001Bianeneos Rattlers, good morning. Welcome. Thank you guys for being here this morning. We have more people coming in. Um, for those of you who don't know, if you need a grown-up bathroom, there's one like right across the hallway. Um, but because none of you actually have tags on your bodies, well, some of you do, but not all of you. Just go to the bathroom and come right back. There's no lingering in the building. That is for another time when you have an actual batch. Um, so that's where the bathroom is. It is only a oneperson bathroom. So, no lining up. It's like the cockpit of airport, like of airplane. Like we don't have there's not a lot of room. So, uh, one bathroom over there. Um, and then, uh, there's coffee. I hope everybody had
002a chance to sign in, but if you didn't sign in, if you'll sign in on your way out. All right. So, welcome, Benos. I'm so glad you all are here this morning. Um I want to thank you all for taking time out of your day for a meeting to um just kind of get some more answers or get some some clarification and all the things that are going on. Um I'd like to thank the superintendent and everybody that your posi everybody that came with you today um for being here to support us and um making yourselves available to you know listen and answer questions. We have 90 minutes for this meeting. Um, a lot of it is going to be Q&A because we opted not to do like the presentation piece. I think a lot
003of I think I think I'm over that. I mean, we've seen a lot, right? I know there's been some changes, but nothing really to our our plan. So, I'm going to turn it over now to Victoria O'Neal, who's now the queen of Enroll Austin. And it's already way better. Like, it's just I think it's going to be a lot smoother this year. All right, here we go. Good morning everyone. Um yes, no presentation, but I do want to use um a couple of slides to review um the uh agenda and purpose and what we'll be doing here today. Um thank you to Principal Schultz for the welcome. Um and we are um here to talk about um the questions that y'all have um that are specific to everyone here at Ridgetop. Um so in terms
004of the uh norms for today um we are all working together on the same team to build the future for education in Austin and um your students in particular and so u if we can focus on ideas and solutions um that will be um that'll help make our time together very productive. Uh we are asking everyone including our um staff responders who are kind of clustered here at the uh start to um like try to be succinct to honor the time that we have. Um a lot of people have uh ideas or um comments or questions that they would like to share and so if we can hold um to approximately one minute per comment and then um for our uh district speakers as well. Um and uh when we are conversing with each other
005um maintain respect as I know that this community always does. If we can try to have one speaker speaking at a time that will be really helpful. And as we're doing the Q&A um we are going to ask for um a question to be shared. Uh it will be responded to and then we do need to go to the next uh person who has a question. We want to make sure that as many folks have a chance to share their voice as want to. Uh and so um uh we ask that you share the the things that you would like to be addressed in your initial statement so that way um we don't have um a whole lot of follow-ups. Um and uh while we are here we may disagree on the ideas but we
006are all assuming the positive intent and our focus on our shared goal. Uh and um in terms of um again the space and voice um please keep an eye or keep your thoughts open to the equity of voice and who um has had an opportunity to speak and who hasn't. And uh these are difficult conversations and so we are coming together with compassion, clarity and honesty. We do espanol. Okay. Um disposiv. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Okay. Um so, uh we do have um if we run out of material in the room, we do have some of your question cards that we could address. However, um we think that there probably will be um enough conversation in the room. Um but we do have those in reserve and uh our uh our opportunity here today is
007to gain a shared understanding of the changes and um the rationale behind them and to gain insights. We are always looking to refine. There are always opportunities to make things um better and um better aligned with our goals and values. And so, um, the ideas that have been brought to us in all of the different settings, uh, uh, whether it's been the comic cards or in person, um, have been deeply considered. Um, it doesn't mean that every single idea is able to be integrated, but I promise that we have considered them. Okay. And now I'm going to turn it over to our superintendent. >> Thank you. Um, so I appreciate y'all coming out this morning. Uh, you know, it's, um, this is what you want, right? You want families, you want community that engage, that
008support their schools. Uh, and so I know it's a difficult conversation. Um, but I will be here. We will be here to answer any questions you have. We may not have all the answers. There may still be things that we have to explore. Um, but I just want to just share my sincere appreciation for you all uh, showing up this morning. Um, I know you're taking away time from other things uh that you could be doing. I also want to acknowledge just how hard this is. Um, this is hard. Uh, I know it's a disruption. I know there's pain in our community. I know that uh there is real harm that we as a school district, you as families are experiencing. Um, I want to acknowledge it. I want you to know that we as
009a team um cannot necessarily um put ourselves in your seat, but many of us and many of those in the administration do understand and and I just want you to know that we collectively love our school district. We do. Um I love this city. I love this school district. I am doing everything I can to ensure that we are who we need to be as we move forward for the next 50 years. And when we talk about what that means, we've been um kind of sharing this understanding of of a neighborhood school. And it at Ridgetop, you have a very strong neighborhood school. Um there is no doubt. I've spent time here. I have friends that come here. I've come and read here. Trust me, I know how incredible this school is. I also want
010you to know that this does not exist everywhere in Austin. Uh that's the honest truth. it doesn't uh much of it is because of decisions that the district made years ago, decades even. Uh but we simply do not have the ability to ensure that every student gets what they need to be successful. And we know that every student needs something different. And so we embarked on this work. We really were focused on ensuring that through this work and multiple steps afterward, we would get to a place where we did have strong neighborhood schools everywhere in Austin so that students and families didn't feel like they had to leave their neighborhood. You know, neighborhoods of different sizes in different parts of Austin to go but to go to a strong school. And so I want to
011be really clear and we're going to get into questions and answers and I want to spend time there, but I I want you to know kind of the things that drove this plan. You all heard them. I I know that you probably know most of them, but I I think it's worth just me saying what they were so that when we talk about the complexity of this plan, you can maybe see how it's all woven together and why we arrived at these draft recommendations or draft plans. The first is I desperately believe that aligned feeder patterns are something that this district has to address. I I strongly feel that in my bones and I think that many of our trustees do as well. There's a reason that aligned feeder patterns in certain parts of Austin
012exist and have existed for decades and where middle schools go wholly into high schools. You see that at Merkasen going wholly into Anderson. You see that Henry going holy into Austin High. You do not see that in East Austin. You don't. You see middle schools that go to three, four, and five high schools. And in order to disrupt that, it requires a comprehensive boundary plan and change. So that was one kind of component of this work that we wanted to address. The second thing is we wanted to address transfers like our system has is an amalgamation of just different types of policies and operating procedures over the last 20 years that has led to kind of inequities in how we manage transfers what policies we have in place and we really had to address that.
