At its Sept. 30 meeting, the Austin ISD board of trustees unanimously approved its updated guiding principles for the district's master plan, which determines how it funds and maintains its schools and other facilities.
Austin ISD is working to form a facility master plan, or FMP, by June 2014, and AISD's board of trustees has been working for months to develop the guiding principles that will shape the way that plan is developed and implemented.
The district's guiding principles cover health, safety and security; academics and cocurricular supports; protecting taxpayers' financial investment in district facilities; strategies to address under-enrolled and overcrowded schools; equity in facilities; environmental stewardship and sustainability; and communication and community engagement.
What changed in the principles
At the Sept. 30 meeting, board members made more changes to the FMP guiding principles draft, including adding that it is "a living document" that will be updated as needed and omitting that the principles are not listed in priority order.
In April, the board approved a resolution that included a commitment to approve an FMP by June 30, 2014. Trustee Amber Elenz suggested omitting that deadline from the guiding principles, and board members voted to change the wording to "The goal is that the FMP will be completed on or before June 30, 2014."
The board also directed AISD staff to compile a glossary that will explain the meaning of terms used in the principles.
Trustee Robert Schneider suggested omitting language stating that additional maintenance and operations funds beyond the current level of expenditures should not be used to reduce larger systemic repair and capital needs. The board approved that change.
Schneider noted that the principles do not cover the way the district determines how it uses portable classrooms to address capacity issues.
"We have campuses that have had portables since they opened their doors," he said, pointing out Patton Elementary School as an example. "I know that it's not unique in Southwest Austin. But I think that there would be value in the board discussing as part of this living document whether we want to continue to encourage the use of portables or whether we want to make action steps to reduce and/or eliminate portables."
Board President Vincent Torres agreed and said the board will schedule a discussion on portables.
The board also voted to make minor changes throughout the document such as changing "includes" to "will include" to maintain consistency, and trustee Jayme Mathias said he would look over the guiding principles to make punctuation changes as needed.
Sticking to the plan
Before the end of the Sept. 30 meeting, trustee Ann Teich motioned to change the name of the facility master plan to "facility master design" to show the community that this process will be different from that of a previous facility master plan process the board undertook.
Torres spoke about the previous FMP process during a media briefing.
"My opinion is that that process unfortunately suffered from some significant misunderstandings of what the intent was, and you know, fair enough, if we are not explaining what we're doing, why we're doing it and what we're really doing, then certainly all kinds of misunderstandings can occur," he said. "That's why one of the first steps we the board want to look at next is how do we make sure that the community is brought along with us throughout the process."
Mathias said changing the name of the facility master plan would be merely cosmetic, and Schneider noted the word "design" would not be an appropriate description for a process-oriented application such as the FMP. Teich's motion failed with a 2-6 vote, with Teich and trustee Gina Hinojosa voting to change the name.
Torres said the board welcomes community feedback on the FMP guiding principles, which will be posted on the AISD website.
