AISD Proposes New Re-Zoning Map, School Closures
The Austin Independent School District has unveiled 39 possible scenarios that will be used to implement substantial changes to the district. These drafts, titled: ‘School Changes,’ were released to the public in January of 2019 and will possibly affect the current zoning map.
Eleven of the proposed scenarios include a plan to consolidate multiple campuses into one facility as a result of declining enrollment. AISD has lost 6,000 students over the last five years and is projected to lose another 7,000 over the next ten years.
The 12 proposed school closures include elementary schools: Palm, Metz, Ridgetop, Pease, Joslin, Dawson, Sims, Pecan Springs, Maplewood, and Brooke. Bertha Sadler Means Young Women’s Leadership Academy and Webb Middle School will also be affected by the proposed school closures.
For the schools that will be consolidated, specialized school programs and students will be moved into the newly zoned and transfer-available schools in the area. The district will hold public meetings to allow the community to view the proposal before it is voted on by the Board of Trustees in November.
In early August, after AISD released the proposed rezoning map, the district held its first community meeting. Nearly 100 parents showed up to the cafeteria of Bedichek Middle School to anonymously voice their opinions and concerns via an online survey about the possible rezoning plans and school closures.
The biggest concern brought up by parents was that their children might have to transfer to new schools if the rezoning map is approved. If approved, some students currently zoned to Bowie and Austin High may be required to attend Crockett, which had several parents up in arms.
Parents were most skeptical of Crockett’s academic rigor, college preparatory opportunities, and score reports. Many parents based their arguments on the 2018–19 Texas Education Agency School Report Card, which granted Crockett a “B” rating while Bowie and Austin High were given an “A.”
“My concern is college readiness…I don’t feel Crockett will adequately prepare my children for college. I am skeptical that any amount of new programs at Crockett could turn this school around in the short time before my children enter high school. I DO feel that Austin High will adequately prepare my children for college,” a parent stated at the Bedichek meeting.
When comparing the rankings of Austin High to Crockett on overall grade, post-secondary preparedness, graduation rate, and STAAR pass rate in reading and writing, it’s difficult to find a big difference between the two. Crockett actually has the exact same math STAAR passing rate as Austin High and scored higher than them in graduation rates.
Crockett also scored higher than Austin High in school progress and achieved the top 25% in “Comparative Closing the Gaps:” how well different populations of students in a district are performing. Crockett High has a higher graduation rate by an additional four points than Austin High and only scored one point below Bowie Highs. All three schools received a score of 100 in college, career, and military readiness.
When speaking to Crockett students and staff members regarding its reputation, our students and staff had nothing but positive comments to say about our school.
Had parents been aware of Crockett’s vast similarities to Austin and Bowie High before attending the AISD community meeting, their opinions may have been different. The reputation perceived by the attendees of the Bedichek meeting seemed incorrect and uninformed. As a parent, researching the school your child could be rezoned to and finding out about their programs may have been more insightful and beneficial to the overall AISD community.
There is proof in more than just comparing the scores though. Crockett graduates have been accepted into multiple top schools over the years, including Williams College, the University of California Berkeley, Emerson College, Georgetown University, and the Pratt Institute.
One parent at the AISD community meeting stated that they would like to see an “incentive for students to get better grades and education on the dual credit system through ACC.” Crockett, in fact, does have this specific program available to all students.
Crockett’s Early College High School program currently has a dual credit system with Austin Community College that allows their child to graduate with an associate’s degree. In addition, the UT OnRamps dual credit opportunity is also available to receive further transferable college credits.
Although Austin High and Crockett both offer the same types of advanced coursework, Crockett is one of only seven high schools in the district that is partnered with the ACC dual credit program.
Moreover, Crockett offers a wide variety of CTE programs and pathways, including cosmetology, engineering, construction, entrepreneurship, journalism, STEM, and automotive programs on campus that allow students to participate in career-centered learning.
Senior Chloe Matyis said she values the ECHS Program offered at Crockett.