013It's led to some imbalances in our system. It's led, you know, to different families, you know, having different avenues to to move through the system and in many cases creating harm in a neighborhood. And the again, these are decades old in some cases. I want to tackle transfers. Third thing, we wanted to address the reality that the enrollment in Austin has declined for a very long time. It has. You know, at one point, you know, a little over a decade ago, we had 86,000 students. Now we're just over 70,000. We have about 20,000 extra seats in Austin ISD. If you think about that, that's about 3,000 seats greater than the Moody Theater. It's a lot of seats and they're not all in one area. I mean, they're spread throughout the system. So, it's not very
014easy for us to just extract and find those seats. We really have to think about the movement of students, the movement of programmings to ultimately reduce the number of of empty seats. The other thing that we wanted to tackle is we had to address the um accountability system that we're in. Right? The 23, 24, and 25 accountability coming out the way that it did put extreme pressure on our system. If we do not respond to the accountability system and ensure that we break these accountability chains, then the risk of state intervention up to right installing a board of managers, which is meaning losing local control um could occur. Now, our board and I am committed to ensuring that doesn't happen. And there are things that that that I wish we had more time on, but
015the reality is the state has their timeline. They have the authority. They have the power. We have to be responsive. And so this plan attempts to kind of weave all that into it so that we're finding solutions where they might not otherwise exist. And the last component which I think is pertinent to why we're here today um again combined with others is alignment within our programs our programs that were built out within Austin ISD to um support um access to different things and we talk about dual language in Austin ISD. It's something we believe in. You'll often hear me see say how important and how valuable I be I believe being multilingual and multicultural is in Austin ISD. We are leaning into dual language when other school districts around us are leaning out. But the
016reality is that some programs whether it's wall-to-wall dual languages, Monastery and others that we have in the system have evolved over time and without kind of reestablishing kind of the core um student group to ensure kind of long-term sustainability, it will suffer. That is the honest truth. And so when we looked at program movement, we looked at positioning these programs where access could increase for those students who were originally the focus of the program and the and the focus of the program originally and always will be are emerging bilingual students. We value providing that access to others but the core by policy by law it's emerging bilingual students. And so, um, those are the things that we attempted to weave into this plan. Uh, I do want to acknowledge there's been some adjustments, uh, that
017came out yesterday and timeline. We can talk about that. Um, but the reality of it all is we have to do something. There is no doubt. Um, this plan is not perfect. No plan is. I want to spend time with you. I want to, you know, hear your thoughts and and questions and share with you kind of our responses and what we've learned through this process and how we can improve. I um just want you to know that we're doing this in a very honest way. We're we're really trying to find a solution that works, but it doesn't mean that we're going to avoid disruption. Um that's just the truth. So, um I'm happy to to start begin answering questions. Um, I do we have a lots of folks in the team. Uh, I've never
018heard us call a posi before, but thank you, Cara. Um, it it's it's there are lots of folks that we uh that we in El Paso. Thank she is. Um, so yeah, let's let's we can start going. Um, do you have a there's I'm not great at managing like hand raises, so well, she'll Victoria will help. >> So, I think we're kind of here and then up and then we'll come back down. >> Yep. Okay. So, one, two, three, four. Yes. four in the dark jacket and then we'll do another round. >> So, we've done that before. It's kind of um we want to make sure it's comfortable for you all. Whatever you think makes the most sense. We've done lines um that that works for you all. What do you think would be most
019helpful? >> No lines. No one wants a line back there. I've done lines lines earlier in the week, but yeah, I don't want to Hey, this is y'all's I don't I don't want to misstep here. >> Okay. Um, so I will just say that when you have this microphone, this one is quite quieter and so um, uh, please have your put the microphone close to your chin. >> Uh, superintendent, thank you for being here. Uh, I appreciated your summary of some of the factors driving this. I think I I'll speak for this whole room. Uh, the richtop community, sorry, can everyone hear me? >> The richtop community has tried to be extremely open to this. I think we have been collaborative. I think we have bought into your vision. That email last night changed some
020things for this room. >> Um, look, I heard your vision. There's three things I also heard from you that I did not hear that you just said. The first was that you would not be caving to carveouts to the loudest, wealthiest communities. The second was sorry. The second was that you were committed to being transparent with us. The email that came through last night included a carveout for three of the loudest communities. The email that came out last night offered no explanation for why that carve out arose. And the email last night included a reference to allegations that have shaped the plan with no indication whether those allegations might have influenced those carveouts one way or the other or what else they might have involved with this plan. I have been I think people in
021this room will tell you one of your strongest advocates. I feel I feel personally embarrassed and let down. And I I would like to hear if you plan to bring some of that transparency you've been promising back and share with us what happened and how we got where we got last night. >> YEAH. >> So I I I very much appreciate um your comment. So, I know many of you don't know me well. Um, but there are some in this room that do. And what I'll tell you is that I am someone that believes in process. I am someone that believes in ethical, transparent processes that lead to outcomes. And we may not all agree in those outcomes, but if we understand how we got there and we did it with integrity at every step
022along the way, then I am going to support a plan. I will tell you that um what drove the um the change in timeline yesterday and again it is a change in timeline. It's not a change or a lack of of us moving forward with the overall plan was a recognition based on things that were brought to me and other trustees. Just to be clear, it wasn't just Matias, you know, like it wasn't me making a a decision in isolation or recommendation in isolation. I was steadfast and I I I am 100% prepared and ready to go if I needed to make a vote on the 20th. But I truly believe in process. And when it became clear to me that refinements of the process, not the body of work itself, but the refinements, right,
023the feedback that comes from the community that requires time and energy and resources to analyze was perhaps not being um fully assessed in the way that I expect to make an informed decision. I had to slow it down because community voice is too important. Uh when it comes to refinement, it it it just it I I see there's lots of heads shaking and I understand that. But when it comes to us being able to make changes and refinements to the plan, I have I have to take that in, spend the time, make the adjustments, and move forward. You you said something about the light loudest voices. There are loud voices everywhere. There are loud there. There are lots of people all the time sharing with me their ideas, their perspectives. They love their communities and
024there are still voices and still communities in this plan that are moving forward that you know maybe others would say are are are vocal. Um so that did not drive this. What truly drove the change in timeline was being able to protect the process with the utmost integrity. That's what drove it. I will never ever be part of something that doesn't ensure that that we got to the end and I felt comfortable for how we got there. Um, if that was the case, I think you'd see a different plan. That's not what you saw. You saw those schools that were not tied to programmatic moves, that were not tied to turnaround plans, that were truly a function of balanced enrollment and included Palm other schools, not just the schools that I think you're referencing. And
025I said, you know what, those based on what we're hearing from the community, based on what has been shared with me regarding the concern of us doing the work, I need to slow those down. Um, with everything else, the boundaries as well. So, so that's what happened. That's the honest truth. Um, there's there's not a single bone of my body that doesn't believe that we have to get there in a ethical like pro way with integrity. I just I'm not going to support a plan that doesn't do it. So that's what happened. >> I I don't I I what what part of the question what specifically do you want to know? It wasn't about loud voices because there are other loud voices tomorrow. >> So when it comes to so this is the way it
026works. This is what I I tell individuals and I tell communities if there are um ideas and um plans that move us towards our goal, right? And do not just say no because there are lots of question there's lots of ideas about just don't do this or how about this other plan or how about this and I will sit here and I'll tell you yes I can support that no I can't support that to the extent I can support that something I can then do the analysis to to progress it forward that is that is how this is supposed to work um when it comes to this community and and all the communities we have been getting feedback I know we haven't had this meeting and we'll have this meeting and we'll take the feedback
027but we have this is not the only time we've gotten feedback in this community. We we have been listening. Y'all have been sharing y'all's feedback and and we have been, you know, trying to adjust, to refine it, to take it forward. >> The other schools, you're telling us you couldn't get their feedback. >> No, I I'm not saying that I couldn't get their feedback. I'm saying that once ideas became once different strategies are made aware, shared with me, that required due diligence and time to explore them. I didn't have Oh, go ahead. I didn't have the asurances that each of those ideas, the ones that I felt could be explored, were being explored to meet my expectation. That's the honest truth. I know it's not I mean I I know you're saying you're not answering
028the question, but that's exactly what happened. And that's it. >> Um I I trust me, I I just want you to know I'm not alone in this. Like it wasn't I I can't share There there are there I I I am someone who really strives to be transparent. I really I really do. There are lots of things um there's as you saw in the letter there there are things or investigations there are things occurring right now. I'm not going to speak more to it um regarding like the examples or ideas. I will share with you that I I strive to do this the right way and and in the moment that I think that there is any aspect of it and again not the full body of work but any element within it that isn't
029>> um progressing in a way that meets my expectations I have to slow it down and and that's that aspect of the work is is what happened. >> I mean that's us to trust you but you broke our trust. I I I the way you lose trust is by doing something that I think is um not in alignment with who we are in values and and I am I am the person who's responsible for ensuring that this process is done that way. I mean I I don't I never want to look back and I'm sorry that I've lost your trust. I mean I I don't want to build trust back but I I just 70,000 students there there's a lot happening. This this had to occur in this way. >> You haven't said anything. >>
030I'm sorry you said So, um we'll we'll move on to two and and three. Um there I I I would like to acknowledge um that there are some things that are in process right now that are not disclosable. Um and so that what we're running up against to is I think against those boundaries. And so um that's why That's why we have a policy. >> All right. All right. Can everyone hear me? >> Okay. I think I'll help you with the answer earlier. You changed the plan because it's what can get the votes by the board. Um, >> and then I think how I guess I appreciate being a little bit more honest about what this conversation really is about and that's insulating the ISD from state takeover. How confident are you that you actually
031extract this pain and we're not in the same situation five years from now and the state takes us over anyway? And second part, does the board really deserve our confidence anyway? >> Yes. I think >> Okay, sorry about that. Um, does does I will speak for Matias who has daughters in Austin ISD who loves this school district more than I mean I I just I love this school district. Uh, yes. I you our trustees deeply deeply deeply care for this school district. Um I will tell you that I have observed other school districts. You see them all around us. You see how they work. Our trustees are philosophically aligned. >> They may disagree and how we get there, but they are all focused and ensuring that your students get what they need to be successful.
