IntroductionIn April 2000, Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander's Texas School Performance Review (TSPR) staff and consultants completed a comprehensive school review of the Austin Independent School District (AISD). In June 2001, TSPR returned to assess the district's progress in implementing its recommendations.
Since 1991, TSPR has recommended more than 5,500 ways to save taxpayers more than $628 million over five years in 63 public school districts throughout Texas. TSPR also conducts follow-up reviews of districts that have had at least one year to implement its recommendations. The 35 follow-up reviews conducted to date show that districts have acted upon almost 90 percent of TSPR's proposals, saving taxpayers more than $103 million thus far, with more savings expected in the future.
Improving the Texas School Performance Review
Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander, who took office in January 1999, consulted school district officials, parents, and teachers from across Texas and carefully examined past reviews and progress reports in an effort to make the Texas School Performance Review (TSPR) more valuable, even vital, to the state's more than 1,000 school districts. With the perspective of having served as a teacher, and later a school board president, the Comptroller has vowed to steer TSPR toward being more accountable to local school districts and the communities they represent.
Comptroller Rylander began by establishing new criteria for selecting school districts for future reviews. Priority will be given to districts judged poor performing academically or financially, and to hands-on reviews that will benefit the greatest number of students. These are the school districts and children that need help the most.
Recognizing that only about 52 cents of every education dollar is spent on instruction, Comptroller Rylander's goal is to drive more of every education dollar into the classroom. In addition, no longer will school districts' best practices and exemplary models be left buried inside individual TSPR reports. Instead, Comptroller Rylander has ordered best practices and exemplary programs to be shared quickly and systematically among all the state's school districts, and with anyone who requests such information. There is simply no reason for a district that has solved a problem well to keep the solution to itself. Comptroller Rylander has directed TSPR to serve as an active clearinghouse of the best and brightest ideas in Texas public education. Best practices identified in the original review of AISD will be included in the Comptroller's best practices database, A+ Ideas for Managing Schools (AIMS), which is accessible on the web at www.aimsdatabase.org.
Under Comptroller Rylander's approach, the TSPR team and consultants will work with districts to:
- ensure students and teachers receive the support and resources necessary to succeed;
- identify innovative options to address core management challenges;
- ensure administrative activities are performed efficiently, without duplication and in a manner that spurs education;
- develop strategies to ensure the districts' processes and programs are continually assessed and improved;
- understand the links among the districts' functional areas and determine ways to provide a seamless system of services;
- challenge any process, procedure, program or policy that impedes instruction and recommend ways to reduce or eliminate obstacles; and
- put goods and services to the "Yellow Pages test" - government should do no job if there is a business in the Yellow Pages that can do that job better and at a lower cost.
Finally, Comptroller Rylander has opened her door to Texans who share her optimism about TSPR's potential. Suggestions to improve school reviews are welcome at any time. The Comptroller is a staunch believer in public education and public accountability.
Detailed information can be obtained from TSPR by calling 1-800-531-5441 extension 5-3676, or by visiting the Comptroller's Web site at www.window.state.tx.us.
TSPR in the Austin Independent School District
In July 1999, Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Carole Keeton Rylander announced her intention to have her TSPR team conduct a management and performance review of the Austin Independent School District (AISD). Comptroller Rylander is an AISD graduate, former AISD teacher and school board president and a mother of AISD graduates. Her granddaughters now attend an AISD elementary school. The Comptroller was motivated by reports that AISD officials had manipulated student dropout data and the results of the state-mandated student achievement test, the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS); by AISD's lagging student performance; and by its escalating property tax rate.
During a six-month review of the district, TSPR developed 163 recommendations to improve operations and save taxpayers nearly $70 million by 2004-2005. Cumulative net savings from all recommendations (savings less recommended investments) would reach more than $57 million by 2004-05.
TSPR interviewed district employees, school board members, students, parents, business leaders and community members. TSPR also held informal public forums on two evenings at 10 district high schools. Participants were invited to submit written observations on major topics of concern or to be interviewed by a member of the TSPR review team. The team also collected comments from letters to the Comptroller and calls to the Comptroller's toll-free hotline. TSPR also sent written surveys to a random sample of district administrators and support staff, principals, teachers, and students.
To gain additional insight into community concerns and perceptions, TSPR held 12 focus groups with AISD stakeholders, including the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce; the Austin Area Research Organization; the League of United Latin-American Citizens; Austin Latino Alliance; the Austin Council of Parent-Teacher Associations; the Community Education Consortium; representatives of the Hispanic and African-American communities; Spanish-speaking parents; and AISD principals, assistant principals, teachers, and bilingual teachers. Community members and AISD staff who participated in focus groups provided oral and written comments about 12 functional areas under review in TSPR's report.
