Heading out

Dr. Carstarphen was at the meeting and I got a few seconds of her time. When I told her my sons attended Pease Elementary she stated that Pease was "such a challenge". The building is very historic, but the maintenance costs are high. I got the impression (certainly not trying to put words in her mouth or read her mind) that the school's fate is very much up in the air at this point.

Individual surveys

We're supposed to be filling out individual surveys right now but the whole table is discussing their schools and neighborhoods. I think people are having trouble relating the questions to anything concrete.

Prep info for Pease

Here is the packet for the area Pease falls into. The FCI for Pease is off the chart (71%), but a footnote recognizes it as an historic building. Interestingly, utilization is shown at 86%. I'm curious as to how that's calculated. Draft option 3 for that area suggests closing up to 3 small elementary schools and replacing it with one larger one.

Re: tension

Question about whether the boundaries drawn reflect socioeconomic and racial divisions in Austin. This resulted in a great deal of applause. Answer is that that was done by a different workgroup.

Red meat

The last page of the handout lists 5 "Possible Draft Options" that singly or in combination would be used to improve efficiency. Editorializing a little bit, the tension in the room is palpable. When I heard the AISD CFO talk last week she said that the current budget crisis is going to result in giving up a lot of sacred cows. A lot of the people in the room are afraid their schools fall into that category.

The draft options talk about eliminating schools, but they don't name the schools. Interesting.

Area #2

Moving into a review of the packet for the area tonight's meeting is covering. The packet is on the AISD site.

Choice enrollment and transfer policies

81% attend school located within their boundary. 19% attend schools outside (magnets, diversity choice, No Child Left Behind). Not a problem when 100 transfer out but 100 transfer in. Becomes a problem when too many kids are transferring one way.

Potential areas for savings

Reduce temporary buildings, reduce underutilized schools (reduced operating costs). Selling or leasing AISD facilities.

Discussing Permanent Capacity

Temporary buildings are not included in calculating capacity. Formula is different for elementary and secondary schools. Currently 87,000 seats in AISD, an additional 16,000 in temporary buildings. Population is estimated at 92,000 in 2014. Districtwide utilization is at 97%.

Nuts and bolts

Discussing the Facility Condition Index, a formula to decide when it is more efficient to replace a building than repair it. Question from the audience about historical buildings. They are calculated the same way, but we are being reassured that historic building are being recognized and treated as historic buildings. Value of the land is not calculated in replacement/repair cost.

Quote: objectively, the cost to replace Pease Elementary will be less than the cost of repairing that building.

Looking ahead

Programs should drive facilities, not facilities driving programming. Reading the Vision Statement. I'm not going to repeat everything being said. It's all available at the AISD website : http://www.dejongrichter.com/projects/austin-independent-school-district/

Master Plan

Plan for the next ten years. Community involvement is vital -- that's why we are here tonight.

Going over AISD strategic plan

Facilities Master Plan is the fourth section of the Strategic Plan.

Structure of the meeting

Similar to the last one I attended. There will be a presentation, time for a individual questionnaire, and then a group discussion where each table will try to come to a consensus.

Going over the agenda

Richard Frazier is starting us off Facilities are a large cost in running AISD. We need to "be courageous" in the decisions we make as a community. We need to be wise custodians of the facilities and taxpayer dollars.

Getting started

Bottled water, sandwich, and cookies. This will help the meeting by cutting down on the noise from my rumbling stomach. Thank you AISD.

Liveblogging tonight

Tonight I'll be blogging live from the AISD Master Plan community meeting at Crockett High School from 6 to 8 p.m.