Pearce Progress Report

For those wondering what the latest situation with Pearce Middle School is, AISD Director of Communications Andy Welch just sent this:

"District staff continues to work closely with TEA, and others, to finalize the Repurposing Proposal for Pearce Middle School. We look forward to releasing the proposal to the community by the end of this week. The Repurposing Proposal will be formally presented to the Board of Trustees during a Special Meeting on Monday, August 3, followed by a Public Hearing that same evening. With approval by the Board, the proposal will be forwarded, almost immediately, to Commissioner Scott. If the Commissioner accepts the proposal – and we have worked closely with his staff to address his earlier concerns – the Repurposing Plan will be implemented with the start of the 2009-2010 school year, building upon Pearce's academic progress from last year."

The August 3 meeting was supposed to just be a work group, but upping it to a regular meeting has been on the cards for a while. However, the proposal is really going to be a "take it or leave it" deal, since new teacher orientation starts Aug. 10 and middle school registration starts Aug. 12.

This will also be the first big test of the new version of repurposing introduced under last session under House Bill 3 last session, and how TEA interprets it. Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin, had his own take on that. After the big public meeting two weeks ago, he said, "If the district submits a plan that, in good faith, checks all the boxes, we’ll really know what TEA’s intentions are in a couple of weeks.”