032I mean I I I I work with them closely. And I promise you that what you do not want is someone taking that local control away from you. It's happening right now in Fort Worth. It is brutal. It is absolutely brutal. And this is not about risk like state takeover. That is an aspect. I have to have to think about all of it together. That is an aspect of it. I want to be honest with you. But budget budget is also a big part of it. Now budget does ultimately if you go down a path too far then that could introduce a state takeover risk. All of it. I mean technically if you go far enough ultimately could be that. Um but I just want to be really really clear like I believe in this
033board. This board works really hard. They're unpaid. They care and there are many many examples over a thousand examples in state of Texas where you don't have that. So I I I just want you to know like they are working hard. Um I trust them. I trust them to lead the school district whether it's me as a superintendent or someone else. That's the honest truth. um when it comes to uh the plan I don't want to be here again we are here because of indecisions over the last 20 years I mean it's been like disruption after disruption since 23 even before that I mean I can't it's it's not possible for us to thrive and focus on the important when everything is urgent which is what it's been for the last four years pandemic sure
034that happened to everybody but then we went through three superintendents in a year and a executive leadership changes, principles turnover. You had 20 over 24 principles hired in one year. That's a quarter of your principles just about that instability like has a cascading impact and it impacts our students in the classroom. I think a correlation between superintendent and principles, principles and teachers, it's understood. It's Dr. Matthews does all the research on it and we've seen us recover, right? I mean, you look at early literacy, early numeracy, everything is moving in the right direction. We've done so much in the last two and a half years and we've tackled the TA greed order. We've tackled a tax rate election. We've tackled these these pressures from the state. I am desperately trying to take this next big
035step and it may be a two-face step now. And that's the honest truth. But it but it we've been around for 144 years. We're going to be be around for a very for a lot longer. Um I do believe that this plan reduces the overall risk as a system. It doesn't mean that we won't be back here having hard conversations, but I do believe at this moment, given the work that we've done, it will reduce that risk significantly. Um, you know, and I will say that if the state of Texas wanted to already take an action against AISD, they've had avenues to do it. The the what I would say is there is real evidence that we are moving our systems, but we're doing it our way. That's the honest truth, right? I just gave
036you a couple data points that demonstrate that the outputs are moving and the outcomes are following. They see that we understand that and that has given us more time, more time, more improvement, more growth. You had 30 Fs and 23. You had 29 and 24. You have 23 and 25. You'll have a fraction of that this coming year, right? And much of that was was done was produced by a system that be was predated our trustees and me. So I I I do feel strongly this this does move us in the right direction significantly. >> Uh thank you for being here. >> Um first thing is if one part of the process uh is broken isn't the entire process broken and why not halt the entire thing until you're 100% confident in the whole process?
037>> Yeah. So it's not the whole So you heard me earlier talk about refinement, right? Um we we because of the size of this effort, we had to roll something out that impacted 116 schools. Uh the reality is when we get feedback, whether it's a boundary change in one part of Austin or a programmatic change in one part of Austin, I am committed to doing the work to ensure that those refinements are considered, evaluated, and we take the next step and I can support it or not. That's the honest truth. So the whole thing, no the refinement. So this compression that's occurring right now um when it comes to some of the elements within the plan require just that type of work and at scale um I couldn't ensure that every aspect that was brought
038to us by community was fully evaluated to where I could support it or not. >> Okay. If we do continue with your plan two questions should be real quick. Uh when our family chose Ridgetop, we chose it because the incredible leadership and the teachers. We have not been disappointed. The relationships with the principal and staff are a big part of what makes this uh campus so special. >> So as we talk about the consolidation, can you please share more details about who will be leading the pickle campus and what the staffing plan will look like? Yeah. specifically is Miss Schultz going to be our principal and are current teachers going to be uh transitioning over to pickle as well? And then >> let me just say the second question and then you can kind of
039wrap it in one. Uh we've been hearing a lot online about the news words like gentrification, colonization and have been coming up when talking about pickle. Uh those are hard words to hear and they reflect real community fears. Uh if the heartwarming it was heartwarming to see Pickle Elementary highlighted during your inspire the future lunchon. Um it reminded us of the strong leadership and supports that exists for students there. >> We know Pickle currently offers a food pantry, clothing pantry, mental health supports and several community partner services. My question is will those services remain at the school for all students after the consolidation and the students whose families choose to attend another campus will similar supports be available for them at their new schools? >> Yeah. >> So that's a fivepart question. Um I'm going
040to I will answer it. Uh, so I'm going to first say when it comes to um hiring, right, I I've been really clear and because I don't want anybody to to leave this room thinking that at any point along the way, did this administration, did myself ever consider doing some type of like layoff. Like there was some comment like months ago, Matias is going to lay off 700 people. Like that's ridiculous. Like that is not who we are. That's not what we're about. Our board and I are very much aligned. And fortunately for us, for our size, given how many staff we hire every year, we're very able to absorb and move stu staff around if there's a need to. And the reason I say if there's a need to is because when you have
041transitions like Ridgetop to pickle and we um are anticipating, right, uh that we will have to we will name a principal at at the new campus. That'll be done in December. That'll be my decision to make. Name that principal. It's done strategically at that time so that we can quickly identify the staff right who need to support the new campus. Whenever you have campuses coming together it is my intention to ensure that our students have familiar faces right that our students and families understand who is going to support their students and who best than who was at the program that where the students last were. Uh so that is our overall strategy that I have had conversations with our principles. Cara and I have had lots of conversations. Um those are between her and I.
042Um she's an incredible leader. I want her in Austin ISD. I think she's amazing. We have amazing staff. I want all of our staff in Austin ISD. How it will look will be a a blend. I can't tell you proportionality like you know what percent it'll be because I want also students who are at pickle emerging bilingual students to see stu familiar faces there also. but they also will have other opportunities in the area. So, um just I can't name who the principal is going to be because that is a conversation and a process that will take place. It is obviously tied to talent strategy and human capital. Um but where you want to go is where I would like to be. It's just that there's a process we have to go through. Um I
043I want our staff to be supported in this transition, which is why time matters. Um, in our documents that we've uploaded, I'm not sure if anybody has spent time with them, we talk about the milestones in December, hiring staff, making sure that we place everybody tied to the staffing plan of those schools first. Make sure that we're very thoughtful for anybody that's going through transition. If someone wants to leave and go to a different part of the school district, we will allow for that. We will support them in that journey. We will not hire a single person outside Austin ISD until April. That is really in an effort to protect our staff. Um but yes, to your point, what I think you envision is something that I would like us to pursue. Um I just
044can't give that certainty at this point because we don't have a timeline and and that's Cara and I talking and and getting through that process. Uh the second part of that question um was around I I have it back my what was the second part? >> Services >> supports for students at >> services. Yeah. So one of the things we talk about is uh we want to make sure that the services are meet student need like we don't place services just you know because they there's an open space we really try to identify what are the needs of the community if we need a pantry we create a pantry so those services will continue on um at that campus uh based on student need. Now if student need changes and the leadership and the community
045says hey this is something that is different now than it used to be and we want to look at it differently we will follow your lead um but we will want to ensure that in communities that need more support we provide it. Um so it it's not like a we will provide it but again it is going to be part of the transition plan as we move forward. We've been really really clear like we have to get the communities together. We have to plan what the school is going to include and then commit to having it be there. So if a majority of the students here go over to pickle and drown out the people who actually need the services then those services will leave. No, because when you say drown out, um I I
046I think what I would would say is we want we are inviting and we are welcoming pickle families and and our students there, right? The goal is to move the emergent bilingual student population, right? And increase the percentage and to do that we're providing transportation, right? We made that change in the plan. We we are we are wanting to ensure access. It's a larger campus. We have lots of flexibility in how to support both student populations. I think that's one of the things that's really really unique about this plan um that you don't see in perhaps other elements elsewhere given the size of the campuses. Uh we do not want any school community to not feel welcome in the building they were previously at. Um but I also want Richtop to feel welcome and feel
047seen and that's where the planning comes in. Like we got to get everybody together and begin a plan together. I we've done this with Norman Sims. We've done it with Mets and Sanchez. We have things that we've done in the past that we've learned from. We also have things that we've we learned that we know we shouldn't do and so we're incorporating that into this process as we move forward. It'll it'll really be a combined effort. Of course, hi, I'm a neighborhood parent. Shout out who's all neighborhood parents out here. >> Thank you all for coming out. Uh, so it was a great leadin question to my question, which is Principal Schultz has already communicated that she's going to pickle. We all know this already. >> Yeah, we heard this early on. But look, look,
048look, look, it makes sense. A strong bilingual dual language teacher going to a new dual language school makes sense. And via survey, we know that the transfer students who families will follow her if she goes there, which makes complete sense for them. And I agree with you. You should. For neighborhood families who want a strong neighborhood school, who want to be able to walk their kids to class, we're kind of left out in secondass citizenship here. So since our community is already being torn apart, we have 60% transfers. There's 40% remaining. It's already ripped up. So, let's rip off the band-aid. Why won't AISD allow neighborhood families who are zoned to this school to have priority choice to go wherever we want in AISD rather than going to an unknown rebuilt campus with a new
