Chapter 23 — Ridgetop Elementary community meeting
**Date in the room:** Wednesday, November 5, 2025 (same morning/day cluster as Oak Springs). Principal: **90 minutes, skip the deck** — “I’m over that” (`00:01:29`). **Source:** `meetings/clean/20251106-Ridgetop-Elementary-School-Community-Meeting--November-5-2025.txt`
**Draft:** Ridgetop consolidates into **Pickle**. An **email the night before** changed the room: timeline “carveouts” for some campuses not tied to TAP/program moves (Palm and others named). Ridgetop is still on the TAP/program clock.
Who is in the room
**Campus:** Principal Cara Schultz (“Bianeneos Rattlers”; one-person bathroom; coffee; “queen of Enroll Austin”).
**Staff who speak:** Victoria O’Neal (Enroll Austin); Superintendent Segura. District cluster at the front.
**Board:** none present, none speaking. Segura: “many of our trustees” want feeder alignment (`00:08:44`); timeline change was “brought to me **and other trustees**. Just to be clear, it wasn’t just Matias” (`00:17:41`). He defends the board as unpaid, philosophically aligned, better than Fort Worth (`00:25:08`).
Opening (`00:00:00`–`00:14:01`)
Schultz: bathrooms, sign-in, thanks the “posi.” Victoria: norms, one minute, comment cards in reserve, every idea considered even if not used.
Segura: strong neighborhood school; he has read here; friends’ kids. Not true everywhere. Five drivers: feeders (Murchison→Anderson, O. Henry→Austin High whole; East Austin 3–5 HS); transfers; 86,000 → just over 70,000, ~20,000 extra seats (Moody + 3,000); 23/24/25 ratings, board of managers; dual language — AISD leaning in while neighbors lean out; core by policy/law is **emerging bilingual** (`00:12:39`). “There’s been some adjustments… yesterday and timeline. We can talk about that” (`00:12:55`). He will not avoid disruption. No lines for Q&A.
The email (`00:14:48`–`00:24:08`)
First speaker: Ridgetop tried to be open, collaborative, bought the vision. “**That email last night changed some things for this room.**” Three things he thought he’d heard: (1) no carveouts for the loudest, wealthiest communities; (2) transparency; (3) last night’s email carved out **three of the loudest communities**, no explanation, plus “allegations that have shaped the plan.” He has been one of Segura’s “strongest advocates.” “I feel personally embarrassed and let down” (`00:16:18`).
Segura (`00:16:45`): process, ethics, transparency. Timeline change is **timeline, not a drop of the body of work**. He was “100% prepared and ready to go if I needed to make a vote on the 20th.” Refinements from community were “perhaps not being fully assessed in the way that I expect.” Slowed **schools not tied to programmatic moves, not tied to turnaround plans** — “balanced enrollment,” including **Palm**, not only the schools the speaker means (`00:19:30`). Loud voices everywhere; that did not drive it. “I will never ever be part of something that doesn’t ensure… integrity.”
Follow-up: other schools — “you’re telling us you couldn’t get their feedback.” Segura: once strategies were shared, he didn’t have assurance they were explored to his standard. Speaker: “I mean that’s us to trust you but you broke our trust” (`00:22:49`). Segura: “I’m sorry that I’ve lost your trust.” Speaker: “You haven’t said anything.” Victoria: some things “in process right now that are **not disclosable**” (`00:23:34`). Policy.
Second speaker (`00:24:05`): “You changed the plan because it’s what can get the votes by the board.” Conversation is insulating ISD from takeover. How confident this pain isn’t wasted in five years? Does the board deserve confidence?
Segura: yes. Daughters in AISD. “Our trustees deeply deeply deeply care… unpaid… philosophically aligned. They may disagree [on] how we get here.” Fort Worth “brutal.” Budget is also a takeover path. 20 years of indecision; three superintendents in a year; 24+ principals in one year; early literacy/numeracy moving; TEA agreed order; TRE. Plan may now be a “two-phase step.” 30 F → 29 → 23 → “a fraction” next year. If TEA had wanted AISD already, they had avenues (`00:28:07`).
Third: if one part of the process is broken, halt the whole thing? Segura: no — the whole 116-school roll-out vs. **refinement**. He couldn’t ensure every community idea was fully evaluated, so he slowed the non-TAP piece.
Pickle (`00:30:06`– onward)
Leadership: Schultz? Current teachers? Online: “gentrification, colonization” at Pickle. Inspire-the-Future luncheon showed Pickle’s food pantry, clothing pantry, mental health, partners — **will those stay for all students?** Supports at other campuses if families leave?
Segura: never considered a 700-person layoff. Size lets them absorb. **December** he names the principal (conversations with Cara are private; “I want her in Austin ISD”). Familiar faces from both campuses; Pickle EB students also need familiar faces. Blend, not a published percent (`00:32:33`).
Later (`01:15:40`): “we value librarians. Like I’m not going to be the superintendent who ever says we are going to do anything other than support our librarians and a love for reading. Problem is the state doesn’t pay for [them].” `01:16:36`: “We protected them along the way. **We protected planning time in high school. We protected planning time along the way because that’s who we are.**”
(That planning-time line is **this** meeting, not Oak Springs.)
Meeting continues to ~`01:32` on Pickle culture, gentrification language, and whether the Nov. 20 vote still includes Ridgetop (yes — TAP/program-tied).
Board vs. staff
Staff only. The email is described as a superintendent/trustee process decision. No trustee explains the carveout in this cafeteria.