Chapter 17 — Bryker Woods Elementary community meeting

**Date in the room:** Thursday, October 30, 2025, morning. Ninety minutes were set aside (`00:01:00`). **Source:** `meetings/clean/20251031-Bryker-Woods-Elementary-School-Community-Meeting--October-30-2025.txt` **Recording:** English and Spanish (`00:01:50`). Caption errors scramble names (Bryker / Breaker / Becker Woods; Segura / Segarra / Matias).

This is a campus meeting, not a board meeting. No trustee is named as present. No trustee speaks.

Who is in the room

**Campus / community**

**District staff who speak**

**Board:** none on the record. Parents say they have spoken to trustees off-mic (`00:45:19`, `00:52:35`). Segura says “a trustee / some trustees” asked last night (the Oct. 29 work session) about timing and about Bryker Woods as a receiving school (`00:47:57`, `00:51:24`).

Opening (`00:00:00`–`00:13:06`)

Principal: authorized IB World School; 90 minutes; turn it over to Ali.

Ali: interpretation; recording; clicker to Rachel. Agenda is the October 3 draft plus “a new option that was discussed for the first time last night at the board meeting” (`00:02:22`). Purpose: comment-card questions, shared understanding, refinements before the November 20 vote (`00:04:45`–`00:05:06`). Norms: one-minute questions, don’t recycle speakers, assume shared goal.

Segura (`00:05:18`): thanks the “Becker Woods” community for showing up. AISD product. “If you’re here, I’m going to be here” (`00:05:52`). Pain and disruption “not lost on me.” 144 years of decisions; “inch deep and a mile wide”; cannot give every student what they need now (`00:07:29`). Bryker Woods is a strong neighborhood school. Five drivers of the draft:

  1. Aligned feeder patterns. Middle schools now feed four and five high schools (`00:09:07`–`00:09:36`).
  2. Transfer policy. Transfers come and go; don’t build the plan on them (`00:09:44`–`00:10:11`).
  3. Cost of 116 campuses / ~70,000 students vs. 96 campuses / ~73,000 in 1996 (`00:10:12`–`00:11:13`). Same budget as compensation and programming.
  4. Program alignment (wall-to-wall dual language: move programs to where emerging bilingual students live) (`00:11:28`–`00:11:56`).
  5. Turnaround / accountability. 13 B schools in 2022 became F in 2023, same students, same teachers. Sister district in North Texas already under intervention. Draft can refine (`00:11:58`–`00:12:55`).

Business community (`00:13:46`–`00:16:48`)

Lindsey Hannah: 12 years as a parent; last panther in fourth grade. Kirby Lane (Mason Ayers, alum). Counselors across the street, dermatologist, Wells Fargo not yet contacted. School is rooted in neighborhood and business livelihood. List started two weeks ago.

Prepared questions (`00:16:55`–`00:52:54`)

Six questions, shared with Segura the evening before (`00:23:59`).

1. Why Bryker Woods? (`00:17:46`–`00:23:53`)

Melissa Brown: community supports TAP work. Confused why this campus is on the closure list: high performing, IB that helps enrollment, land to expand, growing enrollment, true neighborhood school (hosts church). “Why Bryker Woods?” (`00:18:48`).

Segura: will not use accountability to rank closures — that would only close D and F schools, which the district itself produced (`00:19:01`–`00:19:34`). Over 20,000 empty seats, “much larger than the Moody Theater” (`00:19:42`). Look at an area (west to district line, south to the river, east shy of MoPac/Airport, north south of 183), not one school. Transfers fluctuate; don’t count portables (600+ in 2017 = 1.3 million sq ft; newest ~30 years old, some 70–80) (`00:21:35`–`00:22:24`). Bryker Woods is on the draft because of available seats and movement: it cannot absorb much, but the other direction can. Same pattern as Sanchez / Zavala / Govalle / Ortega, >2,000 surplus seats (`00:23:13`–`00:23:31`). No 40% utilized schools in the area.

2. Growth / The Grove / Casis / Matthews (`00:24:11`–`00:30:16`)

Rob: survey of incoming families; developers (The Grove, Rosedale, former Rosedale school site, townhomes on Medical Parkway). Casis and Matthews families say they cannot take Bryker Woods students. Campus held 425 in 2018–19.

Segura: demographer uses census plus City DAC / developers; “student yield” by unit type (`00:25:21`). He has not spoken to developers; the demographer has. Will share names. Five-year unentitled projects don’t count (`00:27:16`).

Dr. French: demographic report on the website lists included units and units not included for lack of information. Annual projections; boundary review every two or three years so this is not repeated. Birth-rate decline often outweighs new units (`00:28:50`). Partners were “boots on the ground” in Austin in the spring (`00:29:42`). Will confirm which developers they met.

3. Rubric / capacity / maker space / Pre-K 3 (`00:30:18`–`00:36:30`)

Community: rubric counted programs they don’t have (Pre-K 3, early childhood, maker space); miscounted gen-ed rooms; quality score wrong. Current usage >400 is fine.

Segura starts on portables (Barton Hills / Bryker Woods in Barger Creek watershed). Moderator: “data integrity, not around the portables” (`00:32:17`).

Segura: 600+ sq ft = classroom; 22 students per room; special-ed rooms 8- or 10-to-1, which drives utilization down (`00:32:28`–`00:33:30`).

Dr. French: same methodology for every school. Counted a maker space because they were told Bryker Woods had one. Ideal elementary includes Pre-K 3 and sped spaces even if they sit in a portable elsewhere. Rubric is baseline; receiving-school math uses real programs (`00:33:47`–`00:35:59`). Parent: excluding portables was a choice; daughter loves her portable (“so cozy”) (`00:36:06`).

