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Posted
6 minutes ago, Texas Jeff said:

I was surprised, looking at the maps, that more of Bryker Woods was not absorbed into Casis.

The married student housing along Lake Austin Blvd has historically been part to Mathews, to combine it with the married student housing east of Mopac.  In the proposed maps, the housing along LAB is now assigned to Casis and the part east of Mopac is still Mathews.  Which splits that community.  However, UT has started to move this housing to east campus near Disch-Falk, and those kids will probably end up at Campbell long term.

I *think* there is some room at Casis to put Bryker Woods kids at Casis.  I am surprised they didn't keep the married students together at Mathews and move the Bryker Woods kids to Casis.  I suspect the BW families would have preferred Casis to Mathews, but that is just my guess.

Also, Mathews 6th grade is proposed to end.  I think BW lost their 6th a few years ago.  Honestly getting rid of 6th in the Austin High / O. Henry vertical will help O. Henry long term.

It’s more of a cultural thing. BW parents tend to like a smaller, laid back school without the hyper intense parent culture. I think they would get more pushback if Casis was the plan. 

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Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, Larry T. Spider said:

It’s more of a cultural thing. BW parents tend to like a smaller, laid back school without the hyper intense parent culture. I think they would get more pushback if Casis was the plan. 

Absolutely wrong. The reason BW isn't rezoned to Casis is because the Pemberton parents cut a deal with Lynn Boswell for them to stay at Casis. Spare me the "cultural" fit. That's horse shit.

Edit to add: BW kids and families are friends with Casis kids and families through all kinds of activities. We all know each other and the parent culture. 

Edited by Cap33
Posted
On 10/3/2025 at 5:58 PM, gsoda3 said:

Woof Mueller kids gonna be zoned to Northeast

I’m somewhat chuckling about this. 10 years ago we were misled by the developers that all of Mueller was zoned to Maplewood elementary and McCallum hs. We figured out that we were just east of a dividing line after plunking down a big deposit so we just rolled with it. There was such hypocrisy of people preaching to “east Muellerites” to happily send their kids to Blanton and Reagan/NE, while being uppity about their kids’ schools (or if they had money, sending their kids to private schools). Maplewood (and maybe McCallum) were too full to accept transfers so we were stuck. We ended up bailing to the burbs when our kids started school. Now the west muellerites can practice what they preached.  

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Posted
7 hours ago, Cap33 said:

Absolutely wrong. The reason BW isn't rezoned to Casis is because the Pemberton parents cut a deal with Lynn Boswell for them to stay at Casis. Spare me the "cultural" fit. That's horse shit.

Edit to add: BW kids and families are friends with Casis kids and families through all kinds of activities. We all know each other and the parent culture. 

I’m sure that Boswell did cut a deal for Pemberton parents to stay there. It’s very on brand for her and has nothing to do with my point. And yes, I know the BW and  Casis parents are very connected, they basically share a neighborhood.

But I stand by my statement about most BW parents wanting to be a part of a smaller, more relaxed school than Casis. I have had dozens, if not hundreds of direct conversations with BW families about this exact topic when I was an AISD employee very close to this situation. Not going to say anymore about BW on here because I’ll dox myself and don’t really have any interest in doing so.

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Posted (edited)

I was curious to know the collective impact of these consolidations and the recent bond programs on the schools of East Austin.  So I looked it up.
I am defining "East Austin" here as north of the river and east of 35.
I did not count LASA as an East Austin school since it's a magnet.

Here's what it would look like after the 2022 bond program is complete and if these consolidations go ahead as proposed:

Elementaries:

* 6 will be brand new as part of the 2017/2022 bonds (Harris, Andrews, Norman-Sims, Govalle, Sanchez, Pecan Springs)
* 2 have been built since 2000 (Overton, Pickle)
* 5 was built prior to 2000 (Blanton, Ortega, Zavala, Blackshear, Campbell)

Middle Schools:

* 2 will be brand new as part of the 2017/2022 bonds (Sadler Means, Marshall)
* 1 has been built since 2000 (Gus Garcia)
* 1 was built prior to 2000 (Kealing)

High Schools:

* 1 is brand new as part of the 2017 bond (Eastside)
* 2 others (Northeast, LBJ) received some money in 2017 and a large investment in 2022, with more work still to be done.