049school but without the resources to rebuild that school like a tip or a tap school would have gotten. So um so not to necessarily transfer with ridgetop right community anywhere um >> otherwise >> well well so that would be >> so okay so you we're talking about vertical teams and different schools now so let me talk let's talk about this one let's talk so let's talk about year one. >> Okay. So, so is that something we could consider for a transition period? Like, you know, let's say that the rising um fourth and fifth graders, right? Like if you're in first, second, and third, you know, fourth and fifth um you know, could we create a a transition plan for those neighborhood families who choose not to go to Riley and choose not to go to
050uh Pickle, right? Um I I think that I don't know that that's something we couldn't do. Um I I if if it's clear that we're not if you choose Clayton, right? I mean, you choose some school that's really far away, I really clear like we're not going to be able to we can probably provide access, but we pro we can't provide transportation because a lot of times the question becomes, you know, will you provide transportation? Um I I don't I want to make this transition better, right? And I know it's in these types of ideas if we can do them, we will. So that is a good Let me I can talk to Victoria about that and see what we can do. We can make those types of adjustments. I will say it can't be
051done in perpetuity, right? So, um would have to figure out kind of what timeline is appropriate for the transition to occur in and then obviously once you get into the school then you're kind of a tracking transfer and then you're you're kind of set. But but I I I want to acknowledge that and that is something that we can we can probably work on and um and figure out. >> Yeah, of course. >> I don't know who is next. Victoria, are you keeping me? >> So, we had I was I was pondering. Um we had our last set and so um we can do one two three four and then five sunglasses on your head and then we'll um do another round. >> Who is one? >> Hi, good morning. Um I'm also a neighborhood
052family. So I have a question about Lee. So in the most upto-date revision, the sixth grade program from Lee was removed. So my question is about a boundary change. Would it be possible for Austin ISD con to consider allowing all of Hyde Park to be zoned to leave so that we can stay with our neighborhood friends and rebuild our community? I understand a guiding principle of the program was not to split up communities, but we that's happening for us. We support the dual language program going to pickle, but my part of my value system for my family is the walkability of in these cherished years with my children to walk them to school, to bike to school. So, while I have loved everything about this school, it's the location that's most important for me. And
053I would really love Austin ISD to consider the impact on not just the programming and the friends and the building that ridgetop zone families are losing, but we are also losing our walkability because it is not safe to get to Riley. >> So, um I just want to make sure I'm I'm I'm hearing right. So, give me the um the area. Not are you not saying the full ridgetop? >> Yeah, I just want to make sure I capture >> zone amilies consider all of this true priority for those of us who are experiencing an enormous amount of change. So I'm asking if I would like to understand if that's not possible why not. >> Yeah. >> And then go from there. >> Yeah. I think um so so Lee Lee is also not empty. Um
054you know the it depends on the number that we're because it always comes down to assumptions right and that's what we run into all the time. Matias, you know, there there are this many families that are going to choose to leave Alson ISD. There are this many families that are going to choose to go to pickle. There are this many families that are going to choose to go, you know, perhaps to a different school. Maybe it's a different school that this gentleman said here elsewhere in the in the network. Um I I think we can from the transfer perspective, I think that's workable. Once we identify a school, I then have to create an assumption and protect the space at that school. uh sixth grade coming out of Lee isn't a huge number of of
055students, right? It's actually quite small. Uh which is one of the reasons we're we're actually pulling it all together. It's one of the only schools that has it aside from Blazer, which was designed to have it many years ago. Um we tried sixth grade in East Austin once middle schools were impacted with Martin and Mendes. It didn't go well. We are just not set up um to to have provide that experience and support our sixth graders in that way. Um, so I think if I think we can probably do this I on the transfer priority. I I worry about naming a school only because then now I'm going to have to guarantee seats which means that it may impact kind of their capacity and then any other moves that will come, you know, with boundary
056changes moving forward. So I I hate to get so far to commit now. think priority transfers and say, you know, because this school is going through a transition, could we um support the transfer process in a way that um kind of meets your expectation without defining a full school? I worry about just saying everybody who's here can now have this school or this school that's outside of the original thinking without saying the whole. So, I'm I think that might be something we could do, but I couldn't name le. >> Yeah, exactly. And I just wanted to um sorry to interrupt you, sir. Uh I just wanted to say that um these are uh valuable ideas and perspectives that we will definitely go back and and discuss. Um but without like really digging into the data
057and understanding all of the implications, right? Like we we just can't make commitments here today. The commitment is that we will write them down and that we will have discussions and we will figure out um you know the limits of what is possible in the interest of uh serving as many people as possible. So just clarify what the boundary look which I believe is technically defined as 51st Street. >> Yes. So we have a working group that um it looks at all of the um all of the boundaries and has modeling software that you know you click this and this happens and you click that and that happens. Um and uh so that is something and um in further discussions on this um we can uh we have been uh dedicated to if we have
058to um say no or make adjustments or anything like that to explaining why. Um so we will continue to have that commitment. >> Yeah. And I think um you know we we are working >> so so when we talk about um so walkability right not all schools have walkability. I mean that's just the honest truth. I mean with you know I just just to be clear you have it here doesn't exist everywhere. There are some schools that are complete opposite. No one walks everybody buses in because of just where that that school is. So we want to take the local contextual like under understanding of the community and make adjustments. Um so so walkability isn't a factor until we get to school level and then we say okay what adjustments we need to make to
059ensure the community is heard we're responsive to the unique aspects of the community in this case walkability. Um a 290 a large highway that's a hazardous intersection. We would provide transportation across it. Uh that's part of our standard policy. because we're moving boundaries, they're going to be new um routes that previously weren't on um our approved list because those intersections weren't part of that school. Now they are. So um I would say yes, but only in the local context. It wasn't, you know, because it's a walkable because you have schools that are completely opposite. Um but yeah, that's how we'll analyze it. >> Do not even would be considered to have >> I called in number two that might be >> hi. Um I'm also a zone student and I just really want to reiterate
060that um there is no plan for Riley that local families we've been um I think really uh reasonable in our asks that all we want is for AASD to acknowledge that Riley is a really unique situation. It is >> and that you guys are paying attention to us >> and that you are going to provide Riley extra support. >> Yeah. >> And like >> I'm sorry I'm getting upset about this because >> like um the email that went out last night told me that we should have been unreasonable in our asks. That's what I heard. >> That's not the So um >> soision, >> so um thank you for sharing that. So, uh, my response is I I apologize for, um, not being as intentional around, uh, kind of the structure of Riley and and
061I I will say that um, no, I it's I also I also want to kind of share with you that we have from the from the district's perspective other schools that are restarting, right? And I I I also wanted to have conversations with the leadership at the campuses, right? because you have to think about Riley, right? And Riley's move, you know, that principal um will have a decision to make or not make and that will largely inform kind of what the starting point is for that campus, right? I mean, and that's just the honest truth. And so you you're right, Riley's in a very unique situation. It's the only school that that is having a programmatic move that um we'll still have a neighborhood school reside once that move occurs. And so you actually have
062I think we have a unique option um in Riley because the way that I kind of think through this is Riley educators and administrators many of them but not all of them will go to Wooten. You know Ridgetop administrators um staff many of them but not all of them will go to pickle. So the the the best place, you know, regionally and from a community perspective to have them come together would be the Riley Neighborhood School. That that's just that's that's but I can't I can't like that is how I am thinking about it. That's so we are spending time on the back end but I can't share those steps because we don't have a vote. We don't have the principal but that is what I would expect to happen. Um, and so what I
063can do, um, after this conversation is kind of share with you the thought on the back end that we've put into Riley that we haven't shared outwardly because I I don't want to get ahead of like these things that are very prescribed, which is like votes, principal hirings, those sorts of things. Because as soon as I say that, the question is like, well, is the assumption that Riley principal is leaving or not leaving? Um, so, so that's a tough spot, but I I will commit to providing more information around how we are thinking that'll work because I want families at Riley and at Richtop to have familiar faces at their neighborhood school. That was the objective the entire time. I'm sorry. >> Well, because there there actually when it comes it will you need the
064T. Yeah, we we've we've thought through that. We we will we'll we'll Yeah, there's we need our educators. We It will work. >> so I I appreciate that comment and I'm I'm sorry. I I could have done a better job because we also have other schools that are restarting, >> but they're under um uh TAP, right? So, it's and so they get more money, they have more resources, they get more support, and we feel like we get >> you're not any transition is going to be supported by the district. That that's the honest truth. Like, we have a plan. We're going to execute the plan. That is where you will find me be steadfast. Like when it comes to plans, where we have failed as a district in the past is implementation. We're great at
