want to make sure those are two very specific changes in this plan that weren't shown or weren't clearly identified on October 3rd release. Yeah, Christine, do you want to walk through this as far as the settle on that side? This one only controls this one. >> Thank you. My name is Christine Steenport. I'm the operations officer for Austin ISD. So, I just kind of wanted to take you through the boundary map here. You might have seen a small change just like Superintendent Segura said

023earlier, we had our version two come out on Friday, October 31st. And so, we just made a a little minor adjustment really to help with those splits that Superintendent Segura was talking about. So, previously we had a portion here that was to Lively, very very very small portion. And so, when we did that it cleaned up a split for Williams Elementary School to not feed into multiple middle schools. It also solved for a Saint Elmo's split as well. So, really that is just a change. So, you're Oh, thank you. Sorry, I need to speak up. Thank you. I will do that. So, as you can see here, I'll sit down on this side so that speaker doesn't get to me. So, this is the boundary for Bethelem Middle School currently. And then this is the

024new boundary drawn. So, if you live in this area in blue, you would be zoned to Peredes. If you live in this area in green, then you would be zoned to Covington. And then if you are in this area in purple, you would be zoned to Mendez Middle School. So, that is that change from version one where we had a little small split up to Lively. And like I said, it changed that to be able to solve for some other splits as well and to make sure we keep the students together as much as we can. Um, so that is the boundaries there. Um, yeah. Go to the next slide. Thank you. >> Um, and this is the last piece about the turnaround plan. So, I think we've in some of the meetings that we've

025had with you all before about the turnarounds, um, this is kind of just reiterating some of what we shared before, but um, in the instance where a school that has required turnaround plan is being reassigned to other schools, um, the turnaround plan is going to follow where the majority of students go. So, in this instance, the majority of students are being assigned to Covington. So, that turnaround plan is going to follow them to Covington. And so, that plan will then become the plan of the the new um, Covington Bethelem kind of combined school community. So, once we have approval on all of our plans, then we can start beginning to work with those school communities, um, to make sure that the plan um, reflects kind of the needs of the combined school community. Um, there

026will be an appointment of principals. So, for any schools that are being consolidated, whether there's a turnaround plan or not involved, um, there is going to be a an appointment of the principal. This is actually going to be by our superintendent in December. And that's, you know, as short quickly after the vote as we can, we want to make those decisions so that we can then start providing certainty to staff, right? Because the staff once we have the principal, then they can start working with our administration to start selecting staff. Because the sooner we can let staff know where they're going to be, the less likely we are that they're going to feel that anxiousness and feel like they need to look for options outside of Austin ISD because that is not what we want.

027Um so current if you have that turnaround plan, there are requirements of staff um to be able to stay and serve at the campus. If you're a staff person who doesn't meet those requirements, um then there's going to be a kind of a second layer of um hiring where we will do hiring fairs where you can teachers and staff can see which campuses have availability. Um and then we're our our effort will be to try to find a place for those staff no later than April. There'll be a couple rounds of that um to make sure that anyone who wants to stay with us is given several options. Um and then um the other thing about the turnaround plans, part of what this consolidation plan allows us to do is it as we talked about,

028it's about freeing up resources, having less resources going toward aging buildings and more resources going where we need them. So each turnaround plan campus, which Bedichek, Covington would be one, would receive around $800,000 in extra funds to be used as that principal and leadership team um see fit. So that can be for things like instructional coaches, um content interventionists, extra counselors, um however that they think that they want to use those funds to best support the goals in the turnaround plan. Okay. And that was the last of the information that we had to present to y'all. Um and so we now have the comment card questions that we prepared. >> You want to start off with just any questions here before we go to public comment? >> what you like to do, sure. >> Yeah,

029I think there's probably a couple questions. So, what we did is we we we have gotten lots of comments and so we've kind of prompted some questions based on those comments, but if there are questions here, you know, we're happy to start and then kind of just go back and forth or you know, this is this is your time to get your questions answered for you know, us to have a conversation and support better check as you move forward. Yes, ma'am. >> I'm going to have you come use the mic so that the video catches it. This way. All right. Hi, my name is Renee Geneva Rainey Co. I am the president of the PTA of St. Elmo Elementary. Sorry for the nerves in my voice. So, we are a feeder school into this. We

030are split between Mendez, Covington, et al. I appreciate appreciate Sorry, now I'm going to have to read. I appreciate all the work that's gone into redrawing these boundaries and I understand it's complicated, but the proposed changes, which we just saw in the map, it segments this super little part of St. Elmo and it throws it across the highway, across I-35. Those are the boundaries that AISD did say they would respect with major arteries and now they are pushing our kids across those boundaries. I don't even know why. It's such a little section. We were slated with the last plan proposed to Covington and that makes more sense. On top of that, uh Mendez is a charter one school by Third Future. Is that correct? >> Currently, yes. >> Okay, so they are not having AISD

031hired teachers, correct? >> Currently, yes. >> Okay. Thank you. My tax dollars >> Kids don't go there and they Yeah, your tax dollars They're going to AISD. Why are we putting them into a charter school? So, thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you. >> So, So, um, yeah, I don't want you to leave Austin ISD. I What I Hey, so So, everything that um, she said is is accurate. One of the things I'll tell you is this plan is forward-facing, right? 26, 27, and beyond. So, yes, there has been historically a an agreement with Third Future to operate Mendez. Um, we're going through that conversation now. I am hyper aware that ALC is located there. I'm also probably I'm not certain if you all have heard, but we've had We're having conversations. It

032was based on some ideas in our board work session that looks at potential moves, uh, in order to to kind of create the space at Mendez to to revert back. You know, it's going to be an Austin ISD school. Uh, you know, that they were Third Future was never intended to be uh, partner in perpetuity, right? They They were They were brought in to to do work and they've accomplished that work. Um, we will take it back. The question becomes is what does that transition look like? How do we ensure that all of our students are welcomed and that it is truly an Austin ISD school, but also that we staff it correctly, uh, and ensure that, you know, we don't um, kind of introduce more risk. It When I'm being that it's to start

033up a school, uh, it it takes resources, it takes planning. Um, so, we're working through that now. So, everything that you said is accurate. We are working through it. I am aware, um, and it is one of those things that if you're You may have heard, uh, and based on the last work session, we are working through right now. That is That is an area of concern for me as well. >> I also want to add uh, Superintendent Segarra that currently if students are assigned to Mendez, the district automatically approves their transfer. I believe it's I might be wrong, but I believe it's Paredes, Bethe Check, or Lively that families have the option to go to. So, historically as a district, if there has been a charter in place, we've given families options if that

034doesn't feel like the right fit for them. I'm going to go ahead and go to the first comment card and we can kind of go back and forth. So, the first one How can Austin ISD ensure this closure is not disproportionately punishing Bethe Check's student population, which is almost exclusively underserved segment of the district? This is from Andrea H. Yeah, so um whenever we look at impact of students, we always think about which students have been historically underserved. Um what are we going to do to ensure that uh they are supported through any transition? They are They are closest to this work. And what I'll say is it really comes down to us being very clear and very transparent about what is coming and then spend the energy and resources and planning. Like that's that

035what is what has to happen. If we wait till the spring semester or if we wait later and all of a sudden a change happens and we have like two or three months to prepare, that is going to adversely impact our students who have been historically underserved to a greater degree. The way that you can get in front of that is you take the time to thoughtfully plan. What supports will they need? What wrap-around services will they need? You know, how do we work with families to communicate effectively in support our students wherever they are? So So, that is really the the I think the main point of the our response to this question is because of who we are as a school district, there are going to be impacts to students who have been

