Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted
23 hours ago, swraith said:

So AISD listened to feedback and made a change that was an improvement?

I’m mostly ignorant on the topic overall, but my guess is that the changes they made to the map in SW Austin probably kept a few dozen kids in wealthy families from going private vs what would have happened if they’d gone with the draft map.  
 

 

Posted

WTF is that email that AISD superintendent just sent out?

 

“In the past few days, members of our community have brought forward significant concerns about the integrity of specific individuals leading the process of applying community feedback to the updated plan.”

Posted (edited)
42 minutes ago, swraith said:

WTF is that email that AISD superintendent just sent out?

“In the past few days, members of our community have brought forward significant concerns about the integrity of specific individuals leading the process of applying community feedback to the updated plan.”

Edit: a text from a friend a few minutes ago said she had the feeling that the superintendent was being told some things by people under him, and when he showed up at a couple of the schools, he heard something completely different. But that’s just a feeling she had.

Based on conversations at a kid’s birthday party that turned into a UT watch party on Saturday, some of the board members/advocates were probably playing favorites and clearly protecting some schools at the cost of other schools while pretending to advocate for everybody and telling everybody the same things.  There may or may not have been campaign contributions from certain areas/individuals involved with some board members, or discussion of the future political careers of some board members.  There is video of some of these board members/advocates trying to play both sides when they knew better and knew which schools were going to be affected.

It was a pretty wide range of schools represented at the party, including four of the affected schools (and several of us were going to have our older kids be fucked by the boundary changes), and hearing everybody comparing notes and comparing videos of the advocates was interesting and very enlightening.  Some of those board members are going to find that they may not have a chance at future elections, such as the Austin City Council.  FAFO. 

There’s also some pretty fucking arrogant parents and get a few beers in them and they’ll let you know they wanted some schools to stay open simply because they didn’t want those schools’ kids to show up at their kids’ school.

 

Edited by atomheartbevo
  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted

If any of that is true, I'm both amazed and unsurprised. But I'm mostly relieved that BW and Maplewood are saved for now. More work to do to keep it that way.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted (edited)
15 minutes ago, Cap33 said:

If any of that is true, I'm both amazed and unsurprised. But I'm mostly relieved that BW and Maplewood are saved for now. More work to do to keep it that way.

Having watched videos from several different meetings with different schools between parents and AISD/board members, there was always a whole lot that seemed way off with the whole process. Seeing the same person tell two different schools the same thing when one school was turbo-fucked and the other merely fucked, even though that person already knew the plan was crazy given that it's 2025 and parents are in constant contact with one another both within their own schools and with parents from other schools.  Parents were going to talk to parents from other schools.

I was pretty fucking pissed to find on Friday that my son would have to leave his middle school for another middle school and a completely different high school, even though we had been promised that the verticals wouldn't change.

This whole thing has been so fucking crazy.  I don't know whether the people who were doing all of this were incompetent or were lying through their teeth for some reason.

Edited by atomheartbevo
Posted

Someone found the original deed for the Ridgetop ES property. It states that if the property isn’t used for a public school, ownership reverts back to the previous owners or their heirs.

LOFL if AISD doesn’t even get to profit from the land sale now.

  • Haha 2
Posted (edited)
4 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

Someone found the original deed for the Ridgetop ES property. It states that if the property isn’t used for a public school, ownership reverts back to the previous owners or their heirs.

LOFL if AISD doesn’t even get to profit from the land sale now.

I wouldn't put it past a developer or two or three to try and still get it out of AISD's hands and into somebody's hands that will sell it to them.  It's that way with all of the schools.

The scary thing is if/when the state takes over, if enough parents bail for private schools or move to one of the nearby ISDs, there will be a lot more consolidation.

Edited by atomheartbevo
Posted

The only thing anyone can know for sure is that whatever Segura is saying isn't the truth.   That he's throwing his own employees under the bus is interesting, to say the least.  

Ultimately, he tried to fuck with a rich-person school that 100% needed to be closed based on the cost per student, and now he's finding out what happens when you try to take toys away from grown-up toddlers with money and influence. 

One interesting aspect is that the last time AISD tried to "fix" these problems, Gina Hinojosa played the race card from the East side and got the can kicked down the road.  Now it's rich white folks on the west side doing the same thing.  The result will be the same; AISD will continue spiraling until it can't be kept alive.  My primary concern with this current kicking of the can is that it will increase the likelihood of a TEA takeover in the next couple of years, and then we're all fucked.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
1 hour ago, Samson's Wig said:

My primary concern with this current kicking of the can is that it will increase the likelihood of a TEA takeover in the next couple of years, and then we're all fucked.

