Barton Hills Elementary closing???? Can't be! (Austin, Spring: middle-class, high schools, tax)

[TexasHorseLady]

I can remember clearly lunchtime when I was in elementary school. I remember the teacher sitting at the table with the students (who all behaved, amazing concept), and I remember eating real food (including real mashed potatoes that had actually seen a potato). Everyone ate lunch, no matter their income, and everybody ate the same lunch. No picking and choosing - you went down the line in the cafeteria with your tray and the lunch ladies filled your plate and gave it to you. I believe there was a choice, sometimes, of plain or chocolate milk, but that was about it. No Coke machines in the cafeteria, no candy and snack machines, just real lunch prepared by real people whose names you knew. (Well, last names, anyway.)

Sometimes it seems that we've all gone mad and thrown the baby out with the bathwater (and gotten pretty darned spoiled in the process).

[mimimomx3]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

I can remember clearly lunchtime when I was in elementary school. I remember the teacher sitting at the table with the students (who all behaved, amazing concept), and I remember eating real food (including real mashed potatoes that had actually seen a potato). Everyone ate lunch, no matter their income, and everybody ate the same lunch. No picking and choosing - you went down the line in the cafeteria with your tray and the lunch ladies filled your plate and gave it to you. I believe there was a choice, sometimes, of plain or chocolate milk, but that was about it. No Coke machines in the cafeteria, no candy and snack machines, just real lunch prepared by real people whose names you knew. (Well, last names, anyway.)

Sometimes it seems that we've all gone mad and thrown the baby out with the bathwater (and gotten pretty darned spoiled in the process).

Exactly. Sometimes I think I'm in an alternate reality. Someone please tell me what's wrong with the scenario above.

[shaunlamont]

Shutting Barton Hills and Zilker

The USA already suffers from an education decline of astounding proportions, and the highly educated (unlikely to to education decline) Austin district facilities task force, selects 2 high performing schools for closure...incredible, this is not just a decline of education, but a visible example of the mediocrity and short sighted management that exists in the management halls of AISD.

[mamatotwogirls]

This is really crappy news. I am not 100% happy with my kid's elementary school...I would gladly drive them to Zilker or Barton Hills....is this possible?

[centralaustinite]

The issue is space and the building capacity. AISD is framing this in terms of facility management, educational quality was not a criteria.

Barton Hills and Zilker both accept transfers.

[gpurcell]

The missing puzzle piece has appeared.

This isn't about closing elementary schools, not directly. It's about switching the high performing kids from Zilker and Barton Hills from O'Henry MS/Austin HS to Fulmore MS/Travis.

[mimimomx3]

Originally Posted by gpurcell

The missing puzzle piece has appeared.

This isn't about closing elementary schools, not directly. It's about switching the high performing kids from Zilker and Barton Hills from O'Henry MS/Austin HS to Fulmore MS/Travis.

Social engineering at its finest.

[Trainwreck20]

Sounds more like conspiracy theories to me

I can't say I know much about that particular school (capacity, etc), but the 'school' doesn't perform well, the students and teachers do. If they move students and teachers elsewhere, the building does not make them under-perform. The issue for me would be whether or not they are laying off good teachers, or moving them elsewhere.

[gpurcell]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

Sounds more like conspiracy theories to me

I can't say I know much about that particular school (capacity, etc), but the 'school' doesn't perform well, the students and teachers do. If they move students and teachers elsewhere, the building does not make them under-perform. The issue for me would be whether or not they are laying off good teachers, or moving them elsewhere.

I was being delicate in my phrasing, so I guess I need to be blunt--this is about mixing the Barton Hills/Zilker kids with the Section 8 kids who go to Fulmore/Travis.

[centralaustinite]

Originally Posted by gpurcell

I was being delicate in my phrasing, so I guess I need to be blunt--this is about mixing the Barton Hills/Zilker kids with the Section 8 kids who go to Fulmore/Travis.

I am not absolutely sure that this is part of the plan. Have you read the meeting notes of the task force? They did not address this directly but in the notes for meeting #15, there is reference to a disadvantage of the plan to close BH and Zilker and send them to Dawson is that it would "split the elementary school" implying that the BH/Z kids by residential address would still go to O'Henry and Austin high.

This does happen at other schools at the middle school level where kids in the same middle school go to different high schools depending on address.

It will take years for all of this to shake out. As it stands, many Anglo kids in 78704 who are already tracked to Travis, go to Kealing or the Fulmore magnet program for MS and then LASA, IB at Anderson, or Fine Arts Academy at McCallum. Bet you money that the Global Academy at AHS will be opened up to the BH/Z kids too.

I also think that the BH facility will probably be leased out to a private school (a Montessori Primary) or charter school that will continue to draw parents and kids to the area.