036historically underserved. And we have to get in front of it and the way that you do that is with thoughtful planning, with student voice, with community voice, and then hold me accountable on executing those plans and providing those supports. Go to Our students showed up. >> Good morning. >> SO, DID Y'ALL HAVE A MESSAGE THAT YOU WANTED to share? Is there or did you have a question for the superintendent? Is someone going to represent y'all? Are you just here to listen for now? And maybe if you if you think of a question, we'll keep going and if you think of a question, you can raise your hand. You have a paper in your hand. Is that something you prepared? No, okay. >> Well, thank y'all for for for coming. Uh this is important. You know,

037if you It's important that I hear you know, what ideas, what concerns, um you know, what is going through your mind. You know, you all are the reason that we exist. Like, we're here to support students. That's it. That's the only reason AISD exists. And so, I know that it's it's hard right now. I know there's a lot of of things that are going through your mind, but please, please, please let us know how we can support you. This is hard. Um and it's okay to have different types of feelings, but you got to let us know what's in your mind so that we can support you better. Um so, please, please, if you have anything, just share with us. Um if you have a question, I can stay around later, we can talk. >>

038If you could come over here. You know, Matthias, if you'll stand over here, I think the camera can get you on this side. Yeah. You can do it. You're doing all right. >> Why are we shutting the school down? Like >> So, um I'm having to to do it because there are four really big things that are happening right now that impact Bedichek. One is that there aren't enough students that live in South Austin between Covington, Paredes, Lively, Bedichek. And so, whenever we think about what it takes to to support all of our students, whenever we have small schools, it becomes really I'm going to use a word inefficient, meaning that it's it's costly. And what we know is that as enrollment has declined, meaning there's fewer and fewer students, because it's kind of expensive

039to live here, we have to make a decision, or else I cannot ensure that each of you get what you need to be successful. You need teachers, right? You got to have your teachers. We got to make sure we have programs. We got to make sure that after school activities, all those things require resources, you know, money and and other things. And unless I can find ways to operate uh in a way that's less costly, I can't make sure that you have what you need throughout your career in Austin ISD. So, it's it's tough. Um it it's That is That is why we're having to make this decision. That is That is why. Thank you. What's your name? >> Uh Rosabella. >> Rosabella, what grade are you in? >> Huh? >> What grade are you

040in? >> Eighth grade. >> Oh, great job. Hey, where are you going to go next year, Rosabella? Ooh, I love Crockett. Crockett's amazing. That's awesome. Great job. Pregunta? You got any questions? >> What's going to happen to our GT classes and our Einstein classes, like geometry? >> So, the the question was what happens to GT Einstein um So, our my job is to make sure that we have programming to support you. Right? And you have incredible programs at Bedichek. And as we move through the transition process, we're going to determine, okay, what do each of you need, you know, at these other schools, and then ensure that we have the resources, the people, the programs in place to be there at those schools and welcome you. Right now, I will be honest, some schools have

041different programs and other schools have different programs, but it's always based on student need. So, if the students here, based on what you've taken and where you want to go, have these um uh kind of desires or you want to see these opportunities at your school, we, as a school district, make that decision. Programs can move, right? Programs move all the time. I just need to make sure they're there for you and welcoming you when you go to that program. So, they'll continue on with you. Great great question. What grade are you in? Are y'all eighth graders? No, seventh? Sixth? Where are you going next year? Akins? Let's go. Awesome. Thank you. Great question. Yeah. >> So, we're doing Q&A with the superintendent. We've had two students who had questions. I know we had some

042new students come in. Um this is your opportunity if you want to share your thoughts or if you have any questions for the superintendent. And we can always come back to the students if we have maybe someone in um here. Okay, we'll go here and then if students think of questions, um raise your hand and we'll come to you. >> Hello, my name is Stephanie Mata. I have um a son in seventh grade and in eighth grade. My question is, why would you ren- ren- ren- renovate the front office and the security if we were going to if you guys had in mind to close down? >> Yeah. So, when we started planning the renovation, That was in 2021-22, right? Cuz it was funded with the 2022 bond program. If there are staff and there

043are students in our buildings, we're going to support and make those investments. But in '21 and '22, if you would have told me that the state is not going to give school districts funding, right, as part of the 88th Legislature, and if you would have told me that even 2 years later they would do it only to a small degree, um I wouldn't have believed you. Right? That cuz of how many school districts are struggling and how how hard it is for our school districts to keep up. And so we did not know that we would be here at when we started that project. But I also want to communicate that if the school, right, based on, you know, our plans to the board gets approved, you know, those dollars, you know, ultimately will serve

044a campus again here at Bettecher. So it won't won't be wasted. Um I never want anybody to think it's wasted. It's important that we secure our buildings, that our students feel safe, that our staff feel safe. As soon as we know that something is changing, then we will make adjustments and we're doing that. But at the time that that project started, uh we didn't know we would be here. And then I would say two, it's important no matter what happens, that our students feel safe, they are safe, and we, you know, invest when we need to. That's why. >> Did you have a follow-up? One second. Matthias. We're going to have you walk around this side so that I think we got you a little more length on the mic. One other quick announcement before

045um you finish your question. Um so if you are recording, um not every student here has necessarily a media release for their image to be um posted online. We've talked to the media to make sure, but we just want to let everyone know here. Um if you're capturing students, please um don't post those unless you've verified with the staff that they have that media release. >> Another question. What's going to happen to the um sped teachers? >> Yeah. So, I want to I I need our students and our families and our staff to know at no point at at at no point along this process uh did I ever say anything other than if our educators and our staff want to be in Austin ISD, they will have a home, period. So, what'll happen is

046um Ali spoke to this, but I'll be clear I'll clearer, sorry. Um we're going to go through a hiring process, right? And it'll be based on the plan of that campus. Covington will have a different staffing plan than Paredes, right? And it's a function of just where they are in their academic journey. That that's really it. But my intention is that our students, our incredible students, see familiar faces. That they have welcoming, you know, leaders in their schools whenever this transition occurs. So, as these schools hire more staff, my directive is to start with the staff that were already at the campus, right? That's what needs to be addressed first. When it comes to um uh our special education educators or other staff, those are not placed by student enrollment. That's placed on student need.

047So, if there's a student that has a need at Bedichek and they're going to Paredes and that school maybe doesn't have that unit or maybe has doesn't have those supports, Dr. Cherry Lee, who's the assistant superintendent of special education, will evaluate and then place the person or add the resource over there because this happens all the time where we have students who have different needs move through our organization and then we meet their need at their home campus as best we can. So, no special education staff, in fact, we we we do not want anybody to leave. We want no one we want no one to leave. Um but when it comes to the uh special education staff, that's how it will work with placement. It won't just be based on uh where the students

048go. >> Okay. Okay. Real quick, um did you want to let Ms. Dr. Lee just Do you have something as well? Oh. Sure. I just I also one thing I thought we might be able to clarify is because I think there's been some confusion that, you know, when you're closing potentially 13 schools, you've probably heard that number that that's going to create 700 staff who are displaced, right? Um so we're going to talk a little bit about why it is that How is it that these 700 are being freed up, but but we're saying we're not going to necessarily lose staff. So if you could explain that, I think that might help a little bit. >> Yeah. So we are We have 70,000 students, right? Almost 11,000 employees. And every year every year we hire

049almost 700 teachers and educators and staff. Right? So what that means is uh instead of having to go outside AISD to hire, what we're going to do is hire those and place those who have been with Austin ISD. That's the way that you do this. And so the total number of positions will come down, but because of our size, we have a real opportunity to protect our educators and our staff who want to stay with Austin ISD. And I want to be really, really clear. We are taking um our uh teachers' voice uh and our staff voice into the process by way of a survey. We know that, you know, some educators who have lived in South Austin or North Austin want to have a different experience or maybe teach at a different school. We're

050going to take all of that into consideration um and before we actually roll out final uh staffing plans. >> Thank you. Um students, do we have any other questions over here? >> You got a question back there, yeah? >> Awesome. Come on up. You guys are being so brave. Good job. >> Great job. >> Woah. >> Uh what what are What other options are available for this school and what options are you guys choosing to pursue? Did you hear that? >> No, I didn't hear it. >> He said, "What other options are available for this school and what other options are we or what are we proposing to do?" Did I get that right? Awesome. >> So, um we looked at lots of options before we got to this point. What's your name? >> Lincoln.

