STEWARDSHIP - Austin ISD

From the Board PresidentMark WilliamsHappy New Year! We’ve passed the halfway point of the schoolyear, and my fellow Trustees and I are hopeful that your childrenhad a good fall term, a restful Winter Break and are ready foranother semester of exciting opportunities to learn.As you might imagine, with a district of over 82,000 students,over 11,000 employees and 110 campuses, the AISD’s Board ofTrustees was busy on many fronts the past few months. As always,student achievement is our first priority. The Board’s responsibilitiesinclude a need to look at how we have done in the mostrecent year, how we are doing right now, and what we need to bedoing for the future. In an effort to improve the Board’s ability tomake better decisions to improve the learning outcomes for ourstudents, District staff, working with expert consultants, are creatinga new assessment and reporting approach to enable the Boardto gain a deeper understanding of District, campus and studentperformance, needs and plans at the elementary, middle, and highschool levels.In the fall, the first set of reports under this new format, summarizingthe most recent completed 2006-07 school year, werepresented to the Board. These reports were structured to providethe Board, District Administration, and the community with criticalperformance data, along with meaningful analysis, grouped in threekey areas - Intellectual Development and Achievement; Personal, Social, andCultural Development; and Equitable Opportunities and Outcomes. Thesereports can be found at the District’s website – austinisd.org.To improve the Board’s understanding of the “now”, Districtstaff and the consultants are developing “dashboards”. Thesedashboards, which highlight important leading indicators, areintended to help improve the Board’s ongoing monitoring ofDistrictwide performance, with focused attention being given toour struggling campuses.With respect to the “future”, an effort has been undertakento enhance and align the District’s annual planning processes,including the Strategic Plan and District Improvement Plan. Theseplans will be integrated with development of the District’s AnnualBudget and Educational Plan. Coordinating these activities should enablethe Board to have more input and better insight when establishingperformance expectations for the District and the Superintendent.One of the more exciting aspects of Board service is to be part ofthe opening of a brand new school. This past fall, the Board had theopportunity to participate in the dedication of three new schools builtunder the 2004 Bond Program - two elementaries (Blazier, in southeastAustin and Overton, in northeast Austin) and one middle school (Garcia,in northeast Austin). In addition, we had the dedication of the new AnnRichards School for Young Women Leaders, which is located at theformer Porter Middle School campus. All four of these schools openedin August 2007.Another area of Board attention this past fall was the creation of a2008 Citizens’ Bond Advisory Committee to provide guidance to thedistrict on the implications of the continued student enrollment growthand changing geographic landscape of our student population. Thesedemographic considerations, along with new and expanded curricula andother requirements, are putting additional, urgent demands on many aspectsof our facilities and technology infrastructure. This Committee willexamine these issues and make recommendations to the Board, likely inthe early spring of 2008.Let me close by expressing my deepest appreciation as we beginthe new year to the families who entrust their children with our District,to our teachers and staff for their passion and commitment to ensurethat every student reaches their full potential, and to the many volunteerindividuals, organizations and other partners who give of their time andtreasure to help us reach our goal of making AISD the premier urbanschool district in the country.Best regards,Mark WilliamsPresident, AISD Board of TrusteesSuperintendent’s CornerDr. Pat Forgione, SuperintendentWe are very fortunate to have such a diverse urban school district.Our students come from families with backgrounds on all continents,except, of course, Antarctica. Taken together, their familiesspeak more than 60 languages as their primary language. This isa great asset to our community and to our children’s education.Our students are reminded every day that they are part of aworld community.At the same time, this diversity presents challenges. We needto make sure that all our students coming into our schools withLimited English Proficiency can graduate with English mastery sothey are well prepared for college and future career success. Weare also working diligently to make sure that our students whocome in speaking primarily Spanish can graduate with a mastery ofAcademic English and Academic Spanish. That will be a powerfuladdition to the economic potential of the Austin community.Because we take seriously our responsibility as citizens ofthe Austin community and the world, the Austin School Districtis committed to sound environmental stewardship, as you willlearn in this issue of the Insider. We are reducing our energy andwater consumption, including green-building concepts in our newschools, and becoming a leader in the use of green power.The world isn’t at our doorstep. The world is in ourclassrooms, and that’s a great lesson for all of us.Austin ISD Board of Trustees(from left) Lori Moya, District 6: Sam Guzmán, District 2; Johna Edwards,District 3; Mark Williams, PRESIDENT, District 5; Karen Dulaney Smith, At Large 9;Vincent M. Torres, VICE PRESIDENT, District 4; Cheryl Bradley, District 1;Robert Schneider, District 7; Annette LoVoi, At Large 8.