Austin ISD outlines draft turnaround plans, proposes restarts and reassignments for multiple campuses

Austin Independent School District staff on Thursday presented draft turnaround plans that would use a mix of restart strategies, student reassignments and school improvement supports at campuses identified as low-performing under Texas Education Agency rules.

Chief of staff Lakisha Drinks told the board the district selected strategies based on recent academic growth, facility status and the feasibility of reassigning students. Restart strategies, which typically require substantial staff turnover, were proposed for campuses with modernized facilities and evidence of growth that district leaders say can be accelerated with additional support. Lindner, Wooldridge and Paredes were cited as restart candidates; Pecan Springs was described as an outlier that may require the most intensive supports.

The district proposed reassigning students from several small or stagnant campuses to nearby schools with higher ratings. Examples discussed included Barrington students reassigned largely to Guerrero-Thompson, Betachek students primarily to Covington, Dawson to Galindo, Oak Springs to Blackshear and parts of Martin to Marshall and Lively. Winn Montessori was marked for reassignment because staff believed restarting the Montessori program would be difficult given current bilingual and Montessori staffing constraints.

Dr. Wilson and other assistant superintendents outlined supports district staff will provide at receiving campuses, including lighthouse models and TNTP-supported learning labs, monthly professional learning, coaching, progress monitoring and transition plans intended to limit student loss during consolidation. Staff said they will include sensitivity analyses in the financial attachments to TAPs to show the effect of possible enrollment changes (for example, +/- 5 percent) on projected savings and operations.

Trustees asked for explicit family-engagement metrics, summer and transition programming to reduce social and emotional disruption, child-study team plans to prevent students from "falling through the cracks," and clear monitoring steps if a campus does not improve. Lakisha Drinks said TAP public hearing and vote dates are Nov. 20 and that board-approved TAPs will be submitted to the Texas Education Agency on Nov. 21.

The presentation was positioned as a draft; staff repeatedly said community meetings and additional feedback would be incorporated before finalizing campus-by-campus strategies.