After months of surveying community members through a contract with local nonprofit Austin Voices, the Austin ISD board of trustees has learned that many residents want the Allan Elementary School campus to be used for its original purpose—a school.
At the board's Jan. 13 work session, Austin Voices representative Allen Weeks shared feedback collected at three community meetings held in fall 2013. Weeks said he got the sense that community members are not in a rush to use the facility in 2014, but instead they want thorough planning and a solution that will help support academic improvement at schools that feed into Eastside Memorial High School.
"If you just look at the number of comments, I think people wanting [the Allan campus] to go back to the use of a school of some sort was definitely the predominant [suggestion]," Weeks said.
Austin Voices asked community members for their insight on how the vacant facility should be used and what the board and administration should consider when determining its use.
Attendees suggested using the campus as an elementary school, a middle school, a middle or high school with curriculum focused on health sciences, and a center offering students career and technical education, or CTE, training; or support in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, Weeks said. Academic strengthening of the Eastside Memorial vertical team—meaning the high school and the elementary and middle schools from which its students come—was the number-one concern for attendees, Weeks said.
The district provided cost estimates for proposed projects in board documents, which project the cost of reopening Allan as an elementary school at $3.5 million and the cost of reopening it as a middle school at $15.4 million.
Superintendent Meria Carstarphen added two organizations—Skillpoint Alliance and Hispanic Scholarship Consortium—both expressed interest in using the Allan facility.
Trustee Jayme Mathias advised the district to continue its community engagement efforts, use an ad hoc planning team and ask that group to develop recommendations for the board to consider as part of its Biennial Academic and Facilities Recommendations process.
Trustee Ann Teich said she expects to see more public feedback going forward.
"When it becomes personal and it involves kids and families and their schools, we're going to have more people come out and actually make comments about whether or not they want an elementary or middle [school] or STEM or a CTE center or whatever and as we also involve them in the planning for those scenarios."
Community members advised AISD to consider several main factors as part of its decision, including the academic impact, keeping class sizes small, strengthening the vertical team of Eastside Memorial High School, the effects of boundaries and transfer policies on schools in the EMHS vertical team, and housing affordability.
History
In December 2012, the AISD board terminated the district's contract with IDEA, which was operating an in-district charter at the school. Since then, IDEA Allan has reopened at a temporary location in Southwest Austin and held its first open house Oct. 15. IDEA Allan plans to relocate to a new permanent site in 2014.
The AISD board advised the administration not to reopen the Allan building as a school for 2013–14 and now is assessing a variety of options and seeking public input on how to use the campus.
On Aug. 27, the board approved a contract with Austin Voices for a one-year community engagement initiative to provide planning and outreach for the Eastside Memorial vertical team.
More information about future uses of the Allan facility are available at https://www.austinisd.org/community/allan.
