The hiring effort is part of AISD’s plan to restart Dobie, Webb and Burnet middle schools and avoid state intervention following two years of failed accountability ratings.
“This is going to change how we fundamentally staff campuses in our district to make sure that we have the most highly effective teachers in front of our students that are most vulnerable," said Brandi Hosack, AISD chief talent strategy officer, at a press conference May 8.
The approach
The district is aiming to hire nearly 100 highly effective teachers with more than three years of experience to teach at the three campuses, Hosack said.
AISD will provide $15,000 stipends for core subject teachers who meet the desired criteria plus an additional $5,000 for teachers who are designated under the Teacher Incentive Allotment. The state program rewards top-performing teachers that are measured based on student growth and classroom observation, according to the Texas Education Agency.
Certified bilingual and special education teachers will be eligible for $7,000 stipends.
“We are going to be on the lookout for transformative teachers to leverage their expertise in the classroom,” Hosack said. “Those that have shown high growth and achievement with their students and effective teaching.”
Some teachers at Dobie, Webb and Burnet may meet these standards while other educators may need to be replaced, Hosack said. At each campus, the district plans to analyze around 15-20 core teachers based on student growth.
Noncore teaching positions, including extracurricular teachers, will be evaluated on their effectiveness through observations. Hosack said she anticipates many noncore educators will return next school year.
“I feel every confidence that there will be a good number of staff that are familiar to these students that will be able to remain so that they can support them through this transition,” she said.
Nearly 600 AISD teachers are designated under the TIA. There are currently no TIA-designated teachers at Dobie and a handful of these educators at Webb and Burnet middle schools, she said.
The district will hold hiring events for the three campuses May 14 and 15 from 5-7 p.m. at its central office building at 4000 S. I-35 frontage road, Austin. Visit www.austinisd.org/transform to learn more.
Hosack told reporters there were many novice teachers at Dobie, Webb and Burnet middle schools—a trend she said is observed at historically underserved schools.
Teachers who are removed from their positions will be offered different roles in the district and receive support to help them “grow their own career,” Hosack said.
“It's not about you're not doing your job and we are removing you," Hosack said. "This is simply a function of needing to ensure that we, within a turnaround plan, have seasoned experts in that field, in that content. When you have a good majority of your staff at some of these campuses being novice teachers, that is an unfair situation to have them in.”
Dozens of middle school students spoke against the replacement of their teachers during the public comment portion of a May 8 board meeting. Many students expressed appreciation for their teachers and said they did not want to lose the relationships they had formed.
Hiring new staff and implementing the stipends is expected to cost the district around $1.5 million-$1.7 million per campus, Hosack said. These investments will require the district to make budget reductions in other areas, she said.
The district has been exploring ways to cut costs, including consolidating schools, as it projects a $129 million budget shortfall for fiscal year 2025-26, interim Chief Financial Officer Katrina Montgomery said at an April 24 meeting.
The background
Dobie, Webb and Burnet middle schools received a second consecutive year of F ratings from the state in 2023, according to ratings released by the TEA on April 24. This has required AISD to submit a turnaround plan for each campus to the TEA by June 30.
At a May 8 meeting, Superintendent Matias Segura said the district is recommending a district-managed restart of the campuses.
AISD could implement the state's Accelerating Campus Excellence, or ACE, model for underperforming campuses, Segura said at a May 2 special meeting. The ACE model is used to restart struggling campuses through selecting new leadership and staff as well as using high-quality instructional materials, according to TEA information.
These campuses will transition from having four to five daily class periods so students can receive reading and math instruction each day, Segura said.
In August, AISD could begin looking for charter school partners and decide in December whether to partner with them for the 2026-27 school year. The district’s decision could depend on the campuses’ future testing scores and projected accountability ratings, Segura said.
“We expect our schools to make progress,” Segura said at the May 8 meeting. “There's no doubt in my mind that our schools will make progress, but making progress may not necessarily translate to making accountability.
District officials initially discussed closing Dobie Middle School but changed course after many community members, staff and students spoke against the campus’s closure. The school was projected to receive four years of failed A-F ratings by 2025.
If a campus receives a failed accountability rating five years in a row, the state could close the school or appoint a board of managers to oversee the district.
What’s next
The AISD board of trustees is expected to vote on turnaround plans for the three campuses at its June 12 meeting to meet a June 30 deadline from the TEA.
“We have to start moving in a direction even prior to an official vote because of the work that it takes to do that,” Hosack said about restarting the campuses.
