AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Prior to the start of the school year, it had already been chaotic for the Austin Independent School District with sudden school closures, budget cuts and transportation changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite the challenges, district leaders told Spectrum News they were confident in the changes they made and pointed to district-wide improvements at the start of the school year.<\/p>\n
Even with the district earning its first B rating in four years in the Texas Education Agency\u2019s (TEA) accountability ratings, some parents in the district are still uncertain about what\u2019s next.<\/p>\n
One middle school parent tells us her student’s schedule is still getting changed weeks into the school year as staffing changes and schedules are shuffled due to the influx of students the school absorbed following the sudden closures in early August.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Amanda Tillman says for her student, \u201cthere\u2019s a whole bunch of gaps where we just don\u2019t even have a teacher listed at all.\u201d Tillman added, \u201cthat\u2019s kind of showing you what it is that we\u2019re working with here, if we don\u2019t even have a teacher assigned to our kid.\u201d<\/p>\n
The concern for state intervention still looms over the district after Burnet and Webb middle schools got their fifth consecutive F ratings. The consecutive grades open the door for TEA to step in.<\/p>\n
Groups like Keep Austin Schools Independent (KASI) are concerned with what an intervention could do. KASI co-founder Sharyn Vane says the move is not what is best for students.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see what\u2019s happened in Houston and in Fort Worth and in all the other districts where TEA has come in and removed the power of the elected school board,\u201d said Vane. \u00a0<\/p>\n
City leaders are chiming in on the discussion. Austin Mayor Kirk Watson recently called on families at Burnet and Webb middle schools to petition the TEA to close the failing campuses to avoid intervention.<\/p>\n
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Watson suggests using a parent petition for action, which is a request under Texas law that lets parents decide what happens next at a failing school. According to TEA’s Laws and Rules<\/a>\u00a0page, if the majority of parents at a campus sign a petition asking for the closure of the school instead of the state taking over the entire district, the Texas education commissioner generally has to order that action.\u00a0<\/p>\n While Vane opposes an intervention, she says the decision comes down to those impacted.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a decision that the parents at Webb and Burnett need to make for themselves,\u201d said Vane.<\/p>\n She says it\u2019s important that families at the schools have all the information that they need to know.<\/p>\n