When the TEA takes over, it won't be because of any of the schools being kept open or any boundaries being preserved for another year, it'll be because of already failing schools, and most important of all, the legislature and TEA have set school districts up to fail and have changed criteria to hasten that, because the legislature is sitting on $32 billion that could help a lot of school districts, and because they are all in on wrecking public education.  There's already 5 school districts in line to be taken over.

We can rage about AISD management all we want, but at the end of the day, the state takes $820 million from AISD's budget, and the state wants to take over the largest districts, and they want to do away with a lot of programs because some fucking Christian nutcases want it to happen, and the state refuses to spend the money to bolster education (remember 30-40 years ago when our state leaders cared about education and wanted us to compete with the top states in the nation?)

When the legislators and state leaders and rich Christian nationalists tell you they oppose public education, and they actively work towards that goal, and that they want to create more charter schools in place of public schools, listen to them.

We have the money to fix all of the districts, but the state has decided against that.

Posted
3 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

When the TEA takes over, it won't be because of any of the schools being kept open or any boundaries being preserved for another year, it'll be because of already failing schools, and most important of all, the legislature and TEA have set school districts up to fail and have changed criteria to hasten that, because the legislature is sitting on $32 billion that could help a lot of school districts, and because they are all in on wrecking public education.  There's already 5 school districts in line to be taken over.

We can rage about AISD management all we want, but at the end of the day, the state takes $820 million from AISD's budget, and the state wants to take over the largest districts, and they want to do away with a lot of programs because some fucking Christian nutcases want it to happen, and the state refuses to spend the money to bolster education (remember 30-40 years ago when our state leaders cared about education and wanted us to compete with the top states in the nation?)

When the legislators and state leaders and rich Christian nationalists tell you they oppose public education, and they actively work towards that goal, and that they want to create more charter schools in place of public schools, listen to them.

We have the money to fix all of the districts, but the state has decided against that.

I completely agree with all of this, and I'm well aware of it.  But I'm tired of terrible AISD administrators using the state as an excuse for their barrels full of failures.   It's not an either/or situation; they are both awful.  It's the same trap people fall into with partisan political thinking.  Just because one party is worse doesn't excuse the other's foolishness.  They're both awful.  I understand that sometimes you have to hold your nose and go with the lesser of two evils, but that isn't the situation with our failing school districts.  We should demand better from them, even if they're playing against a stacked deck.  

If I complain about AISD more than the state in this thread, well, it's mainly because this is a thread about AISD.  It's also because there isn't much to say about the threat coming from the state that hasn't been said.  It's clear what is happening there, and while I have no idea how to stop a handful of cult-member billionaires from purchasing our state legislature for their own ends, I can look at who we hire to run our school district and know we can do much better.  

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted (edited)
53 minutes ago, CleverNickname said:

So the rich kids got special favors. Call me shocked. 

Or maybe keep the better performing/non-TAPS/TIPS schools open in the face of the TEA breathing down Austin's neck over low-performing schools.  Look, if you hate these schools that were taken off the list, don't worry, when the state takes over, a whole fuckload of people are going to bail on AISD for private schools or neighboring districts, along with a lot of really good teachers, and there will be a lot more school closures, excuse me, conversions to charter schools.

And if you think AISD is incompetent but then blindly accept their numbers about what will or will not save money and ignore how they've handle school closures in the past, then I've got a crypto scheme that will make you a lot of money - I just need you to give me $20,000 every few days in Bitcoin, and in 6 months I'll triple or quadruple it, just don't bother to ask me how.

Edited by atomheartbevo
Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, Samson's Wig said:

It's clear what is happening there, and while I have no idea how to stop a handful of cult-member billionaires from purchasing our state legislature for their own ends, I can look at who we hire to run our school district and know we can do much better.  

Not trying to imitate @Brisketexan and standing on the ledge, but I don't think it matters.  We could improve our scores this year and they'll just move the goalposts like they've done in the past. Unfortunately, AISD is one of the crown jewels they are clearly after.  Well, they want all of the largest districts, but AISD generates a lot of money, and for CR reasons, they really want to stick it to AISD.

I think that this round of consolidation/boundary changes (and there will be future rounds in the next few years) should have focused on the at-risk schools who could take AISD into full state takeover. Even if their grades follow them around to other schools, we needed to at least attempt something.

It fucking sucks, because I've still got a long way to go with my youngest. My oldest isn't even in high school yet, but at least we see the light at the end of the tunnel. I don't want to uproot them but given the boundary changes that affect their middle/high schools, AISD appears to be wanting to do that anyways.

