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Work at Cook elementary. Aware of my privilege and eager to learn.

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district 3 trustee for AISD. retired middle school educator and involved in community work in north central Austin

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torch will be passed from Trustee Teich. Live in north/central (district 3). Educational anthropologist. Professor at UT now in college of liberal arts and Black studies (formerly college of education). Excited about moment we are in about renewed attention to get it right around integration and opportunities for all of our students. Want to support all the organizations occupying space in a productive way.

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graduate of AISD (Raegan high school). concerned with how we are addressing institutional racism in al the systems we have something to do with. Interested in what I will be hearing tonight from folks who are actually in the field who can teach us about what we need to be paying attention to to put policies in place so all students are treated equally and have the same opportunities.

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Counselor at Cook elementary. Live in north austin. kids went to round rock ISD. worked in AISD always. Here because I want the same education my kids got I want for my kids at Cook elementary. I work hard for my students at cook to get the best education they can

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Community Schools is northeast Austin. on a personal anti journey and wanted to be part of the conversations

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Assistant principal in AISD at Travis Heights Elementary. Consider myself on a journey as a social justice leader. Important to lead by example. Want to be a better leader for my families and teachers

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Committed educator. Want the best for our students. Substitute in AISD. Running for school board.

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Running for district 8 in AISD. Was a high school social studies teacher. Been a central office administrator and worked at TEA. Super thankful to focus on listening and excited to be here

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Manor ISD teacher (Julia). WOrk in communities in schools. Constituents of centra/ north area. Curious about what elected officials are curious about.

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principal in RRISD. Live in Govalle neighborhood (AISD). Taught in AISD for five years , fifth year in Round Rock. Taught with Dinorah. Co-founder of Educators in Solidarity . Here to uplift th e incredibly hard work we are doing as educators Grateful to all the people tth are here to listen. Happy to be in your presence.

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Work in council member Alter's office. Went to AISD school and kids went there. Love the diverse educational experience I had and frustrated that I have now graduated and kids in my family dont have the same experience I did

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Live in council district 5. getting a PHD in education. Here because focus is on literacy and anti-racist education

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Running for AISD school board. From Austin born and raised. Went to Odom and graduated from Bowie High school and UT. Graduate and two high school students.

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represent district 10 on Austin city council. parent of two AISD high schoolers (LASA and McCallum). Want to support our schools in whatever way I can. as a parent know teachers do a lot.

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Five sons. Blanton, Martin, Eastside memorial High school. Teacher voices are the most important. Curious what my elected officials and candidates are curious about

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Representative Howard: Tell me if you could do anything to make the situation better, what would you want us to know. What d you want us to do in terms of making your jobs easier or give you the support you need? To ensure all students get what they need to be successful. A-F seems to be more a reflection of poverty than student performance. What should we be looking at/ things we should be doing to support your students?

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Representative Howard: Tell me if you could do anything to make the situation better, what would you want us to know. What d you want us to do in terms of making your jobs easier or give you the support you need? To ensure all students get what they need to be successful. A-F seems to be more a reflection of poverty than student performance. What should we be looking at/ things we should be doing to support your students?

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we need more resoruces and community involvement. We need mentors, parents teaching parents. We need HS teaching elementary school kids. We need more collaboration among the different organizations in our community especially the kids in the community I work. All this virutal learning is really a tough situation for them. Parents are not aware of how to handle technology. Starting at that point they are already disadvantages getting the learning they can get and the district is providing.

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I can't say enough about much more money we need. My operating budget is less than 50,000 a year. I service a school that is very similar to many AISD schools. I have title budget on top of that that is around 50,000 a year. That is unreal. My brother works in tech industry in Austin and 50,000 is what htey can use to pay for monitors tomorrow for employees to get them. Resources is one tangible thing. I know it is very difficult. It speaks volumes when we don't fund it properly and we don't fund teachers properly. Districts only have so much ability to wiggle in how much they can find because they are only receiving so much money from the state. I would also change the accountability system. Educators by nature we are creative and able to assess student learning. If given the resources and ability to think outside the box and report on student learning in different ways we could show student progress and growth and not connected on how schools are graded. Trickle down stress to our nine year olds who get almost a physical illness.

