Austin Independent School District trustees met Aug. 21 and took several formal votes on policy, contracts and personnel.

The board approved the district’s Student Success Guide (the document formerly titled the Student Code of Conduct), adopted a new personal communications devices policy required by state law, authorized an interlocal cooperation agreement with the University of Texas at Austin for cybersecurity services (with two abstentions), accepted a Lone Star governance quarterly evaluation, affirmed the superintendent’s decision in one student transfer appeal and approved appointments to the AISD Public Facilities Corporation board.

Why it matters: The Student Success Guide and the personal communications devices policy will shape student conduct and daily classroom practices; the cybersecurity contract creates a new monitoring partnership; the Lone Star governance vote documents continued oversight under the agreed‑order monitoring framework; and the transfer appeal and appointments are final administrative actions affecting individual cases and board governance.

Key votes and outcomes

- Appointment to Austin ISD Public Facilities Corporation Board of Directors (Agenda item 2.1): Motion to approve appointment of Delphi Alviso and Vincent Tovar. Mover: Secretary Boswell. Second: Director Gonzales. Outcome: approved (motion passed unanimously at the Public Facilities Corporation meeting).

- Consent agenda and bundled items: Motion to approve consent agenda (items listed in the motion). Mover: Secretary Gonzales. Second: Trustee Quintana. Outcome: approved (all on the dais plus Trustee Kaufman joined remotely).

- Student Success Guide (Agenda item 12.1): Motion to approve the updated Student Success Guide (noting an earlier posting error of an older version). Mover: Secretary Gonzales. Second: Trustee Quintana. Outcome: approved (unanimous among trustees present and remote).

- Personal communications devices policy — FNC(LOCAL) (Agenda item 12.2): Motion to approve the district’s personal communications devices policy. Mover: Secretary Gonzales. Second: Trustee Quintana. Vote: 6 in favor, 0 opposed, 1 abstention (Trustee Hunter). Outcome: approved. Note: Trustees discussed implementation details (what counts as a prohibited device), unintended classroom effects, and the companion Student Success Guide that lists device examples.

- Interlocal cooperation contract with The University of Texas at Austin — cybersecurity and monitoring (Agenda item 13.1): Motion to approve an interlocal cooperation contract between the University of Texas at Austin and Austin ISD to provide cybersecurity and monitoring. Mover: Secretary Gonzales. Second: Trustee Quintana. Vote: 5 in favor, 0 opposed, 2 abstentions (Trustee Foster and Trustee Kaufman). Outcome: approved.

- Lone Star Governance quarterly evaluation (Agenda item 14.1): Motion to approve the Lone Star Governance quarterly progress tracker (August 2025 final). Mover: Secretary Gonzales. Second: Trustee Quintana. Outcome: approved (motion passed by all trustees on the dais; posted tracker shows a score of 74).

- Student transfer appeal (Agenda item 17.1): Motion to affirm the superintendent’s decision and deny the relief requested for the transfer appeal on behalf of SM. Mover: Secretary Gonzales. Second: Vice President Willie Chiu. Outcome: approved (motion passed by trustees present).

What the votes do and next steps

- The Student Success Guide and device policy will be used by schools this year; trustees and staff noted that the Student Success Guide posted for the information meeting differed from the one that was posted earlier the day of the vote and that the administration corrected that posting and flagged the misstep publicly.

- Trustees discussed how the device policy interacts with classroom practices (for example, students photographing schedules or teachers requesting recordings) and noted that the Student Success Guide lists specific devices (example language cited in the meeting: “smartwatch, headphones, earbuds, other electronic devices”) and that changes to the Student Success Guide require board approval.

- On the cybersecurity contract, trustees recorded two abstentions; no trustee voiced opposition during discussion recorded in the transcript.

- The Lone Star governance tracker posted as the August 2025 final shows a score of 74; the board’s coach, Ashley Paz, described calibration with agency representatives and identified a small number of refinement items to address in the next quarter.

Meeting context and public testimony

During the public‑testimony portion the board played a recorded message from a caller, Sharon Vane, who spoke about agenda items 12.3 (instructional resources and library materials) and 14.1 (Lone Star governance), urging that the district avoid creating a library review panel and asking when Lone Star monitoring would end. Trustees responded that a monthly progress update from monitors is shared with trustees and that the board could provide a public update at a future information session.

Provenance

Transcript evidence for these votes appears at the following points in the meeting record: the Public Facilities Corporation appointment motion and vote (transcript block around 3186–3241), consent agenda approval and related votes (blocks around 4545–4730), the Student Success Guide discussion and vote (blocks 4731–4812), the personal communications devices policy discussion and vote (blocks 4833–5266), the interlocal cybersecurity contract vote (blocks 5276–5313), the Lone Star governance discussion and vote (blocks 5344–7087), and the transfer appeal vote (blocks 7087–7126).