Austin ISD proposes district-managed restart, staffing additions and contingency for three middle schools

Austin Independent School District officials presented district-managed restart turnaround plans on June 26 for Burnet, Dobie and Webb middle schools and said the district will submit the plans to the Texas Education Agency by June 30, 2025, pending board approval.

The plans are required by state accountability rules for campuses rated "unacceptable" for two consecutive years. Dr. Jacob Reach, Austin ISD's chief officer of government relations and board services, said the district selected a district-managed restart strategy and plans to implement the Accelerated Campus Excellence (ACE) model at each campus, and that the district included a contingency that could activate an 1882 partnership later in the school year.

"Austin ISD has selected the restart district managed," Dr. Jacob Reach said. "We are utilizing the district managed restart because this is really aligned with the feedback that we heard from our community." He said the ACE model includes five required pillars: strategic staffing, instructional excellence, extended day, social and emotional supports, and community partnerships.

The district outlined three primary goals for the campuses: achieve a Texas Education Agency accountability rating of C or better; increase by 10% the share of students receiving special education services who meet or master grade-level standards on STAAR; and ensure that every student qualifying for Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions has a documented plan including progress monitoring.

To support the goals, Reach said each campus will receive roughly nine full-time-equivalent positions, though the exact roles vary by campus. Burnet will receive additional teachers, a wellness counselor and four content interventionists; Dobie and Webb will each receive an additional assistant principal, a counselor and two content interventionists. The plans also list funding for stipends, supplemental time, family support and discretionary campus dollars; Reach said family support funding includes an example allocation of $150,000 for one campus.

Reach described a monitoring timeline that relies on multiple assessments. The district will use MAP testing crosswalks and a released STAAR test to estimate likely accountability outcomes early in the year, and internal interim assessments to track progress. He said a December 12 review is the district's first decision point to determine whether to activate the contingency 1882 partnership model, which the district would advertise via a request for proposals and could provide an "accountability pause" for a campus.

Trustees pressed for clarity on assessments, feeder patterns and partnerships. Trustee Foster emphasized that schools operate inside broader feeder and neighborhood ecosystems and asked how the district would assess early-year progress to make a December decision. "Do we have a plan or what is the plan to build effective assessment tools to look at where our kids are in reading and math so early in the year?" Foster asked. Reach replied that MAP and a released STAAR test, combined with teacher judgment and the district's technical partner, provide a strong—though not perfect—basis for early projections.

Trustee Hunter pressed the district on family engagement and communications, asking how the district will ensure parents understand interim results and testing reports. Reach and Superintendent Segura said the district will expand outreach, including phone banks and printed reports when needed, and that investments for the 2025–26 fiscal year include family support resources and an approximately $10 million allocation the administration proposed in April–May to support improvement work across affected campuses.

Members of the public who spoke at the hearing and via recorded messages urged more inclusion of parents and school staff in planning. Laura Smith, a Webb Middle School teacher who testified in person, said staffing changes have disrupted schools and asked that the community be included in decisions. "Speaking as a teacher at Webb Middle School, I see that a lot of staff has already had to leave," Smith said. Steve Swanson, another in-person speaker, urged the district and community to resist a TEA-driven process he called harmful. "I wanna thank you for standing up for your rights and the rights of our students and the public by stopping the harmful TEA...turnaround planning process," Swanson said.

Dr. Reach said the district expanded campus advisory committees into a "CAC plus" model to broaden engagement to parents, community members, business partners, students and staff; he said training for the CAC plus groups will occur in September and that Austin Ed Fund and other partners will be engaged to match supports and resources to campus needs.

The board did not vote on the plans during the hearing. Reach said the board would be asked to approve the plans at the regular voting meeting immediately following the hearing, and that, "based off of the vote of the board, we would then submit those plans to TEA tomorrow." The Texas Education Agency is required to respond by July 18, at which point the district would have 60 days to resubmit if TEA requests improvements.

The hearing concluded after trustees asked questions and received clarifications about special education measurement, assessment tools and community engagement. A motion to adjourn was made and the meeting was adjourned at 7:42 p.m.

Next steps: the board's vote in the regular meeting, the district's submission of the turnaround plans to TEA (contingent on board approval), and the district's December review to decide whether to activate the 1882 contingency partnership if early-year measures indicate insufficient progress.