Chapter 8 — Martin Middle School community meeting

**Date in the room:** Tuesday, October 21, 2025, morning. Staff later say they are at Martin first, Sunset Valley second the same day. **Source:** `meetings/clean/20251022-Martin-Middle-School-Community-Meeting--October-21-2025.txt` **Recording:** Auto-captions. Names scramble (Gortinez; Tabasco; Segura / Sigur / Sagura; Keeling / Healing / Keen; Govalle / Go Valley). Spanish speech is often lost as “Foreign.”

This is a campus meeting, not a board meeting. **No trustee is named as present. No trustee speaks.** The superintendent refers to trustees as people he must write language *for* (`00:21:10`) and as people who “have that expectation” that staff will engage (`00:40:34`). They are not in the transcript as bodies in the room.

**RESULT:** There is no vote tonight. Staff say the planned board vote is November 20 (`00:07:49`). This night is comment cards, maps, and Q&A.

Who is in the room

**Campus / community**

**District staff who speak**

**Board:** none on the record.

Opening (`00:00:00`–`00:16:15`)

Principal Gortinez: welcome to Martin; distinguished guests from the district will start the conversation.

Ally: Stacia Pascal for an inclusive welcome. Pascal: take out your phone, find the picture of the person who is your “why”; hers is a Navarro High class of 2025 graduate (`00:00:44`–`00:02:06`). Two minutes of sharing. Then: reconnect to that why “to ensure that all of our kiddos have the things that they need and deserve” (`00:04:12`).

Ally, agenda (`00:04:43`): warm welcome, norms, purpose, campus-specific proposed changes, questions pulled from the digital comment card, then floor. Comment card open through the 28th. Another virtual community conversation on the 27th; in-person at Delco on the 8th (`00:05:26`). One-minute remarks. “Stay solution oriented… not blame or frustration” (`00:06:31`). Purpose: shared understanding of proposed changes and rationale; insights that will inform refinements. Marked-up plan October 31; board discusses November 6; “the planned vote is, as a reminder, is November 20th” (`00:07:45`).

Panel introductions (`00:08:03`): Segura, Gardanas, French, Steinport, Baker.

Steinport: superintendent wants “every family should have access to an excellent neighborhood school, one that is vibrant and well resourced” (`00:08:54`). **Proposal:** Martin is proposed to close. Students reassigned by address to **Keeling, Lively, and Marshall** for the 2026–27 school year (`00:09:29`). Marshall previously had no true boundary — assigned from eight or nine elementaries; this process gives it one (`00:10:12`). “Martin Middle School will temporarily close” (`00:10:35`). Board and administration want to see what Martin “could be in the future” — AISD has never had a K–8; that “could be” explored with engagement (`00:10:55`). Transfers: return to zoned school or apply elsewhere (`00:11:27`). Map: red to Keeling; a slice to Marshall; remainder to Lively (`00:11:56`).

Ally on TAP (`00:12:54`): before the consolidation plan released, the district said Martin would need a **turnaround plan** because of three consecutive unacceptable ratings. TEA rule: if you close a school and reassign as TAP strategy, the plan follows wherever the **majority** of students go. Majority to Keeling → joint Keeling–Martin TAP if the board approves (`00:13:20`–`00:13:53`). Appointed principal hires to TAP staffing criteria, prioritizing employees from both communities. Staff mix should roughly mirror student mix (example: 70% Keeling / 30% Martin). Staff not hired go to internal match fairs in February and March. “Our goal is to make sure that every staff person that wants to stay with Austin ISD has a place to land” (`00:15:01`). Consolidation is to “free up dollars” and reinvest “a large amount of those into the turnaround plan schools… about an **$800,000** investment” — extra counselors, APs, instructional coaches, content interventionists, parent support (`00:15:27`–`00:16:03`).

Prepared comment-card questions (`00:16:17`–`00:29:19`)

**Eric R.:** What promises that Martin will reopen, with community input? (`00:16:32`)

Segura (`00:16:48`): “a very harmful moment.” The plan is trying to do several things at once:

  1. Align East Austin feeder patterns. “For over 144 years… we have not had aligned feeder patterns. We have middle schools that go to three and four and five high schools. In other parts of town, that doesn’t happen” (`00:17:24`–`00:17:39`).
  2. TEA turnaround. “We didn’t arrive at this plan thinking about that first. we went through the work and then layered in our ultimate response to TEA” (`00:18:25`). Martin is required to submit a TAP.
  3. Consolidations. “We are running a deficit budget. Uh we cannot be at a moment where we are not able to fund the things that we have to fund” (`00:18:35`).
  4. Stabilize wall-to-wall dual language. Emerging bilingual shares 14%, 21%, 22%, 44%; healthy is 50% (`00:19:09`).
  5. Transfer policies “doing real harm” (`00:19:31`).

