Minutes - Austin ISD

• Even if proposed state legislation passes, it won’t be enough for us to make up for
previous losses
• Although taxable values are increasing, student enrollment is not, so we could end up
sending more money to the state
• There needs to be more conversation on how to bring back students we’re losing
• We may need to look at selling underutilized schools
• The district needs a stronger marketing plan
Bond Program
• Alex Sanchez, Executive Director of Public Relations and Multicultural Outreach, went over
various sources of information related to the bond program available on the AISD website.
• Mr. Sanchez also went over several do’s and don’t’s related to communicating information
about the bond program.
• Paul Turner, Executive Director of Facilities, went over the details of the bond package,
including:
• The district’s comparatively high bond rating and low tax rate
• Work of the Citizens Bond Advisory Committee (CBAC)
• Bond items divided into four separate propositions
• Total of bond package is $892,245,000
• Bond referendum will be on a May 2013 ballot
• Discussion points included:
• Would like to see more line-item details under each of the propositions
• There seems to be some duplication among the propositions based on the wording
• If parts of the bond package don’t pass, we’ll have to regroup and work with the
community to respond
• Only one AISD bond proposal has ever failed, and we’re optimistic about this one
STAAR Update
• Carolyn Hanschen, Director of Campus and District Accountability, provided an update on
STAAR. She stated that the new state accountability system uses four indices:
• Student achievement
• Student progress
• Closing performance gaps
• Postsecondary readiness
• Ms. Hanschen explained that schools will receive ratings between 0 and 100 for each index.
She said that this system is much more complicated than the previous system.
• Discussion points included:
• The low beginning cut scores will accelerate fairly quickly
• Ratings will be released in August, but the rules are still being developed
• The breaking out of more accountability student groups will probably not have much
effect on ratings
• TEA recently announced that the student progress index would kick in this year
• Results for ELLs will be excluded only this year – progress measures for ELLs are still
being developed
• Schools have been sent confidential student reports, which parents can access
Superintendent’s Update
• Dr. Carstarphen’s update included the following topics:
• AISD participated in this year’s SXSW.Edu
• The district held its first African American Parent Conference
• A new Parent Cloud is available
• The annual Parent Survey is underway