Voters approved the $1.1 billion AISD bond with comfortable margins this Election Day. Almost 72 percent said “yes” to the bond, the district’s largest ever, and 28 percent opposed it. The bond’s passage means all facilities projects on it will move forward, including the LASA move to the Eastside Memorial (ESMH) campus and LBJ’s planned health science academy.

The bond’s 44-point margin of victory was especially welcomed to many at the district after the results of the last bond in 2013: two of the four propositions failed, and the ones that passed did so by razor-thin margins. LASA Campus Advisory Council (CAC) member Ann Phipps said she was excited to see what the bond led to.

“It’s exciting that voters across the district in this era of anti-tax, anti-everything, have just resoundingly expressed support for the future of our public schools in Austin,” Phipps said. “And that’s going to be great for all the schools, everywhere across the city.”

“Methodical and Lengthy” Development

The bond’s planning process, which both Phipps and LASA Principal Stacia Crescenzi also pointed to as a reason for its excellent performance, lasted for over two years and was sold as much more data driven than previous bond plans.

In 2015, engineers analyzed the safety, security and educational suitability of all district buildings. It was during this process that critical safety deficiencies were discovered at T.A. Brown elementary school; this discovery led to the closure and demolition of Brown. It was allocated over $30 million for a new building in the bond. The Facilities and Bond Planning Advisory Committee (FABPAC,) composed of unpaid citizens, then utilized the engineer recommendations to create more detailed recommendations for each school.

The process, which Phipps called “methodical and lengthy,” was also distinguished for many by the greater quantity of community outreach meetings held; the district website touts that over 5,000 individual pieces of feedback were received over the course of 500 engagement opportunities.

“The process itself was just so much deeper,” Crescenzi said. “It was incredibly time consuming, and the members of FABPAC, I can’t even begin to understand the hours that they put into combing through all the reports and the details and the information. So I think that was different. I think the district did its best also to be as transparent as possible.”

The choice of the district to keep the bond as one package, and not split it up, was also controversial. The 2013 election featured four propositions, two of which failed. Crescenzi said she thought the decision to avoid splitting the bond contributed to the passage.

“They didn’t split it up,” Crescenzi said. “Keeping it as one bond, so that in the end what AISD was asking the voters is, ‘Do you believe in this vision we have for all schools and all students, or not?’ was a really wise decision.”

However, the bond still attracted significant controversy. Monica Loera Sanchez, who co-founded anti-bond PAC Save East Austin Schools (SEAS) and advocated against the bond’s passage, said that she was troubled by the lack of community input on both the LASA move and the bond in general.

“In my experience with AISD they don’t take community input seriously,” Sanchez said. “With all honesty, even though Austin ISD says that 5000 people contributed to this conversation, in reality they only include community participation so they can check that box. In reality, community participation is not genuinely considered at all.”

Sanchez explained although SEAS has disbanded as an organization after the bond’s passage, individual activists would continue to work for equity in future AISD bonds. The 2017 bond is the first one in a series, as per the district’s lengthy Facility Master Plan, with future needs to be addressed in several more planned bonds. She said the perceived lack of community engagement was contributing to the district’s declining enrollment.

“I’ve seen it time and time again,” Sanchez said. “And not only have I seen it but a lot of other community members have seen it. There’s a lot of people that are basically set up with this district, and I happen to know that because they’re set up they pull their kids out of the district. And that’s why we have a shrinking enrollment that continues to this day. It’s unfortunate that the community doesn’t have a say in how AISD operates, even though it’s operating off of taxpayer funds.”

Moving towards or away from progress?

One of the plan’s more controversial recommendations was the LASA/ESMH move plan, which provided for an ESMH move to the original L.C. Anderson campus, a LASA move to the ESMH campus, and a significantly expanded LBJ medical program. This plan will now be going forward after the bond’s passage. However, Phipps said there is still significant work to be done to ensure a successful move package.

“We look forward as a CAC to helping in any way that we can, and basically just being super modest about the whole business,” Phipps said. “And trying to engage in a way that will help us have a successful move-in to our new future home, but that’s the last thing to be concerned about. We really want to make sure that Eastside succeeds, and that LBJ is positioned for success, and then we’ll move and of course we want our own success but we have to be a part of this multidimensional move effort, and help everybody involved.”

Committees for every AISD school affected, including LASA, will be assembled to organize logistics; schools with construction such as LBJ, ESMH, and LASA would consult with architects and engineers, as well as discuss possible questions the move would bring up. However, Phipps said she’s not quite ready to break out the celebratory champagne yet.

“In a sense, when the voters vote for a bond proposition, things defined in the bond proposition are supposed to come to pass,” Phipps said. “So to the extent the LASA move is in the bond proposition, yes, it’s going to happen. However, there are other things that have to happen first. They have to happen on a schedule. Schedules can get protracted. I’m too cautious to say ‘it’s done, we’re out of here.’ I’m not gonna say that.”

In addition to the discourse inherent in moving a school, the move attracted controversy because of its late addition to the plan. Although plans for a LASA move had been discussed for most of the bond planning process, this specific iteration of the move plan was new.

“The LASA move was made behind closed doors and basically it was told to the community once the bond passage was adopted by the board that LASA would be moving out of LBJ through the bond passage,” Sanchez said. “So people really didn’t have an opportunity.”

However, Crescenzi said that the bond’s passage had an overall positive effect and that she looked forward to the future for LASA and the district, mentioning the planned modernization of Rosedale school, for AISD’s most medically fragile students.

“I think that it’s a wonderful thing, a really positive direction for all the students in AISD,” Crescenzi said. “I think that particularly for schools like Rosedale and T.A. Brown that it’s gonna be really exciting to watch what they do in the future.”