The Austin Independent School District apparently doesn’t get enough bad publicity — now the district is trying an exercise in self-parody. Apparently, AISD brass have been stung by the less-than-enthusiastic community response to their proposal to reorganize sixth grade classes now feeding Martin Middle School and Kealing Junior High. So administrators have refused to release to the media copies of the reports drafted by the two task forces (including administrators, teachers, and parents) studying the proposal. Not only that — Naked City has learned that AISD is refusing to release copies of the reports to the members of the task forces which drafted them.
In response to an open-records request from the Statesman, the district wrote to Attorney General Greg Abbott, asking for a legal opinion granting permission to withhold the documents as “predecisional and deliberative.” In the meantime, even task force members trying to report their own findings to parents’ groups have been told they can’t have copies of their own recommendations.
The administration is currently reviewing the task force reports before making its own recommendations to the board of trustees early next year. Some parents have argued they are not convinced that AISD’s proposal to add a sixth grade at Kealing and to enlarge the sixth grade at Martin with more feeder schools is in the students’ best interests. More pointedly, they complain that the district is apparently engaging in a charade of public input after having already made its decision to proceed with the reorganization.
At press time, AISD’s public information office had not yet responded to a request for comment.
This article appears in December 20 • 2002.
