Austin ISD’s New Board Is Mostly Decided, With One Runoff to Go

LaRessa Quintana, a first-generation college graduate and an orphan taken in by her aunt, beat educator Sarah Ivory on Tuesday night to join Austin ISD’s board of trustees in District 2, which includes the Southeast Austin neighborhood where Quintana grew up.

Quintana praised the voters of District 2 after her victory for embracing the value of representation. “I’m from the district, I graduated from these schools, I was raised on the Eastside by my tía,” she told the Chronicle. “I’m just a true representation of what our kids in Southeast Austin look like and sound like.”

Quintana pledged to be a fierce champion for District 2 schools and said she’d like to bring Mendez Middle School, which has been run by the Third Future charter school network since 2022, back under district control. She also said she is consulting with Education Austin, the district’s teachers union, and board trustees on AISD’s $119 million budget deficit.

The budget deficit is the most immediate challenge facing the district. AISD officials estimate that even after Tuesday’s passage of Proposition A, which will bring an additional $41 million in funding, the district will need to cut 10% of its operating expenses over the next two years. Lynn Boswell and Kevin Foster, who ran for reelection unopposed, will be leaders in that decision-making process.

Fernando de Urioste, a former AISD middle school teacher, won 32% of the vote for AISD’s at-large Position 8 on Tuesday. He will face Lindsey Stringer, a former teacher who studied at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and received 26%. The winner will be decided by a runoff in December.

De Urioste told the Chronicle that the preliminary decisions on how to cut the budget will be made before the winners of this year’s election take office. We asked about the possibility that the district will recommend closing and consolidating schools on the Eastside to cut expenses. “The Eastside doesn’t want to see schools close,” de Urioste said. “Nobody wants to see schools close. And I’ve heard a lot of talk about splitting individual grade levels, as opposed to closing an entire school. If you look at really underenrolled grade levels, maybe that’s an option.”

Stringer believes that there’s no need to close schools. “I have not heard anyone at forums, in questions, or at events suggest that Eastside school closures need to happen,” Stringer said. “We need a comprehensive plan to increase enrollment to eliminate the need for closing any schools in any part of Austin.”

De Urioste stressed the importance of long-range planning and transparency in the budget-cutting process. “I think it’s important to get back to longer-term planning, so that people understand that if we’re doing cuts, there’s a plan to heal from those cuts,” he said, “as opposed to just getting them passed today, and worrying about it tomorrow.”

In the final weeks of the school board contest, a letter made the rounds of AISD insiders written by Stringer in 2009 to the editor of this publication. In it, she declares that she is pro-life, argues that the Chronicle is biased against the pro-life community, and opines that Travis County makes it easier for “low-income, usually uneducated, and usually minority women to kill their own children.”

Stringer told us the letter is irrelevant. “I commented on this topic 15 years ago, and it has no connection to this race,” she said, adding that she wants to ensure that all students and families feel welcome at AISD schools.

Editor's Note Monday, 2:50pm: This story incorrectly stated Lindsey Stringer taught in Austin ISD; she taught in Baltimore. The Chronicle regrets the error.