TSPR also conducted 650 telephone interviews with adults in a random sample of households in AISD's service area. In addition, TSPR consulted two databases of comparative educational information maintained by the Texas Education Agency (TEA), the Academic Excellence Indicator System and the Public Education Information Management System. Finally, TSPR asked AISD to select "peer" school districts with similar characteristics for comparative purposes. AISD chose the Alief, Corpus Christi, Fort Worth, Northside (Bexar County), and Pasadena ISDs as its peers. TSPR also compared AISD to district averages in TEA's Region 13 Education Service Center, to which AISD belongs, and to state averages.
Unlike many urban school districts, AISD generally has enjoyed widespread community support. But in recent years, this support has eroded under the strain of one management failure after another.
Since 1996-97, student enrollment has grown by 2.4 percent, or about a half-percent annually.
Some 48 percent of AISD's students are classified as economically disadvantaged, a level about on par with the state average. At the same time, AISD's property tax wealth per student is estimated at more than $437,000, making it one of the state's "property-wealthy" districts, and requiring it to share its property wealth with Texas' poorer districts.
AISD's 2000-01 budget totaled more than $579 million. The district has more than 9,600 employees, making it one of the largest employers in the greater Austin area. More than 5,000 of these employees are teachers. The student body is 46 percent Hispanic, 35 percent Anglo, 17 percent African-American, and 3 percent "other." The teaching staff is 70 percent Anglo, 21 percent Hispanic, 8 percent African-American, and 1 percent "other." The district has more than 100 campuses, of which 12 are high schools, including the new Garza Independence High School.
Under the state's school accountability system, TEA assigns annual ratings to each district and campus based upon TAAS student passing rates, student attendance and dropout rates, and the quality of various data reported to the state. AISD as a whole is rated as "academically acceptable," but its student performance remains below state and regional averages. The district's overall 1999-2000 TAAS passing rate of 71.2 percent (most recent data available) trailed both the statewide average of 79.9 percent and the Central Texas regional average of 80.9 percent.
In 2000-01, TEA rated five AISD schools as "low-performing," down from 16 in 1998-99. Of those five, however, four have been low performing for three of the last five years. AISD also has had some remarkable successes, with 14 schools rated as exemplary and 24 as recognized up from 10 and nine respectively in 1999-2000.
In spring 2001, Annie Webb Blanton Elementary School was named a National Blue Ribbon School by the US Department of Education.
Since April 2000, when TSPR's report was released, AISD has undergone some fairly significant changes. The district is introducing new districtwide data systems to handle finance, human resources, and student data; these promises to ease the administrative burden on AISD staff members, ensure more accurate data reporting, and make the data more useful for staff. AISD board policies that had not been comprehensively reviewed and updated since 1995 have been revised, presented to the board and are now online. The district has reduced its per-student cost for legal services from $21.71 in 1998-99 to $9.52 in 2000-01 through the use of in-house attorneys. Core business functions such as human resources, finance and technology are being restored under the leadership of a new administrative team.
While the district still has much work to do, both AISD managers and TSPR's team members have a sense of steady progress. Eighty-nine recommendations have been implemented, 67 are in various stages of progress and seven have not been addressed because the district felt they were not feasible at this time. (See Appendix A for details on the status of the recommendations.)
Austin ISD Report Card
Chapter # of
RecordsComplete In
ProgressNot
ImplementedRejected Percent Complete/
In ProgressRating District Organization and Management 19 14 4 1 0 74%/21% Satisfactory Educational Service Delivery and Performance Measures 32 18 14 0 0 56%/44% Satisfactory Community Involvement 7 5 2 0 0 71%/29% Satisfactory Personnel Management 12 6 5 1 0 50%/42% Satisfactory Facilities Use and Management 13 0 13 0 0 0%/100% Satisfactory Asset and Risk Management 11 8 3 0 0 73%/27% Satisfactory Financial Management 15 8 5 2 0 53%/33% Satisfactory Purchasing and Contract Management 10 3 7 0 0 30%/70% Satisfactory Management Information Systems 5 4 1 0 0 80%/20% Satisfactory Transportation 12 4 7 1 0 33%/58% Satisfactory Food Services 15 10 4 1 0 67%/27% Satisfactory Safety and Security 12 9 2 1 0 75%/17% Satisfactory Overall Grade 163 89 67 7 0 55%/41% Satisfactory Excellent = More than 80% complete
Satisfactory = 80% to 100% complete or in progress
Needs Work = Less than 80% complete or in progress
Exemplary Programs and PracticesTSPR identified numerous "best practices" in AISD. Through commendations in each chapter, the original report highlighted model programs, operations and services provided by AISD administrators, teachers and staff members. Other school districts throughout Texas are encouraged to examine the exemplary programs and services to see if they can be adapted to meet local needs. TSPR's commendations include:
- Magnet Program - AISD's three magnet schools do an outstanding job of providing advanced, challenging curricula in science, mathematics and liberal arts. LBJ High School's class of 1999 (120 students) included 14 National Merit Scholars, 17 National Merit semifinalists, 17 National Merit Commended Scholars, two National Achievement Scholarships for Outstanding Negro Students and five National Hispanic Scholarships. At Kealing Junior High, about 60 students received state recognition for academic achievement in the Duke University Talent Search.