The three high schools received a total of $347 million in bond money in 2017 and 2022 combined.  Today, they collectively enroll about the same number of students as Bowie.


 

Edited by Texas Jeff
Posted
9 hours ago, Larry T. Spider said:

But I stand by my statement about most BW parents wanting to be a part of a smaller, more relaxed school than Casis. I have had dozens, if not hundreds of direct conversations with BW families about this exact topic when I was an AISD employee very close to this situation.

And in the context of BW vs. Casis, I'm sure you did hear that. But the choice between Casis and driving across town to Mathews that has over 50% transfers, and thus a weak tie to its own neighborhood, I think the answer is much different. 

Posted
13 hours ago, Cap33 said:

And in the context of BW vs. Casis, I'm sure you did hear that. But the choice between Casis and driving across town to Mathews that has over 50% transfers, and thus a weak tie to its own neighborhood, I think the answer is much different. 

Mathews campus is terrible. Not a blade of grass anywhere on that block. 

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Posted

Will this first meeting involve anything beyond a regurgitation of what was released on Friday?  Isn't this just the presentation of the plan to the board?  Will they have community speakers to liven things up with some good old-fashioned mindless ranting?

I want to fast forward to the board approving whatever they're going to do, so we can decide what to do with our kids.  I don't think anything is going to look substantively different than the plan they've had cooked up for well over a year now, regardless of the mandatory dog and pony show they have been putting on to feign giving a crap about community input.   I've got zero interest in the mud-slinging and cat-clawing that will go on between now and then.  It will be the same old pile of nonsense, with a mix of race-baiting, misdirected anger, false entitlement, and virtue signalling from middle-aged white women, all while any sensible commentary is wholly lost in the wash.

Posted
34 minutes ago, Samson's Wig said:

It will be the same old pile of nonsense, with a mix of race-baiting, misdirected anger, false entitlement, and virtue signalling from middle-aged white women, all while any sensible commentary is wholly lost in the wash.

I’m here for it!

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Posted

I attended a neighborhood meeting with our trustee and board president Lynn Boswell. She said the administration staff created the plan and gave it to the trustees 24 hours before it became public, so she and the other board members are digesting it like we are. Not sure I fully believe that, but whatever. She and other trustees are questioning many of the recommendations pertaining to the new boundaries, and it sounds like they are already going back to staff to make changes. However, she had no answers to hard questions about the rubric and the data that are clearly flawed when presented with specific examples of incorrect data and assumptions staff made. She just kept saying they were good questions and she'll have to look at the data that she says she doesn't have access to (although it's all there on the AISD website). She also had no answer to questions about whether school closures would actually save any money, or how the closures will fend off a state takeover. Several comments about how the state keeps moving the goalposts on the grading criteria but no real answers.

She has her talking points down pat, as I suspect all the trustees do, but the substance is lacking. I don't expect the proposal w/r/t the closures will change. They are getting called out for forming the list despite the data, but it's not going to change their plan. Oh, and if anyone is counting, four of the 11 failing schools survived the closure list. She outright said that they need higher performing kids to go to their zoned crappy school to raise that school's grade to passing. That's the big plan.

Can't wait for Matias to start making his in-person rounds. That will be a shit show.

Posted
14 hours ago, Cap33 said:

I attended a neighborhood meeting with our trustee and board president Lynn Boswell. She said the administration staff created the plan and gave it to the trustees 24 hours before it became public, so she and the other board members are digesting it like we are. Not sure I fully believe that, but whatever. She and other trustees are questioning many of the recommendations pertaining to the new boundaries, and it sounds like they are already going back to staff to make changes. However, she had no answers to hard questions about the rubric and the data that are clearly flawed when presented with specific examples of incorrect data and assumptions staff made. She just kept saying they were good questions and she'll have to look at the data that she says she doesn't have access to (although it's all there on the AISD website). She also had no answer to questions about whether school closures would actually save any money, or how the closures will fend off a state takeover. Several comments about how the state keeps moving the goalposts on the grading criteria but no real answers.