Edited by atomheartbevo
  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted

Has TEA ever stated if there’s a path from takeover back to local control? I don’t remember that ever being discussed. My gut tells me that each district is eventually passed to a private company to run for a healthy profit.

Posted
32 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

Has TEA ever stated if there’s a path from takeover back to local control? I don’t remember that ever being discussed. My gut tells me that each district is eventually passed to a private company to run for a healthy profit.

the big lebowski dude GIF

But there is this from last June:

Houston ISD takeover by state will continue through 2027, TEA announces – Houston Public Media

Quote

Houston ISD will be under state control for at least two more years, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) announced Monday.  TEA Commissioner Mike Morath wrote in a news release that “local feedback” and a “comprehensive evaluation” of the district led him to the decision. He also is replacing four of the nine HISD board members he installed in 2023.

“Ultimately, two years has not been enough time to fix district systems that were broken for decades,” Morath said. “The extension of this intervention will allow the district to build on its progress and achieve lasting success for students once the board transitions back to elected leadership.”

Quote

The district’s board of managers, who have voting and decision-making power instead of HISD's elected trustees, will be in authority until at least June 1, 2027. The state took over the district in 2023 after Wheatley High School received a string of failing grades, triggering a state law requiring the TEA to close the campus or replace elected trustees with appointed leadership.

And Morath just replaced the four board members who were loudest about questioning his last budget.

 

  • Like 1
Posted
13 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

Has TEA ever stated if there’s a path from takeover back to local control? I don’t remember that ever being discussed. My gut tells me that each district is eventually passed to a private company to run for a healthy profit.

Yes, it is generally outlined here:

https://tea.texas.gov/texas-schools/school-boards/school-governance/bom-faqs.pdf-0

Basically, TEA appoints a Board of Managers to replace the elected Board of Trustees.  The Managers have the power the Trustees normally have.  The TEA is supposed to set an exit criteria to reverse the process.

Texas law specifies the process for returning control to a Board of Trustees in Sec. 39A.208 of the Texas Education Code.  The basic idea is that every two years the education commissioner decides if it is time to start the process of returning control.  If it is time, then they replace one third of the board of managers every year until the board of managers is eventually replaced by the board of trustees.

The board of trustees/managers has the power to hire the superintendent, who has the power to hire everyone else.  They also set the budget.  This is the "control" that the board has that leads to overall control of the district, via the budget and the superintendent.

Posted
5 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

So basically the education commissioner decides? 

Yes, periodically.  The commissioner must "decide" for the first time sometime in the first two years.  If the decision is to continue, then the commissioner must "decide" again sometime within the next two years, and so on.  It is not a fixed two year duration, it can be shorter but not longer than every two years.

The decision the commissioner makes is to begin the process of returning control.  Once that starts, control reverts over three years.

Posted
Yes, periodically.  The commissioner must "decide" for the first time sometime in the first two years.  If the decision is to continue, then the commissioner must "decide" again sometime within the next two years, and so on.  It is not a fixed two year duration, it can be shorter but not longer than every two years.
The decision the commissioner makes is to begin the process of returning control.  Once that starts, control reverts over three years.

So, it never returns to the people.
Posted (edited)
15 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:


So, it never returns to the people.

The people have the power to elect the board of trustees.  The trustees have the power to hire the superintendent and set the budget.  The superintendent has the power to hire everyone else in the school district.

Before the takeover, the people have the power stated above.

During the takeover, the commissioner has the power to initially appoint the superintendent and appoint the board of managers.  During the takeover, the board of managers have the powers that the board of trustees normally have.

During the transition back, the board is a mix of elected trustees and appointed managers.

After the transition back, the people have the same power they had at the start, which is to elect the board of trustees.

Edited by Texas Jeff
Posted

Yeah. You’re skipping over the part where the education commissioner decides when - and importantly, if - that transition back ever happens.
It won’t.
The party of “local control” turns out to be all about consolidated power and authoritarianist indoctrination. Shocking, right?

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
1 minute ago, Texas Jeff said:

During the takeover, the commissioner has the power to initially appoint the superintendent and appoint the board of managers.  During the takeover, the board of managers have the powers that the board of trustees normally have.

Over/under on how many schools will be turned into charter schools if/when they take over AISD?

I'm picturing Lamar, Kealing, Ann Richards at the very least.

Houston's Top Magnet High Schools Could Become Private Partnership Charter Schools, Raising Equity Concerns

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...