Chapter 3 — Board of Trustees information session (September 18, 2025)

**Date in the room:** Thursday, September 18, 2025. Called at **6:04 p.m.** Recess to executive session **11:30 p.m.** Reconvene **1:51 a.m.** Adjourned **1:51 a.m.** **Type:** AISD Board of Trustees information session. Listening and monitoring; not the regular voting meeting. **Runtime:** last caption stamp `[05:24:24]`. **Source:** `meetings/clean/20250919-Austin-ISD-Board-of-Trustees-Information-Session--September-18-2025.txt` **Place:** AISD central office; Spectrum 22 / AT&T 99; English captions.

Caption errors: Boswell; Whitley Chu; Kaufman (Coffman); Foster; Singh; Hunter; Quintana (Kintana); Zapata; Gonzalez / de Urost as secretary; Segura (Sigora / Sukra); Bedichek (Betachch); Winn (WIN / Win Monasuri); Ridgetop (Richtop); Becker; Maplewood; Cherry Lee (Dr. ly); Joshua Jun.

Closures and TAP are in the **public’s** mouths. They are not a vote item tonight. Scorecard language is previewed for September 25.

Who is in the room

**Board (dais, named in captions):** President Lynn Boswell; Vice President Whitley Chu; Secretary Gonzalez; Trustees Kaufman, Foster, Singh, Hunter, Quintana/Kintana, Zapata. Eight on the dais at various points; roll is not a formal called list at the open.

**Staff who speak later:** Superintendent Matias Segura; Danielle Perico (STEM director) and Dr. Maryanne Maxwell (academics) on GPM 4.1; Joshua Jun and Dr. Cherry Lee on the TEA special-education agreed order; Katrina Montgomery (CFO) named in the fund-balance recovery plan.

**Public:** 11 in person, 49 recorded, one minute each. Cap of 60 speakers. Texas law: board may only ask for clarification, not debate off-agenda comments.

Public comment (`[00:00:07]`–`~[01:22:00]`)

Boswell: “We have time for up to 60 speakers.” 11 in person, 49 recordings. One minute, no yielding.

**In person (first names as called)**

Lauren Smith, AVID site coordinator at Bedichek, “the district’s first AVID National Demonstration School, which will be closed or restarted with new staff next year” (`[00:02:41]`–`[00:02:50]`). She lists what happened the year the campus earned an F: “One assistant principal and one counselor position were cut” (`[00:03:04]`–`[00:03:06]`). The circumstances that produced the F are the point.

Steve Swanson: community-based planning under the Texas Education Code; TAP planning is “harmful”; TEA should train AISD in authentic community-based planning (same theme he will bring on September 25).

Lindsay Omates / Lindsay Heatherington (captions split the name): Barton Hills / TAP / do not repeat 2019 harm.

Alejandra, parent of Sophia at Becker: school as “a second home” for refugees (`[00:08:25]`–`[00:08:40]`).

Kitlawa, parent of three: asks the board to suspend or change a rule that would reassign children the next academic year (`[00:14:20]`–`[00:14:40]`).

Amy Moore, parent of three AISD grads, Barton Hills resident: TAP “harmful to communities and cannot happen again” (`[00:15:59]`–`[00:16:20]`).

A parent from a campus rated F three years running: “take me seriously and not write me” off; pause consolidation “for a short period” (`[00:17:03]`–`[00:17:54]`).

A life-skills special-ed teacher: kitchen and oven in the classroom; glad a trustee saw the room (`[00:19:32]`–`[00:19:35]`).

**Recorded (themes in the order the tape plays)**

Yellow Jacket Stadium / L.T. Anderson alumni (William Ward, Leticia Anderson former trustee): preserve the stadium, designate it a central facility, District 1.

Becker dual language: dual-language students “make up over 62% of Becker’s population. I’m asking you… please keep Becker open” (`[00:25:15]`–`[00:25:18]`). If dual language is removed, a caller is “not sure that we would enroll in any Boston public” school — caption for Austin (`[00:28:40]`–`[00:28:42]`). Stacy Woodburn Henry, Jodie Klopp (grandparent), Peter Johnson in Barton Creek / Baldwin, Alexandra Chavez / Santiago.

Maplewood: Abby Milan, Cherrywood parent, “save Maplewood Elementary.”

Winn Montessori: Whitney, “give Win Monasuri the time it needs.” Other Winn families.

Ridgetop: Natalie Betts; Steven Chan, third grader; Olivia Channon.

Good Friday on the 2026 calendar: Carol Fedick.

Housing and quality schooling; first-time kindergarten parent trepidation.

Amy Morz as a potential future family with children under four.

One in-person speaker had to wait until after a block of recordings (`[00:28:52]`).

Board sits. Clarification questions to staff are allowed; debate of the comments is not. Consolidation is not on this agenda as an action item.

Lone Star Governance monitoring — GPM 4.1 (`[01:27:23]`–`[02:51:06]`)

After public comment the board is in student-outcomes time. Presentation: scorecard Goal 4 algebra, **GPM 4.1 sixth-grade advanced / accelerated math**.

The GPM: “the percent of sixth grade students identified as economically disadvantaged who enroll in accelerated mathematics and persist to course completion will increase from 21% in June of 2024 to 39% by June of 2029” (`[01:30:52]`–`[01:31:06]`).