4. Money (`00:36:36`–`00:45:12`)

Parent data scientists (Tiana; Cassandra’s write-up): 20% attrition → closing Bryker Woods costs the district **$470,000 in year one**. Two former Texas CFOs called the report solid. Will the community see AISD’s cost-benefit?

Segura: look at the whole (116 buildings, billion-dollar budget). Consolidation cuts a principal and admin; 87% of budget is staff. Small campuses cannot fund full-time PE / fine arts without PTA subsidy (`00:38:01`–`00:39:21`). Campus-to-campus, “we estimate the total cost of a move and in a reduction… over a million dollars. That’s one of 116” (`00:39:37`). Conservative district total **over $24 million**. TAP spend (~$800,000 per plan) happens anyway — “we have to break that risk” (`00:39:56`–`00:40:15`). Campus-by-campus on the 29th and 31st. “20% is the assumption… at the basic student allotment, then there would be that loss” (`00:40:33`). Hope they don’t leave. Follow-up later; number differs from last night (`00:40:54`).

Land: if closed, what happens? Flood zone, deed restrictions, Rosedale “luxury apartments.”

Segura: selling land does not close a deficit; public property is 18 months at earliest; multifamily is not paying out (`00:41:43`). Real estate value never drove the plan. 2019 board: community benefit = teacher/workforce housing, community space, open space. Pease → United Way early childhood with Doggett funds. Anita Coy → PFC, 600 units of teacher housing. Would still secure and maintain the site, cheaper without school load (`00:43:12`–`00:44:33`). Chase offered to explain Rosedale; moderators declined (`00:44:37`).

5. TEA vs. non-TAP closures (`00:45:01`–`00:50:07`)

Why consolidate campuses that are not TAP-tied, especially if savings are unclear? Trustees have said they must vote because of TEA TAP deadline.

Segura: “Austin ISD has a bad habit of not making hard decisions” (`00:46:00`). TAP-tied pieces must go November 20; some TAP schools are tied to program moves, so a non-TAP campus can be the receiving piece that keeps another building from sitting vacant (`00:46:31`–`00:47:03`). TEA agreed order 2023 (special education) “was the thing that was going to take us over.” Staffing 76% → 97%; Title I attrition 22% → <2% (`00:47:41`). Trustees last night asked him to consider timing; he will look; no answer tonight (`00:47:57`).

Moderator: she spoke to TEA — three entry points: illegal activity, special-ed noncompliance, turnaround. “Finances have nothing to do with that” (`00:48:33`).

Segura: that is how they are engaged now. “I don’t want anybody to leave here and think that financial risk isn’t a real risk. Failing your first rating or introducing financial risk is a very quick reason that an agency will intervene… Fort Worth” (`00:49:31`).

6. Receiving school (`00:50:10`–`00:52:54`)

Last night: Bryker Woods as a receiver for other closures. Community would welcome them.

Segura: ideas are tested; Friday/31st draft will show transfer and boundary changes already made. Has not regrouped since last night. Never about one school. Has to align with overall goals.

Floor (`00:52:54`–`01:21:07`)

**Emily**, East Austin District 1 transfer (`00:53:06`): transfers here are not “fleeing” East Austin; they work in the central core. Segura: people transfer for different reasons; he does not want to sever opportunity, especially from a school with a “scarlet letter” (`00:55:43`).

**Colleen Fairbrother**, fifth grade, Oak Springs then Bryker Woods, AISD alum, IB student (`00:56:57`): IB thinking routines (Project Zero); branding (371 Instagram followers); only IB PYP campus in the district; Principal Alicia Hill “single-handedly resurrected this campus.” Parent add: IB center of excellence; IB “doesn’t travel” if the school closes (`01:00:48`). Segura visited her room ~6–7 minutes. Continuity is a feeder problem; Casis IB was abandoned ~2018–19 because there was no vertical. O. Henry principals have discussed an IB vertical (`01:01:22`–`01:03:13`). Three superintendents in 2½ years; “catastrophic” (`01:04:00`). Teacher: PYP does not need a continuum; did he read Hill’s IB letter? Unanswered; next question (`01:04:45`).

**Parent of two** (`01:05:23`): “One of the things I have missed from AISD throughout this process is any talk about the actual children.” Closures have educational, financial, behavioral consequences through college. Counselors after the announcement are not a plan. Segura: students must be centered; adult talk can hide that. Stacia Paschal (`01:08:48`): bridge team with Dr. Lewis; campus-leader toolkit; monthly counselor and principal PD; morning-meeting lessons; one-pagers; licensed mental health; restorative practices; don’t let students attach identity to the process.

**Teal** (`01:10:53`): distrust; risk of leaving AISD, not just the campus; don’t close 13 so rashly. Segura: will not propose pausing all 13; TAP pieces are defined by the state; November 21 upload, so vote on the 20th (`01:11:49`). Fear-based culture in his 7½–8 years here; he is trying to build trust. Board members asked him to look at timelines; he will not commit tonight (`01:13:22`).

**Max**, eight-year PTA (`01:14:02`): line item $5,000 for Zavala; community will show up for free. Bond votes, then tax increase for the deficit, then school closures and a larger deficit. Segura (after a caption gap `01:17:09`–`01:19:19`): version control — will not tell one community a change two days before another. Draft changes: automatic sibling transfers districtwide; automatic rising sixth and ninth; transfers into a closing school auto-approved to any receiving school. 7,000 comments. “Come to our board meetings and hang out. Keep me awake at night” (`01:20:11`). Melissa Brown close: “You have a goldmine in this community… just give us a chance” (`01:20:21`).

Meeting ends `01:21:07`.

Board vs. staff

Staff ran the meeting. The board is offstage: last night’s work session, unnamed trustee ideas, parents lobbying trustees. No trustee takes a question.

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