Austin ISD is considering a school in the Mueller development in Northeast Austin.[/caption]

The Austin ISD board of trustees planned Oct. 12 how it should move forward with creating a school in the Mueller neighborhood in Northeast Austin.

AISD staff tasked the board with deciding whether the following should be off the table when setting a proposal for a Mueller school: consolidating surrounding schools, changing surrounding boundaries, or financing the school with a bond.

District 3 trustee Ann Teich, who represents the Mueller neighborhood, proceeded to give staff guidance on those three ideas. Teich said she was OK with all three ideas but preferred more community engagement if the district were to consolidate surrounding schools. Changing surrounding boundaries would be her last preference, Teich said.

In contrast, District 1 trustee Edmund Gordon, who represents the portions of Northeast Austin surrounding Mueller, said he wanted to "shake his finger at the board a bit."

Although Gordon agrees the questions had to be answered, he said the questions should be posed in a different context.

"We should not be cutting and slashing, we should be building the district up, otherwise there is no hope," Gordon said.

The board did not take any action on Oct. 12, but staff are to use the feedback from the board discussion to revise a proposal for a Mueller school.

The board is scheduled to meet Nov. 9 to discuss revised proposals and possibly make a decision by December, though several board members said December may be too soon to take action.

Mueller, which began in 2000 as a redevelopment of the former Austin Municipal Airport, has become a mixed-use neighborhood with retail, office space, medical facilities and housing. The master-planned neighborhood lacks a school, though the development plan for Mueller has an allocation 0f 10 acres to AISD for a school, according to the district.

The need for a school in Mueller came about as early as 2010, when Mueller developer Catellus projected that there may be 1,400 school children living in the neighborhood by 2018, according to AISD.

AISD staff revealed the district is considering either a pre-K through second grade school or a Pre-K through eighth grade school for Mueller.