065making plans. For decades, we've been making plans, but it implementation. So I I want to be hyper thoughtful, which is why the timeline matters delaying into the spring or delaying like I mean the it's not going to help transition. It won't. I want to spend the time thinking about supporting our students, supporting our staff, and getting it right because it does have to happen. Like we do have to go through this evolution as a school district. So I on on the transition planning um I wanted to um share like the pre-planning right so all of this because it has been um a really reflective process where there have been adjustments along the way um you know there have been adjustments to um the transition enrollment plan there have been adjustments to um specific boundaries that
066between the releases um there have been a lot of adjustments and so um as we are planning for um any sort of transition. Uh we have been mindful not to lock things in too quickly uh in order to um be responsive to those transitions. Right? So um there has not been a full transition plan released because if we released it with the first plan, then it would have had to be completely revamped for the second plan um and and you know and then would continue to have um changes happening even now. So, but um we those conversations and those um items uh have been under discussion and and the structures are being built and the structures are being built in kind of a flexible way. So that way when the final conception of everything is
067kind of locked down and like this is exactly what we're going to do. Um then we can use those structures to very quickly um put in those details and um and so uh those things have been happening. Um Riley has not been um like you know dismissed or ignored or or not discussed or not planned for. Um there are just some elements of um internal external uh aspects to the the communication. Um, and so I hear principal principal uh superintendent Sagura saying that um, uh, you know, we can, um, you know, crack that door, uh, but also knowing that, um, we will continue to be responsive to any changes that come up over time. >> And and we are we are leading um, we're creating bridge teams to support the transition um, between any two
068schools, any trio of schools. uh Stacia Pascal who's here in in the front um is leading that work. Uh and so again, it's we we want to be intentional. Um we we are we owe you we will provide more clarity around what we've done thus far because I can understand how it feels like it's been a vacuum. Where's three? There was a three. Okay. Sorry. >> Um we're also a neighborhood family. So, I'd like to second that the cut off boundary be first street um and not this little triangle carved out for airport. That makes no sense. Um so to be zonally that might help if you've had 24 principles that you've hired in the last year. >> No, no. when I first got here in 20 22 20 23 24 >> because that we
069had those types of vacancies in 22 23 before we all came together. >> Okay. So, but this is clearly a program that works. So, why are we trying to break this up and how are we different from Brier Woods in that in that process? So um when I talked about the pillars of the program or the like the goals of the overall system improvement, you heard me talk about um wall-to-wall dual language, right? And what we know is that the program was built to ensure that the focus was emerging bilingual students, but we believe in access to other students, which is what has made Richtop so successful. The reality of it all is that the number of emerging bilingual students that are accessing these programs has continued to decline and it's and it's declining at
070a pretty rapid rate between the uh wall to wall to language programs. I think we're at 14% 22% 24% and 44%. And it's it's going in the wrong direction, right? And so the way that you actually build a healthy model, right, when it comes to a balance of emerging bilingual and non-emergent bilingual students is you have to ensure that you have access to the program for those students. And what we know is we know where our students live who are emerging bilingual. Um but we know that they're not accessing accessing the program. Now, even with all the hard work, right, we're still at 14%. We're still at 22% 21% and these are established programs. And here's the reality. The state of Texas has changed the law. Our policy and and the way that we have
071to respond is going to require us right in the near future to move the dual language certified teachers to where the emerging bilingual students are. And we are all fighting for these great educators, us and every school district around us. And so we're going to get to a point if we don't make a change where I'm going to by law be required to move those educators out. So I am trying to position the program to where we don't have to do that because we have a healthy balance. It aligns with our policy. It aligns with state law. Um and and we tackle it that way. Right now we have 16 um so uh alternative certification is something that is not going to be allowed in the 27 28 28 29 school year. Um, right now
072I want to say it's 16% maybe 12% of our educators are on alternative certifications. So you can imagine there is we are having a huge staffing challenge when it comes to staffing dual language educators and it's only going to impact this program to a greater degree because we don't have that student population to support it required by law. So, so that's why this this is different than the than the balanced enrollment that doesn't have the programmatic stability question. That's why I was committed and I'm very frustrated. I want you to know I am very upset that I'm having to make this change timeline wise. Um, but this these programs the the the plan is still very much um aligned with who we are. I evaluated the work. I feel confident in the work. I need
073to make adjustments and refinements, but that is why this has to happen. Um, not because of something else. It's it's really a function of the emerging bilingual students, the students themselves in the programs and ensuring that it's viable for years to come. >> So, you're trying to harness it out of the 40% that live in the reside program instead of the 60% that transfer in. >> So, so I say that again. I'm trying to harness I'm I'm trying to understand >> 40% here live in the area 60% transfer in. So you're saying not enough emergent bilingual will transfer in. So you want to put it in an area where the home population will boost those numbers. Cor >> so so what we know over time is that um whenever you programs change, we've seen leadership
074change, right? we have seen where something as simple as a transportation route changes and all of a sudden the program shifts significantly. So there are four wall-to-all language programs. We are trying to add capacity by making these moves. We're going to add about 600 seats. Uh and we're also trying to stabilize the program so that we collectively get to 50/50. Now it's not 50/50 just in terms of merger bilingual notion bilingual. It's also 50% in time in terms of time uh in both languages, right? All right. And so there you don't have to be precise, but I want you to know that it all kind of has to work together for us to be successful as a school district. Um, and it's it you're 44% now. And there are school districts the there are other
075schools that are 22 and 24% and then 14%. We're 14 here. We're 14. Yeah. Riley's 44. >> Yeah. So we're 14 here. >> But most Yeah. But the majority are transfers. So there's no way to adjust that through transfers is what you're saying instead of disrupting an entire school of kids. So So that's the other it's we have to ensure access right I I can't have family families choose to come to to Richtop right that access these transfers that is not going to ensure access to those students the way that I ensure access is to position the program and provide transportation >> I don't know who we're going kind of going >> sorry the last the last one I had was Um, if they were adjusting the boundaries potentially to 51st Street for uh Lee,
076can we also adjust the middle school boundaries? Because now this whole community has been kicked out of the middle school that they were formerly going to and high school be the same, but that is not a direct feeder pattern to go to web and then Macallum. >> Yeah. So, so in the letter last night, we talked about, you know, picking that up in the spring semester after we built up the academic plan, academic vision because the boundaries, the feeder pattern alignments, the thousand other moves that we're making um are are not going to go before the the board in this fall, right? So, I I don't want to speak to can I change that boundary when it comes to middle school feeder or high school feeder. Um the goal was to reduce the number of
077splits within our schools to no more than two, right? That was the goal that that we had. Right now, like I said, we have elementary middle schools that have four or five high schools. That's not what we want. Um that will slow down because we have to take a we have to just approach it um in in another way to get to where we need to be. Uh which is why we're going to pick it up in the spring semester, progress it, create the time, and then come back a year from now and take that vote. So, when it comes to Dolby, I mean, Dobby is an there's lots of incredible schools that are doing incredible things. I I I really get discouraged when I hear about like, you know, should I go to this
078school or this school? Like, I families are going to do what's best for their student. I want that to occur. Um, but there are great things happening at all schools regardless of the letter grade that's been assigned to them. Uh, and there there are communities that I've had conversations with just like this at schools that have three U8 like weight on them. Um, so that that'll be a different conversation, but that's when we'll tackle it. >> Yeah. >> And and that's where the splits between this is and we've been looking at this. So that's where a split between a neighborhood and a school is different, right? Because that's a conflict between guiding principles. If we want fewer splits, but then we want to keep community together, you it's impossible to have it both ways because
079in one way you're going to create a split. other ways you're going to create multiple. So that's what we have to work through. >> Okay. Yeah. I'm sorry I'm like going along. >> Um my initial question was going to be about Riley's staffing which you addressed. I wanted to make a comment. I would really encourage you and your staff to think about how you can provide additional clarification um related to the email last night because how it came across is I think creating a credibility problem for you. It comes across like what you are doing especially related to Breer Woods and to Maplewood is not in line with your values. >> So it's not Yes. And so not to address necessarily in this room, but I do think your team needs to think about how
080you can provide additional clarification within whatever you know issues you're dealing with that you can't disclose. I think that would be a good thing to do for the wider community. >> Appreciate that. I worked on that letter too to try to like bring in things that >> I trust me I do not use chat GPT. Take that off the record. That's not something I would ever do. >> Thank you so much. >> I'm not good enough for that. >> Thank you for being here. Of course. >> Um I just want to say that personally I understand and appreciate what you're saying about moving these dual language programs to the communities that need them. So, I understand that. I get that. I think there are a lot of parents that are part of these programs that
081understand that, too. And because of that, a lot of us are committed to making that change with our program. But what I'm concerned about, and specifically with Pickle, is funding for Pickle Elementary. So, from the things that I've read, it sounds like schools that are under turnaround plans get additional funding. I also saw an article talking about middle school teachers potentially getting additional stipens for working in these schools that have the turnaround plans. But from everything else that I've read specific to Pickle, even though we think a significant amount of that population is going to stay at Pickle, there's not going to be a turnaround planned associated with those students, which means they're not going to the school is not going to be eligible for additional funding. understanding that you are asking our community to
