Lee esta historia en español The Austin Independent School District is continuing to recruit and hire teachers days into the new school year that began Monday. Austin ISD started the summer with more than 1,000 teacher vacancies, the highest number the district has ever had. AISD officials told the board of trustees on Thursday they have filled […]
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Austin ISD earns a ‘B’ rating from Texas Education Agency
Austin Independent School District earned an overall grade of “B” from the Texas Education Agency’s school accountability system, which is based in part on standardized testing scores. TEA issued the grades on Monday for the first time since before the Covid-19 pandemic. The last time AISD was rated in 2019, the district also received a B. […]
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‘I’m pretty speechless’: Austin ISD school board unanimously approves equity-focused bond
The Austin ISD Board of Trustees voted unanimously on Thursday to put a $2.44 billion bond on the November ballot. It is the largest bond package in AISD history, but district officials and school board members say what makes the bond significant is its investment in historically underserved schools and communities. “I’ve been in Austin […]
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Poll suggests support for unions and sustainability in AISD
The Austin Independent School District Board of Trustees will vote today on the bond proposals they’d like to advance onto November’s ballot. While both of the bond proposal options the administration recently debuted include a number of improvements to local schools, a recent poll of AISD voters concluded that there is broad support for making […]
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Austin ISD school board selects Anthony Mays for interim superintendent
Lee esta historia in español. The Austin ISD Board of Trustees has chosen Anthony Mays, the district’s chief of schools since October 2020, to be interim superintendent. He makes history as the first Black man to serve as AISD superintendent. With more than two decades of experience working in education throughout Texas, Mays started his […]
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A new Austin ISD superintendent won’t be hired until next summer
The Austin Independent School District will hire an interim superintendent for the next school year after Stephanie Elizalde leaves June 30. Elizalde has been named the lone finalist for the superintendent job in Dallas ISD. “After the interim superintendent is hired, the board and community will prepare for the deep work of identifying the next superintendent,” […]
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AISD Board of Trustees reckons with mounting constraints in preliminary budget outline
The Austin ISD Board of Trustees was up late last Thursday bracing for a challenging budget cycle in coming months. Chief Financial Officer Eduardo Ramos closed the marathon information session with a presentation outlining preliminary revenues and expenditures for the 2022-23 school year. With little room left to dip into reserves, staff said they were […]
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With PE required each day next fall, it’s up to Austin elementary schools to find time for art and music
Principal Katie Peña stands in the entrance to the gym at Highland Park Elementary School in Northwest Austin. It’s a bright and colorful room, with a mural covering one wall. Students sit on the floor socializing. Because it’s a small space, the noise carries. “It’s from 1970,” Peña says. “The size of the gym is […]
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Public education advocates sound alarm on ‘broken’ school financing system
Fighting the compounding pressures of the Covid pandemic and decreasing enrollment numbers, public education advocates have been working hard to address the impact of Texas’ financing system on the chronically underfunded Austin Independent School District. Texas School Coalition Executive Director Christy Rome met with a joint subcommittee of City Council, Travis County and the AISD […]
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Austin ISD paid hundreds of millions more than other districts in Texas’ ‘recapture’ program
Lee esta historia en español. The Austin Independent School District is sending more taxpayer dollars than any other school system to the state’s so-called recapture program, a new study finds. The decades-old system, known commonly as Robin Hood, is meant to balance resources among less property-wealthy school districts, with the goal of leveling out the per-student spending […]
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Austin ISD adds two Fridays off this semester to provide ‘stress relief’ to staff amid omicron wave
Lee esta historia en español. The Austin Independent School District is adding two three-day weekends to the spring semester to give teachers a break as the omicron Covid-19 wave has stretched campuses thin. Students will now have two extra Fridays off: Feb. 11 and March 4. Teachers and campus-based staff will still be paid. The […]
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Austin ISD will make cuts at Central Office instead of reducing class periods at middle and high schools
The Austin Independent School District said it will not reduce the number of class periods at the middle and high school levels next year – a proposal floated as a way to save money. “I wanted to lower everyone’s anxiety and let everyone know before the winter break that we would be maintaining an eight-period, A/B […]