Staff (Danielle Perico, STEM; Dr. Maxwell, academics): 2024–25 completed the introductory accelerated course, “an increase from 21%” that “meets the current year targets” (`[01:32:47]`–`[01:32:51]`). Superintendent determination: **on track** for the year. Trustees press the difference between on-track this year and on-track in year five (`[01:32:13]`–`[01:32:15]`).

Facts that come out in questions:

• About 98% passing overall in the accelerated course.
• Eco-dis students overrepresented among the failures.
• Hispanic/Latinx eco-dis 20% → 21% versus a 23% target.
• Emergent bilingual eco-dis declined one point.
• SB 2124: auto-enroll students at or above the 60th percentile on fifth-grade STAAR, with opt-out.
• Sixth grade now at middle school, which expands access.
• Denominator includes any-ever-enrolled plus mobility, so year-end 24% versus in-year snapshots of 25%/30%.
• IB at a campus captions as Manson / Lamar / Mendez is not counted in this coding.

Monitoring report accepted by all on the dais. Gonzalez moves, Kintana seconds (`[02:50:50]`–`[02:51:06]` range in the monitoring-vote stretch). This is acceptance of a monitoring report, not a change to the scorecard itself. Scorecard rewrite is the next night’s vote.

TEA special-education agreed order (`[02:51:23]`–`~[03:02:16]`)

Joshua Jun, executive director of governance and accountability, with Dr. Cherry Lee. “As part of the TEA agreed order, we committed to provide regular updates to the board and to the community.”

“The order outlined 99 deliverables” in categories: Lone Star Governance; Priority 1, satisfy open corrective action plans; Priority 2, identify and implement effective practices; Priority 3, improve data systems; Priority 4, parent outreach campaign (`[02:51:59]`–`[02:52:17]`).

“Currently, out of the 99 deliverables under the order, we have completed 96 of them” (`[02:52:20]`–`[02:52:25]`). Remaining: LSG quarterly board self-evaluation in October; ongoing monthly read-into-the-record of student-outcomes time and closed-session time; monthly reports to the agency on data systems.

Frontline special-programs management: go-live July after a September 2024 vendor failure. Priority-2 items 47/47. About 700 special-ed teachers at the first learning lab. CFAC first met January 2024; next September 30 at headquarters. Child Find September 3: 30+ families.

This is the 2023 agreed order still live — not a new takeover vote.

Scorecard discussion (preview for September 25) (`~[03:02:16]`–`[05:05:13]`)

Lone Star Governance requires 3–5 goals. Three are required: third-grade literacy, third-grade numeracy, CCMR. Kaufman wants fewer constraints so the agreed order and TAP do not eat the talking time, but wants to **keep** constraint 5 (F ratings 29 → 0 by 2029; 8 F schools in 2019, 30 in 2023, 29 in 2024). One trustee says they attended four TAP meetings in two days. Dual language is discussed as a possible constraint to keep. Caregiver / early-learning constraint is in the mix.

No vote tonight. The vote is September 25.

Agenda preview, fund balance, buses (`[05:05:13]`–`[05:24:24]`)

Public-comment logistics for the coming voting meeting: comments running into the 4:00 hour; Boswell does not want anyone to feel shut out when “people are going to want to be making a whole lot of public comment” (`[05:07:42]`).

Singh on the budget calendar: missing “board approval of a three-year plan to restore the fund balance to 20%.” When policy changed to 15% unassigned fund balance, “we were pretty clear that the administration would bring to us a three-year plan to restore the fund balance. And so, I did not see that in” the calendar (`[05:18:23]`–`[05:18:43]`). Earlier in the night Segura had already said the administration “made a commitment to the board to not go below 15% unassigned fund balance” (`[01:22:55]`–`[01:22:58]`).

Segura: Katrina Montgomery and he have been talking; he has not “lost track” of the recovery plan. Then the line that will travel: “I don’t want the message to be that because we’re consolidating all of a sudden we will get all of these things. Um we’re operating at a budget deficit now. So we can’t afford what we have now” (`[05:20:33]`–`[05:20:38]`). Consolidation is a step toward a stable budget, not a year-one restoration of everything. “In this case, we’re operating from a deficit. So, we have to make up that deficit and then take the next step.”

Facilities section of the agenda preview: “Getting a bunch of new buses” (`[05:22:02]`). That is the only bus mention. AE Local is LSG cleanup — strip “advice” from educational philosophy; scorecard and calendar become exhibits after the September 25 vote.

Recess open meeting at 11:30 p.m. to executive session (Gov’t Code 551.074, .072, .073, .087, .076, .0821, .071). Reconvene 1:51 a.m. Gonzalez moves adjournment. “The meeting is adjourned at 1:51.” Last stamp `[05:24:24]`.

What was not discussed

Result

• GPM 4.1 monitoring report: **accepted**, all on the dais (Gonzalez / Kintana).
• No scorecard vote (that is September 25).
• No consolidation vote.
• No tax vote.
• Adjourn 1:51 a.m. after executive session. No action announced coming out of closed session.

Board and campus life

Kaufman is the trustee who talks like someone who has been in TAP rooms four times in two days and who will, on October 9, say he taught at Pierce when it closed. Tonight he is arguing about how many constraints the board can honestly monitor. The life-skills teacher thanks whoever walked into the classroom and saw the oven. Lauren Smith is an AVID coordinator at the campus the draft will close. The board listens for an hour of one-minute comments and then spends the rest of the night on algebra GPM coding and an agreed-order checklist. Campus names in public comment (Bedichek, Becker, Maplewood, Winn, Ridgetop, Barton Hills) do not reappear as trustee stories about their own children.

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