051Uh we looked at lots of options uh before we got to this point. Uh one of the things that I I want to reinforce is that we have lots of empty seats in all the middle schools in South Austin. And that's just because people have moved out of the area and there's just fewer students that are sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. And so when we look at where our schools are, you have kind of Bedichek in the middle. You have Covington to the west. You have Lively and Mendez to the north and northeast and then Paredes to the east. And so when you think about moving students, uh it is really hard for one school that's a kind of a a middle school to move all together into another middle school cuz they just won't

052fit. Right? So, you have to look at how to, you know, um move the students in a way that creates balance in South Austin. So, that's how we arrived at this solution. I would tell you that it is really a function of geography. Just where Bedichek is. I will tell you that before we got here, I looked at I I I've reduced our our expenses. I've reduced our total expenses the last few years by over $100 million. I've um reduced central office um staff. I am doing everything possible before I ever had to come and look at schools. It's not what we wanted to do. Um and so we arrived at this plan in that way. Uh and the the goal moving forward is to go through this process and then here restart Bedichek into

053a different program based on what the community and what our students need. So that would be the plan moving forward. Is that helpful? Great question, Lincoln. >> All right, I'm going to go over here. >> you in, Lincoln? >> Uh seventh. >> Seventh, awesome. >> Hello, my name is Shanda. I have a a seventh grader or a sixth grader and a seventh grader here. Um my daughter went to Ann Richards and then she came to Bedichek and so now she'll have to go to another middle school next year. Uh my son is in the special education and with high anxiety I actually probably 100% will pull him out of school and home school him next year. So he will not be back. Um it's going to be too hard to figure out where to put

054them together and I won't deal with, you know, the emotions on him again. The math doesn't make sense to me when you say you have empty seats and you're not you're getting rid of all the staff but you say you're having to go out and hire all these teachers. So I don't understand how you're having to go out and hire these teachers but you have all these empty seats that are coming up. >> Yeah, so so it's attrition rate, right? So just over the course of a year you have staff that just leave Austin ISD to go to different school districts, maybe they leave for personal reasons, many retire. So so the attrition rate given how big our our teacher and staffing kind of group is just allows for us to hire in that way.

055>> Have you ever put out the accountability for yourself to find out why they're leaving your leadership under AISD? >> So it's actually gone the opposite direction. It's actually improved significantly. So right now we're 97.4% staffed. When I first came on board we're about 84, 86% staffed. >> the pay raise is why I came back to AISD cuz they left our schools. >> you asked a question and I'm trying to give you a response, right? If if I based on attrition between title one and a title one school. So when I first came on board, when we came together, you would have title one schools who had first year teachers for a student 3 years in a row, right? And so, every time a teacher leaves and a new teacher comes in, you know, getting

056them on board and making sure they understand the climate and culture, understand our students' lived experiences, that takes time. And then with the professional development to ensure that they have the tools and the skill set to support our students, that just takes time. So, we were just losing so many students so many teachers in our title one schools. So, we've really addressed that in a meaningful way. It was 20% at one point, now it's less than 2 and 1/2 percent. >> what I'm saying, why did they leave? >> That was before I got I mean, I can pandemic had a lot to do with it. Uh fear-based culture and climate, uh not having um principals um strong principals in these positions. When I first came on board, we hired over 20 I think it was

05726 principals that year. You cannot have stability >> have accountability being accountable down the down the line, all the way down. >> Again, this was this was This was before we all came together. >> The next thing, the financial part of it. When schools get paid, they get paid because the students are sitting in the seat, right? So, if a student's not in the seat, they don't get paid for that student that day. >> Yeah, average daily attendance, yes. >> Yeah. So, I I think that's where we need to go to get the money. Because that student is still there when they're gone. That teacher still has to do the work. The student still has to make it up. The school shouldn't have to make a budget based on how much they're going to get

058from the government and then not get that money from the government because the students were gone. Um so, that's where we as schools and parents I think need to go fight for the funding and make sure that we're getting the actual money to for the students. Yeah. The students are here, whether they're gone or not. >> Yeah. So, so you bring up a really good um point. I will tell you that in the last 2 years, I I I I will tell you that has been a huge focus of ours is increasing Y'all come to school, y'all. Our average daily attendance. Average daily attendance is it's what we have to use to calculate funding. And so, let's say that um Matias, baby Matias, like comes to school but is only comes for four days out

059of a five-day work week. Well, that that we get funded by how many days I'm in the school, but just because I'm out one day doesn't mean that our teacher is out. We're still paying for our teacher and our principal. And so in the last 2 years we've made a concerted effort to increase average daily attendance. >> Yeah. >> Uh last year we finished the year over I think 1.3% greater than the year before and it seems like a small number, but that is a huge number. 1.3% >> Now, the way that we're going to continue to tackle it is focusing on chronic absenteeism. Uh but I'll tell you that if you go another 1 and 1/2 or 2% you know, you're going to get 4 and 1/2 5 million dollars. You know, we're talking

060about 70 80 million dollar like budget deficit. >> what I'm saying like they should give that to you anyways. It shouldn't matter. That's where I would love to start the fight. You know what I mean? Because that's beyond like you guys just need that money period and you wouldn't have to have this problem. Most of it for >> It it would be it would be very helpful and there's been lots of advocates, your board advocates, your community advocates. Uh we just know the state and the legislature has not been responsive to those >> Do we take that to the capital? >> I we've been taking it to the last 3 years. Yeah. I I I I agree. It's just that it takes lots of legislators and the governor to to do that and based on

061what we've seen it's not likely. >> Thank you. We have another question here. >> Hi, good morning. >> Good morning. >> Um my question is I'm sorry, my English is not a very good. >> No, no, that's okay. >> I have a child here. Who was a better check and I have had other children that were here before. I was saying that there's really good programs here in better check and now that the I guess um the change of zones based on the zip code. Okay, can I say something? What's going to happen to the programs that which were her daughter's currently in and she's going to be transferred or sent to another school if those programs are not available there. So that's her concern about her her child going to college and real programs.