She has her talking points down pat, as I suspect all the trustees do, but the substance is lacking. I don't expect the proposal w/r/t the closures will change. They are getting called out for forming the list despite the data, but it's not going to change their plan. Oh, and if anyone is counting, four of the 11 failing schools survived the closure list. She outright said that they need higher performing kids to go to their zoned crappy school to raise that school's grade to passing. That's the big plan.

Can't wait for Matias to start making his in-person rounds. That will be a shit show.

 

I'm not sure how anyone can believe that the rubric they put together has anything to do with the decision making.  Any pretense along those lines should be dropped, and any arguments made trying to use the rubric data as a baseline will not work. They made it clear, in writing, when they released the rubric data that it was not dispositive and their decisions would consider other factors. Just glancing through that report was enough to know it was nonsense anyway.  Whatever went down behind the scenes to reach where we're at doesn't really matter as we'll never know for sure, but the rubric, along with any public input they claim to welcome, is nothing but gladhanding. The only thing we know for certain, and it has been the case for decades, is that educating students does not even crack the top ten priorities for district leadership (or state leadership for that matter).  It's shameful, but it's been that way for a very long time.

Matias is in over his head more than perhaps any public figure I've ever seen.  Part of me sympathizes with his situation, as he isn't the one who created this mess, although he has had his hands on making it worse for a long time now, predating his interim and formal role as supertindent.  However, his knee jerk response to everything is to lie, lie, lie, and that's where he loses any of my respect.  He lies even when he doesn't have to, as it's just his default response when he feels pressured.  This school district is in really sad shape, and he's representative of it. Incompetence from the top down. I was at the meeting at Lamar this past spring when they tried to ramrod their hamfisted plan to dump Dobie kids into the already overcrowded (and dilapidated) Lamar building.  Segura lied every time he opened his mouth, and he received a farily nasty response from the parents and teachers on hand, because even though he lies all the time he's not good at it.  He'll get more of the same at his appeerances now.  He's not a good liar, nor is he quick on his feet, but he is really good at not letting angry people who call him out for the stupid things he says bother him.  Water off a duck's back.  It would almost be impressive if it weren't so pathetic.  One of my favorites lies he tells is when he mentions how long he has been superintendent.  He always leaves out the year and half when he was interim superintendent because he didn't have the necessary qualifications to be a superintendent yet. He does it in an attempt to shift blame to past leadership, even for things that happened on his watch.   He's slimy as fuck.  He'll probably be POTUS someday.

Consolidation has to happen.  The economics deem it so.  Schools have to close.  This district is an abject failure from top to bottom, and all anyone in leadership seems capable of doing is deflecting blame.  But this plan is just another form of busing, which has been attempted a number of times in this district in an attempt to blend test scores and dodge the state.  They tried hard to push busing through when Cruz was superintendent, and even Elizalde made references to it in her short stint.  I was at a meeting at Hill Elementary about a plan to start busing kids ~2018 where a member of Cruz' staff referred to concerned parents as "rich white racists".  This wasn't an aside, but over a microphone while addressing the crowd.  The pathetic part about that comment, aside from the base vitriol of it, is that the plan to bus kids had nothing to do with inclusivitiy, equity, or anything else that most Austin parents would support.  It was about blending test scores and protecting the disctrict leadership.  That's it.  But that fucker was more than happy to play the race card when people called them out for their obvious bullshit.  The only answer they've ever come up with to their failure to educate kids in socioeconomically depressed areas is to blend kids together to fudge the state requireements for test scores.  It has nothing to do with finding a way to better educate those kids who are falling behind.  They don't give two shits about those kids.  They actually believe that hiding those kids amongst other students who perform better is some kind of solution.  The same kids will fail.  But the numbers will look better.  Fuck these people.  They are the ones responsilbe for failing the kids on the east side of town, but when faced with that fact they do their best to pin east and west against one another.

