Chapter 11 — Dawson Elementary community meeting

**Date in the room:** Monday, October 27, 2025, morning. Scheduled to 9:30; prepared questions end ~`00:28`; about an hour of floor. **Source:** `meetings/clean/20251027-Dawson-Elementary-School-Community-Meeting--October-27-2025.txt` **Recording:** Principal captions as Goodiness / Gulinish / Godinz / Codinez (Dolores); Galindo / Galindel.

This is a campus meeting, not a board meeting. **A trustee is in the room. The trustee is not named and does not speak.** Segura, answering a hard question: “Well, you have a trustee in the room, so I think it’s I I think it’s just…” (`00:59:38`). That is the whole identification.

**RESULT:** There is no vote tonight. Anticipated board vote November 20 (`00:04:05`). Facility reuse talk is “after the vote” (`00:42:51`).

Who is in the room

**Campus / community**

**District staff who speak**

**Board:** unnamed trustee present, silent on the recording.

Opening (`00:00:00`–`00:16:17`)

Principal: this meeting was waited for; staff stand.

Ally: norms, QR comment cards from October 3, five or six common questions, then floor. Vote November 20.

Segura (`00:04:11`): “I’m sorry.” 144-year system not serving historically underserved students. Strong neighborhood schools; misaligned feeders (East, not West); wall-to-wall dual language must follow emerging bilingual families; enrollment down ~2,000 this year on federal immigration; financial risk “right up there with accountability risk, special education delivery risk”; transfer policies drawing students out.

Then the extras the state does not require:

> “there are lots of things that we as a school district pay for that are not required by the state, right? **We pay for librarians, we pay for registered nurses**, right? These are things that we believe in. we procure our own curriculum. We could save seven eight million dollars if we decided to use a state curriculum. But I promise you that wouldn’t align with who we are.” (`00:12:49`)

**Proposal:** Dawson **wholly into Galindo**. Keep the cohort together. Combined utilization “roughly 75%” (`00:21:30`). Dawson has **three UAs**; Galindo **receives the TAP**. State hiring rules (years, TIA, National Board). If chains are not broken, interventions get “harder and harder and more rigid” (`00:14:23`). Sister district in North Texas under takeover (`00:11:22`).

Steinport: existing vs. combined boundary; this one *can* keep community together unlike some splits.

Prepared questions (`00:16:17`–`00:29:06`)

**Move Becker program to Dawson?** (major thoroughfare, affordable housing). Gardinus: proposed Becker dual-language location ~68% emerging bilingual; Dawson ~26–27%. Facilitator: “I’m getting the impression maybe that this was not an ask from the Dawson community.” They move on (`00:16:32`–`00:18:33`).

**Kim D.:** why close a school that’s been here generations? Steinport: “layer cake” — rubric, live-in, buildings, feeders. Segura: ~25–27% *resides* even if every child in the area chose Dawson; ~160–180 enrolled; costs per student “through the roof”; small-school benefits exist; they cannot operate that many (`00:19:03`–`00:21:52`).

**Kim M.:** building / community involvement. Segura: not real-estate driven. 2019 board: community benefit = teacher housing, affordable housing, open space, community space. Pease → United Way early childhood (Doggett grant). Anita Coy → PFC, ~650 units teacher/workforce housing. Metz and Brooke as “too fast.” 2022 bond staff hub. Could be swing space vs. portable villages (`00:21:59`–`00:28:03`). Speed follows the community; board expects their voice.

**Patricia V.:** keep dual language. Gardinus: Galindo already has DL; ~59 Dawson DL students now, ~49 next year (`00:28:13`).

Floor (`00:29:06`–end)

**Josh** (`00:29:38`): Dr. Godínez and staff have done an excellent job; not the students’ fault. Segura: three superintendents in two years; first year he hired ~27 principals of 116. “protect our teachers, protect our staff… from the principal to the custodian.” Rumors of contracts “never even crossed my mind.” Mother taught here 40 years; his kids come here (`00:30:19`–`00:32:53`).

**Kristen Brown** (`00:33:01`): “we reject the the Scarlet tap”; school has been under a TAP “and her name is Dr. Dolores Codinez”; nearly turned around without extra resources. Guarantee jobs, including those in certification? Segura: **yes, if they choose to stay** (`00:36:09`). New state law: no uncertified teachers; ~12% now non-certified. Dual-language certified teachers will be competed for regionwide. Staffing flowchart on the October 3 packet. Follow-up: **$70 million** property, police presence, occupancy. Segura: will not shutter and walk away; moves from TLL to operations; same zone officer, not an SRO; fencing is a community conversation. He will not lead with a $70M number; prefers ground leases that can revert to a campus (`00:38:17`–`00:42:45`). After the vote, a neighborhood meeting on security.

**Savings slide** (`00:43:15`): ~**$25.6 million** efficiencies; TAP schools budgeted **average $800,000** (APs, counselors, coaches, interventionists, possibly lower ratios).

**What is Dawson getting *this year*?** Segura defers. McWills: held-harmless positions at leveling; TNTP learning labs; she is on campus twice a week; PLC with instructional coach Susan; MAP growth (`00:47:36`). Segura: lighthouse / lab schools with Education Austin / TNTP; expansion this year (`00:48:53`). Parent: “too little too late.” Ally: nine schools one point from F→D; seven one point from D→C (`00:51:11`).

**Neighborhood association:** green space, safety, FABPAC, “Your bond money at work” then tear-down. Segura: could not have known the 88th legislature would not fund schools; if students are in a building, they get AC (`00:52:53`).

**“You have a trustee in the room”** (`00:59:38`): Segura, after a demand that he respond, points at an unnamed trustee and continues: multi-layered plan, “we have to make a decision and move forward.” The trustee does not take the mic.

**Recapture, once, not Chapter 49** (`01:06:50`): a speaker on Dallas ISD “recapture uh, money from the state uh, for a Medicare program” — SHARS-style Medicaid, AISD “historically not taken advantage.” **Not Robin Hood.**

**Rachel Smith**, library services associate (`01:25:51`): not as many positions for specials and librarians. The extras named at `00:12:49` as identity are already, on this campus, a job-count fear.

Promises (this night)

What was never said

**Chapter 49 recapture / Robin Hood. Inflation. Basic allotment. Class size.** The word recapture is Medicaid. Deficit, 25.6 million, 800 thousand, 75% utilization, three UAs.

Board vs. staff

Staff run the meeting. A trustee is physically present and silent. Segura uses that body as a witness (“you have a trustee in the room”) without giving the trustee a question. No vote.

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