062>> Um we create our programs based on our students' needs. And what programs are here were based on better check students' needs. And so as we move forward, it's really really important that we transition and we look at what programs are not not at Covington that need to be at Covington. What programs are not at Pereda's and need to be at Pereda's because these students are going to go there and we need to make sure that they have programs in place to support them. Programs move. We, the school district, support the building up of programs and we help implement, right? Based on leadership and based on community need and student need. So, that's why the transition plan is important so that I have enough time to make sure that the program is set up and

063ready to receive your student and that they're successful starting the 2026-2027 school year. But, we will move up we will move programs based on student need. That's that is what we do. Is that helpful? Did I do it? Yeah, we we will. I mean, that's we're seeing this at high school also where students who are going to one high school who are now going to another high school wanting to understand what programs will be at that high school that they are now being zoned to because the school they thought they were going to had these other offerings. And so, we can make those adjustments. It's really understanding our student needs, developing a plan to implement the program, and then doing it, like executing the plan. But, that's what we intend to do. >> She expects

064she's hoping that the changes you're talking about the adjustments >> Thank you. I will. I absolutely will. So, the the question here was when do you do it, right? Well, we're in this in-between time, honestly, right now where uh once a vote occurs, um we have transition plans and frameworks ready to to move forward with, but we can't produce those until we get student voice and community voice into it. Because there may be things that are at that campus that should change. Or there are things that we need to add, but I'm not going to sit here and tell you what it needs to be. We want to engage in a conversation and say, "This is what our students need." And then we execute that plan in the spring semester, hire, make adjustments, and then

065train, and then move forward in the start of the new school year. So, you would you would not have that now. We're in this weird time where people want to work and plan, but we don't have a vote yet. And so, that's how it would work. So, after November 20th, uh once the vote occurs, we'll move forward, we'll place the principals, we'll then begin the the staffing plan, and then come back and develop the academic programs for each of the schools with blended students. Because now we have new students with different needs. Like it should change. So, that's how it's going to work, which is why the spring semester is so important. That's why the spring semester is so important. We cannot make a decision in the spring semester because we'll have zero time to

066plan, and it'll ultimately hurt our students starting the 2026-2027 school year. >> Superintendent Segura, I'm going to ask you to come back around here because we have a student question here. >> Um, I have >> name? >> Uh, my name is Lillian. And >> What grade are you in? >> Um, I'm a seventh grader, but I I do have a question. My question is uh, why can't we as seventh graders finish the year here and for the sixth graders to go to the other school? >> So, that's a great question. >> year or next or you mean finish eighth grade here? >> Finish eighth grade here. >> Yeah. So, um That's a great question cuz I'm going to I I want to respond, but I I want to respond in a way that's very thoughtful.

067Um There are the state of Texas, right? The There in the Texas Education Agency, they kind of determine um how they believe schools are performing, right? And they put these letters, you know, in are so much greater than any single assessment or any single test on a single day. But unfortunately, we are in a state that has a different kind of approach. And so, the reality that we're facing, that I'm facing, that keeps that from happening is that BETA Tech for the last 3 years didn't quite, even though there's been great growth. I mean, we're so close. Like academically, we're it's so close, but from the state's perspective, there's still three consecutive years of not meeting accountability. That's the word that we used. And so, if we do not make a change and that fourth

068year comes, then all of a sudden, um, we, as the school district, um, may lose our ability to support 70,000 students. So, so here's an example. Right? We're right now in a library. Right? We love librarians in Austin ISD. We believe in the love of reading, not just reading to be great at a test, right? I I hope that you love reading. I love reading, though I don't get to read that much. And, um, there are school districts right now that don't have librarians. Can you believe that? That that there are schools districts in Texas right now that don't have librarians. We made that decision with our board and the administration to say we value librarians, we value nurses, we value our curriculum. We We want to make sure that we have control on what

069you learn from every single year. Like, that's our responsibility. If we do not address the three, um, years of of not meeting accountability, we could lose the control to make those decisions for all of our students. So, that there's kind of like an urgency around it and a lot None of it has has nothing to do with you all. You are doing exactly what you should be doing. It is really a function of me working with the state to try to find this balance. Um, but that's why we can't do it because if you went one more year, then it could be a fourth year and then that kind of triggers other, um, what we call them as interventions, but bigger and bigger things the state could do up until taking the district over. Is

070that helpful? >> Yeah. >> That That was a great great question. But whenever we can do that, we we like to transition students in that way. >> Maybe explain that that has happened to other school districts. >> Yeah, so, um, right now, um, there are two school districts that are currently, um, being taken over or already taken over by the state of Texas. The first is Houston. You've heard of Houston, right? Houston ISD. And then recently Fort Worth ISD. So Fort Worth is like us. We're very similar in size. We're about 70,000 students. And they recently were notified that they um would have what they call a board of managers. And then the superintendent would I mean there's different things there. Um but it happens. It can happen. And we cannot avoid a hard decision

071because I want to make sure that when you're in high school and when your you know little brother and sister or this generations of students after you come like they are getting education based on our values in Austin. It needs to be our values. In Austin we get to protect them. Even though we got to make hard decisions because at the end of the day like you all should benefit from being in this community and not being kind of informed by the state. So that's how it's it's it's happening. Great question. That's all that's a great question. >> Well like like us students have made a new friends here and stuff like that. But like if we all get separated, how's that going to affect us? >> Yeah, so that's that's where we have teams

072come in and help. And it's it's not going to be perfect cuz there are going to be just based on each family's kind of current um kind of how each family decides to to to approach this. There will be splits. We are trying to reduce the number of splits. Right? So at one point there was like five schools in four school. We really want to make it fewer so there's bigger and bigger groups. And then we're also let's say that you don't maybe maybe you your friends go to Paredes but you're actually zoned to Covington. What we would say is if you want to go to Paredes, we'll approve you automatically. Like I want to make sure that our students that each of you know like as as hard as this is and it is

073hard and it is disruptive and it I'm I really I'm sorry for that. I want to make sure that the transition um that we can do whatever we can to make transition better. And it's never going to be great. Uh but in that way we can do it, you know, we can say go we can go with your friends. Um but there's not a way for me to have everybody go together because better middle schools are just a little bit bigger. In elementary schools we can do, but not in middle schools. >> Okay. We are getting close to a transition period, so I'm going to ask this student a question and then we have one staff person that was hoping to get in >> Yes. >> Um my question is >> What's your name? >>

074Ramiro, what grade are you in? >> Eighth grade. >> Okay. >> Do you have data that shows successful rates splitting students up to other schools? >> Yeah, it There are There's it really comes down to I've seen it both ways. It can work well and it cannot work well. It really comes down to how much time and energy and focus do we put on the transition plan. Right? So, if we just do it, you heard me earlier talk about doing something in the spring semester. Let's say I we did this decision around spring break. And then we got to hire, we got to plan between spring break and summer. We will not be successful. We won't. Right? Because what we need to plan is time. I need conversations with you and your students. I mean

075your your your your your peers and then our families and then build out a plan that actually works and test it and then hire to ensure that it actually is done with fidelity. If we and and whenever it is done well, those plans are thoughtful, they're student-centered, and they're locally built, like they're built with community. Where I've seen it go poorly is when it's a reaction. When we're waiting late into the spring semester, we make a decision, and we go and we don't have time to plan. So, I've seen it be successful, but only if you plan and you support our students and go through the process. So, it's but yes and no. >> Okay. >> We we control that though. >> Yeah. >> All right, we still have students and I want to get

076to them for sure. Let's try to do as quick of answers as we can to get through. >> Like I >> So, if we did shut down, um, what schools are we able to go to? >> So, uh Covington, uh Paredes, and Mendez. Those are the three schools that are currently part of it. Now, the majority of the students will go to Covington, and then the second biggest group will go to Paredes, and then a smaller group will go to Mendez. >> Okay, thank you. >> Oh, great question. Thank you. What was your name? >> Uh Akari. >> I'm sorry? >> Akari. Awesome. Thank you, Akari. >> Uh my name is Walter and I'm in 7th grade, but I'm just curious like how is funding spread between schools? If it Is it like spread evenly?