082make big decisions and you are asking the administrators and the teachers that choose to stay with this program or become part of this program to take on a monumental task. Building a community like Ridgetop and creating this magic is not something that happens overnight. It takes time. It takes commitment and it takes a lot of hard work by our administrators and our teachers. And I'm very concerned that the school is not going to get the funding it needs to retain the teachers that bring that commitment to the school and that it's not going to have the funding that it needs to build a program like the one we have at Ridgetop. So if the school is not eligible for additional funding because it's not associated with the turnaround plan, what is AISD going to do
083to make up the difference? >> Yeah, great question. So um I want to be what what we have clearly articulated in our turnaround plans was the allocation of funds. It doesn't mean that we don't have the ability to match our funds with the plans which is why in the staffing plans that we released we said this is the staffing plan for a programmatic move. This is a staffing plan for a a consolidation. This is a staffing plan for a turnaround school. Uh, and to be clear, um, Pickle, uh, Wooten, they they are two UAs, right? I mean, they or one UA, depending on kind of which way you look at it. Um, and so our students need the resources like wherever they are. Um, I am committed if we have a plan, right? I am
084going to resource that plan. Just to be clear, when it comes to stipens, you know, those are those are like, you know, those are very hard to commit to early on because we're limited in the funds that we have, which is one of the things that gentleman over here in the blue shirt said, like what are the risks that we're trying to mitigate? And the risk is budget risk. That is a a real risk that we're trying to manage. Um, if there's a plan, I will resource it. I understand that transitions are going to occur. What I can't commit to is um like past you know a transition period a commitment to continue on at some point it will stabilize. Uh that's the goal, right? We cannot continue to apply resources um you know at
085at this rate and not see a response and and then the school stabilize and then figure out okay how do we kind of back off to to allow the resources that we do have to be enough because if we like right now right now you know burn and web I mean the honest truth is we are pouring into those schools rightly so we need to that's okay those you know we need to do that and whatever we agreed to do this plan um transition plan versus another transition plan. I will resource it. Uh and I am cutting everywhere I can. I mean, I am I am desperately trying to do that to ensure that the programs are supported. So, I don't um there's not an allocation, right? If you're wanting to say, Matias, where's the
086$800,000 that's going to come to the ridgetop pickle? You know, it it's not done in that way because it's not a tap. It doesn't have to be defined that way. What I want to do is say this is what the ridgetop community needs in transition. We have pickle students there who also need support. This is what needs to be done. This is what we're going to pay for. That that plant has to be the the foundation of the ask, not what we had to do for the turnaround plans, which is what you're referencing because that does have a different level of um scrutiny is probably the word I would say. Uh requirements, um compliance. So, we want to be really clear early on what that was. So, I just want to be we will allocate
087the funds. We're going to agree to the plan. um I can go back with the team and and figure out what language needs to be communicated. Um I don't want you to leave here and say and think that it's going to be the same amount. I don't think that it's something I can be I'm able to do, but I want to acknowledge that where our students are and where the need is is where we need to put our funds and our resources. So I I can we can do that. We can do that. >> We're paying attention to this. I mean the school district is saying that we're making funding in a situation that's and you're asking us to put in these changes. They show us that you're going to >> Yeah. And here's the
088thing. I don't want to What I What I do not want to be a part of are programs that are not sustainable. That's the honest truth. I have programs right now where we get students that are stranded in them in year two in a four-year program. Like, why is that? Well, it's because our partner dropped out or it's because a leader changed in the the principal and the principal or maybe a leader changed within the school district. Like I I want to find and support those programs that we believe in, ensure they're sustainable and fund them appropriately. That's what I want to do. So, you're going to see us and our trustees ask me all the time, Matias, we've been doing all these things for the last 20 years. We got programs everywhere. I can
089I can you can go to any school and find like 20 programs. The question is, are those programs still aligned to our values? Are they still meeting our student needs and are they sustainable? Like I would argue that this is one that is dual language is for Austin ISD. Like we're all in. Like I mean we talk about it all the time. Um but to your point like we will fund those things that that uh align with our values and and yes we have resource challenges but we do have dollars to pour in to our students and to our programs. That's where the fun money should go. It shouldn't go to lots of other things, but it should go to those. So, what I can do um is work with the team to kind of
090figure out what would be an appropriate consideration given where we are in the planning process because there are things I still don't know yet about what this could look like and what each community will need as they come together. Is that is that helpful? Because I I mean >> Yeah. I mean, you're saying that you're part of the values right now. That's what we're talking. >> Yeah. No, it's a great comment. I want that as well. So, let me let me see what language I can add. >> Okay. Um I we've taken a lot from the front. So um we'll do one, two, three, four. >> Oh, I'm good. I'm usually one of the most quiet people in this room, but if you know me, I've been pretty loud. I hope I just wanted to
091say that you sir, but I appreciate you being here. I appreciate that you have kids in school district. My mother was a teacher at DOS. Okay. >> I got to see what it was like to be in a rather diverse school at the time to a more fluent neighborhood and you know come Friday will be one of your substitute school nurses. So >> yes it's awesome. I just wanted I just want you to know that I think a big part of this is wanting to know about the academic academic plan. I feel like listening to Trusty Hunter and some other people, you know, on podcast. Yes, I do that. Um are that that's that's really what they are are also wanting to see and so I I hope so too. Also, yes, I really would
092like to know more about about what was going on with those other schools and I really have a lot of faith here. The other thing is, you know, especially yesterday with our votes is that not to let you not to let the district off the hook, we are watching, but that's also a big part of why we are in the trouble we're in. And it's a very long-term thing and it stinks, but I'm really in it for the long education and language. And also, I do not live in this neighborhood. I had cousins who played on the top playground, but perhaps hearing and so that maybe we can kind of get into other topics questions. Maybe perhaps a meeting for those parents concerned that are going to stay maybe that could happen so that they
093could have more time. It seems like there's >> Yeah, thank you for the comments. Um yeah, I mean you're you're amazing. Um since your mom was amazing too or is amazing. Uh and so I I would say um I think that's a good idea. I think perhaps splitting up and saying, "Okay, you know, if we want to create more space to have a specific conversation around those families who are interested in the transition to Riley, have a different conversation as we continue with the program at Pickle. I'm more than happy to adjust and create the space and have the team here to engage and begin to build those plans up. Um there's a lot happening in the state of Texas and and yes, last night there it continues to pour on us, right? And um
094I I want you to know that, you know, I am committed to this school district. I love the school district. Um I want to do whatever I can to ensure transition is um done in a very thoughtful way. Uh what I am anxious about is delaying important votes. You know, at the end of the day, you know, there there are still 10 schools like on this list. Um, you know, and it's hard to say, but we cannot continue to to just not move forward. When it comes to academic plan, ep academic vision, this is something that gets talked about a lot. And I I want to always ask when whenever someone says that, what do they mean? What do they have? What do they in their mind? What do they envision as an academic plan,
095academic vision? Because about two years ago, um, we were looking at building this out. We have an ac we have a um AISD um uh strategy. It's kind of academic strategy. I don't know if y'all knew this. It was started in 2020. Uh it went through 2025. It was a list. It had included a vision. It included a mission. It included a list of strategies. None of them were actually implementable if that's a word. Uh they were just kind of generalized strategies that were released. And then the pandemic happened. Nothing nothing happened, right? And we worked and worked and worked. Uh and then in 23 um we looked at going through and starting a uh portrait of a graduate. What do we want out of our students? You know, we talk about and I I
096was on the ex podcast last night and we talked about um attitude. Like we want students that advocate for themselves. We want students that, you know, understand what it's like to talk to someone who doesn't look like them. We want students to feel comfortable in their own skin. We want these things for our students, you know, and we also want them to feel comfortable failing with us because we're going to pick them up, right? And we're going to support them and tackle the next thing and the next thing, but it needs to be done our way. Well, so what is our way? You hear us talk about all the time in Austin IC, we value librarians. Like I'm not going to be the superintendent who ever says we are going to do anything other than
097support our librarians and a love for reading. Problem is the state doesn't pay for that. Not really. Right. Nurses. We pay for nurses. That's not something that is required by law. So I So we have to find the funds to do it. The one thing that we don't often talk about is curriculum. Do y'all know that we spend, you know, every other year about $8 million on curriculum that we believe is aligned to who we are. There are much less expensive versions out there. And you can guess which ones those those are. So we can save $78 million, but I promise you I would have a room 10 times the size full of people saying, "Matias, that's not who we are." And I know that. And so when I think about the work that we
098have ahead, we we do know who we are. We do know the values that we have because we protected them along the way. We protected planning time in high school. We protected planning time along the way because that's who we are. Now, is it codified in one singular document? No. Do we need to do that? Yes. So um as we move forward um because I did have a plan 18 months ago to do a portrait of a graduate academic vision academic philosophy and then do the framework to ensure that all of it got woven into all of our documents. But at the time we were tackling tea agreed order. I had educators like pulled in a thousand different directions doing tier module after tier module after tier module. You know we were going through and