On reopen: majority of students to Keeling to “break the accountability chain.” After the move, “we will engage with community and we will build out what the future for Martin will be.” Pre-K–8 “is not a done deal” (`00:20:05`–`00:20:25`). He cannot give certainty of *what* it will be. He is looking for “what language can I use in the plan that allows our trustees to have confidence that there will be a school here in the future” (`00:21:07`). Typical new-school process is about two years: programming, hire principal, hire staff, bond package. “The board and I are committed to ensuring that there is a AISD public education… campus like on this site. Uh but I have to break the accountability chain. I just have to break it. Um if not, the risk is too great” (`00:22:12`).

**Stacy S.:** What feeder when repurposed? French: cannot answer until identity is known. For *this* reassignment: south of the river → Lively → Travis; Keeling → Eastside; Marshall → LBJ (`00:22:45`–`00:23:34`).

**Why take two modernized schools (Govalle and Sanchez)? Buses?** Ally: Sanchez proposed campuswide dual language (no attendance zone); Govalle campuswide Montessori (no zone); current students invited to opt in (`00:24:06`). Segura: historically “the burden of that weight in the system was carried by East Austin. That’s just the honest truth” (`00:25:04`). Too many seats; not enough students who *live* in the area. Wall-to-wall at Sanchez also breaks an accountability chain; Govalle as districtwide Montessori; keeping a neighborhood school (he says Sanchez here) “allows us to not have to close another school” (`00:26:04`). Transportation to Sanchez: “the answer is yes we can” — considering consistency with Pickle, Odom, Wooten (`00:26:16`–`00:27:10`).

**Raul L.:** Bond funds at Martin? Steinport: construction “on pause”; identity first; “bond dollars to go with students”; a bond project at every AISD school (`00:27:27`–`00:28:21`). Ally: “the funding will stay with Martin” in some form (`00:28:46`). Segura: unique because “we are planning on having a school back at Martin”; other consolidations are “not likely to be a school at that location” (`00:28:57`).

Floor (`00:29:23`–`01:21:13`)

**Tamara** (`00:29:50`): irony — “we’re like dismantling the whole school district right now in less than a year” — why not K–8 next year?

Segura: commissioner must approve a new CDN; would have to hire the ECA principal in January; TEA agreed order for special education still in force; “I… can almost guarantee that he would not approve it” (`00:30:16`–`00:32:26`). Ally: TEA wants students in a school with STAR outcomes now, not a restart (`00:32:38`). Segura: a restart year would still require the move; year four/five risk of “turn over the superintendent and… board of managers.” “There will be school districts in the next week, week and a half that get letters from the agency that they are going to be taken over. Like this is real… we got to keep local control” (`00:33:09`–`00:34:19`).

**If TEA denies a TAP?** (`00:34:30`) Segura: submit TAPs **November 21**, day after the **November 20** board vote. Agency has 45 days; if declined, 15 days to resubmit; then commissioner can install a board of managers. He will not submit what he does not believe will be accepted. Has been testing unnamed scenarios with TEA for three or four months; sat with Region 13 about two weeks ago. **24 TAPs** to submit: three UAs trigger TAP, plus two-UA campuses (`00:36:55`–`00:37:19`). 51% of students is the TAP-assignment rule of thumb (`00:38:13`).

**Spanish-speaking parent** (`00:38:41`): “you’ve said we a lot… I don’t see that we in our community… we are not in agreement, but we’re outside.” Segura: “We’ll continue to be present. Our trustees have that expectation. they themselves engage.” If there is a restaurant they should go to, he will (`00:40:21`–`00:41:21`). No trustee is named in the room.

**Parent of three** (`00:42:44`): if I don’t feel welcome or respected, I won’t show up; district must work on empathy. Segura: two and a half years building a “trustbased culture”; “we’re not there yet” (`00:44:45`–`00:46:27`). Spanish stretch in captions (`00:46:47`–`00:48:16`).

**Riverside parent** (`00:48:16`): kids may not qualify for a bus, less than a mile, walk past “homeless,” traffic; has a car but works. Steinport: if zoned to Travis and must cross I-35, hazardous route; bus (`00:49:18`). Segura: Eastside Early College continuation; transfer/transport SOP will be clearer in the next draft (`00:50:49`).

