The Austin School District will cut energy costs this summer — and save approximately $471,000 — by reducing its days of operation in the month of July. Two cutbacks will occur:

The Austin All-Star Marching Band Caravan and University and College Tour is ending its nine-day tour of Southwest U.S. colleges and universities. The nearly 200 Central Texas Band and Fine Arts students toured universities and colleges in Texas, New Mexico, California, Nevada and Arizona, as well as visited cultural and educational sites, and held performances. Students are expected to arrive back at Reagan High School, located at 7104 Berkman Drive, at 6 p.m. today, Monday, June 27.

School District officials announced today that as a part of the ongoing need to manage the revenue shortfalls that are causing unwanted cuts to the AISD budget, the District has found it necessary to make changes in leave allocations. The changes, approved on June 20 by the Board of Trustees, are as follows:

Beginning July 1, the local sick leave accrual will be reduced by two days for all employees:

At the June 20 Board of Trustees meeting, Superintendent Meria Carstarphen presented the district-wide preliminary Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) results, which included a discussion of two middle schools, Pearce and Garcia.

Legislative and Budget Updates

The Board of Trustees was given a presentation on the potential compromise by the members of the Texas State Legislature on public school funding and the impact on the district's FY2012 budget.

The Texas Legislature established a potential compromise between the House and Senate late last month to distribute the $4 billion in cuts to public education. For AISD, this translates into reductions of $37.3 million in FY2012, and $58 million in FY2013.

Two high schools in the Austin Independent School District have earned places on the Newsweek list of ‘Best High Schools in the Country.’ The schools are among the Newsweek list of 500 public high schools, comprising only six percent of the public schools in the United States. The selection is based on how hard school staff members work to challenge their students with advanced-level courses.

The Austin schools and their rankings are as follows:

The successful Youth Court program at Webb Middle School was recently featured in an edition of UT Law, the magazine of the University of Texas School of Law.

The students are trained by the UT law students to serve as prosecutors, defense attorneys, jurors, judges, and defendants. The students deal with real student infractions, determine guilt or innocence, and hand down “sentences,” such as community service or written apology letters. 

Crockett High School has been named a National High Schools That Work "Outstanding School for 2011." This competitive and highly prestigious award is a great accomplishment and a direct outcome from the campus leadership and hard-working staff.

The award is based on the following criteria:

Nomination by HSTW State Coordinator for noteworthy accomplishment and at least one of the following areas:

The Austin All-Star Marching Band Caravan and University and College Tour will begin a nine-day tour of Southwest U.S. colleges and universities on Monday, June 20. More than 200 Central Texas Band and Fine Arts students will tour the University of Texas at El Paso, New Mexico State University, the University of California at Los Angeles, The University of Southern California, the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, and Arizona State University.

The Austin School District will hold a community meeting to discuss the future Performing Arts Center to be located in the Mueller redevelopment, along Mueller Boulevard between East 51st Street and Barbara Jordan Boulevard.The meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 21, at Reagan High School, 7104 Berkman Dr., and will begin at 6:30 p.m.