099building out multi-ter systems of support so we understood where our students were. Were they on grade level or not? what interventions do we need to apply to support our students? All that was happening at the same time and it's all the same people, you know, that it's the same people. And so when we started this work, you know, I trustes and I had a conversation like, yes, we need to do this, but we're not starting from an unknown. It's not like we're we're doing this without a north star, but we do need to codify that and understand who we are. What is our vision around early literacy? I've made changes already with early childhood um and and you know we had adopted behaviors of moving our strongest educators to third grade because that's where STAR
100is. If you're at third grade, you know, and we have not built a system that supports our students in K12, you know, you are not positioning our students to be successful. So, we've created a vision. We changed our approach. We're focusing on on early numeracy, early literacy, K12, being really intentional, developmentally appropriate material, all everything. So, we have to like improve the system so that we're responsive to our student needs early, not just when they get to third grade. And then every other student who's in the system, make sure we understand where they are, are they on grade level, are they not, what interventions need to be applied, do we have the curriculum to support the interventions, do we have the people, which is where content intervention has come in. And if you do, then
101all of a sudden the system begins to respond. And you're seeing that now. So, um, we're going to do that work. We're gonna I've already told our trustees that work will be led by Dr. Maxwell, our assistant superintendent of academics K through 12. Um she's an incredible individual doing incredible things and she's been here with us. She knows the work. She's respected and I'm very confident as we move into the spring semester and this builds. You will see your values in that document. We do have documents already uploaded about kind of the the goal and the intention, but that effort should be an 18-month effort. Uh and I that's just the honest truth. There's been so much that we've been dealing with. It's been hard to create the space to focus on the important because
102it's been urgent after urgent after urgent. So that's that's how we're tackling it as we move forward. Was there another comment? >> Oh, thanks. Thanks for the single single clap. I appreciate >> um number two. >> Sill clap is great. >> All right. Hello. I'm uh Alex Tabada. I am a mom to three uh little baby Rattlers and I'm also a fifth grade teacher. Um um I guess like I I have like a billion things I'd like to say. Um but I think our as a mother my journey to finding a school home has been so varied. Um, we started at Riley, we moved to a charter school, we came back to AISD to Brentwood and it was all very tumultuous. And this is the first um place that we have felt at ease and
103like, oh, these are our people, like, oh, this is what a good quality school looks like. Um, oh, I'm starting to shake. I'm nervous. >> No, you're doing great. Um, and I think that there's a lot that um, you know, there's a lot at stake here. I I've been following this just like kind of like a psycho. Like I watch your YouTube channel and I watch all the meetings and I go to the Zoom meetings and um, it's concerning. My husband is also a dual language teacher at Lamar Middle School. He is the department chair there. Um, so we share a lot of the same families. Um, I'm really really concerned about how this is going to play out um for teachers. I don't know that the staffing plan. This is according to what the
104Becker principal said at the meeting a teachers market and we are being treated as AISD employees. I get my paycheck from AISD but I am a ridgetop employee and you are closing my school. I do not know where I will work come next school year. And the reality is that if we're going to represent Ridgetop and we are going to represent Pickle, there are not enough spaces for everybody there. And if we are going to represent Ridgetop at Riley and represent Riley at Riley, our community is getting broken apart. And that is the reality. And parents need to know that reality. And also a little tiny little asterric is that so much of my enjoyment working here is that I bike down a bike highway three miles to school and back with a second grader
105and a third grader and we did it all year last year. And I tried I said, "Okay, let's bike to pickle." We woke up on Saturday morning. We tried to cross I35 and I was like, "Here I am." like this is crazy pants. Like people are looking at me like what is that lady doing with those three kids? And that's where our new home is. And it's like I can swallow that pill, but I cannot swallow the pill of like tell me we're all going to pickle and tell me that when the numbers don't come out how you are expecting them to that you are not going to level and send me across town because I'm an AISD employee because that impacts me and that impacts my children. So, um, thank you. Thank you for
106just being you. I mean, I I appreciate you, you know, sharing your time that you've given here. >> Okay. >> Yeah, that's good. I think that it is imperative that you include the teacher voice in some of these meetings and I would love to be part of that committee. There needs to be a representation of schools, teachers from schools that are being impacted and how are we going to feel comfortable? How what needs to be considered because it's a teachers market. Um, so you watch all the meetings, you're watching Becker. Uh, love that tattoo. So, um, my first comment in response is if anybody believes that we as an administration or the trustees do not understand how incredibly important our educators are. Um I I need to to check how I communicate because everything that
107we've done since the moment we came together was tried to strive for balance, try to attract educators and professionals into the workplace. Um increasing compensation, you know, being very thoughtful when it comes to leveling, you do based on the allocations, we would have done so much more of it. We are protecting schools as best we can and only when it becomes at a point where it just doesn't make I just can't make it work. Do we make the adjustment? You don't see those meetings. I know that many of our families don't. But Brandy Hosak, myself, Lisha Drinks, the chief of staff, we sit there and go school by school. Katrina Montgomery here, who's the CFO, she I mean I'm here to call her out, but I love calling her out. um we we sit down
108and and I I'm balancing the impact of the school given the number of students that we have and always trying to be really thoughtful that that educator in that space is someone that we care for and someone that we absolutely have to have. Um I've been really intentional about how we support our educators. I've been really clear about what we're going to do and how we're going to do it. You're right, the intentionality and the detail of the plan should have teacher voice. Um, I know that Brandy Hosac and the team talent strategy um, either have or are going to meet with all staff. I'm not sure if that's happened already. I can find out. May have going through just like I'm going through all the schools. They're coming back and meeting with all staff
109specifically. I'll find out when that is if it hasn't occurred on how we'll figure it out right now. Um, and so we want to make sure that that you are supported and and we there's going to be a survey to hear your voice because there are other teachers that have different perspectives that want different things. And so all of that has to be considered in this work. Um, but I can commit to you to ensuring that there's teacher voice in the plan. That's my expectation. That's what we plan to do. Um, and then the meeting where talent strategy comes speaks directly to staff without, you know, everybody together. Um I'll find out when that is but that is a commitment and we we are doing that for sure because I want to make sure that
110voice is directly kind of brought into the process through that means not just in a larger meeting >> I believe that >> okay so so it sounds like we need to come back out perhaps I don't know how many were attended but we can we can we can figure that out for sure yeah and and just to be clear like you know are the number of educators who I will also say yes it I Travis used those words. I love our teachers. Like my my mom was a teacher here for 42 years. Like I love our AIC teachers. Like I I I just I want to protect our educators because they are professionals and without them nothing will happen in this school system. Um and I also want to be like really clear like I
111I will do everything I can but it's not going to be perfect for every person. It just isn't. There are desires that educators have and you're you're right. There could become a point where you're blending two schools and we're just there's more teachers than we than we need to have at that campus. Well, that's why by process I would want this to be the next and then this and and use teacher voice to understand where that educator wants to be and then use the authority I have to ensure they have a place. Um, the only way I would say that you're, and I would never say this, but like you're an employee of AISD, is if at the way end, >> if you don't find a home and it doesn't match, then I will find
112a home for you that works as best as I can make it work. Um, that's my commitment because I don't want you ever to leave Austin ISD. Uh, that's just, you know, the honest truth and that's why we're not hiring anybody outside until April. >> I don't know who is next. Victoria, you got me? >> Here I am. Okay, >> good morning. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Um my question and you you've spoken um to it a little bit earlier, but um I'd like to have some clarity about the specifics of the problem that is being solved by closing down Richto and moving us over there, right? Like I am so proud and impressed by how our community has been responsive to the idea that you know there are students that need this
113program right and we want to be close to them but um there's a question of how thoughtful have we been in um preparing for those changes and designing them and um how uh how pressed for time are we? Right. So um you spoke about changes in Texas law that are relevant to this and might be relevant to our timeline. I would like you to maybe elaborate on that and and more than that I would like to better understand um what your vision for dual language is. Um here's a thought when we talk about Richard has 40% of emergent bilingual because we're using >> you have 14% >> 14 yes yes sorry uh 14 >> very yeah >> yes um we're using the term emerging bilingual in a certain way and we we moved from uh
114a previous designation which was English language learners and I think there were even more porative ones previously and we moved to this term emerging bilingual because we decided that um being bilingual is an asset that the Spanish language you know it's it's something that we appreciate as a community and um that we don't want to think in terms of deficit of what you don't have you're not English proficient but the way the law gives this designation to students actually is you're deficient you don't know English proficiently enough. I have students in my classroom, we all do, that are bilingual in particular ways. They have one parent at home that speaks Spanish. They also have a parent at home that speaks English and they have a right to um a bilingual education and our district's policies
115to appreciate that asset they're coming in with. And um ultimately every student at this school is an emergent bilingual because we are all going through the experience of what it's like to be out of our comfort zone linguistically and be with people that are different than us that speak a different language at home. I am all for having more students that speak Spanish at home that need to build that uh English language, but like I would really like a specific of your vision and how it aligns with those values and not necessarily the values um that use emerging bilingual is a euphemism for just like tracking other things. Um right. So what's what are the specific problems that we're facing? Is it pressure about the program and its sustainability? Is it scores um in standardized