077>> So, it is not spread So, man, you got You all got some awesome questions. Great questions. That was a great question. High five. So, this is how funding works. So, there's funding from this We fund based on students and student need. Let me give you an example. If you have, um, large numbers of students, then you're going to have more teachers, right? Cuz you got to have more teachers to support our students. We fund based on program. If there are unique programs to a campus, like let's say there's a dual language program, or there's uh another program, we would staff based on language. So, so that's kind of more allocations. Then we also staff on unique programming. Let's say there is a UIL related, um, kind of, uh, program, whether it's fine arts or

078athletics. If there are enough students that have an interest in that, especially in high school, then we would also fund. So, it's really based on student need. Um, we where there are schools that have had kind of just need more support, we actually will provide more staff, um, whether it's instructional coaches, which are people that come help teachers, and just support teachers. We have content interventionists which come help our students just tackle some tough problems from time to time. So, yes, there's one baseline based on students number of students, and then it goes to student need, and then we make adjustments there. So, it is not all equal, but it is based on the needs of the students. Yeah. >> So, if funding is spread like that, since the school shouldn't be done because of

079our grades, right? >> Mhm. It's I would say that it's the number of seats in all of South Austin, right? And I think and what's put pressure on it is the state's accountability system, which is kind of what they would say is is kind of the grades, but not y'all's performance. Like what's >> I was just saying like what if we funded like struggling schools like this a little more? >> So, we So, So, we we do we do right now. The reality is it's hard to take the next step because I don't have more money. Does that make sense? Like if I had more funds available, I would do more. But because of how many empty seats we have across the entire district, I can't offer more without driving our budget down, which creates

080additional risk. So, yes, we do it already. We want to do more, but I need to have money to be able to do it. >> And the plan that we're proposing actually does put extra money into the schools that are going to receive students from Bedichek. So, there will So, we're saving some money, but then we're reinvesting it where the students are going. Does that make sense? >> What's your name? >> Great job. >> Walt, how's it? And you're awesome. Seventh grade? Awesome. >> I'm going to come over this way, Matias, to the to a staff person. Hi, I'm Ms. Mendoza, Coach Mendoza. Um I wanted to say some positive things real quick. I know that the students are leaving and then their teachers are leaving, too, but I feel like that there have been

081some things that have been said in this meeting that have clarified, like geography and accountability would be reasons why Bedichek have been chosen to close, although the messages out there have been all over the place and coming from standing in this library as a student myself to a teacher, um I feel like I've heard a bunch of information. I feel like I hear a lot of things, but one thing that I don't hear, um enough consistently consistently, is all the positive things that we do even academically. I understand that we have some accountability issues according to what the state currently rates our schools, um but to not publicly recognize the a tremendous growth that we've had in domain three, and even to say that we're a campus who's going to go on with a stigma

082of negative accountability, um it's a little crazy not to hear all the positive things um about our campus, especially when we have district people asking us, "Well, how did you do that? How did you do that?" And so, I just wanted to commend the students for coming in and orderly the teachers for how they did it, but also to say that I know that listening to things that are out there in the media, um whether it's from other media sources or AISD, that I don't think we get enough credit for the hard work that we've had to do under the circumstances we had to do. So, I wanted to put a bunch of positive things out there for our campus. >> Yeah, thanks for doing that. You know, and and I think, um that's what

083makes this so so hard is the compression of the timelines because of how '23, '24, '25 accountability came out. Like, when I came here in the I guess it would have been fall of 2024 um and then again in of 2025, right right after the year. You know, that's before 23 accountability came out. The lawsuits were still, you know, stuck. We'd seen the growth. Like, we were really genuinely trying to build a plan that could work at Bedichek and move us in the direction we need to, stabilize, and and get back to balanced. Um, and you're right. There are lots of incredible things happening, not just at Bedichek, but all across our school system. And I and I get really frustrated because it is so negative right now because of what we're talking about. But,

084it's not There There There are great great schools. And And sometimes, you know, these ratings are there because of something that's outside of the the students' control or a staff's control. And it takes time, and there's movement. You know, we had How many schools do we have that were 59s? We had like nine, and then three more that are 58s. I mean, and the growth that we saw from just 2 years ago, it's incredible. And I see it. We see it. That's why we're coming and asking you. I had you in a room. Like, what are you doing? How do we like replicate that? But, at the end of the day, the state sees it a certain way. And that's what makes this painful. And I'm really frustrated that we're here right now, but I

085know that if we don't do something, like, there the students, you know, long-term trajectory in Austin ISD and those coming after them could be adversely impacted because we lose local control. And it will happen. Like, if we do not make hard decisions, it could happen. It happened like that in Fort Worth. So, just, um, I love our teachers. I love our staff. I love our families. I don't want anybody to go. We have We're here because of many indecisions over the last two or three decades, I would say. Um, and I hate that I'm the person who has to do it. Uh, but I I love this school district, and I I just something has to change, um, if we're going to protect who we are. Uh, and I want to do it in an

086ethical, thoughtful way, like, making sure we protect our staff, making sure that we listen to We have student voice in the process. Um, but it is so hard. And thank you for bringing that up because it it true. Like, there are incredible things happening and there are incredible things happening here. Mhm. >> I coach volleyball and track. >> I coach volleyball. >> So, we're going to So, miss I'm going to go ahead and we have three people I know in queue that would like to ask their questions. So, I'm going to go that way, but >> I know that question. I want to answer that question, but I'll answer it later. >> We'll come We'll come back to it. >> Okay. >> Hi, my name is Selena Castaneda. I actually have um six daughters all

087enrolled in AISD. Six daughters. Uh we've got Leisure, Crocket, and um three of my daughters have been enrolled here at Vidor High. Um to feed off of what Coach Mendoza was saying, there is a lot of positive here at Vidor High. My oldest daughter um she finished eighth grade in the I want to say she was number one, but she was in the top percent uh top 10 students, not percent. Top 10 students uh with the highest GPA. She represented the choir all three years that she was here. She represented the um orchestra. And for choir, let me just mention she went to region and uh all city. Um both opportunities given to her because Miss Tannert was here and built that choir program up. Um orchestra built by Miss Stewart who took time out

088of her summer to train these students and get them ready for this school year. Um she also represented the volleyball team, the basketball team, the track team in JHS and um like I said, finished eighth grade in the top percent um with the highest GPA. She maintained straight A's all 3 years that she was here, all a part of the advanced academic program. She would not have had those opportunities had it not been for the program that only Bedichek offers. And by I know you said that you might you know you there's plans to move that program over but um I'll get to that in a little bit. Um let me also say that those opportunities for her would not have been possible without teachers like Ms. Ramos, Mr. Nunam, Mr. Jackson, um Ms. Tanner,

089Ms. Stewart. Um I want to make sure I don't forget any of the teachers that we've had here, Coach Parker who she has not stopped coaching and giving 100% to those athletes that she has this year. There's so much uncertainty and these teachers and these coaches are giving 100% to the students still. Um also Ms. Menhaden, Ms. Bryant, um staff like Ms. Atkinson, Ms. Hartman, Ms. Staman, Ms. Smith. Last year my daughter didn't have you know there was so much with her schedule but she still wanted to be a part of her orchestra and her choir and get her Spanish credits. And Ms. Hartman and Ms. Atkinson made that possible for her. And that is what Bedichek is. They give these these kids opportunity. By taking Bedichek away you're taking away their opportunities. She's now

090at Crockett striving as a freshman. She's uh in an upper class math class and in her class the only other freshman in her class are from Bette Check. The only other freshman in Crockett's upper math classes are from Bette Check because no other schools are giving that opportunity to these kids and she's thriving in that. She finished the nine weeks making 100s in all of her classes. Straight A's in all of her classes again and that is from the structure that Bette Check gave her here at Bette Check. And yes, um the sports we have she had those opportunities to learn the sports and play the sports and get her straight A's because of the size of Bette Check. I know that it's not as big of a school as Covington or Paredes, but because

