Thread by @ClaireMcInerny

I’m caffeinated and I’m at @MaplewoodATX for the community meeting. Maplewood is slated for closure, and students would attend either nearby Campbell Elementary or Blackshear Elementary.

Everyone in the circle is introducing themselves. Lots and lots of parents here today and people who live in the neighborhood.

Parent: I want to know why the timeline is so short. And why is the timeline for voting on this plan so short?

The district has thrown so many communities into grief and were not ready to absorb all of that in a month and a half.

PARENT: why four schools in Dist 1 and four schools in Dist 2 (eastside districts) slated for closure?

We are willing to make sacrifices but those sacrifices should happen across east and west.

Applause to this one

Parent: what is the investment in this community? What programs and opportunities will our kids have?

Parent: how does this plan help improve enrollment? It seems closures will cause enrollment to drop

Parent: clearly history plays a part in not supporting eastside schools. How is AISD going to correct this in this plan in such a short timeline.

Parent: Campbell might use its title 1 funding when the campuses merge. Can AISD supplement that?

How will programs at different schools transfer? At the end of this process will students lose opportunities?

Neighbor: asking how HB3 (the new school funding law) will affect the schools and why aren’t we waiting a little to see what the money situation is?

Parent: I’m puzzled at why a school that should be a model for other schools is chosen for closure.

The only thing I think is that when someone looks at this property they see dollar signs.

Parent: I’m concerned about closing 10 schools in the poorest parts of Austin. If you surrender these east side schools, these charters are going to swoop in. Are we perpetuating the racist history of Austin?

A parent just asked for a straw vote of who wants maplewood to close. Most raise their hand. A few say they’re open to it closing.

Parent: please be transparent in your process. I don’t understand it and I’d like to understand how this all worked. Transparency in how you got here will help us understand.

Parent: at point do you listen? We’ve reached out and every school is saying the same thing, answer our questions, give us transparency, and slow down the process.

Another parent brings up the fact the Dr. Cruz went to the Austin board of realtors to talk about this plan. He says AISD has lost some trust. We want to believe you have our interests in mind but we are worried.

So far there has only been questions being asked. The moderator tried to get some questions answered and everyone said noo, so he tries to hand the mic back but then people say answer the question.

AISD: the decision AISD made is to modernize buildings which is $30-40 million. Deferred maintenance is just improving things to make the building like it was the day it was open. So not pushing it forward to modern Ed world

Parent: this plan was posed as an equity plan. But how does that happen when you combine schools and possibly overcrowd a school

AISD answering academic questions: here’s your transparency. I believe this is a proposal and not a plan. I do believe there will be hard decisions informed by the community. I trust we will make changes and not everyone will be happy

AISD: there are more schools on the east side being closed. That’s also Bc there are more schools on the east side. Bc of the time they were built and the population back then. These buildings are in disrepair

People yell “programming”

AISD: when we are paying for new roofs on old buildings we aren’t paying for more teachers to do something like dual language at more campuses.

AISD: I have music and visual arts teachers traveling the district. If we bring in two communities we can solve that problem.

.@shuronda is the moderator and so good at helping the district and parents listen to each other.

These parents are doing a lot of picking at every example the district brings up. It feels similar to the meeting at Pease Monday

AISD: bringing together campuses brings together resources.

Parent: we don’t just look out for our own. We look out for our whole community. We’re not saying to just save maplewood and nobody else. We are having thoughtful conversations.

We had a meeting the other night and we talked about why maplewood and how to blend with Campbell

Parent: this school should be studied and replicated across the nation. How is Campbell going to feel when we plop 500 kids in their small school

Parent: I’m thinking farther ahead into middle and Hs. If she doesn’t choose to go to a magnet program or special high school. I want to make sure she is being educated at the same level as someone on the west side. I don’t see that I’m tbis proposal

AISD: you’ll be seeing a new version of the scenarios. We got a lot of language wrong.

But we really want to have equity in all academic programs. That takes money and I believe that’s what this reinvestment is for.

AISD: we want to get to the end of this listening process before we release a new draft.

AISD: someone asked earlier “what sin has maplewood committed to be considered for closure?”

Nothing. This isn’t about losing programs. We’re going to keep dual language. We want to figure out how to add and enrich.

You have programs that other schools don’t have. And we want to help them too. We still value you and your student and want this process to be an enrichment.

Parent: tell us what the boundary changes are. Also, what happens if we don’t pass a future bond? We are thinking about not doing that.

AISD: we are doing this all at once, rather than school by school, Bc we know this is so hard for communities. We think it might be better to do all of this in the next 6-10 years rather than come back every couple of years asking to close a school

Parent: this isn’t enough time for these communities to process emotionally what is happening. We can’t “co-create” and we can’t buy in when we can barely digest

Parent: why didn’t this community engagement happen before? Also, who put this plan together? Was it an outside consultant? What info did you get them?