**Teachers / 700 layoffs rumor** (`00:52:07`): demoralizing that construction stopped; does the receiving principal have a right to return? “school districts are kind of coerced into making this decisions to maintain like local control.” Segura: they are **not** releasing 700 teachers; one-/two-/three-year contracts “never even entered my mind until someone posted it on Facebook.” TAP has state staffing rules. “I’ve met with all the principles that are going through the transition, and I’ve said to them over and over again, we protect staff. We protect staff, we protect staff… we are freezing outside hires” (`00:54:33`). AISD hires 550–700 teachers a year; the math “does work out” (`00:55:23`). If the state came in, “all that goes out the window” (`00:55:56`). Ally: staffing guidelines at austinisd.org/consolidate. Brandy: her team is walking every affected campus through the guide (`00:56:54`).

**TAP into D schools** (`00:57:32`): F to two Ds, near max enrollment. Segura: TEA builds TAP on *assignment*, majority to Keeling. Marshall is a D in year three of a 6–7–8 startup; he has “extreme confidence.” Letter grades do not mean “less than.” “We just spent two years arguing around why the accountability system doesn’t work and then now you’re using that to argue against me why this move shouldn’t happen” (`00:59:39`). Extra resources not only at TAP schools but at schools receiving large percentages (`01:00:02`).

**Mrs. Sa** (`01:00:39`): gentrification, demolished Riverside apartments, 30–40 parents used to fill this library; go *where families live*; measure parent welcome. Ally: coffee with principal, CAC, block walks, mailers, parent-support tracking (`01:05:56`).

**Alum** (`01:07:23`): start the Martin planning group now; right of return for teachers who laid the groundwork; letter grades are “scarlet letters.” Segura: “we’re in the in between phase”; he is “cautious about doing anything before the vote that is too concrete only because the criticism that I’ll get is Matias, you the board the board hasn’t even voted yet” (`01:09:02`). TEA agreed order: two years ago “we thought was going to destroy AISD.” “as a part of our trustees, you know, that that’s some of the feedback I’ve gotten directly from them as well” (`01:10:13`).

**Enrollment already low; schools yanked** (`01:10:13`). Segura: decline was leveling, then federal immigration pressure; he “cannot right now pay for the resources needed so that every student who’s been historically underserved gets what they need.” Why have families left for O. Henry instead of Martin? Align feeders, invest, then charters come back. Keep “our board in place… our team in place” (`01:13:08`). “I don’t have lots of options. I just don’t” (`01:13:27`).

**Rebecca** (`01:13:58`): attended Johnston and Porter, now closed. Supervises a **$2.5 million**, 5-year DOE grant at Martin, Allison, Govalle — at risk if campuses leave the narrative. How to support Eastside enrollment, MTSS, CIS / Austin Voices / TRIO wraparound, Ryder Bites pantry at Allison.

Segura (`01:17:38`): that is why **November** matters. Delay to December loses a month of enrollment (starts November), principal hiring (December), coding. Sixth grade taken out of Martin in April — “we didn’t even recover from it” (`01:19:32`). “The one thing we cannot take away is time for families to plan” (`01:19:47`). Grants can be renegotiated if the vote is known; he supports keeping resources “where they originally intended.”

Close (`01:21:13`–end)

Ally: digital participation through the 28th; remaining meetings at austinisd.org/consolidate; revised plan public October 31; board discusses November 6; **November 20 vote**; consolidations would not take effect until next school year (`01:21:19`–`01:22:19`).

Parent letter (`01:22:48`): Segura’s civil-engineering background; “education is the foundation of all buildings”; “Closing a school is like breaking a bond that took years to build”; “Education is not an expense. It is an investment.” Segura (`01:25:15`): engineering, then finance, then operations; 144 years of under-resourcing Black and brown students; MTSS; 15–16 curricula used to run; aligned curriculum; “In 20 years… one of the most profound things that this planet will have done will have lined feeder patterns” (`01:27:29`). “Keeping local control is absolutely a priority of mine” (`01:27:55`).

Promises (this night)

What was never said

**Recapture / Robin Hood / Chapter 49. Inflation. Basic allotment. Class size.** Deficit, empty seats, TEA takeover, local control, and 24 TAPs fill the hour.

Board vs. staff

Staff ran the night: communications, planning, operations, SPED, talent, superintendent. Trustees are an offstage audience Segura writes language *for*. No trustee takes a question. No motion. The vote named is **November 20**, somewhere else.

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