By Kevin Stich

Tuesday, 20 December 2011

Just before 1 a.m. on Dec. 20, the Austin Independent School District board of trustees in a 6–3 vote approved a contractual partnership with IDEA Public Schools to establish an in-district charter program despite internal dissent and public opposition.

Assuming contract negotiations go as expected, IDEA will install a college-prep charter program at Allan Elementary School and will be part of the Eastside Memorial Vertical Team—composed of Eastside Memorial High School and its feeder schools—in the 2012–13 school year.

The specially called meeting started just after 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 19. The board called for meeting at the Dec. 12 regular meeting, which also lasted until 1 a.m., after deciding it did not have the necessary information to take action on the contract.

Trustees Robert Schneider, Annette LoVoi and Tamala Barksdale held the three disapproving votes, stating that language issues and amendments needed to be resolved in order to preserve district interests.

Schneider tweeted during the meeting from his personal account, “Anyone think this isn’t a done deal???” suggesting a contract had already been made behind closed doors and that the dialogue was merely a guise. During the meeting, he also said that it was “the most poisonous and divisive issue” he had ever seen in his tenure on the board.

Despite efforts to keep discussions civil, the crowd hissed in dissaproval several times throughout the meeting and a man was removed by AISD security. The night ended with many in the crowd chanting “down with Cartarphen,” “we’ll vote you out” and “boycott IDEA.”

The board has been under intense scrutiny lately as community members, as well as former Austin Mayors and former AISD Trustees Gus Garcia and Carole Keaton Strayhorn, said the governing body did not properly vet IDEA before considering an agreement with the nonprofit institution.

“One of the things that I wanted to do was to come and recommend to you to take your time to look at this issue,” Garcia said during citizen’s communication at the Monday meeting. “It points to a condition that exists in Austin and in our community, where the parents are very concerned. They do not feel that the process was transparent, they do not feel that they were heard and they don’t feel that their students will get the education that they deserve.”

However, just moments before, board president Mark Williams opened the citizen’s communication by acknowledging the community’s input.

“Whether it has been emails, whether it has been phone calls, whether it has been in person, whether it has been in some cases texts, I’ve seen the media coverage and I think my fellow board members have too, so I think a lot of voices have been heard,” he said.

Strayhorn urged the board to get off the dais and into the community, to trust parental judgment and to advocate a democratic culture.

“For government to work well it requires one key element: elected officials trust in all the people they represent,” she said. “We’ll fight for accountable, responsible and transparent government—decisions made in the sunshine and accessible to all.”

IDEA will start as K–2 and sixth-grade classes at Allan Elementary School in 2012–13 and parents of Allan students will be given the choice for their child to opt out. The program will grow to K–12 by 2018–19, serving 125 children between K-5 and 225 from grades five through 12.

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