Parent: for decades AISD hasn’t been investing in the east side. Why isn’t AISD willing to bet on itself?

AISD: we’re hoping the programs and opportunities we want to create help us compete with charters.

AISD: underenrollment puts a lot of pressure on staff and a campus, because they don’t have opportunities. If we have more schools that are under resourced, our idea is to have less schools with more resources.

AISD on how the proposal was made: the board made the decision in February to go forward with these changes. Then we started talking to communities about what they would like to see in schools.

AISD: the same pot of money we use to fix an AC a few times a year is the same pot of money we pay teachers.

AISD: we know that some scenarios Need to be adjusted. And we are taking notes and getting great ideas from the community

Parent: on the front page of the AISD website the district is soliticing partnerships with charter schools (via SB 1882). The timing seems obvious

Parent: I’m concerned about the message I’m hearing about equity. We are told to buy into this plan because it’s equitable but then also we need to get the biggest bang for our buck.

Cont: true equity would be significant investment in east side over west side to honor the history of this city.

Parent: there are two east sides. This is not new. It feels new to you. But this has been happening for YEARS. we have to do something. But as you fight ask what you’re fighting for? There are schools with real needs in this district.

AISD: old building repairs do matter. You might now hear about it, but when a principal is dealing with a broken AC, she’s calling us and trying to coordinate a work order. That becomes her day. That’s time she’s not using to work with her teachers.

AISD: maplewood can still be maplewood, it will just be housed at a new building. You can still be the maplewood community you love but I get the fear and disappointment. That’s fair

Speaker: we know it’s hard to make a decision about closing 12 schools. What’s your action plan? How do you help us blend with Campbell?

Community member: we need you to go out to schools and be here regularly so you know what it’s like.

AISD: we stumbled out of the gate. We’re here to get our balance back and hear you. Thank you for your decorum and respect and passion and fears and brutal honesty.

**This is now the norm, AISD officials are apologizing for how they announced the proposal

AISD: we’re trying to fix what we’ve done wrong (neglecting schools for a long time? )

AISD: we have made decisions before that used just data. And Bc of that we’ve made inequitable decisions.

So with this process, we didn’t just crunch some numbers and create a formula to spit out schools.

So there were other considerations. It was an art not a science

Custodian: now we all have to go find jobs. What are you going to do with us? We’re part of AISD too and we’re in the dark as well. What’s going to happen when I don’t have a job?

AISD: there is no intention to lose staff members. We value our staff mvers. I can’t say everyone is going to be in the exact spot they want to be (so staff may not be at the school they’re at now).

Parent: if this goes through are all our teachers and staff gonna leave and find new jobs? I wouldn’t blame them if they do? But should I switch schools?

Bond programs take years to come up (lots of people asked why they haven’t seen the changes in their schools the bond allocated).

AISD on retaining staff: let’s use Norman sims as an example (a school already consolidated). So each situation is different and we’ll have to go case by case. We’re using current schools to learn what works and doesn’t

AISD: the idea is in the transition we don’t tell you what we’re gonna do, we hear what staff wants. We want to make a plan so we can reduce the number of teachers who want to jump ship. We’ll start making those plans as soon as vote happens

Parent: I feel like Austin is just growing and growing so how is the case not that we need more schools?

AISD:yes, Austin is growing with new people. When you hear that people are talking about the metro area, including round rock and pflugerville.

Bc housing is so expensive in AISD neighborhoods many families are not living near our schools.

Cont: We are seeing declining enrollment the closer you get to downtown. Near downtown we are seeing less single family homes and more apartments and condos without kids.

Parent: in full transparency can we admit this plan is about money? This isn’t about equity, the chief equity officer was just hired a month ago.

Cont: why would we not wait for the 2020 census data?

AISD: in a rapidly changing city it’s hard to predict data like that correctly. Nobody can get it completely right.

AISD: we’ll have to make a plan before we figure out how students will combine whole modernization happens.

Parent: can we have the detailed plan before the vote?

Parent: the district is failing maplewood. the PTA has had to raise money for support specialists. We’ve had to do that on our own without help from AISD

Parent: so how will the district give us the support for teachers and kids and parents. This is a no plan plan

Parent: a lot of schools haven’t gotten their money from bonds. That was a deal we made with the district to pass the bond....and now the deal has changed. It’s hard to work with the district when that’s what’s happened.

Parent: I understand the need to consolidate. It makes sense to bring together maplewood and Campbell. I’d like to see walkabikity and driveability considered in this plan

Educator: there’s going to be a mental health toll on teachers who have to go through these changes.

AISD: we have mental health centers at all high schools and many other schools. And we want to expand to more.

And we want to use funds to reinvest in pay and early literacy but we want to do more.