AISD weighs fast-track turnaround options for Dobie/Adobe amid community outcry

Hundreds of community members urged the Austin Independent School District trustees on April 12 to preserve programs and staff at Adobe/Dobie Middle School as the district prepares a turnaround plan required by the Texas Education Agency (TEA).

Speakers from Adobe and the Rundberg neighborhood — teachers, students, parents and community partners — described thriving band, theater, mariachi and wraparound services. “At Adobe, we have many thriving fine arts programs... How can we guarantee that wherever you would send our community, they will have equitable opportunities to participate in the same activities?” asked Lainie Gilbert, Dobie Middle School theater director. Tatiana Brown Gomez, an Education Austin member and teacher at Adobe, urged trustees: “I ask that Adobe's plan keep the same career focused ace programs, esports, cosmetology, barber academy, culinary, and medical academy.”

Why it matters: Superintendent Mateus Segura told trustees the district must deliver a TEA-approved turnaround plan on an unusually compressed schedule after the agency’s interpretation…