Chapter 20 — Bedichek Middle School community meeting
**Date in the room:** Monday, November 3, 2025, morning. **Source:** `meetings/clean/20251104-Bedicheck-Middle-School-Community-Meeting--November-3-2025.txt` Spanish track exists (`20251104-ESPAÑOL-…`) and is not a second vote.
This is the community meeting in the set where recapture and inflation are spoken in full, on a mic, with timestamps.
**Draft on this campus:** close Bedichek; TAP follows the majority of students to **Covington**; remaining students zoned to **Paredes** (blue) and **Mendez** (purple). **Lively removed** as a receiving school in the Friday, October 31 version 2 (Williams and St. Elmo splits). Later reopen / “re-envision” after TEA approves a new school. ~**$800,000** extra TAP funds at the combined campus. Principal named by superintendent in **December**. Staff who don’t meet TAP requirements go to hiring fairs; district wants everyone placed by **April**.
Who is in the room
**Campus:** unnamed Bedichek host, then Ali Giller Ducey.
**Staff who speak:** Ali Giller Ducey (comms); Superintendent Segura; Christine Steenport, operations officer (map); Ali again on TAP inheritance; Dr. Cherry Lee, special education (offered, little airtime).
**Board:** Segura at `00:06:05`: “your trustees are here to provide that clear direction” — **office, not a named presence**. No trustee is introduced. No trustee takes a question. Finance add-on at `01:27:16` is **staff** (Ali), not a trustee.
Students come in mid-meeting for a demonstration (`00:14:16`). Media-release warning: don’t post student images (`00:34:10`).
Opening (`00:00:01`–`00:21:01`)
Host: “superintendent talk over consolidation and closure TAP plans.” Ali: norms, one minute, November 20 vote. Recorded English and Spanish, posted ~24 hours.
Segura why (`00:04:13`): funding (state and federal); changing accountability / local-control risk; enrollment decline; city around a 144-year-old map; cost of living. Five elements: feeder alignment (one ES → ≤2 MS, one MS → ≤2 HS — not true in East Austin or north-central; some MS to 3–5 HS); transfer SOP/policy; **>20,000 empty seats** (“3,000 more than the Moody Center”); consecutive UAs; program alignment (wall-to-wall DL as EB share declines).
Bedichek close then reopen later. TEA must approve what the school will be — not next year (`00:13:21`). Definition in the plan so the community and trustees can hold him, but not so much certainty that community process is skipped.
**Transfer changes vs. October 3** (`00:14:34`): Bedichek transfer students **automatically approved** to whichever of the three receiving schools they choose (including out-of-district, e.g. Kyle → Covington). Rising sixth and ninth graders: boundary changes will **not** control; transfers auto-approved. Numbers work. Over time, rebalance.
Steenport map (`00:16:41`): version 2 Oct. 31. Tiny Lively sliver removed — cleans Williams and St. Elmo splits. Blue → Paredes; green → Covington; purple → Mendez.
TAP (`00:18:15`): follows majority → Covington. Combined “Covington Bedichek” community. December principal. TAP staff requirements; others hiring fairs through April. Consolidation frees building cost for instruction. Each TAP campus (this would be one) **~$800,000** extra — coaches, interventionists, counselors, principal’s call (`00:20:29`).
First questions (`00:21:33`–`00:26:57`)
**Renee Geneva Rainey Co**, St. Elmo PTA president (`00:21:39`): map throws a “super little part of St. Elmo” **across I-35**, which AISD said it would respect as a major artery. Last plan had them to Covington. **Mendez is Third Future charter.** “My tax dollars… Why are we putting them into a charter school?”
Segura: plan is 26–27 and beyond. Third Future “never intended to be partner in perpetuity”; they did the work; take Mendez back. ALC is there. Board work session looking at moves to create space so Mendez reverts to AISD. Staffing and risk. Ali: historically, Mendez assignment auto-approves transfer to Paredes, Bedichek, or Lively (`00:24:58`).
Comment card, Andrea H. (`00:25:26`): how is this not disproportionately punishing Bedichek’s almost exclusively underserved population? Segura: get in front of it with planning, wraparound, student/community voice; waiting until spring hurts historically underserved more.
Students (`00:26:58`–`00:32:12`)
Demonstration arrives. Segura: “you all are the reason that we exist.”
