When students at Mendez Middle School return to school next month, there will be new curriculum – and a new principal. After Mendez failed state standards four years in a row, the Austin Independent School District agreed to let an outside group run the school, and that group hired a new principal this summer, Joanna […]
Claire McInerny, KUT
Posted inTexas State Legislature
What should I ask of my legislators if I want Texas’ school funding system to change?
It’s a typical summer day at Emily Herrington’s house in Northeast Austin. Her two daughters, Penly, 7, and Laurel, 3, are playing with their kittens and reading books in the living room. Penly is going into second grade at Blanton Elementary in the fall. Over the past few years, Herrington has been thinking a lot […]
Posted inAISD
Norman and Sims end school year as separate schools, before combining this fall
The Austin Independent School District is hosting a picnic Saturday to introduce the Norman and Sims elementary school communities to one another before they combine as one school in August. Students from Norman will go to school in the Sims building next year, while Norman gets a major renovation. The merger came out of the […]
Posted inAISD
Two community groups compete for job to help turn Mendez Middle School around
Mendez Middle School will be run by a group outside the Austin Independent School District next year. At a meeting last night, two groups explained to parents, teachers and community members how they would improve academics at the school. Mendez has failed state accountability tests the last four years, and now the district is looking […]
Posted inDevelopment
Alamo’s new HQ will include affordable housing, won’t just be a ‘development project’
After confusion about whether property the Alamo Drafthouse bought from the Austin Independent School District would include affordable housing, the project’s architect confirmed Wednesday it’s in the plans. Richard Weiss said Alamo will use the historic school in Hyde Park for its headquarters and build a new building on the back part of the lot. […]
Posted inAISD
Austin ISD delays decision to rename schools named for Confederate figures
The Austin Independent School District’s board of trustees is slowing down its timeline for a vote on whether to change the names of five schools named after Confederate figures. When the school board started this discussion in November, it proposed changing the names of the following buildings: Eastside Memorial High School at the Johnston Campus […]
Posted inAISD
No Austin schools are being consolidated … yet
No Austin schools will permanently consolidate, but it could happen if under-enrolled schools in East Austin do not boost enrollment over the next few years. In documents published last week, timelines for school construction projects showed six schools in East Austin that would be “unified.” Unification is not the same as consolidation, but could lead […]
Posted inAISD
What is Alamo Drafthouse going to do with AISD property in Hyde Park?
The Austin Independent School District’s board of trustees voted this week to sell property in the Hyde Park neighborhood to the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema for $10.6 million. The Baker Center is in a former school building at 3908 Avenue B, which the district uses for administrative purposes. But what will it be going forward? The […]
Posted inAISD
Mentors help drive attendance at Austin schools
Students in Central Texas miss more days of school than kids in any other part of the state. Around 10 percent of local students are chronically absent, meaning they miss more than 18 school days a year. A quarter of Austin 12th-graders miss that much school. Chronic absenteeism was the subject of a conference Monday […]
Posted inHousing
East Austin community looks to AISD for affordable housing
At a September meeting of the Austin Independent School District Board of Trustees, almost half of the public comments weren’t about academic issues. Instead, they were about housing. Students, parents, teachers and other community members were asking the board to create affordable housing at the former Allan Elementary School on the east side. It wasn’t […]
Posted inAISD
East versus West: Who wins with the Austin ISD bond?
The Austin Independent School District has a $1 billion bond that voters will be asked to approve this November. The bond would pay for projects at schools all over the district, but there’s a difference between funding for schools on the east side versus the west. If approved, some campuses would receive money to do […]