Amid concerns about the future of AISD Magnet programs AISD formed a Working Group to study the issues. The Academic Magnets/ Neighborhood Schools Working Group issued an interim report concerning possible magnet school options to the Board of Trustees on June 7, 2001. The Working Group is presenting its final report to the board in September. During September and October, the board will make a decision regarding the future of the magnet programs.
- Account for Learning - AISD has developed a locally funded initiative, Account for Learning, to assist campuses with a high percentage of economically disadvantaged students in improving their reading and mathematics performance.
For 2000-01, AISD's reading and math scores improved for all categories of students
- School-to-Career Program - AISD offers a School-to-Career program that prepares students for careers while allowing them to move from one pathway to another as their interests and skills evolve.
Student participation in AISD's School to Career program in 2000-01 was at 14.5 percent (11,250 students), up from 13.6 percent (10,772 students) in the previous year. The district has formed a Career Preparation Workgroup to develop recommendations intended to increase the academic rigor of AISD's program and strengthen its links to the area business community. These recommendations will be provided to AISD's Board of Trustees in Fall 2001. Significant program development is under way in the areas of health sciences, hospitality and culinary arts, and construction.
- Student Health Care - AISD provides high-quality health care services to its students through partnerships with Travis County, the City of Austin, and the Children's Hospital of Austin.
AISD continues to provide high-quality health care services to its students through these innovative partnerships.
- Austin Partners in Education - This nationally recognized program involves businesses and community organizations in enriching all AISD schools through volunteer services, in-kind contributions, and financial support.
During 2000-01, AISD's partners, mentors, tutors, volunteers, and parents provided almost 400,000 hours of service valued at $6 million. In all almost $15 million in time, cash, resources, and hours was donated to the district by businesses, community organizations, and volunteers, an increase of 25 percent over the prior year. Since the Partners in Education program's inception in 1983, the total amount donated to the district has exceeded $79 million.
- Community Education - Over its 25-year history, a nationally recognized AISD/City of Austin partnership, the Community Education Program, has worked effectively with local organizations to provide tutorial and after-school services for more than one million area children and their families. The program has received national recognition.
The Community Education Program continues to thrive. Local agreements with Austin Community College, the Travis County Commissioner's Court and Austin Interfaith (a grassroots, faith-based advocacy organization) have helped to build communities of learners across the city. AISD provides after-school and summer programs for children and adult education classes at 50 school campuses in all parts of the city. The program places a major emphasis on high-need students and their families. The Community Education Program employs AISD curriculum standards to extend student learning during out-of-school time. Programs such as VICTORY tutorials, TAAS Power! Workshops and Project HELP (services for homeless students), help ensure that "at-risk" students receive help in overcoming barriers to their academic achievement.
- Qualified Substitutes - AISD's automated substitute-teacher calling system has proven effective in ensuring the availability of qualified substitutes.
AISD continues to use its efficient automated substitute caller system to identify and fill classrooms with qualified substitutes when teachers are absent.
- Building Prototypes - AISD uses building prototype designs to ensure quality and control school construction costs. In 1996, AISD developed building prototypes for elementary, middle, junior-high, and high schools that established effective relationships between functions and the areas constructed for their use.
The District's educational specifications set square footages for each use area while the prototype designs provide a two-dimensional representation of the required special relationships that must be preserved between the various use areas.
- Insurance - AISD adopted a novel insurance initiative called the Rolling Owner Control Insurance Program (ROCIP) as part of its 1996 bond construction program. ROCIP has generated estimated savings of $3.6 million and expanded the participation of smaller local contractors in the district's program.
Under this innovative program, smaller contractors can be covered by greater limits of liability insurance and more comprehensive Worker Compensation and Builders Risk coverage than would otherwise be available.
- Bonds - AISD saved $4.8 million after refunding its Series 1996 bonds and has effectively managed its debt since the 1996 bond election.
AISD's business staff regularly monitors market conditions to determine when and if the refunding of bonded indebtedness is in the best interest of the district.
- Telecommunications - The Greater Austin Area Telecommunications Network (GAATN) is a state-of-the-art wide area network capable of rapidly delivering large volumes of data directly to any computer system anywhere in the district.
AISD is beginning to use this unique capability to offer distance-learning opportunities at its secondary schools and expand its use of net-based software to enhance student learning.
