AISD Tries to Jettison Longtime Nonprofit Partner, to Community's Dismay

Webb Middle School, where the threat of closure sparked the idea for Family Resource Centers (Courtesy of Austin ISD)

The Austin ISD Board of Trustees approved next year's $2 billion budget on June 22, but that wasn't the interesting part of the meeting. Rather, it was the confusion and dismay over a district decision that effectively disrespects a longtime partner – Austin Voices for Education and Youth.

Austin Voices runs what are called Family Resource Centers at seven AISD middle and high schools and also provides programs at other schools. The FRCs provide wraparound services to the families of economically disadvantaged kids – things like rent assistance, so kids aren't kicked out of their homes; health care assistance, so they aren't forced to care for sick family members; and other basics, like food and transportation. The goal is to keep kids in school.

The district has proposed handing over some or all of the funding it gives Austin Voices to another highly respected organization – Communities in Schools of Central Texas. Two dozen people spoke against the idea in person and by recorded message.

"Austin Voices developed the Family Resource Centers before there was any public funding," Louis Malfaro, Austin Voices' associate executive director, reminded the board, referring to how the group's heads, Allen and Julie Weeks, pioneered the FRC concept 16 years ago to keep the state from shutting down Webb Middle School. The Weeks almost went broke in the early years of that effort, before securing funding from the city, county, and AISD. Now, Austin Voices is a nationally renowned model for the creation of community schools, with a $2 million yearly budget and 20 full-time employees.

The proposal to give Communities in Schools half or all of Austin Voices' AISD funding was formally posted just two days before the June 22 vote. The speakers asked the board to delay its decision. They spoke glowingly of CIS but said the group has never provided the same services as Austin Voices. "They do a great job of mentoring and counseling kids," Malfaro said. "We do a great job doing wraparound services for families. If the goal was to get us to work better together, the proposal tonight should be voted down, because it accomplishes exactly the opposite. It pits us against one another."

Many asked the district to rerun the decision­-making process, or request for proposal, over doubts about the accuracy of its scoring mechanism. There are also reports that the trustees have fielded calls from upset city and county officials, who have their own contracts with Austin Voices that provide a great deal of its funding.

It was after midnight, seven hours into the meeting, before the trustees decided how to handle the situation. Several said the request for proposal process had failed the community and would need to be tweaked. The consensus, however, was that the board needed to vote yes on giving the FRC funding to Communities in Schools or splitting it with Austin Voices, because otherwise the FRCs would lose their AISD money for at least six months. So the trustees voted to offer contracts to both Austin Voices and Com­mun­i­ties in Schools, but to decide at a later time what the terms of those contracts will be.

Interim Superintendent Matias Segura will decide how to structure the contracts. He stressed that they wouldn't necessarily write Austin Voices out of any of its current work. The uncertainty made for a difficult 7-1 vote, with Andrew Gonzales voting no.

Austin Voices' Allen Weeks told the Chronicle that Austin Voices' work will go on, regardless. "Next week, we'll start sitting down and figuring out what it means," he said. "But do know this: With the seven communities we serve with the FRCs, we're not going anywhere."