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When we are insecure about something I default to what is easy. In teaching what is easy is ineffective (worksheets, rote memorization, packets). The pressure that is on the school district that is on schools. It i snot just one test, its many test and weeks to prepare. For highly skilled educators in stressful and for those that are new or not as effective an developing its easier to default to that being the way to teach (teach to the test).

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Howard: Do you think that COVID and the fact that so many kids have instruction at home with parents that parents may be better advocates once they see how much they value their teachers and see how hard it is. Do you think we can take advantage of this?

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Howard: Do you think that COVID and the fact that so many kids have instruction at home with parents that parents may be better advocates once they see how much they value their teachers and see how hard it is. Do you think we can take advantage of this?

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Parent: what I am hearing from parent friends there are memes going around how we can use that framing to activate parents. I think its a great question. I am really interested in helping out with that.

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Kevin Foster: What at the trustee level can we do to be supportive given the state saying something?  How can we help on the resource side and accountability side?

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Kevin Foster: What at the trustee level can we do to be supportive given the state saying something?  How can we help on the resource side and accountability side?

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There are waivers on the TEA level. I know its a lot for AISD. What if we piloted an alternative accountability system at a few elementary schools just to see if it works. What if we got a swath of schools over the course of progress and growth to measure growth differently. Be creative with the ways with the ways we can state wise. I know we are given way less to work with with recapture.

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Can you talk a little more about elementary and HS kids working together?
Counselor: at Wooldrige we had high school students who wanted to be teachers and they would come once a week and then the program stoped. I was wondering why and its because the students couldnt provide transportation tot eh elementary school campus. The only students who could continue were the ones who could provide transportation for themselves. Then the program stopped because the school didnt have resources. It was a great program. Mentors from the community (APIE). I see it working well but somehow in the northeast side of austin we don't have a lot of volunteers. that program can help us get more mentors.

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There was a wave of this in March of empathy of teachers  parents and then summer and then "we have to keep doing this?" "we have to go back? why aren't you doing your job I have to do my job?" I feel like sometimes in my district we are making decisions based on this tide. The parents feel like they have to come back because they don't have another choice, not the parents who are essential workers who really have no choice. The tide feels like when your buttons are pushed to a point to where you explode. I wonder about the anger people feel about educators because things arent normal and things are hard at home supporting a student at virtual learning.
I have teachers doing both virtual and in person. I worry about that piece of the parent advocacy piece.

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parents value what teachers are doing. They want to get back to work and feel like schools need to be opened. There is not consensus around the policies being made about schools reopening. I don't have the solution. How can we use what is valuable and also recognize there is also a negatie side to it where there is an expectation that you have to just show up to despite your own safety so other people can go back to work. We dont have consistent acceptance of scientific information.

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Council Member Alter: (specific to the city). There are things we have found ways to support you even though technically its not in our lane. We have done things like fund parent support specialist, food things, convert classrooms into early childhood. What are other things where the city could be supportive without a lot of money?

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Council Member Alter: (specific to the city). There are things we have found ways to support you even though technically its not in our lane. We have done things like fund parent support specialist, food things, convert classrooms into early childhood. What are other things where the city could be supportive without a lot of money?

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I would need to do more research but one of my hopes/dreams is more professional development for teachers around the whole child and mental health. Kids are living a lot of life and teachers could use the support and things come up and they don't necessarily have the training to support them in a tier I/ii way. They get referred to counselors and outside resources. i want to see our teachers prepared to better handle these situations. In AISD cultural proficiency department is doing a great job training prinicpals around racism. There are other conversations in the classroom where our social/ emotional curriculum is not enough.

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If we could partner up with YMCA or sport businesses to give our kids free classes or train our teachers to form a volleyball team especially at the elementary level. We could have something for our kids to do (mentally healthy and physically)

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Utilizing your privilege as an elected official of standing along with your community. Standing in solidarity with your school community as a city council person.

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Doing more intentional civic outreach and education with students who come from schools who feel like they are underrepresented in government. Civic programs about the difference you can make and the people in government that do work hep us create citizens who can advocate for themselves.

