Opinionist: Give Pease A Chance

West Austin School, now Pease Elementary, class from 1880s.

Editor’s note: The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the outlook or beliefs of anyone else in the IST network.

Austin can proudly claim the oldest continuously running public school in Texas... at the moment. Currently, and according to the recommendation of Dejong Richter (a facilities planning corporation ... and defense contractor), AISD is considering closing many schools, historic ol' Pease included.

It has been claimed that Pease, an all transfer school, has no community, no neighborhood. It does. Austin is its neighborhood. Pease serves students from 27 Austin zip codes, from the highest and lowest socioeconomic brackets. The diversity at Pease is largely unheard of, anywhere. Maintaining excellence (Pease is rated exemplary) while serving such a diverse population proves Pease isn't just doing something right, it's doing a lot right.

But no one seems to be arguing that; in fact it's barely being mentioned. It's a numbers game. To quote the, ominious sounding "master plan":

The utilization target is 85% - 105%
Elementary Schools 300-500 students
Middle Schools 600-800 students
High Schools 1,500-2,000 students

Pease, built in 1876, simply cannot hold that many students. It hovers around 250 comfortably. That does not mean it is "under capacity". Pease currently has 26 students on its waitlist. The classrooms of Pease are filled with students and will continue to be filled as long as the school remains open. Pease is the only school in Texas that provides parents with a real choice. For parents who work in the downtown area, Pease provides the opportunity to be a working parent and still be involved with your child's education. For many families Pease provides the diversity most schools lack.

Saving money to close schools that work, just to spend money on building new schools that might work doesn't make sense - not educationally and not fiscally. A budget crisis means something will have to give, but it hardly seems that closing schools should be first on the list. One's left to wonder...isn't there some fat on the administrative budget that can be trimmed? The current Superintendent earns $275,000 annually and is eligible for $47,500 in performance bonuses. That's more than 3 times the annual operating cost of Pease and its more than 200 students. Pease incurs no busing costs; many of the staff members, a mere 15 full-time teachers, tutor for free. The administration consists of a solitary principal - no assistant principals, no coaches, none of the extra expenses figured into the budgets of other schools.

Pease Elementary school was and should still be the pride of Austin. It provided a "free and public" education to all who would learn, something the city of Austin held as a priority back in 1876. The school building and the goals of those inside are the same... has something on the outside changed?

Having the lowest budget in all of AISD, Pease has been doing more with less for 135 years. It's worth saving. The Facility committee, AISD and the people of Austin just need to continue to give Pease a chance.

Another community meeting will be held Thursday, January 13th at 6pm at The Burger Center.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@austinist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By M Harper in News on January 13, 2011 8:45 AM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

Tim Thomas

Those are all good suggestions in a normal year, and I'm quite sure the new school construction is not really on the radar at this time. This is a 10 year plan.

We'll find out in the next 60 days how badly the state government has messed up our schools. Currently we only get 55 cents out of every dollar that we pay in school taxes. There's a hard limit on raising our property taxes, and if I understand properly we could only raise them another 3/10 of 1%. Since we send half of that away the maximum we could raise would be about 1.5/10 of 1%. So we can't close our budget hole with taxes even if we wanted to.

Closing these schools will only provide 1/5 to 1/12th ($10 million vs. $50 - 120 million dollar projected budget hole) of the money the school board needs to find. So if I'm understanding the math right we should expect to see hundreds of adminstrators, teachers, and facilities employees let go ON TOP OF the school closures.

Even selling the 6th street office is only expected to bring in something like $20 million. Which could mean even if that happened we could still need the $10 million in school closures. If that land is paid off and a lease would cost more that's potentially not a good decision.

If we get out of this with only 9 schools closing and class sizes below 30 students per class I think we'll be doing fantastically. This situation is DIRE.

lanay14

To Mike:
Why not:
Lease or sell the AISD Administrative office on W. 6th St.
or
Implement exemplary academic programs, like Dual Language, which increase enrollment, desirability, federal funding and academic performance at underutilized, low performing schools.
and
Freeze construction of new schools until tax revenue increases (projected 32-3 years from now), saving more than $200 million. We have enough room now for our kids and it's obvious that small schools are capable of high performance, even without expensive, fancy facilities. (AISD employs 14 architects!) We dont need to close or build schools. If we work together and hang tough through the recession, we will have a stronger district.
and
Increase attendance. I am a busy single mom of three and have, admittedly, been irresponsible in keeping up with submitting documentation when my kids have been sick to excuse their absences. I can see now how important this is and what a senseless waste it is to not adhere to attendance goals. A 1% increase in attendance at AISD would bring in 5.6 million per year.I am committing to my community allow only excused, documented absences in my household and hope everyone will do the same.
Thank you so much for your input and caring to engage the discussion.

Mike Dahmus

Being against closing schools is about as courageous as being in favor of puppies and rainbows.

Tell us what school you would close instead; or where you would lay off even more teachers than are likely going to be laid off anyways.

gpurcell

How about beginning by closing poorly rated and underutilized schools rather than exemplary, well-utilized schools. That would be a start.

lanay14

To Mike: Why not:
Sell the 6th St. AISD office and relocate it to an underutilized school. Let the board lead by example by relocating.
or
Freeze the construction of new schools ($200 million+) until the Austin's tax revenue recovers from recession (projected 2-3 years). This alone would eliminate the need to close existing, exemplary schools.
and
Implement programs like Dual Language in underutilized or low performing schools, which attract students, and significantly increase academic performance, bringing AISD more funds without spending $ on buildings and architechts, of which AISD employs 14.

Mike Dahmus

they're likely going to have to do all of that AND still consolidate schools. Are you aware of the magnitude of the gap they face?

Amanda McGuckinHager

I agree that sometimes value and quality is hard to measure inside an Excel spreadsheet.

To support keeping Pease open as a historic landmark, a community icon, and an example of successful public education, please sign the petition found here: http://www.ipetitions.com/peti...

Harold_Ambler

A nice piece of writing.

There are sound economic reasons to shut down the State Capitol, one of the oldest and least practical edifices in all of Texas. You could put the offices and chambers in a modern building and lease out the fabulous piece of real estate that is the Capitol grounds. And, of course, doing so would be insane.

The same holds true for Pease. It is the arguably the beating heart of the AISD school system, staffed by incredibly professional, effective, and lovely people. It is unlikely that the cost benefits claimed for the closure would be anywhere near what has been claimed. And, I am sorry, but someone has to ask how you determine – be it with a calculator, an abacus, or an Excel spreadsheet – the value of a school which creates caring, intelligent learners out of an unbelievably diverse community, year after year.

Katherine Howell Harte

Pease is an amazing school that should be a model for what works; not a target of the school board. Thanks for the great article!

Tim Thomas

All the schools are worth saving. Yet Perry got re-elected despite the fact that he has led the state into a 14-25 billion dollar budget shortfall.