- School Resource Officers - AISD's school resource officers are the focal point of the district's safety and security efforts. They work harmoniously with schools and provide an important asset to the AISD community.
School resource officers continue to serve a vital role in AISD's overall safety and security efforts.
- Absent Student Assistance Project (ASAP) - ASAP, a community-based collaborative effort involving the Austin and Del Valle school districts and Travis County constables, improves school attendance by providing timely responses to student absenteeism.
Austin ISD has been working closely with the City of Austin and Travis County on a three-way funded "roving truancy master/judge" that would bring the court to the campus. In addition, AISD administrators are being trained in the need to file cases earlier in the year and provide better documentation on truancy cases.
- Campus Crime Stoppers - A collaborative community effort between AISD and the Travis County sheriff's office, Campus Crime Stoppers provides a "hotline" and rewards students who report weapons and possible criminal activity in and around schools.
Campus Crime Stoppers continues to provide staff, students and community members with an easy way to report weapons and possible criminal activity in and around schools. Reports are followed up on by the AISD police force in cooperation with the Travis County Sheriff's Department.
The following are some of the key TSPR recommendations that AISD administrators and staff believe have had the greatest impact on district operations. These highlighted recommendations are organized by chapter and area of operation as listed in the original report. The comments came from district administrators during the TSPR team's follow-up visit to the district.
District Organization and Management
Recommendation 8: Improve the development of Campus Improvement Plans. AISD instituted a revitalized process for developing campus improvement plans (CIPs). The superintendent said that, prior to the development of the new plans, he was unable to discuss the performance of individual campuses with their administrators because no data of this kind were readily available. Now, the superintendent can look at the data in the CIP and compare them to current data to see how a campus is performing and what progress they are making toward their goals. One board member said the new CIPs were particularly useful to board members in analyzing the performance of campuses in their districts.
Recommendation 9: Update the board policy manual and regulations and place it online. The board knew its policy manual was outdated and had been interested in making the necessary updates. The superintendent said this recommendation motivated district administrators to begin this task. As of August 2001, all seven sections of the Policy Manual have been approved by the board and put on line. AISD's next goal is to develop administrative procedures to ensure that these policies are carried out. Putting these procedures online along with polices will greatly reduce printing costs and put valuable information into the hands of every employee of the district. As of September 2001, 16 administrative regulations have been developed and put on line. By the end of September all policies will have been reviewed to determine what regulations are still needed.
Recommendation 16: Hire an in-house attorney, a legal assistant, and a secretary to reduce the district's legal costs. The district's new in-house counsel has been a tremendous benefit, according to administrators. As noted above, the district has reduced its per-student cost of legal services from $21.71 in 1998-99 to $9.52 per student in 2000-01. Poor staff training and unwise decisions contributed to the high cost of district litigation. To address these problems, the district now requires each law firm that contracts with the district to provide eight hours of staff training as part of the contract. More than 80 hours of training on critical personnel functions will be provided this summer to campus and central office administrators, which should help reduce the need for litigation in the future.
Education Service Delivery
Recommendation 20: Implement a formal district policy on school reconstitution for consistently low-performing schools. The administration said that a formal policy on reconstitution - that is, totally restaffing of a school when it has been chronically low performing - gave the district a sense of urgency. Blackshear Elementary, which is chronically low-performing, was reconstituted in the 2000-01 school year. While student performance has not yet been brought up to standard, some indicators such as employee morale, campus climate and discipline management show signs of significant improvement.
Recommendation 25: Develop a comprehensive plan for accurately reporting dropout rates that includes campus and districtwide strategies. The superintendent said that he understood that accurate and useful data would be the key to addressing many of the district's problems and regaining the community's trust. Today, the district has corrected its data and is using routine processes to maintain them. Campus administrators are coming to depend on the data and are using them to follow up on students. The next step will be to reduce the administrative burden of data collection through automation. AISD is implementing a new data management system to accomplish this, which should be complete early next year.
Recommendation 31: Allocate bilingual/ English as a Second Language staff to each campus based on student enrollment. Previously, these employees were allocated to campuses based on need, but because the district's data on students and staff were inaccurate, the allocation was flawed. This recommendation, in combination with several related ones, emphasized the importance of bilingual education to the district and heightened AISD's awareness of its growing immigrant population and the need for services in both the upper and lower grades. One outgrowth was the creation of the Immigrant Academy, which provides special assistance to middle school students entering the system for the first time.
Recommendation 33: Provide teachers with detailed TAAS, Spanish version performance analyses in a timely manner so they can be used for instructional planning for limited English proficient students.
Recommendation 50: Provide campus-level, detailed TAAS performance analyses in a timely manner so that these can be used for effective instructional planning. The district felt these two recommendations were important because they gave schools the tools they need to analyze their own test data and take actions needed for improvement. As a result, the capabilities of campus staff and overall accountability are improving.
