The Austin ISD Board of Trustees will vote on a new 1882 partnership at their Regular Voting Meeting tonight that would allow Third Future Schools to operate Mendez Middle School.
Zoom out: District leaders began exploring ending the partnership with T-STEM Texas in December. That same month the board terminated the partnership and the district started engaging with the Mendez community to find a new partner.
- On February 8, the district made a call for 1882 proposals due February 25.
- The district began screening the received proposals on February 28 and notified the finalist on March 1.
- Throughout March, a transition oversight committee received presentations from the finalist and made a final recommendation to the administration.
- The Austin ISD Board will vote on the contract on March 24.
Some goals in the contract include:
- Improve the campus to a “D” campus rating in the 2022-23 school year. Improve to a “C” campus rating in the 2023-24 school year and a “B” rating by the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years.
- Increase the number of students receiving special education services demonstrating achievement on state assessments on all subjects.
- Decrease the number of students issued a disciplinary action year to year.
As part of the plan, the district also announced in February that it would be transitioning sixth grade to 10 elementary schools that fed into Martin and Mendez middle schools to reduce the number of fifth graders who unenroll from Austin ISD instead of attending those two middle schools.
- After the announcement, preliminary data showed that a majority (66.41%) of sixth-grade families intend to stay enrolled at their elementary schools.
- Another 17.67% said they are transitioning to another AISD middle school.
- Before, on average, 40% of sixth-grade families from those schools went to Martin and Mendez middle schools.
Review the agenda item ahead of the vote and follow the discussion live on AISD.TV or the Austin ISD Facebook page.
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