Carstarphen's Two Budgets

Dear Editor,
    The headline to your July 23 [News] story “AISD: The First Carstarphen Budget” didn’t tell the whole story. Although Meria Carstarphen did not officially become superintendent of the Austin Independent School District until July 1, 2009, she worked extremely hard, in a short period of time, to present a balanced 2009-2010 budget to the board of trustees for formal adoption on Aug. 24, 2009. To balance the budget, Dr. Carstarphen had to find nearly $15 million in cuts and efficiencies. Under Carstarphen’s leadership, development of the district’s 2010-2011 budget began much earlier, and the community input has been much greater. If they haven’t already, I commend to Chronicle readers Richard Whittaker’s otherwise excellent story that compares and contrasts development of the two budgets and the financial issues that the district still faces. Additional information is available on the AISD website at www.austinisd.org.