The clock is ticking for a majority of parents of Burnet and Webb middle schools to sign a petition to close those campuses and help prevent a takeover of the entire Austin Independent School District.
Volunteers gathered outside of Burnet Middle School Tuesday and Wednesday morning to inform parents about their options and gather their signatures as they dropped their kids off.
Approaching cars with the petition in hand, half a dozen volunteers explained why they were asking to close the schools and what the petition said ahead of the Thursday deadline. Juana Uribes was one of two Burnet parents volunteering.
“As a Burnet parent, I’m here fighting for my son. And there’s not a lot of parents who are volunteering,” she said in Spanish to a woman who was dropping off her grandchild. “Tomorrow is the last day [to sign], and we will be doing this in the morning and afternoon.”
Burnet and Webb parents were left with this decision after the two middle schools received their fifth consecutive failing grades from the state’s accountability system. Once a school reaches that number of F’s, the Texas education commissioner is required by law to intervene. That can mean appointing a new superintendent and board of managers. But a section of the Texas Education Code also allows the commissioner to close the failing schools and avoid a larger takeover if more than 50% of the parents of those schools submit a letter asking to do so.
Over the last month, AISD officials have met with parents from both schools to explain the options, but Superintendent Matias Segura said the district would not be involved in gathering signatures.
The Austin Council of Parent Teacher Associations said Friday it would help inform parents and gather the hundreds of signatures needed by knocking on doors and being outside the schools during drop-off and pick-up times. By Tuesday afternoon, the organization said it had managed to gather 48% of the required signatures for Burnet and 36% for Webb.
Efforts to gather signatures are coming from multiple fronts
Burnet officials made an announcement over the loudspeaker on Tuesday, telling all teachers they would be given copies of the petition to send home with their students. An AISD spokesperson said the district provided hard copies of the petition and information about the situation in both English and Spanish.
“We could not stand by with information and not share it with the families,” the spokesperson said. “In response to this need, our teams have gotten more involved, not to advocate for the petition, but to ensure all families have the factual information they need to understand their choice as a parent at Burnet or Webb.”
Some of the petitions given to parents by volunteers were pre-filled with their information, including their and the student’s names and address.
Volunteers have to make sure the information on the petition matches the information families used to enroll their kids, otherwise, the petition won’t be valid. Ana Salas-Porras is one of the bilingual volunteers gathering signatures.
The Texas Education Agency provides a template of the petition parents must sign, but that information is only in English. More than 77% of students at both schools do not speak English at home. When approached by volunteers, some parents signed right on the spot, others took the petition home to take a look.
“I have some questions, but I’ll sign it,” Rocío Suárez said in Spanish. “I feel like it’s the same thing to me, because either way the state does whatever it wants with schools.”
Most of the parents at the meetings with the district said they wouldn’t sign a petition to close their schools because they felt the district neglected the campuses and their kids’ education. Uribes was one of them, but she has since changed her mind and wants to help inform other parents.
“It could be a little bit of hope,” Uribes said. “At least, personally, I’m doing my part for my child’s sake”
The pressure to sign
Vanessa Gamez, a Webb parent, has not changed her mind. She said she still doesn’t want to sign because she doesn’t feel like families were informed about the school’s academic performance on time and that their needs have been ignored. Gamez said she and other parents feel pressured to sign, but the petition is not in their language and they have questions.
“During drop-off there’s not enough time to explain” Gamez said in Spanish. “I know that there might not be a way to save the school, but if parents are going to sign they have a right to know what they are signing and for them to know exactly what the document says.”
Gamez said having people from outside the Webb community asking parents to sign the petition feels wrong, and parents who don’t want to sign are afraid of speaking out.
Gamez said a lot of parents don’t have the time to do research online or translate the petition, and even if they do, it includes parts of the Texas Education Code they don’t understand. Families are also required to list their address and phone number when signing the petition. Even though the Texas Education Agency already has that information, Gamez said, with many families being immigrants, she worries she doesn’t know where that information might end up.
With hundreds of parents left to sign by Thursday, volunteers said they will continue showing up during drop-off and pick-up at both schools and plan to go to after school activities as well.
The signatures must be turned in to the superintendent by Oct. 15. He must validate the signatures and turn them to the state by Dec. 1. For the plan to work, both schools need to get signatures from a majority of parents.