For the first time since
Jim Fox became superintendent of the Austin Independent School District (AISD),
the board of trustees conducted its meeting and a bond issue work session very
late, until 1am. Trustees devoted considerable time for discussion on a matter
that has also hung up the board in the past — whether or not to approve campus
performance objectives and campus improvement plans that each of the district’s
96 campuses submits in writing to AISD’s central administration every school
year.
And while protracted debate on this subject makes for deadly dull board
watching, trustees believe the issue of whether or not AISD’s schools have a
plan to improve their students’ performance (as measured by the Texas
Assessment of Academic Skills, or TAAS) is vitally important to the schools’
success. Board member Tom Agnor noted, with some irritation, that some schools
had well-written, thoughtful plans, other schools had plans that weren’t any
good, and still others had not submitted a plan at all. After much talking,
trustees voted to approve the plans, even though some of the documents fell
short of expectations.
Other board action included: approving a restaurant management program at
Lanier High School sponsored by Taco Bell, slated to begin in January. Students
selected for the program by interview will work (with pay) at a Taco Bell kiosk
located at Lanier, and are supposed to leave school ready to work in food
service management, not just fast-food preparation. Hutto High School was the
first campus to pilot Taco Bell’s program.
Trustees also approved three new high school graduation plans, which will take
effect in the 1996-97 school year. The 22-, 24-, and 26-credit programs are
supposed to give students more options for college preparation. District
officials say that 98% of AISD students earn more than 22 credits anyway, and
53% earn 26 credits or more. One major difference is that even the new,
baseline, 22-credit plan requires one credit in fine arts and in computer
technology. Trustee Agnor balked at requiring fine arts, saying he didn’t see
the applicability of it to other disciplines, such as mathematics.
After their regularly scheduled meeting, the board held a work session on
enrollment projections for AISD, and how those projections figure into locating
new schools. As he has said before, independent school demographer Dennis
Harner told the board that although there isn’t a lot of difference between his
numbers and numbers derived by district employees, AISD may still be actually
underprojecting its growth.
Trustee Melissa Knippa observed, to Harner and Ohio-based demographer Dwayne
Gardner, that a bias toward underprojection of enrollment figures seems to
prevail among those in the school demographics profession “because
overprojection is too expensive to tolerate.”
Garner replied that a drop in fertility rates in the 1960s and 1970s led to
overbuilding during those years, and empty schools. “But your needs are so
great that I don’t think you need to fear that,” he told Knippa.
Superintendent Fox joined in, noting that he’d seen school boards voted out of
office because they’d approved schools that ended up half empty, but that AISD
isn’t going to encounter that problem. Even if the district builds every school
proposed in the upcoming bond package, “we’re still going to be crowded,” he
told the board. In that case, Knippa responded, the board would still have the
same problem — a lack of public confidence in the district’s ability to
provide for its children.n
This article appears in December 1 • 1995 and December 1 • 1995 (Cover).