091of the size of the school she had those opportunities. And now like I said, she's also in the choir class over there and she is the only she's a freshman and she is the only student in that class who knows how to read music and that is because of Miss Tanner and Miss Stewart here and their programs that they built here at Bette Check. Um sorry, I know this is long. I also have an eighth grader here on the same path who represents the students she's a student rep for CAC. She's a um she will not be happy if I get this wrong. She is the president of NJHS and she is the uh also a part of the student council as um the secretary. She represents the volleyball, the basketball and the track team

092all while still maintaining straight A's all three years in the advanced academic program. Um and she will be finishing like her sister with those two high school math credits. She's got a bunch of elective high school credits. She's got the IPC credit, which I heard was also going to be taken away from the program, which it's an amazing opportunity for them to have that because they're able to go into Crockett and take those ACC courses and not have to worry about um their schedule and scheduling conflicts. Um Yes. Yes. Um The other thing I have a sixth grader here. What are we going to do with her? She's in the same program. How long is it going to take y'all to get that program up and running? Um and then the other the last thing

093was just the um the location. Bedichek is in one of the best locations. Um no matter what direction you're coming from and me having six kids, I come from every direction possible. I can get here in a timely manner. My kids are on time every day. Um they have perfect attendance because this school works for us. So, that's um I thank you for your time. Uh and I ask that you take all of that into consideration and um maybe rethink closing down Bedichek for us. Thank you. >> We've got other folks in line. Yeah, but we'll come back to you. Did you want to just reiterate anything with that? >> I mean I first off I'm super impressed. Um that's that's very it's it's very impressive. Um I have two daughters. Uh six I couldn't

094imagine having six. Um I love them to death. Uh you know, I I think what your students are experiencing is exactly what we want in Austin ISD. You know, and and I I would say that um it's a really difficult spot that we're in as a school district. It just is. Uh there aren't lots of I would think decisions that we can make that really bring down the pressure and stress and risk in the system. There just aren't. You know, the the budget, the change at the federal federal level, you know, the challenges we have with accountability, there aren't lots of options unless the only option is to kind of wait and see what happens. And I I'm not going to be the superintendent that introduces a risk that takes Austin ISD away from our

095community. Um so the way that I kind of process this is say, "Okay, well, if I acknowledge that that is something has to happen, my focus needs to go into how I support our students." Right? Programs when programs fail, it's because they weren't built out thoughtfully. You didn't hire thoughtfully. Um or you started something without really understanding kind of the resources required to ensure that it's sustainable. And so, for me, that's where the focus is. I don't have lots of options unless I close another middle school. I mean, really, at the end of the day, that's the only way to to do this. But from a geography perspective, you know, there just are different parts of the city that make it kind of harder to actually accomplish and almost impossible in some cases. So, um

096I appreciate your comments, and you know, that that is part of what we're trying to do as we move forward is figure out like how to do this thoughtfully, um and transition as best we can cuz we want your daughters to have get everything they have out of Bedichek, which I know is not possible, um but we learn and we adjust and we improve and then support the entire city as you move forward. >> All right, I'm going to go to this parent here cuz they've been waiting a while and then another student. >> My name is Sylvia Peña. I'm here because if y'all knew the ratings that the kids were already failing, why didn't you offer summer school for them? If you didn't offer summer school for them, that's why we're in this situation

097of you looking at us closing our schools. We have a lot of support. We have a lot of real good academic classes, and if it wasn't for Mrs. Atkins and the tutoring and the ROTC, none of other schools have ROTC for the kids. And my son needed the discipline, so being in there in the ROTC did help him >> Yeah. >> to be a better person. But there's a lot of opportunities that was here for the kids. But why didn't y'all do it? Why didn't y'all go and say, "Hey, y'all already failed. Why didn't y'all make an effort for the kids to come to summer school like y'all did some of the other schools?" From what I hear was that there was three schools that were offered summer school. We would not be in this

098position if y'all didn't offer it to us. Y'all say y'all care about the students and the students come and their attendance is real good here at Better Chance. >> Yeah. >> It's all about the money, not about the kids. And that's not right. Be honest. >> Oh, I'm I'm sorry. >> it was about the kids being in the school seats, but yet you're not offering them the summer school that they need. >> So, so just to be clear, when you think back about the last couple years, we're talking about 22-23, 23-24, and 24-25 that drove like kind of the pressure here. Right? So, I think about um what instability looks like in a system. Right, wrong, or indifferent. You know, there there were there were things that happened out of the pandemic, leadership changes that

099occurred that created instability across AISD, period. As you move forward, you know, I would I am committed. I've continued to be committed to provide the supports as our students need. But here's the other thing is is I have to understand what does each school community need, allocate the resources, and then move forward, and move outcomes. The one thing I don't want to do, and this is something that is a challenge is you could make different decisions and you could probably move outcomes in a way that would get you to you know, be a you know, to meet accountability, but you're going to do it in a way that perhaps like introduces harm into the school system, right? You can do things in a different way. What we're electing to do is to do it in

100a sustained way so that if I'm here, Principal Atkinson is here, and whoever is here in the next many many years the system as a whole is still thriving. Right now, if we just react and then, you know teach to the test. >> school for many years. >> I It has been a strong school. >> Mrs., I just want to say something, too, because I hear this a lot that it's about money, it's about money. It's not like when we Right, but where does that money go, right? Right, you ask why we don't have summer school. The three schools that got summer school, we had to We literally had to dip into our fund balance because we didn't We don't have enough money to do it. We had to literally borrow from our savings to

101do it. Our savings is dwindling, right? And so, what this When we say it's about the money, it is about spending our money where it will benefit students cuz right now with so many empty seats across the district we'll go We fix the HVAC on the same school three times in 1 year. That's money down the drain, right? It's not money that's going to pay for summer school. And so, that is why we're going through this process, and the amount of money that this this process frees up more than half of it is going back into our school so that we can provide the level of service. So, I know you're hearing it's about money, but it's not like the district just pockets that money cuz we want to have money. We want to free

102up the money so that we can put it in the schools, okay? >> When it comes to education, some of the parents doesn't have a problem paying for the kids' education for their schooling, for their church, for tutoring anything that the kids would need to make them succeed in their academics. >> Yeah, and and I think um we as a superintendent need to figure out we need to be honest about the fact that not every student has the same need. Right? Some students need more and that's okay. And we we acknowledge that. And we actually believe that is the right way to operate. Right? Students who've historically been underserved just need more resources to to be supported. And and we have made our systems responsive to that. You know, we have different lists that we

103use when it comes to hiring, when it comes to placement. There are decisions that other superintendents in other districts probably would have made regarding, you know, how many assistant principals would you have on a campus that is a certain size? Or how many um instructional coaches? Or how many um you know, teachers would you have in a grade level if you get down to 140 or 150 kids? Well, the math would say you need to go down to one and a TA, but we say no, it's going to be two. So, we have we have spent a lot of energy trying to figure out what is the the the the bottom that we will not let any school go below, right? Because that's going to harm our students who've been historically underserved. What I'll tell

104you is the agent of change in a school district is teachers. Right? And we have our teachers cannot afford to live here in Austin anymore. We have about a third of them that live outside the city. And so, if we're going to compensate them, if we're going to provide the resources, we have to find money to do it. And right now we are just so inefficient. And it's it's not that anyone school was identified because of what they've done. We have incredible schools doing incredible things. It's really a function of the whole in trying to find the seats to pull out so they become more efficient so that the dollars that we have can go to teachers, can go to programming, can go to the summer school. Because right now, you're right. I don't have

