by Roseana Auten
It’s the seventh week of the school year, and the complaints keep coming about
AISD’s new surplus system. Last April, the district implemented a method of
“surplusing” teachers on campuses that supposedly don’t have high enough
enrollments to support them. Apparently, it’s not working well for some
teachers, and consequently, for many students.
Every surplused teacher who still wanted a job with AISD was promised one, but
problems remain. Teachers are being shifted around from campus to campus, and
students’ schedules are changing right in the middle of the semester, according
to Lana Bongiolatti, president of the Austin Association of Teachers. She told
the AISD Board of Trustees at their regular meeting on Monday that an English
teacher at Anderson High School has 199 students for which she is responsible
(the target is 155). That means she’d need about 16.5 hours to spend five
minutes grading each student’s writing assignment (and that’s if she worked
non-stop, at that). Bongiolatti reminded the board that the overloaded
instructors teach core academic courses – and academics is what the
all-important TAAS (Texas Assessment of Academic Skills) covers. “We save the
district money by downsizing the staff,” Bongiolatti told the Chronicle.
“But students and their education have paid the price.”
Incredibly, getting stingy with the staff has also meant large class sizes in
pre-kindergarten classes. Pre-K is only for economically disadvantaged
children, and it’s one of AISD’s programs that really works, said Bongiolatti.
But it’s only good if the student-to-teacher ratio is about 15:1 – 18:1 at the
very most. Pre-K classes are now at 22:1. That’s 22 four-year-olds in one room
with one teacher. Yikes.
When these same kinds of problems were raised at the last regular board
meeting, Oscar Perry, deputy superintendent for instructional services/school
operations, suggested that the real culprit in all of this is AISD’s liberal
student transfer policy, which caused some campuses to be over projected
enrollment, while others were under-enrolled. Perry hinted broadly that
adjustments in that policy, not the surplus policy, might be needed.
The board was updated on AISD’s efforts to encourage bidding and contracting
by minority and women-owned businesses (MWBs). A speaker at citizens’
communications, Clarence William, had told the board that unnamed AISD staffers
told him the district just likes to do business with certain contractors;
therefore, he was shut out of the chance to bid on a painting job.
Superintendent Jim Fox admitted he had heard the same thing, and announced that
AISD is going to have to change that attitude. Managers of areas over which
AISD has direct control, he said, must look toward a target of 10% MWB
participation for FY 1995-96; 15% in FY 1996-97; and 20% in FY 1997-98.
Board action included: Approval to develop a science achievement program for
students whose native language is Spanish; the appointment of Velma Rochelle
Wilson, an experienced, African-American educator, as principal of the
perennially low-performing Jordan Elementary School; changing the end of Fox’s
five-year employment contract from January 31, 2000 to August 1, 2000 (putting
it in line with other administrators’ contracts), giving him a 1% raise on his
$135,000 annual salary, as well as 1% on top of his $1000 monthly expense
allowance.
This article appears in September 29 • 1995 and September 29 • 1995 (Cover).