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Posted
50 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

I don't think you're right.  I know a shitload of folks in Dem circles in town, and they uniformly think that Garza is crap.  The last race was a textbook example of ruination of a candidate by association.  The Dem primary voters here are ready to vote for someone other than Garza.  But they'll never vote in sufficient numbers that Elon and Ted Cruz try to shove down our throat, even if that person is otherwise qualified.  That was a big fucking miscalculation last race.  I hope it is not repeated.

I've met and know people in both camps. The difference in opinion correlates with household income and net worth. I think if a good challenger came around maybe Garza would lose in the primary but who's gonna step up? Gonna have to be someone who shares his restorative justice policies but has a better track record of running a big office AND is willing or financially able to forgo lucrative private sector jobs to take a highly scrutinized public job where nobody is ever going to be happy with you.

Posted

So, the cowards at AISD dropped a bomb in parent's lap last night, as a reaction to the assholes at the state dropping the initial bomb on them late yesterday (all conveniently right before a holiday weekend to avoid all the angry phone calls, etc.). All of this conveniently happening the same day school vouchers passed the state house. 

The state is finally making a move on AISD due to the shittastic performance of Dobie.  It's insane that our laws allows for one bad school to take down an entire district, especially when that school is struggling, in part, due to actions taken by the state.  The cowards in AISD administration, by way of the school board, are desperately trying to save their jobs (because if they state takes over they'll all be gonzo) by closing Dobie and moving all ~550 students over to Lamar Middle School, which is already overcrowded to the point I don't understand how it passes fire code.   They haven't said it officially, but this will likely kill off the fine arts academy at Lamar as well, as they can push the kids that aren't zoned for Lamar out to make room for the Dobie kids.   Which, ironically, will also push many of the academically excelling kids out of the school and further lower Lamar's numbers and rating.

This is shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic, but I'll never understand the mindset of "fixing" bad schools by simply moving underperforming kids into a school with high-performing kids in order to bring test averages up to just about passing.  That is protecting jobs, not better educating kids.   AISD has failed these kids at Dobie miserably, and their solution is to ruin a school that is at least functional, and thereby make education terrible for even more children.  Fuck every last one of these feckless assholes.  They tried to bring back busing, of all the stupid ideas proven repeatedly not to work, before the pandemic in an attempt to do the same thing.   The entire administrative staff, starting with the sawed off little piece of shit superintendent, should be fired yesterday.  The school board is a collection of well intentioned but ultimately braindead progressives who will happily destroy shit just to make things appear to be okay.   They will do precisely what they did during the last debate over bussing, and just accuse anyone opposed to their self serving plan of being a racist, because that's all they've got.  Not actual plan, no concern for any of these kids, just ass covering bull shit. 

If you have kids in AISD, pay very close attention to what is happening, as this is just the first big domino to fall.  The state will be taking over the district at some point, and nobody wants that, especially after seeing what those crooks have done with HISD, but at this point I'm wondering if it can really be any worse than the spineless, self-serving assholes running AISD currently (to be very clear, I'm not talking about teachers, principals, or anyone else who spends time educating children daily, just the dumbfucks in charge).  There was already a mass exodus of kids from AISD happening before the pandemic.  The pandemic sped it up tremendously, and this next step will be the biggest backbreaker of all.   The only positive that may come of this is that 3+ bedroom homes may drop in price as a bunch of them will be going on the market in Austin soon as families get the fuck out.  Of course, that's bad news for any current families desperate to get the hell out of what is quickly becoming a nightmare scenario for the kids.   There aren't enough private schools in the city to take in all these kids, and of course most parents can't afford it anyway even with the governor's new welfare for rich parents program. So, lots of people are going to just have to live with the knowledge that they are stuck in an overpriced city sending their kids to an overcrowded and unsafe school where they will not receive much of any kind of education.  We are living in weird times.

Posted

Are there anywhere near 550 kids in the Fine Arts program who aren't already zoned to Lamar?  Both my kids did Fine Arts at Lamar and McCallum and they knew a crap ton of similar students from Highland Park.

Posted
3 hours ago, Samson's Wig said:

The cowards in AISD administration, by way of the school board, are desperately trying to save their jobs (because if they state takes over they'll all be gonzo)

I mean, I don't doubt that "saving their jobs" is part of it, but the current setup is pure blackmail -- either the district has to nuke the underperforming school, or the state will nuke the whole district.  If I were the most altruistic board member AISD has ever seen, I would still opt for nuking Dobie to avoid the state coming in and running an HISD on the district, fucking over EVERYONE.

Not commenting on whether the plan to consolidate with Lamar is the best path to accomplish that, but "nuke Dobie, save AISD" was the only rational path here.