105the the or the funds to do it all. I just don't. >> It's going to get worse because you're going to send all these kids to the different schools and the classes are going to be overcrowded. >> They They They won't >> looked into that already? >> Yeah, staffing plans, we the num- the size of the school, um the student-teacher ratio, all of those things we've evaluated. And that We would have never offered something that we think We don't think we could have been able to execute. >> So, just to clarify, the student-to-teacher ratio doesn't change when you consolidate schools. There's still the same allocations. And in fact, the campuses with the turnaround plans are going to have extra funds. So, if they choose they want to have an extra teacher to lower it even

106more, they can do that. Um I'm going to go ahead cuz we've had the student patiently waiting for a while, and I think there were a couple of other parents that had their hands up. >> One more. What about transportation for them? How's that going to work? >> Uh so, our policy right now is uh if you're going to Covington or if you're going to Paredes, um if you're outside 2 miles, you you will have transportation from Austin ISD. Or if you're on the other side of a hazardous intersection, like, you know, you That might be like a William Cannon and like Westgate or some some larger kind of intersection. That's our policy. So, the way that it works now, given where we are in proximity to Covington and Paredes, uh the vast majority of

107students are going to have it. If there are any gaps, you know, I need to make sure I understand where those are, but transportation will be provided uh if you're outside the 2-mile radius or if there is a hazardous intersection. And when you get to middle schools and high schools as big as they are and as how big the footprint is, you see that quite a bit. So, transportation will be provided. >> Thank you. >> Okay, let's go right here to the student. >> Is it Isabella? What was it? >> Rosabella. Ah, sorry. >> You said you had wanted to give students what they need, but our students need better check. >> Yeah, I I >> Will you >> I heard you. I This is very, very hard. Um I want to make sure our

108students see themselves in Austin ISD, and this is why this conversation is important. So, I understand what you need, what our families need. Um, it doesn't keep us from making a hard decision, necessarily, uh, but it does help us understand how to support you through it. So, thank you. I'm sorry. >> Okay, I think we have time for about two more questions. Or, I'll go three more cuz I know the three of you have been waiting. Okay. >> Hi there. I'm Dylan Vickner. I have a eighth grader who attends Bedichek, uh, fourth grader who is very much looking forward to attending Bedichek in a couple years. Um, I guess real quick, obviously, closing schools can lead to crowded classrooms, which is not really conducive to the learning process. But, my main question is, um, considering

109that in the last year, uh, Austin taxpayers have paid nearly $700 million towards the Robin Hood recapture plan to fund other school districts districts, uh, throughout the state of Texas. Um, and simultaneously, the state has a $24 billion tax surplus. How How is it not possible to reallocate some of those funds to help, you know, cover this $20 million deficit? >> Yeah. What's your name? >> Dylan. So, Dylan, um, what you're describing is what the board and I have been fighting for for the last many years. I mean, like we we have. So, the the Robin Hood or the, um, recapture, we spent we sent $714 million about 8 weeks ago, and then we spent $56 million about 2 and 1/2 weeks ago. And you're right. That money is collected, it goes to the state,

110the state redistributes it to school districts, but not all of it. They actually keep a good amount of it. The problem is we have fought and fought and fought. And when you are only a couple legislators here in Central Texas and then every other legislator throughout the state of Texas, over 200, 300 of them collectively between the Senate and the House, benefit from recapture because their school districts are getting something. They're not going to vote to have it be different than the way it already is. Like that's the honest truth. That's how you get things to the state. You have to have a majority, right, in the Senate and the House and then it has to get passed. And so I promise you I we have been fighting and fighting and fighting for years around

111this very topic. We've sued in 2017, uh 2017 there was a lawsuit. We challenged it in 2019. Uh this time around we're pushing, pushing, pushing, but it's not going to change. It's just not. Uh now what we So our approach kind of shifted uh for the 89th Legislature and we said, "You know what? Fine. I get that we're not going to be able to move it because the powers that be, but let's just fund public education. Let's just fund public education better. Let's just do that. You know, let's raise the basic student allotment. Let's figure out how to put billions of dollars into the school system and give districts the autonomy, when appropriate, to spend as they see fit, right? Because we choose to spend it on teachers. Other school districts may choose to spend

112it on something different. Uh and there was some movement in the 20 in the 89th Legislature. The problem with it is that lots of the dollars were um set asides for certain programs, right? Really kind of you know, um confining how you spend your dollars. Uh and at the end of the day, whenever it all nets out, it ended up being around a $10 million increase for AISD bottom line. Now teachers got raises, which is great, and we believe in raises. We've done three raises in a row. Um but that is that is the the biggest issue that we have. And another thing I would say exacerbates this is the federal government. The disruption of the federal government. Y'all think that we're the state is not the only one that funds us, right? Title 1,

113Title 2, Title 3, and Title 4 dollars all come from federal government. Earlier this year I sent a letter to our all of our families saying two, three, and four um grants or title dollars were frozen. I had to get 100 people in a room and tell them that the source of funding used to pay their salary is frozen. And I'm not in a position because I don't have the resources because of all these things we just described to carry them. Right? Without really impacting our fund balance. And so we had hard conversation. These individuals support multilingual education. These people support like all the things that we believe in. And the reality is that I am trying to desperately move us to a place where we don't have to rely on funding sources funding sources

114that are variable, that change like that. And that's why this work is so important, but very very difficult. So I'm going to continue to fight, but I want you to know why our strategy has changed. It's because unfortunately Austin in front of anything makes it to where almost everybody's going to not vote for it. >> And I'll just add with this last legislative session, there were estimates that in order to get our funding up to keep up with inflation that we needed to get an extra 1,100 to 1,300 per student. And what ended up coming was about came out to about 200 per student. So that's how And the legislature wanted to celebrate. It was a big bill and it was a lot of money to schools, but it was nowhere near what it would

115cost just to keep up with the rising costs. >> I'll be quick. My name is Maria. Um I am a transfer parent since I don't know, seven years now. I had a previous student who is now in college. Um you know, my also have a daughter who is in seventh grade. She was really upset whenever I did tell her it's time to move out. I'm actually moving out from Austin. And I think as a parent I'm not even have a question. I'm I'm going to give you an opinion. Mr. Segura, you have it really hard. The funding issue is being around you know, our for I don't know for the longest I remember for 18 years cuz I also have a older daughter who is 25. And you have it really hard. What I see

116this is a district monopoly game where you have to finish it. So best of luck. Um I think that putting the kids combining the kids with two schools in one school is a bad bad bad bad idea. I It's happening right now because we also have to close Lanfer to Palm. Palm is also getting closed, you know. Um my kid he has to wake up at 6:00 at 6:00 a.m. because that he have to get picked up by a bus at 6:40. You know, parents are not allowed to drop off our kids from Lanfer to Palm due to the traffic for the Palm parents. Um they're not even allowed to play in the playground. The big playground is not for Lanfer. So we have to build a little playground for our our kids to play.

