AUSTIN CHRONICLE BRITISH WRITER RE-WRITING AUSTIN HISTORY In this weeks Austin Chronicle, British writer Richard Whittaker writes about east and northeast Austin schools. First, he lumps east/northeast Austin schools together as “east”. He then makes a timeline of key changes in those schools. In “THE BEGINNINGS”, he lists 1916 as the year that Allan Junior High School opens, but fails to mention that the school was downtown with, and the feeder to, Austin High School. Whittaker completely misses the boat by leaving out the significance of Palm Elementary on E. 1st//Cesar Chavez St., and University Junior High School (UJH) on the University of Texas campus. Palm was the school where east Austin students near I-35 attended school before Sanchez Elementary School was built. Palm was in existence from 1892 until 1976 when Sanchez Elementary School was opened to take its place . UJH was the school that students near I-35 attended before Martin Middle School was built. UJH was in operation from 1933 until 1967 when Martin MS began. Martin Middle School continued the heritage of UJH by adopting the mascot and school colors of UJH. Most Sanchez students attended UJH and then Austin High School. After Allan Jr. High School and Johnston High School were built, some Sanchez students began to attend those schools, but Sanchez students who attended Martin Middle School continued to stay on track for Austin High School. 1957 is mentioned as the year that Allan moved to Gonzales St., but he fails to mention that, when downtown Allan burned in 1956, the Allan students attended school at UJH before attending the new Allan Jr. High School on Gonzales St. The Chronicle states that in 1960 Albert S. Johnston School opens to serve East Austins primarily African-American and Hispanic population. Wrong. Although the first Black student enrolled at Austin High School in 1957, Austin schools, like the rest of the nation, were very segregated at the time. Johnston was built mainly for east Austin Mexican-American and white students who were attending Allan Jr. High School. The timeline leaves out east Austins only black secondary schools - Anderson High School, which was built in 1909, and Kealing Jr. High School, which was opened in 1930. Integration in Austin schools grew in the early 60s, mainly at east Austins Allan Jr. High, UJH, and Johnston High Schools while Kealing Jr. High and Anderson High Schools were still open as schools for Black students. Kealing and Anderson were both closed in 1971. Most of the Kealing and Anderson students integrated into east Austin schools plus northeast schools Pearce Jr. High School, which opened in 1958, and Reagan High School, which opened in 1965. For 1980, the paper states that 1980 Allan Junior High becomes Allan Elementary, reflecting shifting age demographics and demands in the area. TERRIBLY WRONG!!! In the 60s and 70s, both Allan Jr. High School and Johnston High School were at capacity. Allan had an enrollment of 700 students with only 7th and 8th graders. Johnston High School had an enrollment of about 1500 students in grades 9 through 12. Allan Jr. High was turned into an elementary when the Austin school district was forced to begin court ordered busing in order to integrate the schools. The school district could have bused west Austin students from OHenry and Murchison to Allan as an exchange program, but chose to instead turn Allan into an elementary school. In doing so, the district took students away from Brooke, Govalle, and Ortega elementary schools to enroll at Allan Elementary, making each of the schools look underutilized. The school district built a new Kealing Jr. High School in east Austin in 1986, keeping the old school colors and mascot, to continue the heritage and spirit of the old Kealing. The new Kealing contained a new science and math magnet program to draw students from other parts of Austin. Kealing students in the magnet program were put on tract to enroll at the LBJ Science Academy. In 1993, the Kealing magnet program expanded to include a liberal arts program. Meanwhile, Allan students were bused to OHenry or Murchison Middle Schools and half of the Johnston students were bused mainly to the new Anderson High School in far west Austin which had opened in 1973. (The name was chosen to appease old Anderson High School alumni, but the old school colors and mascot of the east Austin school were not selected to be at the new school.) The east Austin students that went to OHenry became part of the Austin High School feeder pattern and the east Austin students that went to Murchison became part of the Anderson tract. In order to make Johnston more appealing to students bused into Johnston, the school district remodeled the school, expanding the band room and building a new school auditorium. In 1987, the school district created the Liberal Arts Academy at Johnston as a magnet school