“The ECHS program allows you to get as many as 60 college credit hours by the time you graduate high school. I am getting a college experience while still attending high school and being introduced to rigorous academics while having a hand to guide me,” said Matyis. “Every college course that I take is also weighted, which contributes to my GPA. When I go to a university, I will get to save thousands of dollars by already having an associate’s degree under my belt, which is an amazing opportunity and resource that I am so glad I’ve been able to have access to.” — Matyis
The same parent that stated that they wished Crockett had an opportunity for students to gain college credits while in high school also stated that she knows of a teacher who works at Mendez Middle school that should “be a trainer for some of the teachers at Crockett.”
This parent is referring to Mendez Middle School, which was given an “F” and Bailey Middle School, which received a “B” with a “C” in multiple categories on the 2018–2019 TEA report card.
I have never met a teacher at Crockett who didn’t care about their students or the subject they teach. As someone who has personally been taught by the teachers at this school, I can say this from experience, not a prejudiced opinion. If these parents are concerned about the level of college readiness and the teachers at Crockett, they should come to spend the day as a visitor and sit in on classes and not react based on an outdated and unfounded reputation.
Junior class president Coleman Scollard spoke about his opinion on Crockett teachers and responded to the comment made by a parent concerning Crockett’s “lack of good teachers and college readiness programs.”
“Of course, at every school, there are teachers that are better than others, but Crockett absolutely has some of the best teachers I have ever had. Both my geometry and history teachers last year had an incredible impact on who I am as a person and my interests out in the world. I think that comment is one, very rude, and two doesn’t speak from a Crockett perspective.” — Scollard
Another concern brought up by a parent in reference to the rezoning map was about property values going down and purchasing houses based on where their children will go to high school.
“Changing to Crockett would be very disappointing to us, detrimental to our children, and a blow to our house value/equity that we have worked hard to build. I hope you will consider the negative impact that this change would have on all of us and not make this change,” the anonymous parent stated.
Crockett English teacher Jessica Dun stated that Austin as a city is segregated by income and that the parent’s negative thoughts on Crockett as a school and community are brought on by racism.
“People a lot of time kept bringing up the property value of their homes going down, and if you look at Austin as a city, it is actually segregated, it’s not segregated by law, it’s segregated by money. There are certain areas where people are wealthier, and they want their kids to go to certain schools,” said Dunn. “If you look at the makeup of both schools, our school is predominantly students of color, and students of color are often seen as less than. It’s just pure and simple racism is what it comes down to, it’s you don’t want your kid associated with a school like ‘this’ — a diverse population where we’re all thriving.” — Dunn
Finally, based on a chart by the School Board that compared advanced course offerings across AISD high schools, Austin High, Bowie, and Crockett were essentially equal in their rigor and options. We matched them in almost every course, with the exception of a few advanced language programs.
“We offer very similar advanced course loads that they do, we have Calc BC, we have our OnRamps Engineering classes, and we offer pretty much the same AP, OnRamps, and Dual Credit opportunities that they do,” said Crockett High School principal Kori Crawford.
Although the Crockett community had many positive things to say about Crockett, there are some areas Crockett students believe need improvement. A few areas students would like to see improvement on are the excessive amount of students in classrooms, overall infrastructure, and more extracurricular programs and pathways.
“Crockett lacks funding, so that isn’t so fun as a student since we aren’t really able to have a lot of nice things like renovated buildings or better technology in classrooms like other schools. I also hate that people give me a negative response when I say I go to Crockett and get judged too, which isn’t fun,” — an anonymous Crockett student.
The main reason our school gets judged so much is due to the fact that we lack the resources to fund all of the programs, infrastructure, and changes that our students want. Other schools in the district have the amount of funding they need from parents, boosters, and higher enrollment to provide them with that. Funding from the district is something that is entirely out of our control.
As a result of the recent School Changes process, Crockett is possibly going to face lower enrollment, which will result in a decrease in funding to improve programs, infrastructure, and changes that our students want.
As of October, there is a major addition to the School Changes draft regarding Covington Middle School, our primary feeder school, resulting in them becoming a 6–12 magnet program school. Crockett would lose at least half of our incoming freshmen enrollment.
If you’d like to support Crockett and share your opinions and personal experiences as a student at Crockett, please attend the community meeting regarding the proposal to change Covington into a 6–12 Fine Arts campus. The meeting will be held Tuesday, October 10th, at 6 pm, at Bedichek Middle School.
