Citizens urge Austin ISD to buy local land for south high school

The Austin ISD board of trustees revisited its discussion about a proposed high school in South Austin at a meeting June 2 after hearing from local residents.

In recent weeks, citizens from Southwest and Southeast Austin have attended board meetings and asked for a new high school to be located in their area to provide relief for overcrowded campuses.

Trustee Lori Moya said South Austin should not be divided about the location.

"The bottom line is we have an educational need for students in South Austin, and we need to meet that need," she said. "It saddens me that we've gotten to the point where we've got communities trying to make a case for why their community deserves a high school over another

community."

Background

In 2008 voters approved $32 million in bond funds for a land purchase for the site of a proposed high school in South Austin. In 2013 AISD held community meetings about academic programming for the school—a decision that must be made before the district can build a campus.

On June 2 trustees reviewed the findings of the south high school planning committee that conducted that community outreach. The consensus in the community was for a comprehensive high school, AISD Chief Academic Officer Pauline Dow said, noting that the committee's charge was to determine the academic needs of South Austin, not where the land purchase should take place.

Trustee Jayme Mathias said he is concerned about long-term solutions to relieve Akins and Austin high schools. He noted Bowie is also in need of short-term relief. In the 2013–14 school year, Bowie operated at 118 percent of its permanent capacity, so there were 445 extra students.

Mathias noted projections show Bowie's enrollment will decline around 2018.

District 7 trustee Robert Schneider said despite past projections, Bowie's enrollment has not declined because people continue to move to the area based on the perception of Bowie as a strong school.

Despite the planning committee's work, the public discussion about the school has focused on where it should be built.

At the June 2 meeting attendee Bob Wittmeyer spoke, backed by about a dozen Southwest Austinites, in support of buying land in Southwest Austin.

"It's been over 20 years since you've built a high school in Southwest Austin," he told trustees, noting area elementary schools' enrollment will continue to grow. "If we could believe the projections that you have in front of you tonight, don't build a high school anywhere; we don't need it. But historically, those projections have been really bad."

Attendee Isabel Rios said the district should buy land in Southeast Austin, stating it has been 50 years since AISD built a high school on the east side of I-35, and the student population there is growing.

"Remember that we're losing a lot of [elementary school] students to charter schools in our area, and those kids are going to come back because the charter schools don't have a place to place them in the future, so I think that that's a number that we need to consider in addition to the actual numbers from the district right now," she said.

Changing the conversation

Schneider proposed a relief option aside from buying land for the south high school—the implementation of Liberal Arts and Science Academy, or LASA, programming in south Austin.

"I would like to see a discussion of implementing a LASA south at some school that has capacity," he said.

That would bring about 300 students who could attend Bowie but instead attend the district's existing LASA school in Northeast Austin back to a campus in south Austin.

He said he would like to have a community conversation during the 2014 –15 school year about the LASA proposal for potential implementation in 2015–16.

Schneider also advised looking more closely at long-term relief and moving forward with land purchase plans soon.

"My recommendation would be that we tie a specific purchase of one or more pieces of land to the timeline for implementing something to really do the short term relief about at the end of the 14–15 school year," he said.

Trustee Ann Teich agreed AISD should consider attracting students to under-enrolled high schools such as Travis and Crockett. Teich added she has faith the Austin community can work together.

"Without being disrespectful to the work that our committee did ... I really think we have to have a different kind of conversation," Moya said.