to bring students voluntarily to Johnston. The school flourished during busing when it grew to about 2000 students and many school clubs and organizations earned many awards. Forced busing was discontinued by the courts in 1988, but only busing into Johnston was stopped. Allan Elementary was not returned to a junior high school and east Austin students that would have gone to Allan Jr. High School continued to be bused to other jr./middle schools. This hurt Johnston as it was left without a feeder school and students were no longer being forced from other parts of town to attend Johnston. The Johnston school enrollment declined every year after school busing stopped. In 2002, the Liberal Arts Academy was moved from Johnston to LBJ High School and the school enrollment took another big drop. The school district created a new International High School (IHS) for new 9th and 10th grade foreign students and placed the school at Johnston. The approximately 200 students in the IHS added to the student enrollment at the Johnston campus, which had about 800 students. The school enrollment, however, has had an annual decline every year to a low of 490 students at Johnston (not including IHS) in 2012-2013. The Chronicle mentions the 2008 re-purposing of Johnston High School, but does not mention that students and the Johnston alumni were forced to change the name of the school against their will due to a state law that was overturned the following year. Even though the law did not require the school to change the school mascot and school colors the following year, many students were told that they had to change them and they narrowly missed voting for the schools original ram mascot and red and blue colors. Regarding Pearce in 2009, the newspaper writes ...After initially threatening to close Pearce, Scott approves a re-purposing plan that allows it to stay open. WRONG AGAIN!. Like Johnston, Pearce was indeed closed, but was re-purposed. The difference was that, since the state law was changed that year, Pearce was allowed to keep its name, mascot, and colors when it was re-opened. The Pearce neighborhoods, almuni, and businesses continued their close ties with, and support of, their neighborhood school. Referring to 2011, the paper writes, 2011 In January, the districts Facility Master Plan Task Force puts Pearce as an option on a list of campuses that could be closed to save costs - a plan that they immediately drop after public outcry. WRONG. When a few FMP task force volunteers presented the options, the trustees stated that they would not consider closures, after which the superintendent immediately instructed the task force at a special open meeting to not consider closures. Also referring to 2011, in regards to Idea Allan, the newspaper writes ...In December, trustees split 6-3 to bring in IDEA Public Schools to open a public K-12 charter, taking over Allan in 2012 and Eastside in 2013. AWFULLY WRONG AGAIN! The writer failed to mention (bias?) that AISD and Idea Public Schools were in partnership to fix the Allan/Johnston feeder pattern so that students would not enroll at Johnston reading at a 3rd grade reading level and Johnston could increase its enrollment. The schools would remain AISD public schools and students would receive an AISD high school diploma. In stating that the two schools at Johnston were reunited into one school in 2011, the writer fails to mention that the Allan/Johnston neighborhood alumni proposed that the new re-united school be renamed Johnston Eastside Memorial High School. The Allan/Johnston neighborhood did not get a chance to vote on returning the schools name which the neighborhood supported in the last 50 years. The school board did not vote on any name for the school. Referring to 2012, the Chronicle writes 2012 In September, Allan Elementary reopens as IDEA Allan. Three months later, AISD board cancels IDEA contract. What the writer failed to reveal was that the Idea Allan students had advanced a year in some subjects in just a few months. In just two weeks in December, new school board members voted to cancel the Idea contract. Note that, while the writer wrote previously that ...trustees split 6-3 to bring in IDEA Public Schools... the writer did not mention that the trustees canceled the IDEA Allan contract by just one vote, 5-4. (Again a bias?) Also not mentioned by the writer was that the board did not make plans for Allan to be reopened in the following 2013-2014 year, despite a school board member asking, ...what are you going to do with the children if you terminate the IDEA contract? Failure by the board to make plans for Allan resulted in the school being closed this 2013-2014 year. The current board also neglected to make plans this year for Allan to open during the 2014-2015 year. As a result, the school district lost 700 students who enrolled at the new IDEA Allan (which opened a