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Host students from my district. Don't feel like its off limits. I don't see it for every council member but those who have been approached welcome that.

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think about choice of language. When we name them as disadvantaged we put them in boxes and we dehumanize them. it is part of the larger discourse of how we talk bout our kids (urban/ disadvantage). We assign deficit understandings of kids and families. Think about who are the advantaged kids. I would love for my elected officials to be thoughtful about their language and how their language affects kids and families and how that language can put them into boxes and deficit and negativity that isnt them. As a culture we have more work to do. I am struck by that when I hear people representing me using language that does not represent my children and families in knowing them.

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Need to be mindful of our language and more inclusive without being long winded and stumbling over ourselves. We need your help to help us with the language that is going to be inclusive and reflective of not boxing children in. I am aksing for your help to help us do that better.

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Language component is important. Thinking about it is and acknowledging it is important. if we are not putting money in places that are beneficial to people that have been systemically disadvantaged its addressing the root of the problem. We need funding and policies to back it up. We need a lot f money and resources. We need to be bold enough to do that in whatever we can.

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Appreciate the thought and I will take the feedback.

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Trustee Teich: What has been a successful experience in AISD in shifting attitudes so that culturally inclusive curriculum is used in the classroom? Have you interacted with central office administrators in a successful way.

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Trustee Teich: What has been a successful experience in AISD in shifting attitudes so that culturally inclusive curriculum is used in the classroom? Have you interacted with central office administrators in a successful way.

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We have had success on my campus. It is the networking aspect of it. We have fortunate enough to have former campus teachers work in the curriculum department. We can reach out for us to be a part of it. We are allowed the flexibility to choose our curriculum .

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Special Education. It can change the culture of a school the support that is given to services. There is always a gotcha and so much paperwork involved to prove you need more staff and often its sent back to you. A lot of :what have you done, have you tried this? Have you tried this? It is a culture of trying to protect yourself. It is hard when you operate out of fear and it wears our team out when you are trying to meet the logical needs when you are working out of fear of asking for help.

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Mike H: We have the opportunities to leverage things other districts can't. What are the conversations we need to be having?

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Mike H: We have the opportunities to leverage things other districts can't. What are the conversations we need to be having?

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You see a lot of teacher turnover. Supporting teachers in a variety of ways. Teachers want to teach, but how? We go through a training but the ones the campuses that are in high need are the ones that have frequent turnover. Novice teachers within 1-3 years end up in high need campuses. We have some programs in AISD but those mentors are other teachers

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Student teacher/ School board candidate 

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Student teacher/ School board candidate 

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Use data. We need to make sure we are creating a diverse system of teachers. 5% of teachers are African american and 32% Hispanic. Why do we have 60% of our teaching staff is white. How are we making sure that our teaching staff is diverse. How an we make sure that student taking exams are successful and come to AISD.

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The salary is a big factor in people not entering the profession. We need to pay teachers as professionals.

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I fit in the large demographic of white women in elementary classroom spaces. Our schools are hostile places to teachers of color. Idea around recruitment and idea around changes the systems that exist in schools that make for a hostile work environment for black and brown teachers. When racism happens on a campus  how are teachers and educators being supported to engage in racism? What tools do educators have to develop anti-racist tools on their campus. We will see a mostly white workforce until we abolish systems that make it hostile for black and brown teachers.

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if you in a position of power or in an environment where you feel safe reporting something you might not stick around. In RRISd 140/7,000 teachers are black. RR has a lot of AISD teachers that live there. It is incumbent upon us to think about how we create safe spaces at school. It HAS to happen. This work has to happen if we want to move forward to ensure that all spaces are safe for black and brown teachers to work in. We can't leave it up to change. We know what the data produces.

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There are changing dynamics constantly in Austin. Teaching student at a school with a high level of mobility is challenging if not more so than the free and reduced lunch number. That is a challenge b/c students are loosing opportunities to connect with communities and schools. teachers have to recreate the community feel in their classrooms all the time. It is putting a higher stress load on teachers and mental stress to maintain a safe environment for students.

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I know that the data point across the country is not having this many women of color. If people want to reach out to talk about this to have conversations reach out.