Recommendation 45: Establish clear leadership responsibility for School to Career Program management and install career labs in all middle schools.
Recommendation 46: Designate the deputy superintendent for Accountability and Information Systems Technology as the single point of contact between School to Career programs and the business community. According to the deputy superintendent for Accountability and Information Systems Technology, these recommendations changed the whole way the district looks at career and technology education. AISD formed a Career Preparation Workgroup to review and advise the district on ways to ensure that students are better prepared for the workplace; the deputy superintendent is sitting on the Chamber of Commerce's Workforce and Education Board and the business community has signaled its willingness to extend ongoing support to district career preparation programs.
Community Involvement
Recommendation 55: Restructure and consolidate AISD programming into one cable channel. This recommendation has allowed AISD to better use its limited media production capabilities and produce higher-quality local programming. This proposal spurred AISD to enter into a unique partnership with KLRU-TV, Austin's public broadcasting station, to develop a new initiative called "Career Connect." First through web portals, and eventually with interactive television, KLRU will provide valuable instructional and professional development programming for Austin students, teachers and parents.
Personnel Management
Recommendation 67: Update all job descriptions every three years. The district has hired a compensation analyst to update its job descriptions and conduct compensation studies to ensure that salaries are commensurate with the jobs being performed. Clearly delineating what people are expected to do will help the district address compensation issues such as exempt status and eligibility for overtime.
Recommendation 69: Reorganize all employee relations activities under the director of Employee Relations and add one representative to assist the director with the additional workload. District administrators said that this recommendation has ensured that employees receive more consistent information and treatment.
Facilities Use and Management
Recommendation 71: Reassess current and future building plans and reallocate dollars to areas where facilities are needed to address enrollment and capacity needs.
Recommendation 74: Create a comprehensive facilities master plan and annually monitor the district's progress toward its implementation. The district has contracted for a comprehensive facility assessment that may cost the district more than $2 million. The district believes this expenditure, however, will provide valuable information that will help the district better manage growth in the southern part of the district and adjust for enrollment declines in the north. Furthermore, AISD administrators said the study will help them plan for facility changes and perform better impact analyses in response to emergency situations, such as the need to relocate students from Hill Elementary when mold was discovered.
In addition, the board has appointed a trustee committee that will seek citizens' input to make recommendations on what should be done with such facilities as the Rio Grande campus, portables and other potential excess property.Asset and Risk Management
Recommendation 94: Adopt a policy that requires central administration to identify, track and inventory only fixed assets worth more than $1,000. With the advent of new accounting principles that will require school districts to account for and depreciate fixed assets differently than they have done in the past, AISD raised the threshold for capitalization of fixed assets to $5,000. They continued, however, to track lower-dollar items in a control inventory, in which they are tagged, counted and tracked like other fixed assets but will not have to be depreciated and accounted for under the new accounting principals. This change in policy greatly reduced the administrative burden, while still maintaining control over the smaller-dollar items.
Financial Management
Recommendation 97: Ensure accountability and continuity in the district's financial operations by making the chief financial officer responsible for all financial monitoring, planning, and forecasting.
Recommendation 98: Transfer the direct authority over and responsibility for developing, implementing and controlling the budget from the Budget Team to the Budget director. According to the district's chief financial officer, these two recommendations are helping AISD maintain control over its finances and ensure accountability. Having a single individual serve as a clearinghouse for the key processes of financial management and budgeting ensures greater consistency and stability.
Recommendation 99: Prepare a district budget that is based on fund/function classification and that serves as a policy document, an operations guide, a financial plan, and a communications device. Prior to TSPR's review, AISD was not preparing its budget in the same manner as most other districts in the state, and the district's own computer system could not process and manage the budget based on standard fund and function codes. For 2001-02, AISD prepared the budget according to state guidelines. The district's chief financial officer told TSPR that the budget will now be useful as an operations guide, financial plan and communication device - a major improvement over past budgets.
Recommendation 100: Amend board policy to require a fiscal impact statement on all proposed budget actions, including the impact of those actions on the optimum fund balance. Board members and administrators alike found this recommendation to be extremely useful. Board members said that, in the past, they often were required to make decisions without a full understanding of their potential fiscal impact. Administrators said that providing this information requires additional time and thought, but it also answers many of the board's questions in advance, thereby reducing the amount of time spent in board meetings.
Recommendation 107: Fill the vacant director of Internal Audit position and hire at least two additional audit staff. Pursuant to TSPR's recommendations in this area, the district has hired an Internal Audit director and additional auditing staff; developed and approved an audit plan; and defined Internal Audit's reporting relationship to the board and superintendent. These actions have resulted in the creation of a strong unit that can review high-risk areas of district operations and ensure a strong system of internal controls.