temporary campus this year) and about $4 million dollars this current school year. (That number will grow to about 1000 students and $5.5 million lost next year when Idea Allan moves to its brand new building this fall for 2014-15.) In regards to the school district choosing a new entity to help at Johnston, the Chronicle writes 2013 After community outreach, AISD selects Johns Hopkins Talent Development Secondary (TDS) as its external partner to reinforce achievements at Eastside. New commissioner Michael Williams approves the partnership and gives AISD three years to reach state standards.... The writer fails to mention that, in terminating the AISD Idea contract, the school board also broke the agreement with the state education commissioner and the commissioner instructed the school board to either bring back IDEA Public Schools or a program as good as or better than the Idea Allan program. In stating above how the school board formed Idea Allan, the writer only states that ...the trustees split 6-3 to bring in IDEA Public Schools... The writer fails to mention that the process took a year long, with the school district looking at the best performing entities and with community outreach in which a bus load of east Austin school parents, staff, and volunteers actually saw IDEA Public Schools in operation. The state education commissioner approved the AISD/IDEA partnership. In writing about Johns Hopkins TDS, the writer fails to mention that the school district went into a rushed Request for Proposal process which took just two months and very little outreach to the Allan/Johnston neighborhoods. Since the top performing charter schools and other education entities in Texas saw how the new Austin School Board members had treated the award winning IDEA Public Schools, they refused to submit RFPs. Instead, just one in-state and four out of state mediocre performing entities submitted RFPS. Indeed, the entity that won the contract, Johns Hopkins TDS, had its two flagship schools in Baltimore, Maryland in danger of being closed by the Baltimore school board due to failing academic performance. The Baltimore school board gave the schools one more chance, however, this year, the board voted to close the schools at the end of this school year. The writer also failed to mention that, while IDEA Public Schools was bringing in more money, staff, and other resources to IDEA Allan, the Johns Hopkins TDS was actually costing the district over $400,000 with no program implemented, and no staff provided by TDS. Instead, TDS was to have staff (one full-time person stationed at Johnston?) to study problems at Johnston and make recommendations for improvements during the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years. The school district can accept or reject the recommendations. Meanwhile, the state commissioner reserved the right to take any action at any time if the school does not improve this year or next year. If the school does not improve by the end of the three years, the Austin school board must automatically close EMHS at the Johnston campus. In its last Timeline entry, the Chronicle writes, 2015 Earliest point at which Allan can reopen. The current consensus seems to be that it will become a middle school again, either STEM or dual language. WHAT? What consensus is the writer referring to? Either the writer is stating a biased view of someone he has consulted with, or he is inserting his own bias. In either case, it is IRRESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM! At Govalle Elementary School (one of two elementary school neighborhood meetings held recently), 12 of 13 parents who attended the meeting stated that they wanted Allan to return as a comprehensive junior/middle school so that their children would not lose 2-3 hours every day being bused to the other side of town. They stated strongly that they wanted no other alternative. They did not discuss STEM or dual language. Do the owners/publishers/editors of the Austin Chronicle not care about providing correct information regarding the history and cultures of neighborhoods in Austin, or does it only not care what it writes concerning the neighborhoods in east Austin? If they plead ignorance, they can correct the situation by first hiring minority Austin journalists (not persons from another country) who know east Austin history and the different neighborhoods . Those journalists can then meet with persons who actually grew up in east Austin and attended elementary, junior/middle, and senior high schools in east Austin. East Austinites from particular neighborhoods are the persons who can give a true pulse of their neighborhoods, not persons from outside the neighborhood who send their children to attend a school near the parents workplace in East Austin. austinchronicle/news/2014-02-07/timeline-of-key-changes/
Posted on: Tue, 11 Feb 2014 09:02:52 +0000