Property values are going to take a hit.   Families will continue fleeing the city.  Nothing about this is unique to Austin.  It's happened in every large city in America.  It sucks for those with kids in the sytem now, as they've already suffered through the terrible handling of the pandemic, and will now face their kids dealing with a TEA takeover for high school.  

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Posted

I mean, the district wouldn't be in these straits if they weren't losing $800m yo recapture. I'll bring the link later but I read that austin provides 20% of all recapture for the state.

I'm not always a fan of how the district conducts its business, nor really even often, but they are trying to win a one on one pot with a 7-2. The state has set aisd up for failure

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Posted
22 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

I mean, the district wouldn't be in these straits if they weren't losing $800m yo recapture. I'll bring the link later but I read that austin provides 20% of all recapture for the state.

I'm not always a fan of how the district conducts its business, nor really even often, but they are trying to win a one on one pot with a 7-2. The state has set aisd up for failure

Completely agree.  The way we finance education is insane.  The district's shitty leadership for decades is every bit as much to blame as the state, though, in my opinion.  They have been put in a tough spot, but have failed to deal with it in even a marginally professional manner.  Now the reckoning for decades of inaction is here, and current students and families will pay for it.  The district admin should not get a pass for their failures just because the state shares the blame.  

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Posted

Our kids attend one of the DL schools that will be closing. Assuming the admin from our school and teachers go to the merged school, most parents plan to follow.  
 

I still think our family will be moving sooner rather than later. We may end up in an acceptable situation next year but the long term outlook is just terrible with the funding situation.  My mom always said a society that fails to prioritize its children will fail. I’m sad and frustrated my home is now one of them. 

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Posted
22 hours ago, Cap33 said:

She said the administration staff created the plan and gave it to the trustees 24 hours before it became public, so she and the other board members are digesting it like we are. Not sure I fully believe that, but whatever.

It's believable

Posted

Here's links to the board information session.  There are two videos, evidently there were technical problems at the end of the first one and they broke it into two chunks:

Public comment and district presentation, about 2.5 hours:


Board discussion, about two hours:
 

 

Posted
I don't live in Austin but what is the alternative to recapture/robin hood?  Austin obviously has the highest ratio of property value to number of students in the state.  

Just let all these other districts figure it out through the tax base. I’m a bit tired of our taxes going up just to have a large portion of that go elsewhere.
Posted
On 10/8/2025 at 8:21 PM, Cap33 said:

I attended a neighborhood meeting with our trustee and board president Lynn Boswell. She said the administration staff created the plan and gave it to the trustees 24 hours before it became public, so she and the other board members are digesting it like we are. Not sure I fully believe that, but whatever. She and other trustees are questioning many of the recommendations pertaining to the new boundaries, and it sounds like they are already going back to staff to make changes. However, she had no answers to hard questions about the rubric and the data that are clearly flawed when presented with specific examples of incorrect data and assumptions staff made. She just kept saying they were good questions and she'll have to look at the data that she says she doesn't have access to (although it's all there on the AISD website). She also had no answer to questions about whether school closures would actually save any money, or how the closures will fend off a state takeover. Several comments about how the state keeps moving the goalposts on the grading criteria but no real answers.

She has her talking points down pat, as I suspect all the trustees do, but the substance is lacking. I don't expect the proposal w/r/t the closures will change. They are getting called out for forming the list despite the data, but it's not going to change their plan. Oh, and if anyone is counting, four of the 11 failing schools survived the closure list. She outright said that they need higher performing kids to go to their zoned crappy school to raise that school's grade to passing. That's the big plan.

Can't wait for Matias to start making his in-person rounds. That will be a shit show.

Haven’t her kids all aged out of AISD? I think to be a trustee you should have to have kids enrolled in an AISD school. 
 

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