[caption id="attachment_66859" align="alignright" width="460"]
A group of Conversation Corps participants talks about city issues at Genuine Joe Coffeehouse.[/caption]
The public has multiple opportunities to tell the Austin ISD board of trustees what they think about the district's fiscal budget at community meetings starting May 10.
Conversation Corps, a collaboration among city of Austin, AISD, and Capital Metro, will be hosting 15 community meetings about AISD's state of finance throughout various locations in the city. For Southwest Austinites, two meetings will be held in the area on May 19, one in the morning at Oak Hill Elementary School and one in the evening at Orange Coworking.
At the 1-hour conversations, volunteer facilitators guide the discussion through four different rounds, Leadership Programs Manager Julie Smith said. One of the questions posed to the group will be, "What can AISD and its community partners do to increase enrollment throughout the district?" Another question will be about supporting a tax rate election.
Input from the meetings will be presented to the AISD board and may be considered before it approves the proposed fiscal year 2016-17 budget in late June.
At its April 25 meeting, the board viewed a preliminary $1 billion budget that includes a 3 percent salary increase for full-time and part-time employees. During the meeting, AISD teachers and staff requested a 4 percent salary increase for FY 2016-17 and FY 2017-18.
Prior Conversation Corps topics have included mobility priorities in April and water conservation in January.
Conversation Corps conversations about the Austin ISD budget will be held on the following days:
May 10
- 7:00 p.m.—Cafe Java, 11900 Metric Blvd., Austin
May 11
- 12:30 p.m.—Cafe Ruckus, 409 West Second St., Austin
- 4:00 p.m.—UT Student Activity Center GSA Conference Room, SAC 3.102, 2201 Speedway, Austin
May 12
- 7:30 p.m.—Xiang Yun Temple, 6720 N. Capital of Texas Hwy, Austin
May 15
