For the last 12 years, Michelle Scruggs drove every weekday from Georgetown to the corner of Comal and Haskell streets in East Austin. With a cup of coffee in hand, she would go into Martin Middle School, up the stairs and into her math classroom.
Room 208 at Martin is the only one that has a blue sky and clouds painted on the ceiling. Its walls are covered with student art, colorful paper airplanes and algebra equations.
“I love teaching. I absolutely adore teaching. I adore my kids,” Scruggs said.
Scruggs always knew she would be a teacher. She started teaching when she was 8, making her friends do the lessons she developed. In 1991, she started her official teaching career in Ohio. When she moved to Austin in 2014, she began working at Martin Middle School, where she taught math to seventh and eighth graders. The historic school is now the place where Scruggs will end her teaching career.
Martin Middle School is one of 10 Austin ISD campuses that will not be opening next school year. The closings are part of an effort to save $21 million as the district has struggled to balance the budget for multiple years in a row.
Part of Scruggs’s decision to retire, she said, came because there were at least six different school administrators during her time at Martin. She and others expressed disappointment with the state of public education. Gabriel Estrada from the nonprofit Austin Voices for Education and Youth, said teachers feel left behind — and students feel it too.
“When we lose hope, that transfers over to these kids who end up losing hope as well, looking at themselves as something less than. And that is tragic and that’s horrible,” Estrada said.
An affinity for students
When the district announced the decision to close Martin Middle School, Scruggs had her own decision to make.
“I said if I left Martin, I would retire from teaching, so I’m retiring from teaching,” Scruggs said. “I have an affinity for this population of students, because not everybody appreciates who they are and what they’re struggling with and how to build them up, how to let them know that they are valued.”
Scruggs said she feels a special connection with her students because they remind her of herself growing up.
Lorianne Willett
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KUT News
Michelle Scruggs said she has always tried to have a colorful classroom to make her students feel like they belong.
Martin has historically served Black and Hispanic students, with 95% of its student population coming from an economically disadvantaged family, 44% being English language learners and 31% needing special education.
The school is more than just a building for the families with multiple generations who have walked its hallways. It is where longtime East Austinites come together for community events. It also housed one of Austin Voices for Education and Youth’s resource centers. The nonprofit works to ensure AISD students have the resources they need to succeed.
“These kids live in families that love their children, that love them to be in everything possible, but at the same time, they’re working one, two, sometimes three jobs just to make rent, just to get food on the table,” Estrada with Austin Voices said about Martin students.
Estrada said the students at Martin have suffered from a lack of resources. Additionally, the changing demographics of East Austin, the surge of charter and private schools and the decrease of affordable housing in the area all led to a decline in enrollment and loss of school funding, he said. Over the last 10 years, Martin’s enrollment has dropped by more than 30%, adding to the sense of losing hope in the school, Estrada said.
“A lot of these teachers who have decided ‘I’m done,’ it’s not because of the kids, it’s because of the fact that we have disrespected their profession, we have not honored who they are,” Estrada said. “And we have not provided them everything that they need to be successful.”
Martin has also struggled to achieve high academic standards, receiving three consecutive failing grades from the state since the 2022-23 school year. Scruggs said teachers at Martin didn’t always have the support they needed to help students succeed.
She said that despite some of her classes having more than 50% of students with a documented need, most of the time she didn’t have a bilingual or special education specialist in the classroom.
“Most of the time it was just me and those kids, and we did the best that we could,” Scruggs said.
During her 12 years at the school, Scruggs tried her best to uplift students.
“It’s not always about the grade, it’s just getting them to recognize that you have the ability to succeed in life wherever you want to go. It is about your choices and not what society chooses for you,” she said. “I would love it if they were all perfect A students, that would be great. But more importantly, I need them to know that they are valued human beings and they can go anywhere in life.”
A genuine teacher
Scruggs also helped other teachers develop lesson plans, mentored younger colleagues and became a respected figure at Martin. She said she also fought for her students to have access to more learning opportunities.
During her last day of teaching, eighth graders learned about vectors through a racing game. Students got into teams and moved their imaginary cars across a piece of paper writing down vector coordinates on the page. Her students said Scruggs always pushed them to do better.
“There will be teachers who will give us enough work so that it’s really easy to get done. Mrs. Scruggs, it’s never easy to get all of our work done, it is always a challenge,” eighth grader Vincent Moreno said.
Lorianne Willett
/
KUT News
Students said Scruggs is one of the few teachers that challenged them and made them feel valued.
Even if her class was challenging, Moreno said Scruggs was always available for him and his classmates. She would stay after school to explain things they didn’t understand or for them to take makeup tests.
Scruggs’ students said she always felt genuine, not like other adults who tend to underestimate their capabilities. They said Scruggs understood them to the point of having inside jokes with them.
“She treats us like a human instead of a student. And always gives us a better understanding of her teaching,” seventh grade Motaz Al-Shiblawi said. “She always is playful, kind, funny, helpful and a great teacher in general, and pushes us to learn and get out of trouble.”
Saying goodbye
Scruggs said that while it is hard to believe that she won’t be teaching in the fall, she had grown tired of constantly having new administrators.
Instead, she is pivoting and going into business with her husband to provide senior care in the Austin area.
The day after the last school day, the bookshelves and walls in room 208 were empty. Scruggs had one last poster to take down. As she sat at her desk filing paperwork, her colleagues came to say goodbye. Some exchanged numbers to make sure they would stay in touch. Others gave her hugs and flowers, wishing her a happy retirement.
“If nothing else here at Martin, we bond together to take care of the kids, and not only take care of the kids, take care of each other,” she said. “We formed a family, we look out for each other.”
As Scruggs looked around, she did not recognize the classroom that for years was filled with vibrant colors. She said she wasn’t ready to leave Martin and the community behind, but the decision had been made.