**Rosabella** (`00:28:27`): “Why are we shutting the school down?” Segura: four things; first, not enough students in South Austin among Covington, Paredes, Lively, Bedichek. Small schools “inefficient… costly.” Enrollment down because “it’s kind of expensive to live here.” Teachers, programs, after-school all cost money. Grade? Going to Crockett.
**Student:** GT / Einstein / geometry? Programs follow need; they can move.
Parents, staff, options (`00:32:12`–`01:23:05`)
**Stephanie Mata**, seventh and eighth (`00:32:12`): why renovate front office and security if you meant to close? Segura: planned **2021–22**, 2022 bond. 88th Legislature didn’t fund; 89th only “to a small degree.” If the board approves, those dollars serve a campus here again — “won’t be wasted.” Safety investment regardless.
Sped teachers? If educators want AISD, “they will have a home, period.” Hiring by campus plan (Covington ≠ Paredes). Start with current campus staff. Sped placed by **need**, not headcount — Dr. Cherry Lee.
Ali: 13 schools → **~700 displaced staff** vs. “we’re not going to lose staff.” Segura: ~70,000 students, almost 11,000 employees; hire ~700 a year. Place AISD people instead of outside hires. Total positions come down. Teacher survey on geography.
**Lincoln**, seventh (`00:38:25`): what other options? Geography: Bedichek in the middle, Covington west, Lively/Mendez north-northeast, Paredes east; one MS cannot swallow another. Reduced expenses **over $100 million**; reduced central office; “everything possible before I ever had to come and look at schools.” Restart later as a different program.
**Shanda**, sixth and seventh (`00:40:38`): daughter Ann Richards → Bedichek → another MS; son sped/high anxiety, “100% will pull him out… home school.” Empty seats vs. hiring. Segura: attrition (leave, retire). She: accountability for why they leave **his** leadership. He: staffing **97.4%** vs. 84–86% when he started; Title I attrition 20% → <2.5%. She: she came back for the pay raise. He: pandemic, fear-based climate, 26 principals in one year.
**ADA (`00:43:08`):** she: schools paid only when the student is in the seat; fight the state. He: ADA is how funding is calculated. Last year ADA **+1.3%**; another 1.5–2% is **$4.5–5 million** against a **$70–80 million** deficit (`00:44:39`). She: they should give it anyway — take it to the Capitol. He: last three years; “lots of legislators and the governor… based on what we’ve seen it’s not likely” (`00:45:37`).
Spanish-speaking parent (interpreted `00:45:49`): programs at the receiving school. Segura: programs based on student need; after November 20, principals, staffing, spring academic programs for blended students. Cannot decide in spring — zero time to plan (`00:50:07`).
**Lillian**, seventh (`00:50:23`): why can’t seventh graders finish eighth here and only sixth graders move? Segura, slow: TEA letters; Bedichek three consecutive years not meeting, “so close.” A fourth year and “we… may lose our ability to support 70,000 students.” **Librarians:** “We’re right now in a library. We love librarians in Austin ISD… there are school districts right now that don’t have librarians… We made that decision with our board… we value librarians, we value nurses, we value our curriculum” (`00:52:11`). Houston already taken over; Fort Worth (similar size, ~70,000) board of managers (`00:53:35`). Friends split: bridge teams, “not going to be perfect.”
Overcrowding / ratios (`01:20:38`): Ali: ratios don’t change on consolidation; TAP campus can buy an extra teacher. Transportation: 2-mile radius or hazardous intersection (William Cannon / Westgate); “vast majority” get it (`01:21:18`).
Rosabella again (`01:22:07`): “You said you had wanted to give students what they need, but our students need—” (caption cuts). Segura: “This is very, very hard… I’m sorry.”
