Chapter 16 — Board of Trustees public hearing (FIRST rating)
**Date in the room:** Thursday, October 30, 2025, **5:30 p.m.** (`00:00:19`). Adjourned **5:44 p.m.** (`00:14:21`). Fourteen minutes. **Source:** `meetings/clean/20251031-Austin-ISD-Board-of-Trustees-Public-Hearing--October-30-2025.txt`
This **is** a board hearing with a quorum at central office. It is **not** the consolidation vote and **not** a campus night.
**RESULT:** No action on schools, librarians, TAP, or the November 20 plan. The only motion is adjournment, moved by Secretary Gonzalez (`00:14:19`). They will “return to open our regular voting meeting” — a different item, same evening, not this caption file.
Who is in the room
**Board**
- President Lynn Boswell — calls the hearing, FIRST topic, adjourns.
- Secretary Andrew Gonzalez — motion to adjourn.
- Trustee Candace Hunter — questions on the lag and Cy-Fair (`00:07:46`).
- Other trustees present (“other trustees,” `00:02:36`); one speaks on administrative cost ratio and Northside ISD (`00:10:54`).
**Staff**
- Superintendent Segura — introduces the item.
- Katrina Montgomery, Chief Financial Officer — FIRST presentation.
**Public:** “tonight we have no one who signed up to speak in person. We have one person who left a recorded message” (`00:00:53`).
The one caller (`00:01:13`)
Marie, parent: the financial integrity rating “does not assess the district expenditures such as being over budget on the bond, legal fee expenses, or the size and salaries of HQ against what is reasonable. Please address HQ spending, legal fees and lawsuits, and staffing at HQ.”
That is the entire live public record.
FIRST (`00:02:23`–`00:07:46`)
Montgomery: Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas; 21 indicators; data from **July 2023–June 2024** (the 2024–25 FIRST uses last year’s books). Superior achievement every year 2020–21 through 2024–25; this year **95**, highest in five years (`00:03:59`).
The one fail: indicator 4 — timely payments. November 2023 sales-tax payment **one day late**. TRS, TWC, IRS: paid. Has not happened since (`00:04:00`).
Indicator 8 (current assets to current liabilities): 6 → 8. Indicator 13 (administrative cost ratio): 8 → **10**. TEA standard 0.0855; AISD 0.0835 in 2023–24, after years above the line (peak 2022–23). Peer slide: Arlington, Cypress below; Dallas above; Houston on the line (`00:06:33`). Bond ratings (Moody’s, Fitch, Kroll, S&P) at the top; ASBO and GFOA certificates (`00:07:08`).
Trustee questions (`00:07:46`–`00:14:13`)
Hunter: 2023–24 data is the 2025 rating; next year’s books this time next year. Cy-Fair student count — **118,000**; “demogra- demographics are not ours.” Segura: Cypress is not an urban district; Dallas, Houston, Austin are (`00:09:19`–`00:10:17`). Hunter: “When you have a bigger lift, it’s harder… you can look at these numbers on a chart, but understand that the work that’s going on is not these blue boxes. It’s much bigger and it did cost money” (`00:10:27`).
Another trustee: grateful the admin-cost ratio came down after a Dallas-like spike; the number is **two budget cycles ago**; they have kept cutting toward classrooms. Northside “does look more like us”; flatter org chart; “we know that we’re going to have to make some more cuts” (`00:10:54`–`00:12:17`).
Segura: do not copy peers without the story; **coding** matters — instructional coaches coded centrally so they can be moved, which changes how the ratio reads (`00:13:01`).
Boswell: “really glad to see that remaining so strong… financially sound even as we’re really working to remain that way in a really challenging time” (`00:13:41`).
Adjourn 5:44 p.m.
Promises (this night)
None on librarians, planning time, or TAP. FIRST is a lagging TEA scorecard. Montgomery: the system is “designed to encourage Texas public schools to better manage their financial resources to provide the maximum allocation possible for **direct instructional purposes**” (`00:02:36`) — “allocation” here is FIRST language, not the basic allotment.
What was never said
**Recapture. Inflation. Basic allotment. Class size. Librarians. Planning time. TAP. Closures.** HQ spending is the caller’s ask; the dais talks admin-cost ratio and Cy-Fair. The consolidation fight is next door, not in these fourteen minutes.
Board vs. staff
This is the board: Boswell, Gonzalez, Hunter, colleagues, CFO, superintendent. They speak. They do not vote on schools. The campus weeks (chs. 8–14) had almost no trustees on the mic; this hearing has trustees and almost no public. Two different rooms, same week, still **no consolidation vote**.