After a heated public comment session to start Monday’s Austin ISD board of trustees meeting, trustees voted to modernize Sanchez Elementary School, located at 73 San Marcos St., Austin, as part of its 2017 bond program.
Despite currently feeding into Austin and Travis high schools, trustees selected to modernize Sanchez with $25 million from the 2017 bond earmarked to modernize a campus that is part of the Eastside Memorial Vertical Team. Other schools up for consideration included Metz and Zavala elementary schools, both of which feed into Eastside Memorial High School.
DRL Group, which was hired by the district’s Construction Management Department to evaluate the campuses, reported that either Sanchez or Metz could be fully modernized using the $25 million budget, according to district documents.
Superintendent Paul Cruz said that, for planning purposes, Sanchez would be moved to the Eastside Memorial Vertical Team. Attendance boundaries for the campus will also be re-evaluated to address East Austin enrollment, he said.
Public comment
More than 20 residents spoke during Monday public comment session to voice concerns about the state of Austin ISD schools in East Austin.
“You’re going to hear a lot of voices tonight, a lot of different perspectives, a lot of strong opinions,” Education Austin President Ken Zarifis said. “We are talking about equity, and if we want to be true about equity, we’re talking about race and the issue of race in Austin, AISD and every one of our schools. We have to address the issues of segregation, the issues of race throughout our city.”
Resident Carolynn Estrada said she feared by selecting to modernize Sanchez, both Metz and Zavala would be consolidated in the future. The consolidation could further decrease enrollment at Eastside Memorial, Estrada said.
Resident Isai Pozos said based on the bond language, which specified funds go to an Eastside Memorial Vertical Team school, he did not believe Sanchez should qualify for modernization.
“If we modernize Sanchez, the taxpayer money will in fact end up at Austin High,” Pozos said. “The bond money was promised to students attending Eastside Memorial High School.”
Representing multiple parents who were in attendance, resident Christina Estrada said the community has been rallying since 2011 to keep Sanchez open and to get the campus modernized. She and others supported the vote to fund the school project.
East Austin manifesto
Resident David King was one of many residents who spoke in support of an East Austin manifesto, which was created by AISD District 1 trustee Edmund T. Gordon and presented to the public Sept. 5.
“Don’t give up on our East Austin schools,” he said. “We’re ignoring [East Austin schools]. We are not pulling resources from other parts of our city to provide [support] and make up for the inequity and the injustice and the racism that has gone on for decades in those communities.”
King highlighted manifesto points that include compensating teachers at Title I schools at a higher rate; overhauling attendance boundaries and open transfer policies to address segregation, overcrowding, underenrollment and inequities; only selling AISD property if it would increase affordable housing for teachers and staff; and confronting the encroachment of charter schools east of I-35.
Cruz said that the board's action was an acknowledgment the district has not forgotten about the east side of Austin.
“We wanted to make sure that our kids in East Austin were going to get these opportunities first,” he said. “It is about fully modernized campuses [for all students].”
