On Feb. 14, the AISD Facility Master Plan Task Force laid out an early draft of its 10-year proposal for the district; the recommendations are outlined below. The AISD board is scheduled to receive the final draft in a work session in March, and then vote on it on March 28. Superintendent Meria Carstarphen has recommended that trustees accept, rather than adopt, the final report, and then allow her to turn it into an administrative recommendation.
• Repairs: After breaking down all needed maintenance on a scale of one to five (one being the most critical), prioritize all level one and two repairs at all campuses.
• Fewer Offices: Sell off the Carruth Administration Center and the Baker Administrative Center, and let all office leases expire.
• Trade Temporary for Permanent Space: Build needed classrooms and the performing arts center, repurpose mothballed buildings, and cut 108 portables.
• Closures: No campuses are named, but close or consolidate eight elementaries and one middle school.
• Rebalance Elementary and Middle Schools: Options include sending all sixth graders to middle school or splitting schools into prekindergarten through third grade schools and fourth through eighth grade schools.
• New Programs, New Buildings: A boys’ academy, career hubs, a new South Austin high school, and a North Central prekindergarten through eighth grade campus are all on the wish list.
This article appears in February 18 • 2011.