Purchasing and Warehouse Services
Recommendation 111: Revise and implement AISD board policies for competitive purchasing to reflect changes in the Texas Education Code. District purchasing policies had not been updated to reflect legislative changes made to the Texas Education Code since 1995. The district now can communicate purchasing policies and procedures to campuses and departments engaged in the purchasing process, accurately and consistently. Everyone now knows the rules and has no excuse for not following them.
Recommendation 113: Expedite the purchase requisition approval process by authorizing purchasing assistants and buyers to approve purchase requisitions of $1,000 or less, and by developing a procurement card program. Now that the district has had a year to train new people in these positions, they feel comfortable allowing these individuals to authorize lower-dollar requisitions. This will speed the purchasing process, enhance quality control and allow management to spend less time signing paperwork.
Recommendation 116: Require principals to follow the textbook inventory guidelines in the Guide to Textbooks. AISD has had difficulty in tracking its textbooks over the years; poor control in this area can be costly and deprive students and teachers of the books they need. TSPR's recommendation made this issue a higher priority. Principals are now required to sign in when they attend textbook training, so they can have no excuse for not following district rules. Moreover, the district has begun auditing textbook inventories at every school every year. AISD anticipates that its textbook losses will be reduced by as much as $350,000 over the next few years.
Computers and Technology
Recommendation 123: Expand the Educator Technology Competencies (ETC) and DTLT/CTLT programs to include administrative and technical staff. AISD had a number of training programs for teachers, but little training for its other staff members. This recommendation caused the district to rethink how they were training administrative and technical workers. The district expanded its training programs to include the use of the Microsoft products as well as many other offerings aimed at improving the technical skills of administrative and support employees.
Transportation
Recommendation 135: Create a tracking system for recording student incidents on buses and analyze trends to respond to any recurring problems quickly. Keeping children safe on school buses is a primary concern for any district. AISD is creating a system to track incidents so that disciplinary procedures can be better coordinated with campus administrators and incidents can be reduced.
Food Service
Recommendation 138: Implement the SNAP automated point-of-sale system at all AISD campuses. AISD officials said that this new system will allow the district to increase the amount of federal reimbursements it receives by more accurately counting meals served. For example, a la carte meals can, when served in certain combinations, be classified as a reimbursable meal according to federal guidelines. Furthermore, the system will protect the anonymity of students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals, thereby encouraging more children to eat in the cafeterias.
Recommendation 143: Establish multiple lunch periods at all AISD high school campuses. Administrators said that they are already seeing some increase in revenues this year as a result of the use of multiple lunch periods at the high schools. This is particularly important to attract high school students who are used to fast food; standing in line for long periods of time is not fast. These students are mobile and, when confronted by obstacles, they are likely to leave the campus for lunch.
Safety and Security
Recommendation 157: Develop a policy for the detection of weapons or drugs on campuses and acquire or contract for a drug- and weapon-detecting dog to promote greater security. AISD recognized that a Canine Unit could be a deterrent to crime and violence on campuses, as well as a tool that could be used to educate students, especially at the elementary level. In June 2001, the officers and dogs completed their training; in the fall, these units will perform routine searches on campuses and travel from school to school giving demonstrations at elementary campuses.
AISD has made steady progress in implementing TSPR's recommendations with 96 percent of the recommendations either implemented or being implemented at this writing. District administrators have failed to act on only seven of the report's recommendations; some of these, however, are critical to realizing the savings projected in the Comptroller's original report. This section addresses key areas requiring additional attention.
Low Performing Schools
In 2000-01, AISD's had only five low-performing campuses, down from nine in 1999-2000 and 16 in 1998-99. And, the total number of exemplary and recognized campuses rose significantly. What remains troubling is the fact that all of the 2000-01 low performing campuses are East of the interstate in neighborhoods with high minority and economically disadvantaged populations. Further, Blackshear Elementary, Dobie Middle School and Johnston and Reagan High Schools have all been low performing for three of the past five years. The Oak Springs Elementary had been academically acceptable and fell to low performing status in 2000-01. Blackshear Elementary was reconstituted last year under the district's new reconstitution policy (Recommendation 20) and district administrators and staff are confident that student performance will improve in the coming year as a result of these massive changes. But Recommendation 27, designed to attract qualified and experienced teachers to high need campuses, was modified by the district because they felt that teacher incentives were unnecessary, choosing instead to give principals more authority to recruit and hire their own staff.
Holding children hostage in neighborhood schools that have been low performing for three of the last five years is unacceptable. While the district has taken some steps to address the needs of these low performing schools including providing additional support from a Focus Support Team and targeted funds to enhance programs, more needs to be done. Whether AISD chooses to reconstitute these other schools, reconsiders giving teachers an added incentive or continues with its current program, the fact remains that high need campuses need the brightest and the best teachers to address the special needs of the children in these schools. Expectations must be set high and campuses need to be given the best teachers and resources to ensure success for all children in the district.
