Meria Carstarphen

Based on budget projections and internal forecasting, what does the district see as its biggest issues going into the 2013–14 school year?

Most importantly we need to have a really strong budget reduction strategy. We know we are competitive in some of our other employee groups, but our teachers really do need a salary lift. ... If we want to be able to sustain that for the long term, we have to do a lot of planning this year for that.

A key focus for us is going to be around our commitment to the community in our resolution regarding the facility master plan.

Another part of our context is the recent bond election and ensuring that we implement the May 2013 bond with fidelity and also creating our facility master plan that will help us keep our strong "Aaa" bond rating, which saves taxpayers and the district millions of dollars. ...

Finally, we're a business of people, and so everything we can do to support and professionally develop our staff will be another piece.

What is the status of the facility master plan?

At the end of the school year, the board directed the administration to work on guiding principles [for the plan] ... and work with our facility work group, which includes community members and members from advisory committees for the board and the administration. [The work group will] take what the board said and try to ... shape those guiding principles into something that the board will finish, polish up and provide to [the administration] as the guiding tool for how we build out strategies and an implementation design.

With the Legislature wrapped up, how did the district and Texas schools do in terms of funding?

Happily, the state Legislature put

$3.9 billion back into public schools across Texas, and that's a really good thing for education. But sadly, AISD's share of that money was about $11 million, and that's only 18 percent of the original, permanent $60 million loss that we had to manage on our district's side back in 2011. ...

Our reduction strategy will be taking about $18 million out of our reserves and then another $12 million from cost-reduction strategies.

[For example,] we've already started implementing a hiring freeze. We've already started reducing extending contracts to any external providers.

We'll do a lot around careful analysis of positions. ... We will, of course, hire for our schools and ensure that [our schools receive what they] have to have, but anywhere else we're really trying to make those reductions, and a lot of that cost is tied to the district wanting to honor [the 2012–13 pay increase equal to a one-time 3 percent raise] and then trying to add another 1.5 percent on that.

What's the status of the school funding lawsuits?

We have Judge [John] Dietz's decision [the February ruling that the state's school finance system is unconstitutional], and I know that we're all supposed to be going back in January. Because we don't think that there are going to be legislative changes that would be significant enough, the argument will still stand, [and] we will still believe that the school finance system is inadequate, inequitable and unsuitable.

What is the likelihood that AISD will call for a tax ratification election during the 2013–14 school year?

Our school board will be talking about that as we launch into our budget planning for school year [2014–15] ...

I definitely don't see anything happening for November. ... The next window would be May. ... Until I talk to [the board], I don't know how or to what extent there's a desire to move forward with the TRE this school year. But it's not, just to be clear, it's not a question of if, it's a question of when.

We absolutely have to have a new funding stream, a permanent funding stream, to ensure that we're able to maintain the budget that we have today, and most importantly, the district is still growing.

Do you think parents would support changing district boundaries in the future to address overcrowding?

We have pockets [of overcrowding] all over the district. One of the [May bond] propositions really focused just on that. That one was not successful. ... It is never popular in Austin to change a school boundary. That much I feel certain of. But we have [changed boundaries before]. ... So I think yes, parents and families understand that we have to do it. ... Every December we have a standard practice of making some small boundary adjustments. ... I think people's tolerance and willingness to support [major boundary changes] are at different levels. ... I think [the response to changes] is mixed at best.