116tests that are low for students that are labeled as emerging bilingual but actually have to do maybe with other factors that undermine their academic performance? like I would like really specific information so I I can trust that this big disruptive move is something that I can just fully trust and and move over. I'm willing but I want to know. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. So um so I'll start and then Avette uh is our um multillegal education uh leader and so I'll have her kind of chime in. So I want to be really clear the way the state defines it is is how I have to respond just to be clear like I don't we get to embrace and expand but at the end of the day when it comes to how our students are
117um coded and I'm going to use coded because it's something we have to do. We submit each student uh in our system. It's called the PIN system and we identify uh you know what student is receiving which supports and which programming and students receiving special education services students receiving that are emergent bilingual like the list goes on and on and on. So really be clear when I say that that's why I'm using that word because there are funds associated with emergent bilingual and and dual language programming. If the um emerging bilingual student is um defined in a certain way, not AISD defining, it's the way the state defines. You probably know this, but I think it's for everybody awareness that we need to be really clear. It's not Matias saying this. Um when you talk
118about the problems we're trying to solve, I want to find solutions um that address multiple things simultaneously. We have 116 schools. This is one of 116 I have to think about the 70,000 students and also be very responsive to the students that are here at Richtop Riley, etc. And so the problems we're trying to solve, we need to reduce the number of empty seats in Austin ISD. It's the honest truth. We need to reduce our reliance on spaces that are incredibly expensive to operate. Portables. Portables are meant to be short-term solutions. They are. We have portables in district that are 50, 60, 70 years old. The newest portable I think is 32 years old. They're they're exposed to the environment on all sides. And so long term, because we're in the forever business, 5, 10,
11915 years, 20 years, even you know, now we're spending an incredible amount of resources that should go to compensation, that should go to programming on very expensive spaces. So through all these ideas and all the planning and all the work the goal was to remove the number of seats which is consolidations which is one of the things that is addressed as part of the richtop move. It is to stabilize programming because the law that you I'm referring to is the law that was passed in the 89th legislature that says that every student in a school district must have a certified teacher. If you have emergent bilingual students identified by the state, not by Matias, I am required by law and it's based in but in 2728 it'll be kind of full K through five that
120I provide that allocation. So if you do not have that allocation, where do you think I have to take it from? Somewhere else in the school system where we don't have the number of emerging bilingual students as coded by the state. So if we find ourselves at richtop in the near future with 10 14 n 20% I'm going to be required forced to remove the allocations and place them elsewhere which means a stipend right will not be there and so I'm anticipating that I I I want to get ahead of it. We never want to be reactive. We want to be responsive. So this move allows you to increase the number of students who have access to the program which will increase your emerging bilingual student population. We have 14%. We'd like to move towards
12140%. It'll reduce help reduce the number of seats in Austin ISD. We have 20,000. We need to remove that. It'll help reduce the number of really expensive spaces that we operate and support every single day. We have over 450 portables. We had 600 at one point. Those have to come down. They're short-term solutions. At the end of the day, like all these have to occur. I'm accountability in this situation isn't necessarily a driving factor for this specific move because I feel very strongly that Pickle and Wooten are both moving in the right direction. evidence of it. So, I don't want anybody to leave here saying, "Oh, we're making this move to ensure that somehow we break accountability chain." They're going to break it regardless. Um, but those are the three driving factors. The back one
122would be just ensuring that um we have a a program that's closer to the students who are identified as emerging bilingual. I don't know, you want to add anything to that. >> Okay. But those are the three driving factors and kind of the fourth one for this specific move. >> Okay. But what does it need to happen this year? >> Yeah. So, so I want to be really honest. Um, those who have been following along, we have a humongous budget deficit. We do um this is not something I like we like to share very often, but our cash flow, right, is very very low. What most people don't realize is that we depend on our cash every year to pay payroll right from July, August, September, October. In November and into December, what do we
123start to get? We start to get tax revenue from all of you all and everybody else paying their property taxes. Now, if we do not improve our fund balance, we get to a place where we cannot make payroll. If we continue to have a deficit budget, you eat into that fund balance that protects you on the cash flow side. I don't know if that makes any sense, but really like you have our savings account. We draw down our savings account until we get paid by t property taxes. That's kind of how it works. If you continue to run deficit budgets, which is what we're trying to do as part of this plan, right? reduce our overall cost, then you erode your deficit budget, making it more likely that you will go negative and not be
124able to make payroll in November, December, right? Which impacts you, which impacts all of us. The last thing we're ever going to do is is be at a point where we don't make payroll. Now, I'm at a point now where we can make hard decisions and we can get ahead of it. I can get ahead of the um allocations by the state that I have to respond to for teacher certifications. I can get ahead of stabilizing emerging bilingual student populations. But that takes time. If I wait a year, deficit's going to get bigger. The risk of not making payroll gets bigger. The the you're one year closer to having to be fully compliant with the law. Like that's what all this is. And what I need is time for our families to plan. Time for
125us to work together to actually be successful in supporting our students. The last thing that can happen is us make a change late and us not be prepared to receive your students. So that is what is driving this. I I don't know if you want to say I that's fine if you don't have to. >> Yeah. >> Hi. >> Um so a lot of my questions have kind of been answered right now but I so I just want to make it quick to give someone else um opportunity but just reiterate um that we chose Rich specifically because it is a small campus and a wall-to-wall dual language. um objectively bilingual education is beneficial to academic success um and lifelong success honestly and having this small likeminded community is is part of that magic. Um, with
126that said, um, you know, I I keep hearing that transitioning to pickle is for the greater good and I can wrap my head around that and about the long-term planning. So, like I understand all of that and at the same time, my reality right now is that my kids are in school right now. So, I guess my ask is more as more details come out, as more plans come out, um I think specifics are really important because um I have a hard time honestly trusting. I don't feel like a guarantee that this move isn't going to negatively affect my kids in the short term. That they aren't just like some like I don't know if this is probably not the best like AI like they're not just like the sacrificial like kids right now. Um
127and like I understand the greater good. I understand long-term effect and like I I understand all of that. Um but this is also my reality. Um, and so I just want to know that their needs are going to be met. And I think the way that I would have more confidence in that is by just having a lot more specifics. >> Yep. >> Um, as things roll out because right now I just don't feel that. >> Yeah, that's a great comment and I so thank you for sharing that and I think that's that's what makes this so hard. I mean I it makes it very very hard because it's your child. Um and and that's that's everything. I mean I you know like I mean I it's everything. My kids went to Sunset Valley, right?
128And and I I I am very much attached to that school. Um and I have to acknowledge that um this is your this is your family. There will be a disruption. The only way I can help and improve that is to plan together. Like that's the honest truth. I have to get these communities together and plan, plan, plan, build it out, commit to it, and you will have my commitment to ensure it's implemented. That's what I I believe that I we do in this administration better than previous. We execute. Um we have evidence of that. I you can look at the outcomes. You can look at the tag read order. The list goes on and on. I will execute, but I need the plan to be developed with community. If I came to you with
129a plan right now, it would not have your voice. It would not have Pickle's voice. It would not have teacher voice because we're not at that point. We have created the structure for it. We had the teams in place. But if if I gave you a plan, I know it wouldn't meet your student needs. That's the honest truth. So the goal is to, you know, adhere to the timeline, get to the vote, move forward with a plan, hire the principal, and build out the best plan to ensure that that disruption, which is real, and that pain that you're going to feel is real, is mitigated to the best of our abilities. That is that is how this could work. If I wait until the spring semester and take a vote, then all the time, all
130the education, and our ability to execute starting, you know, in the summer and into this the fall semester of 2627 will be lost. and you'll be even more frustrated with me. You'll be furious. I I would suspect because I did not I was not able to support your student. Um and so that that's why this time matters. And so uh that's what we intend to do. That's what we're committed to do. That's how we're set up to do it. So if we get through the vote, that's what will occur. >> And I just wanted to also say that you know my kids here are part of the only >> Oh, that's awesome. Where are you from? >> Oh, awesome. >> And so, um, but you know, if you ask them, they know about everything that's
131happening and they say, "Well, the teachers, where are the teachers going?" And you know, they one of my first graders said today, "I can make new friends anywhere." I want to know where the I want to know where the teachers are going. All three of them love their teachers so much. The work that is being done here is so special. And so, just to have that disrupted and I just hope that more. >> Yeah. No, thank you for sharing that. >> All right. Thank you guys so much. We are at or past time. That bill was just for attendance to remind the teachers for funding. So, we have we're on attendance. Um, I want to say thank you to Superintendent Sigura and all of the team. Um, I want to say thank you to all
132of you who are here that are Rattlers and non-rattlers. Um, your your input and your questions are really important and um, they're going to be hanging out here for a little bit. If you would like to hang out, we're going to start lunch duty in about an hour. So, feel free to go get an actual badge and stay um because we always need help with that. Um, also, if you're part of the community, we are selling gratitude lunch tickets in the morning and it's cash only. All right, thank you so much everybody. Um, uh, if you are a member of the AISD staff who can continue to engage for a few minutes, if you would raise your hands, um, that'd be great. And so you can kind of see who is, um, here. Thank you
133very much.