Facilities Use and Management
AISD's board and administration have consistently resisted any action on some important recommendations dealing with facilities and facility management. Most importantly, TSPR recommended that AISD sell its Carruth Administration Center, an attractive but inadequate facility that offers too little parking for the public and has proven costly to maintain. The district has placed this proposal on "indefinite hold" for reasons that, frankly, fail to hold water upon closer examination.
AISD claims that TSPR overestimated the property's value. The value TSPR placed on Carruth, however, came directly from the 1999 tax rolls, with very modest adjustments for rising taxable values. This property would by professional estimates bring a far greater price in today's market.
The district also states that TSPR has failed to account for the cost of moving equipment associated with the Greater Austin Area Telecommunications Network (GAATN) that presently is housed at Carruth. While the district estimates the cost of moving GAATN at $1-2 million, this represents only a fraction of the sum the district could realize by selling the facility, even in a softening real estate market. Moreover, the district could avoid this cost entirely simply by making the sale of Carruth contingent upon the district being able to lease back the space so that GAATN can remain in its current location. Whether GAATN is moved or left in its current location, the facts are that the Carruth Administration Center is inadequate for its purpose, inconvenient for the general public and unnecessarily expensive to operate. This currently tax exempt property is in a highly desirable location and remains eminently sellable despite the recent economic slowdown.
AISD maintains that it could not use its Reagan High School facility as an administrative center, as TSPR proposed, saying they expect Reagan's enrollment to increase despite trends to the contrary. And while the district has rejected Reagan, it has not pursued any other plans for an economical, efficient administrative center that offers community members easier access and parking space.
TSPR also has found evidence of unnecessary delay in the area of surplus portable buildings. AISD has about 600 portable buildings - the equivalent of 12 additional elementary or middle schools. Portables' operating costs far exceed those of permanent facilities, and portable buildings cannot offer the educational quality or student safety provided by brick and mortar. Yet the district still has not moved to reduce its egregious surplus of portables. District officials say they have delayed the sale of surplus portables because of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) problems at various schools; portables are used to house students while remedial IAQ work is completed in the permanent facility. This is, of course, a valid use for portable buildings. Why the district needs to hold on to 12 schools' worth of portables, however, is far from clear.
AISD has completed less than a quarter of TSPR's recommendations concerning facilities, and must move ahead if it is to achieve the savings detailed in the original report.
The board and administration are once again encouraged to revisit TSPR's facilities recommendations and ensure that any decision to keep or sell the Carruth facility, portables and the like is based on a careful and impartial review of the facts.
Reducing Administration
To date, the district has reduced its administrative budget by $1 million. This is a good first step, but falls short of Recommendation 13's goal of reducing the number of administrative positions specifically assigned to work in the central office, regardless of the titles or TEA classifications, by 15 percent. This reduction was suggested because AISD's overall budget had grown by 48 percent and its administrative budget had grown by 22 percent since 1996-97, while enrollment had only risen by 6 percent.
Every position that is physically located in the central administrative facilities, regardless of whether the district classifies these positions as administrative, should be assessed to determine what value these positions add to the district's primary mission of educating students. Are teachers and students benefiting from the work they do? If not, AISD simply should not continue to spend its resources on those positions.
Magnet School Programs
AISD has taken some action on TSPR's Recommendations 35 and 36, which address magnet school programs, but the proposals' ultimate effect will depend on the board's willingness to make some hard choices. TSPR's recommendations, while incorrectly characterized by some as an attempt to close Reagan High School, instead ask AISD to consider establishing a high-quality regional magnet school at Reagan.
In December 2000, AISD's board appointed a 21-member Academic Magnets/Neighborhood Schools Community Working Group (CWG) to review the organizational structure and related policies of the magnet program's current "school within a school" model and consider alternative options and estimate their costs. While the CWG explored the idea of a regional magnet campus, the recommendation in this regard was to consolidate the LBJ and Johnston magnet programs on LBJ's campus. The board is scheduled to take action on CWG's recommendations in November 2001 for implementation in the 2002-03 school year.
Whether or not AISD chooses to create a regional magnet school, the district must act swiftly to ensure that it is meeting the needs of all of its students.
Transportation
Productivity and accountability were the basic themes of TSPR's recommendations in the Transportation area. Eliminating overtime, staggering bus schedules, increasing the productivity of mechanics by releasing them from driving duty and conducting a feasibility study for the outsourcing of all or part of the district's transportation services are just a few of the recommendations that still await implementation, and so far AISD has done little to advance them.
AISD's answer to decreasing overtime was to raise the salaries of drivers so that more could be hired. District administrators have said that overtime is still required, though, so their response to Recommendation 125 has cost the district money without producing a clear return on the investment.
