Austin ISD Restarts Bid Process for Family Resource Centers

AISD Headquarters (photo by John Anderson)

The Austin ISD Board of Trustees has canceled a controversial vote that threatened to displace a longtime partner of the district.

The board had planned last week to pick between a pair of groups seeking to lead five family support centers at local schools. The centers, known as family resource centers or FRCs, are located at Houston Elementary School and Burnet, Dobie, Martin, and Webb middle schools. They offer food assistance, rent assistance, and more to economically disadvantaged families, to help their kids stay in school.

Two nonprofits – Austin Voices for Education and Youth and Communities in Schools of Central Texas (CIS) – submitted bids last December to run the centers. The district graded the bids and recommended giving control of the centers to CIS, despite the fact that Austin Voices created them and has run them for 17 years. That recommendation has received significant pushback, with members of City Council and the Travis County Commissioners Court privately contacting the district to express concern.

AISD announced the cancellation of the vote on April 25, the morning it was to occur. At a board meeting that evening, Superintendent Matias Segura explained that both Austin Voices and CIS had violated the district’s bidding policy by trying to contact district administrators or trustees to discuss the proposals.

Austin ISD’s Jacob Reach told the Chronicle that Austin Voices and CIS were the only groups to submit bids, so their disqualification meant there was “no vendor left to consider.” The district referred us to a request for proposal showing that the bidding process was reopened on April 26. Organizations will have three weeks to submit bids. Reach added that the policy violations by Austin Voices and CIS would not disqualify them from submitting new bids.

Allen Weeks, executive director of Austin Voices, questioned whether his group had actually committed a policy violation. “We don’t believe that we violated any communications procurement rules,” Weeks said. “However, if the district stands by that, we’re prepared to engage in a fair and objective process again. But whatever the outcome, Austin Voices started this work, we have built this work, this work is very beneficial for families in AISD. We’re going to continue it, and we’re growing it. We’re not going backwards.”

CIS also denied committing a policy violation. “No CIS team member had any RFP-related communication with district personnel or trustees,” CEO Sharon Vigil said in a statement to the Chronicle. “We are confident we have made good faith efforts to comply with AISD policies and we followed the precedents and standards set by the district in recent solicitations.” Vigil added that Austin ISD’s administration has recommended for the last two years that it take control of the FRCs and said the group would welcome a conversation among all partners.

The district emphasized that it doesn’t want to see any disruption to the provision of services by the resource centers. Segura addressed the value of the centers during the April 25 meeting: “We recognize that these services have become part of the culture of our school district. And we want to ensure we continue to provide students and families with opportunities to be engaged and supported.”