And let the fighting begin..AISD releases School Changes Scenerios (Austin: low income, home)

[ashbeeigh]

My head is spinning in response to the e-mail I just got.

Some high(or low)lights

Campbell/Maplewood/Blackshear are combining at Campbell.

Pease and Zavala will merge at Zavala.

Dobie and Webb will merge at Dobie.

Ridgetop and Reilly will merge at Reilly.

Sadler Means to close and merge with the other northeast middles

Northeast (formerly Reagan) will become a 6th-12th to "better prepare" the youths. (sarcasm intended).

Some south elementaries around Saint Elmo will merge into Saint Elmo.

All campuses get some type of fancy "Academy," "Tech," "Scholar" title except for maybe Austin High, Anderson and Bowie.

Here is the link to the AISD website. Take some time. I cannot wait for the SJWs to get their panties in a twist about the eastside schools. But also cannot wait to hear the others where it was unexpected scenarios.

https://www.austinisd.org/schoolchanges/scenarios

[ashbeeigh]

Originally Posted by anonymou5

The majority of the parents at these schools probably dont care, and will just go where AISD tells them to go. If the parents cared enough about their kids education, the schools wouldnt have failed in the first place.

Its sad for the middle class people who actually live (without government assistance) in these attendance zones who probably carried the weight for the deadbeat parents and kids all these years.

Have you been watching the news? Families are worried.

[Trainwreck20]

Something has to be done. Not everyone is going to be happy. While I empathize with the people affected, it is not realistic to just do nothing.

[texan2yankee]

Originally Posted by ashbeeigh

My head is spinning in response to the e-mail I just got. [snip]

All campuses get some type of fancy "Academy," "Tech," "Scholar" title except for maybe Austin High, Anderson and Bowie.

Here is the link to the AISD website. Take some time. I cannot wait for the SJWs to get their panties in a twist about the eastside schools. But also cannot wait to hear the others where it was unexpected scenarios.

https://www.austinisd.org/schoolchanges/scenarios

the fancy names of the campuses are hilarious. what a bunch of flowery BS.

the SJW parents in AISD voted overwhelmingly for austin politicians who prioritized equity and diversity in the school system. why would the progressive parents fight what they voted for, ash? they wanted it and now they will get it.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

Something has to be done. Not everyone is going to be happy. While I empathize with the people affected, it is not realistic to just do nothing.

what people are mad about is that the schools impacted are all "east" side schools. Pretty much no changes to the wealthy anderson vertical.

The problem is the eastside is where the under enrollment is happening. Unfortunately until the area gentrifies, the schools are going to be bad. The people that move there are wealthy DINKs that are ok with bad schools, or wealthy families that can afford privates. Or maybe a very few liberals who walk the talk of diversity.

[Trainwreck20]

Campbell/Maplewood/Blackshear are combining at Campbell.

It looks like Campbell and Maplewood are combining, but not Blackshear. It looks like all three schools will have the same attendance zone, but families can chose the Campbell or Blackshear campus.

Maplewood will 'go away' and I presume Campbell will be expanded. Campbell is currently only 188 students, while MW and BS are 480 and 395.

Pease and Zavala will merge at Zavala.

232 and 295 students, respectively, but really not very close geographically. Since Pease is an 'option' school (it has no set attendance area), I suspect most kids will return to the geographically-zoned schools. Zavala is one of the worst performing schools in the district and is almost 100% economically disadvantaged. In reality, I suspect that this will really just be the elimination of Pease, not really any kind of merger.

Dobie and Webb will merge at Dobie.

560 and 680 students. This one makes sense in a lot of ways - they are both small for middle schools, which means it is harder to support all the programs that become available in MS. The demographics and test scores are essentially the same.

Ridgetop and Reilly will merge at Reilly.

375 and 220. Geographically pretty close. While Reilly is significantly more economically disadvantaged, the test scores are in the same range.


Eh, there is a lot to see here and I know people will not like it, but the other option is still taxing everyone a lot of money (which most of will go elsewhere) to maintain the system as it is. I have yet to see the magical 'oh, we fixed all our problems and no one changed schools!' plan.

[ashbeeigh]

Originally Posted by Austin97

The problem is the eastside is where the under enrollment is happening. Unfortunately until the area gentrifies, the schools are going to be bad. The people that move there are wealthy DINKs that are ok with bad schools, or wealthy families that can afford privates. Or maybe a very few liberals who walk the talk of diversity.

There are actually 5 schools west of 35 affected and 7 east of 35 affected. I'd hardly put the schools west of 35 as higher income or affluent though.

Here is the list of the 12 schools:

Brooke Elementary (East)
Dawson Elementary (west)
Joslin Elementary (West)
Sims Elementary (East)
Maplewood Elementary (east)
Metz Elementary (East)
Palm Elementary (East)
Pease Elementary (West)
Pecan Springs Elementary (East)
Ridgetop Elementary (West)
Webb Middle School (West)
Sadler Means Young Women’s Leadership Academy (East)

Ridgetop is one of those areas where wealthy parents choose to go to charters. Webb is a school that, even though west of 35, is very low income with a high percentage of English Language Learners. As I am typing this my question in, how will the merger with Dobie Jsolin and Da affect those students since I don't believe that Dobie has a English Language Academy like Webb does. (Although Webb students will then have access to counseling services through the Vida clinic that is at Dobie). Pease, unfortunately, makes sense. Dawsn and Joslin I have little knowledge about, so I don't want to speak to the need to consolidate those campuses.

[centralaustinite]

There will be some heat but no fire! Fairly sensible plan. Maplewood will fight but I think most AISD parents realize that some central schools just have to close.

[Aquitaine]

Mueller Facebook is blowing up as predicted! Everything from 'AISD is terrible' to 'if Mueller parents actually sent their kids to these schools, they wouldn't have to close,' which is my personal favorite, as though its our civic duty to send our children to terrible schools to satisfy somebody's progressive agenda.

Populations change and school districts are famous for being unable to respond with anything resembling agility. That's not an AISD problem - it's every urban school district that is forced to behave like its answerable just to the electorate when it wants money (the 2017 bond) but then has to eventually pay the piper and recognize the market when the time comes to build or tear down schools. But only after kicking the can down the road for as long as it possibly can.

[ashbeeigh]

Originally Posted by Aquitaine

Mueller Facebook is blowing up as predicted! Everything from 'AISD is terrible' to 'if Mueller parents actually sent their kids to these schools, they wouldn't have to close,' which is my personal favorite, as though its our civic duty to send our children to terrible schools to satisfy somebody's progressive agenda.

I saw that. Mueller is split between Blanton and Maplewood, right? So the Blanton side would go to the "new NE middle school" that was promised to Mueller families and the Maplewood kids will stay at Kealing, right? There's a few other Mueller residents on city-data that have always championed the idea that the NE middle school would be their middle school. In my few years in Austin (and working within the district) never once did I see anywhere that the school was specifically for them. But, I could just not have access to builder and info that the Mueller families have.

But, that's the thing about education and schools. Boundaries change all the time. We're lucky that AISD has a lot of transfer options if you don't like your home school. I'm afraid that's what's going to happen with the new middle school.