AUSTIN, Texas — On Tuesday night, board members with Austin ISD (AISD) voted 8-1 to approve a plan that will help prevent a state takeover.
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) proposed putting the school district under a conservatorship in March, saying Austin ISD failed to properly evaluate students eligible for special education and didn't provide them with proper resources.
"Between two hard options, I believe voting to accept and monitor is the option that best allows the district's good work to continue, offers the most room for maintaining local control and our community of values, and ultimately best ensures our continued work toward great things for our district's children," said Lynn Boswell, AISD Trustee for District 5.
On Tuesday, the district received a final, negotiated proposal that includes adding a 10-day period to allow leaders to address areas of concern identified by the TEA. Part of the plan is to clarify requirements for high-quality special education instruction at all campuses.
"I'm exhausted from all the fighting," said Sarah McKenna, the mother of an AISD student diagnosed with multiple disabilities, including autism, anxiety, ADHD and a speech communication disorder.
McKenna said that over the past seven years, she's experienced issues with special education in the district.
"They have gotten pushback about extended time accommodations on testing," McKenna said. "So if they can't do it within the teacher's guidelines or parameters, the teachers will say, 'Oh well, then you lose your extra time if you can't stay after.'"
Education Austin President Ken Zarifis said AISD has been able to meet a lot of the demand around testing over the last several months.
"It’s a really unsavory plan, but it’s better than a conservator," Zarifis said. "A conservator would control and could override what the superintendent, the board says, and the clock starts ticking on a process of a potential takeover. We don’t want that."
Dr. Jacob Reach with AISD explained that the district's issues stem from understaffing and needing more evaluators.
"We've made great progress in getting rid of that backlog, but also ensuring that we're not creating a new backlog," Reach said.
"It’s been collaborative on the administration side," AISD Interim Superintendent Matias Segura said. "They have been responsive but also have been critical because they know this is a big deal and there have been missteps in the past. And we knowledge that."
But McKenna doesn't have much faith in AISD's solutions.
"It just doesn't feel like there's been a direct benefit to the students with any of the proposals," McKenna said.
Here's a list of key changes the board considered at the meeting:
- Adding a 10-day period to allow AISD to address areas of concern identified by the TEA
- Adjusting the required accounting of minutes spent discussing “student outcomes” and special education monitoring from every meeting to a 3-month rolling time frame
- Clarifying requirements for high-quality special education instruction and interventions at all campuses
- Excluding closed sessions from the calculation of time spent discussing “student outcomes” and special education monitoring