At Monday’s board meeting, Austin
Independent School District board members struggled to decide on their next plan
of action regarding the possible closure of Eastside Memorial High School,
leaving its students and their parents still wondering about the future of
their school.
Eastside Memorial was
originally established as Johnston High School in 1960. Since 2004, the
school’s low performance, according to Texas Education Agency standards, has
called for increasingly strict state oversight. Former Texas Education
Commissioner, Michael Scott, forced the school’s closure in 2008, making it the
second forced school closure in the state.
After further review, the commissioner allowed AISD members to repurpose
the school, and in Aug. 2008, the school reopened as Eastside Memorial High
School at the Johnston Campus.
Texas’s education board
members threaten to close the high school once again as it continues to receive
“unacceptable” ratings by the state. Texas Education Commissioner Michael L.
Williams provided AISD Board of Trustees with three options for Eastside
Memorial. After their meeting on
Monday, the council postponed a decision, with six weeks to devise a plan that
will determine the school’s future.
Parents of Eastside Memorial
students and the high school’s alumni haven’t stopped fighting for the school
since the closure of Johnston High in 2008. Robert Dominguez, a parent, a Johnston
alumnus and vice president of Eastside Memorial Parent Teacher Student
Association, says the district should leave the school alone. If the school
closes, the students will have to relocate, which could cause them to feel left
out of their new school, Dominguez said. “It’s not fair for the kids, the
parents or the community.” He worries about the future of the students, as his
daughter currently attends Eastside Memorial.
The three options facing AISD
board members include: (1) close down Eastside Memorial, (2) have a non-profit
organization or another district take over the school, or (3) continue their
contract with IDEA or find another partner. As of their meeting on Feb. 23, the
trustees concluded they would not pursue further partnership with IDEA Charter
School. Now, the trustees consider either closing the school at the end of the
2012-2013 or finding a new partner.
AISD trustees and
Superintendent Meria Carstarphen say they wish to keep the school open. In
search for new partners, they have created a Request for Proposals, which
provides vendors the guidelines and instructions on how to submit their
proposal for possible partnership with the school. According to an approved timeline, within the next six weeks,
the board plans to open proposal submission, consider the provided plans, and
take the chosen decision to the Commissioner.
The timeline proposed was
scheduled to be voted on at Monday’s meeting, but was already approved before
session began. Larry Amaro, Johnston High alum and PTSA member, questioned how
the timeline was already accepted prior to the meeting. During session,
District 6 Trustee Lori Moya openly asked how the pre-mature approval came
about, but was told they would answer her question in private session by the
board’s legal council.
With the six-week time
constraint, trustees and members of the community worry whether or not the
board will have enough time to come up with a sufficient solution. Amaro says
the commissioner will want a plan that is as good as IDEA or better, but there
isn’t enough time to create one. “They’re essentially planning to get what [the
PTSA] has been working on for a year completed in six weeks.” Vincent Torris,
President of the Board of Trustees, agrees with Amaro. He says a solution will take
longer than they have, and at this point, the board isn’t prepared to solve the
problem.
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