Finance exchange (`01:23:05`–`01:27:39`)
**Dylan Vickner**, eighth grader at Bedichek, fourth grader who wants to come (`01:22:52`):
Closing can mean crowded classrooms. Main question:
> considering that in the last year, Austin taxpayers have paid nearly **$700 million** towards the **Robin Hood recapture** plan to fund other school districts throughout the state of Texas… and simultaneously, the state has a **$24 billion** tax surplus. How is it not possible to reallocate some of those funds to help… cover this **$20 million** deficit? (`01:23:16`–`01:23:47`)
**Segura** (`01:23:49`):
> What’s your name? > Dylan. > So, Dylan, what you’re describing is what the board and I have been fighting for for the last many years. I mean, like we we have. > So, the Robin Hood or the recapture, we spent we sent **$714 million about 8 weeks ago**, and then we spent **$56 million**. > And you’re right. That money is collected, it goes to the state, the state redistributes it to school districts, **but not all of it. They actually keep a good amount of it.** > The problem is we have fought and fought and fought. And when you are only a couple legislators here in Central Texas and then every other legislator throughout the state of Texas, over 200, 300 of them collectively between the Senate and the House, **benefit from recapture** because their school districts are getting something. They’re not going to vote to have it be different than the way it already is. > That’s how you get things to the state. You have to have a majority… I promise you I we have been fighting… We’ve sued in 2017… We challenged it in 2019. This time around we’re pushing… but **it’s not going to change. It’s just not.** > Now… our approach kind of shifted for the **89th Legislature** and we said… Fine. I get that we’re not going to be able to move it… **let’s just fund public education.** Let’s raise the **basic student allotment**. Let’s figure out how to put billions of dollars into the school system and give districts the autonomy, when appropriate, to spend as they see fit… we choose to spend it on teachers. > There was some movement in the 89th… lots of the dollars were set asides for certain programs… confining how you spend your dollars. And at the end of the day, whenever it all nets out, it ended up being around a **$10 million increase for AISD** bottom line. Now teachers got raises, which is great… three raises in a row. > Another thing… the federal government. Title 1, Title 2, Title 3, and Title 4… Earlier this year I sent a letter… two, three, and four… frozen. I had to get **100 people in a room** and tell them that the source of funding used to pay their salary is frozen. And I’m not in a position… to carry them without really impacting our fund balance… multilingual education… all the things that we believe in. > I am trying to desperately move us to a place where we don’t have to rely on funding sources that are variable… unfortunately Austin in front of anything makes it to where almost everybody’s going to not vote for it.
**Staff add (Ali)** (`01:27:16`):
> And I’ll just add with this last legislative session, there were estimates that in order to get our funding up to **keep up with inflation** that we needed to get an extra **1,100 to 1,300 per student**. And what ended up coming was about came out to about **200 per student**. So that’s how— And the legislature wanted to celebrate. It was a big bill and it was a lot of money to schools, but it was nowhere near what it would cost just to keep up with the rising costs.
That is the allotment year, spoken at a middle school, not as a motion.
After finance (`01:27:41`–`01:39:34`)
**Maria**, seven-year transfer, moving out of Austin (`01:27:41`): “district monopoly game.” Combining schools is “bad bad bad.” Langford → Palm: wake at 6:00, bus 6:40, parents can’t drop off, kids not allowed on Palm’s playground, gym in a mobile. Looking at charter; “move out of Austin.” Ali prompts: don’t let anyone feel like a visitor. Segura: 144 years, 70,000 students, 116 schools; bridge teams (2019; Norman-Sims; Metz and Sanchez). Langford reopens 26–27; he had not heard the playground limit.
**Stephanie**, sped / scores (`01:33:14`): why this get-together if the decision is made? Segura: started Feb–March; 23/24/25 ratings set the November timeline. Five goals with the board. “We have to reduce our budget deficit… if we don’t reduce the number of seats, then we’ll never get there… you’ll be right back here in two or three years… district will be on the verge of like insolvency… another reason the state can take over” (`01:34:42`). Follow-up: if you miss the five, does TEA still take over? Segura: **No.** Missing plan goals is not itself a takeover. Further from the goals = more state risk in 24–48 months. State comes in: “These teachers are out. These schools are closing. No communication.” “Why didn’t you make a hard decision, Matias? I’m going to make it for you” (`01:37:56`).
Ali close (`01:38:27`): phase three. **November 6** board conversation on the draft; new comment card Friday. Board anticipated to vote **November 20**. Students left quietly.
Board vs. staff
Staff only. Recapture $714 million and inflation $1,100–$1,300 vs. ~$200 are **staff answers to a parent**, not a board item. Trustees are invoked (“fighting for years”) and not in the chairs.