Perhaps
owing to the
snakebit nature the fall school semester has assumed so far, a lengthy
executive session bisected the regular meeting of the AISD Board of Trustees on
Monday. Executive session is when the board discusses some of the potentially
more litigious affairs of the school district — among several other items,
this week’s hit parade included “discussion with legal counsel regarding the
accident at Anderson High School on November 12, 1996” and “the temporary
reassignment of the McCallum high school principal.”
The first matter refers to an incredibly unfortunate and heartbreaking
incident, in which a youth was struck in the head by a lawn aerator. Although
the school district didn’t purchase the machine, it apparently had been on the
premises of Anderson for years and was used to help maintain the athletic
fields. Anderson football coach Roy Kinnan was supervising the students when
the accident occurred. The young man, Robert McCabe, was discharged in fair
condition from Brackenridge on Monday to Health South, a rehabilitation
hospital.
The second matter, the abrupt, Nov. 8 reassignment to central administration
of McCallum High School principal Shelly Pittman, drew several speakers to
citizens’ communications. AISD released no details as to why he was
“temporarily” removed from the campus. But it’s clear that someone, somewhere,
complained about him, so out he went. Two students, a McCallum teacher, and a
parent all defended Pittman, who has a super-sweet-guy reputation and had only
been at the school since August. Even in his brief reign, the speakers
declared, Pittman had restored discipline and reduced tardies at the campus. On
Tuesday, the board just as abruptly announced Pittman’s reinstatement,
effective Dec. 2.
McCallum, one of AISD’s older high schools, is located in North Central Austin
and tends to be “underenrolled” — but that situation is expected to change
over the next several years at all AISD high schools. So it’s never too early
to try to stop the erection of a Jim Bob Moffett High School in Southwest
Austin. Almost a dozen citizens, most of whom live in Southeast Austin, also
appeared at citizens’ communications to voice concerns about where a new high
school will be built.
You may recall that the $369 million bond issue, which passed in April, was
advanced as a way to relieve campuses that are currently overcrowded. But many
mistrust that notion and believe that bond funds will also be used to
accommodate development in Southwest Austin, over the environmentally sensitive
Edwards Aquifer. What’s more, they say, South Central and Southeast Austin are
long overdue for a new secondary school. “Let’s get the high school where the
real people are, not where the proposed people are,” said Betty Edgemond, a
retired AISD bus driver and South Austin resident.
Edgemond’s and others’ appearance at the meeting were likely precipitated, in
part, by the fact that the board had been posted for action to approve Austin
Realty Consultants (headed by former GOP Congressional candidate Jo Baylor) as
the consultant for site acquisition for about 11 different projects under the
bond program. As it turned out, however, this item was pulled from the agenda
before the meeting.
This article appears in November 29 • 1996 and November 29 • 1996 (Cover).