117Yes. Yeah. So it's really hard that they can't go to their gym. They had to build a mobile, you know, place for them to play. That's where they do gym classes. And you know, I've been dealing with it, you know, since we have to do it and I'm like, "Okay, well it's a transition. They're rebuilding Lanfer. I live within 2 minutes walking from Lanfer." You know. I'm a transfer parent like I said for 7 years I've been driving my daughter it don't matter like she said she is leading she's an Austin student. Um I don't know she's in everything. Um so yes, she's already crying about it and what's your going What's going to happen what what I think cuz a parent we're not looking at Austin ISD district as an option now. Charter school

118maybe, you know, but to me is move out of Boston. Um my opinion is I have no idea what you're going to do. But it's not an option, I guess uh combining the kids to school in one because I think like she said, the programs is not the same. You get to pick what you have already in your home. You're the visitor, so you're going to deal with whatever I guess the district the district's going to go with it, you know? So, I'm sorry, but that's an issue. >> Can you speak a little bit to when we bring two communities together? I think that's an important point you made that we don't want anyone to feel like a visitor that it's going to be a uniting the two schools. >> Uh yes, thank you, Ally.

119So, um I I appreciate that. It is hard. Um This is hard. I don't You know, we've been around for 144 years. Uh this still school district has evolved, has changed. There are things that are in our bones that are probably not great things. Right? And unless we change and do something pretty significant, um we will not continue to be the district that I think we all collectively want. Because there are families in other parts of town that don't have the resources, don't and I don't have the resources to deploy to ensure that their students and that they have a strong thriving neighborhood school. And so, it's it's very complex and I have to think about 70,000 students um and 116 schools, not just one and one and one and one, right? And that's what

120makes this really, really hard cuz these are our students, these are our families, these are our neighborhoods. Like I grew up here. I love this city. I love this school district. Um when it comes to bringing families together or schools together, uh we have um teams that we've that we're building called bridge teams. And we've done this in the past uh when we went through the closures in 2019 or modernized campuses where we bring schools together, uh Norman Sims or Metz and Sanchez, where we are very proactive. We lay it out, we talk about, you know, who needs to be at the table, you know, how are we going to honor the history of the um school that is consolidating, you know, how do we get the PTAs together, what do programs look like? I

121mean, all the supports, right? And so, um that is what's going to happen in this case. Uh and so, those we have the frameworks for the teams. They're going to be led. I'm going to track KPIs, um different uh data points that I'm going to use to ensure that everything's being done uh with fidelity. Uh so, if there's something that gets hung up, I can, you know, address it immediately. And so, that's how we have to do it. Um we can be successful. I don't want you to leave Austin ISD. I'm sad to hear you say that, especially if at least one of your kids isn't going to probably Langford next year cuz they'll be a fifth grader when Langford opens in 26-27. So, that would be pretty awesome. Um Uh and also, thank you

122for sharing me the information around Palm and Langford. I had not understood that uh as being a a limiting kind of opportunity for students uh in that playground. Um Yeah. >> Okay, this is going to be our last question. >> Hello, my name is Stephanie. Um I have a child in sped and in scores. Um my question is why advocate and have this get-together to express our feelings and concerns if the I feel the decision is already being made without taking in consideration our students and parents. Why not count on us before all this? I understand the rules and regulations. But, that's my question. >> Yeah. So, um we didn't know So, we started this process in February and March of of this year, right? Um we we identified the the five big things we're

123trying to tackle. Um through the process, accountability 23, 24, and 25 came out, and then in August it set the timeline for when we have to respond. So, we were going through our process, which which you know, would have been different if we didn't have those milestones, as you mentioned, that we had to hit here in November. Um you know, we produced a plan. Uh we go through a process to refine and improve the plan, but there aren't lots of um kind of big pieces that can move based on the goals that were identified early in the process with our board and the administration. Right? We talked about what those were. Um if you don't want to align feeder patterns, then fine, but that's that that's something that we agreed to. If we don't If

124we I'm going to be really clear about this, like we have to reduce our budget deficit. We have to. Um and if we don't reduce the number of seats, then we'll never get there. So, if we begin to take schools off, then you're going to be right back here in two or three years, if even not sooner, like having the exact same conversation, but this time there'll be more urgency around it. Uh it'll be like you know, zero time to plan, because the district will be on the verge of like insolvency, essentially. And that is another reason the state can take over a school district. It happens all the time Doesn't happen all the time, but it happens enough. Those are the two big reasons, right? Accountability and then finances. Um I don't want to

125delay a hard vote um for the sake of delay. We've done that. We've done that over and over and over again in our history of Austin ISD. I'm not going to do it. I would rather be really clear as to what we're tackling together, believe that we as a school district and as our community want the best for all of our students, move forward, and acknowledge that there's going to be disruption, but if we plan and we love our kids and we do this as a community, we can get there. Um so so that's why we're approaching it this way. Uh yes, I'm taking feedback. Um I'm not the one that ultimately will vote. The board votes. Um, but I will tell you that we didn't arrive at this plan or this element in the

126plan just, you know, without like a lot of thought. And I think you see that in the plan because of how interwoven it is. There are there are lots of things that we considered. >> Did you have a follow-up? >> Yes, ma'am. >> If you don't like you're saying this is based on five big categories and then if you don't meet it, is the state going to still grade you the same way and then are you going to be still looking at possible a state takeover? >> So, um, this is our this is the five areas that I talked about, right? Transfer policies, accountability, um, inefficiencies, programmatic moves, and feeder and feeder pattern alignment. Like those things are our goals to move the entire system. I will tell you I don't know that we would

127ever ever be able to align feeder patterns in East Austin unless we were taking taking taking on all this work together. Right? Like so so you think about some schools like Covington goes almost wholly into into Crockett. Right? We have middle schools in East Austin that go into four and five high schools, right? And I I think I said that earlier. You never would we as a school district probably wouldn't be able to take that on and align the feeder patterns unless we were taking it all together. If that makes any sense. So, um, if we don't meet our objectives in the plan, will the state take us over? I mean, no. No, they won't. But what I'll say is my job is to ensure that that as we move forward we're always moving in

128the right direction. I would say if we the further we get away from hitting our goals in the plan, the more risk that is introduced from the state regarding whether they take an intervention or not. Or the more risk that we'll have to manage regarding budget in, you know, 24 months or 48 months. What I don't want to be is is a school district that all of a sudden has all these things, you know, facing it. And what the state will do is come and say, "Okay, we're going to do this. These teachers are out. These schools are closing. No communication. No engagement. It's done." That's That's how it happens. Because they have to take that type of corrective action because they're saying, "You should have done it before. Why didn't you make a hard

129decision, Matias? I'm going to make it for you." And and my my hope is that because we're doing it, it'll be more thoughtful. I know it's going to be painful, um but it's done by people who love the school district and love your students, not by the state of Texas. And so we're kind of wanting to Like I I would argue that other school districts are being taken over that wish they would have made decisions years before they got to that point. And And that what I'm doing is saying, "We're not going to get there." Is that helpful? >> No. >> Okay. So, that's all the questions we have time for. I think there are some of us that might be might be able to stick around a little bit longer for one-on-one conversations if

130needed, but some of us do need to get on our way. Um I'm just going to go over the timeline. So, we're in phase three of the process. Um you heard our superintendent talk about it beginning back in April. Um but just some important dates coming up. Um we have the November 6th board meeting is where there's going to be the next conversation about the draft plans that we've presented. Um so, these conversations that we're having in the community. Um there's also a new um comment card that was emailed to y'all and I believe texted on Friday. So, make sure that's the new um card. If you go to the old one, it's actually going to redirect you to the new one, but we are still collecting feedback. But there will be a conversation um

131on November 6th. Is that this Wow, that is this Thursday, right? This Thursday. Um and then the the board is anticipated to vote on the final plan November 20th. Um so, thank you so much everyone. This is a really great conversation. Oh, thank you to our students who left so quietly. Um and we again, some of us can stick around if we didn't get to all of your questions. So, thank you so much everyone.