Why is AISD shrinking? (Austin, Howe: sales, waterparks, house)

[cheeva]

Originally Posted by ScoPro

Better change that offensive name of the school district while they’re at it.

How about rebranding as "AISJD" to align with their priorities?

[kitkatbar]

https://www.kxan.com/news/education/...eing-proposed/

They're going to get rid of block scheduling in secondary in order slash teacher positions to fix the budget shortfall. According to the article, which was somewhat foggy, no doubt because AISD is totally foggy on what it plans to do, they're going to have 6 "teacher led periods" out of 7 total periods, whatever that means... so what, are the kids sitting in study hall for the 7th period with a minimum wage paid sub for that 7th period? (aka not learning anything?)

But in any case, whether they cut scheduling back to 6 classes or 7, from the 8 classes that kids used to take under block, they'll be using it to cut elective teacher positions. So they'll cut foreign language, music, theatre arts, dance, robotics, AVID, photography, art... and anything else that used to be on campus. PE/sports are safe because those are mandated by law. But this will severely limit choices for students.

[ScoPro]

What about cuts in the central administration staff?

[cheeva]

“Budget problem: We have significant and acute budget pressures here. As you probably know, Austin ISD is running a $62-million budget deficit and has dipped into cash reserves for the past five years. This cannot continue without hurting our bond rating, which would make building new schools or fixing our existing ones nearly impossible. We have to be fiscally responsible.” - Dr. Stephanie S. Elizalde Superintendent

AISD made $21M in budget cuts, but that still leaves a $41M deficit this year. That deficit will grow as enrollment drops, and AISD will be chasing that deficit with continual budget cuts and increased borrowing costs due to a lowered bond rating. Fiscal reality with a continually lowering academic performance districtwide, it looks bad. Like Greece, circa 2014 kind of bad.

[austin-steve]

Just hear on NPR Radio this morning that enrollment is shrinking nationwide.

[verybadgnome]

Maybe AISD could deal with the shortfall by leasing out their closed schools to charter schools.

[ashbeeigh]

Originally Posted by verybadgnome

Maybe AISD could deal with the shortfall by leasing out their closed schools to charter schools.

They tried that and it failed. Search “IDEA Allen” campus.

[cheeva]

Originally Posted by ashbeeigh

They tried that and it failed. Search “IDEA Allen” campus.

IDEA Allan is still around, it's now called IDEA Montopolis.

AISD spent up to $100,000 renaming it when someone "discovered" that Allan was in the confederate army for a year.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by ashbeeigh

They tried that and it failed. Search “IDEA Allen” campus.

what failed? AISD canceled the contract, but the school wanted to continue

“We retained her in first grade because of her reading,” Liscano said. “She was passed in second, but I knew she was still having problems. So when I heard about IDEA Allan I enrolled her here, and she brought her reading up the first six weeks.”

This is the problem with AISD.

[Ice_Major]

Ouch, AISD hit with $710.6 million in recapture. Wonder how long the current recapture process will last. This is a lot of money especially considering it's more than the next 4 highest recapture districts combined.

https://www.kvue.com/article/news/ed...f-2ab08ed2ee27