Since the slowing economy has allowed the district to hire more drivers, mechanics should now be available to return to their main task of repairing and maintaining school buses (Recommendation 132). Without extra driving duties, however, industry standards show that AISD has too many mechanics. The district should act immediately on TSPR's recommendation to reduce the number of mechanics to industry standards, and save money in the process.
Absenteeism among drivers has been and continues to be a problem in AISD (Recommendation 126). With TSPR's encouragement, the Transportation Department is considering, but has not yet fully adopted, incentives to reward good behavior and strongly discourage inappropriate behavior such as excessive absenteeism. All transportation employees and managers must be held accountable for their productivity and adherence to district policies if the department is to run effectively and efficiently. Furthermore, if AISD cannot achieve these efficiencies with in-house staff, the district should carefully consider contracted services for alternatives (Recommendation 136).
AISD's Ideas for Improving the Texas School Performance Review
TSPR has never assumed that its review cannot be improved. As part of the preparation of this progress report, TSPR asked AISD staff members and administrators what went right and what went wrong during the review, and how the process could be improved.
Similar feedback from other districts has led to a number of improvements in the review process. For example, early reports did not include implementation strategies, and districts told TSPR they needed help in getting started. As a result, TSPR's reports now include implementation strategies and timelines for their completion. AISD's administrators and board members made the following observations:
Board members who returned surveys voiced some concern over the balance of the review, saying that they felt more attention should have been given to positive things going on in the district rather than problems. While the report contained many commendations of AISD programs and processes that can be replicated by other districts in Texas, it is always difficult to shift media attention to the positive aspects. This was especially difficult since AISD was deeply embroiled in controversies at the time of the review. It should be noted, however, that the district's commendable programs are being made available on the Comptroller's best practices database, A+ Ideas for Managing Schools (AIMS), which is accessible on the web at www.aimsdatabase.org.
During the follow-up visit, newer administrators said that, when they arrived in the district, they were handed a copy of the review and told to give priority to the implementation of its recommendations. These managers indicated that the document proved very useful in getting a quick view of AISD's operations, and allowed them to hit the ground running in their new positions. Some others who had come on board during the review process said that the consultant/TSPR team helped them to better understand the departments they were being assigned to manage. In all, it was apparent that the district had taken the report seriously.
One administrator suggested that the report contained too many recommendations, and that dealing with so many recommendations tended to fragment staff time and attention. This administrator suggested that TSPR prioritize its recommendations, or simply reduce their number to a shorter list of high-priority items. Another related suggestion was to allow the district to ask TSPR to concentrate its review on those functional areas in which a district is having difficulties.
Both of these ideas have merit, but it will require a good bit of study to determine if and when the scope of TSPR's work should be focused more narrowly. In its early pilot studies of 1991, TSPR conducted limited reviews, but the participating districts said they felt key issues had been missed because the reviews were not comprehensive enough. TSPR will continue to look for a balance that meets school districts' needs without being burdensome.
Another comment noted that TSPR's recommendations did not seem consistent across sections. It was noted that one section recommended a reduction in program evaluation staff, while the entire report recommended more than a dozen new evaluations. Clearly TSPR can do a better job of communicating its intent in these situations. In nearly every recommendation for program evaluations, TSPR's recommendations were aimed at having the staff and administration responsible for those areas of the district operations to regularly evaluate their own programs. While centralized data collection is needed, TSPR felt that site-based management and evaluation of the programs would enhance accountability.
One board member who participated in the follow-up meeting said she sincerely hoped the media would devote as much attention to the things AISD has been able to accomplish as they did to the review's initial release last year. While TSPR cannot control the media, every attempt will be made to communicate the progress report results to the community and the media.
AISD's superintendent felt that, in some cases, TSPR had not taken all of the circumstances surrounding a given issue into consideration when making a recommendation. For example, he noted that the sale of the Carruth Building did not take into account the moving of the GAATN system, saying that the cost to move GAATN had not been deducted from projected revenues from the sale. TSPR knew that this would be a hard decision for the district and continues to believe the sale of the Carruth building is justified. In the future, TSPR will strive to present all relevant circumstances in the body of its reports, so that all facts are on the table for discussion and decision-making.
Finally, during discussions of several recommendations, administrators stated that some of the data presented in the report were flawed. In some instances, the administrators recognized that they had themselves supplied the data in question, only to find later that they were incorrect. This is always a danger in a district experiencing problems with its data management systems. TSPR was well aware of AISD's data problems at the time of its review and took great pains to verify everything with more than one source, whenever possible. TSPR may help to alleviate similar problems in the future by encouraging greater scrutiny by school districts at findings meetings and to alert them to the potential problems associated with inaccurate data.