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Posted
2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

I mean, I don't doubt that "saving their jobs" is part of it, but the current setup is pure blackmail -- either the district has to nuke the underperforming school, or the state will nuke the whole district.  If I were the most altruistic board member AISD has ever seen, I would still opt for nuking Dobie to avoid the state coming in and running an HISD on the district, fucking over EVERYONE.

Not commenting on whether the plan to consolidate with Lamar is the best path to accomplish that, but "nuke Dobie, save AISD" was the only rational path here.

I agree with you to a point, but they're not just nuking Dobie. This will nuke Lamar as well.  It's a band-aid that won't stop the state from coming.  It might delay them for another year or two, but that's about it.  Lamar will just become the next failing school, and so on, and at some point they'll run out of ways to hide underperforming kids to skirt state law.   The district has known this was coming for years and has done absolutely nothing about it.  They get no sympathy from me when they act shocked that is has happened.  This is ultimately their failure, even if the challenge has been a huge one.

Between the voucher program and moves like this, every kid that can will be in private school within a year or two, and AISD won't have much of anything left to educate any kids with.   It's terrible for all of us.  Frankly, I'm at the point where I think AISD admin is just as bad as the state.  Hell, our goofy superintendent wasn't even certified for the job.  Big shocker that nothing has been done under his watch, although to be fair, none of his predecessors did anything either other than try and bring back busing of all the stupid ideas.  They've had years to attempt to solve this problem, and instead waited until the shoe dropped and will now rush forward with the dumbest plan they could come up with at the last second to save their jobs.       There are no good actors above the individual school level, and while I have zero interest in the state stepping in, at this point it may end up being the only way to get anything done.  Just completley break it so we can try and build something better down the line.  Continuing on the nonsense path we've been on certainly isn't working.

Posted
2 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Are there anywhere near 550 kids in the Fine Arts program who aren't already zoned to Lamar?  Both my kids did Fine Arts at Lamar and McCallum and they knew a crap ton of similar students from Highland Park.

No, I don't think so.   It would still be a shit show if all of the non-zoned kids were pushed out, but it would provide some cushion.   I believe around 70% of the FAA kids are already zoned for Lamar, but I'm not sure what the total number is off hand.  I also imagine a decent percentage of those kids will be bailing for private schools, or trying to transfer to other AISD middle schools if this goes down on Thursday.

The only solution here that is reasonable for all of the kids is the charter school option, but these cowards won't take it because that will mean some admin, and possibly some teachers, will lose their jobs.  The first first words out of the superintendent's mouth when interviewed wasn't about kids or education, or why Dobie has been struggling.  It was about promising that no administrators or teachers will lose their jobs on his watch.  That's his priority, not the kids, not educating the next generation.

Posted

You guys are cute acting like what they did with HISD wasn’t a dress rehearsal for AISD. HISD contributes less to recapture than AISD does so it was a lower risk play to run first.

Posted
8 hours ago, royiv said:

You guys are cute acting like what they did with HISD wasn’t a dress rehearsal for AISD. HISD contributes less to recapture than AISD does so it was a lower risk play to run first.

I think you're right about this, for sure.   The state is coming, whether we like it or not. Destroying a year of education for two middle schools to save the jobs of people who have been failing at them is nonsense.  The district is fucked either way, but they're not doing anything here that is putting the kids or education first.  No matter how this shakes out next week, AISD will lose a lot more students before next fall.  Vouchers alone will drive a lot of it (although I can't imagine where exactly there is going to be room in private schools for all the people who will want to bail), but you'll see half the kids at Lamar gone even without the voucher program if this cockeyed plan is passed, which it will be as they've done their damndest to ensure there is almost no input from the public, and the transcript of their last meeting makes it clear they have no intention of listening to the actual stakeholderes involved. 

Priority number one is to make sure no one at the central office loses their job, followed by ensuring that no administrators at Dobie lose their jobs, and then no teachers at Dobie lose their jobs.  Nowhere in the analysis, outside of pandering pablum, is what might be best for all of the students involved.  Nowhere is there any discussion about how AISD has failed these kids, or how they have had years to do something about it and have not acted until now, when their hand is forced.  And this is just as much a reason why AISD is failing as the state's machinations.  And most of these people are still going to lose their jobs, they may just delay it for a year or two by sacrificing some kids.  The (only) public meeting on this before they vote on Thursday is on Monday evening and it is going to be raucous. I expect it to go very similarly to how the meetings went the last time they tried to force busing around 2019 (for the same purpose of blending test scores instead of fixing problems at underperforming schools).   Some people will raise valid concerns about overcrowding, safety, and how classrooms that already have an average of more students per teacher than the law allows at Lamar (36 per teacher), and they will just be told their concerns are invalid and based solely on their inherent racism.   Some people will also say some shit that is indeed racist.  Nothing constructive will be accomplished.   

In the end, the failures of the state, the school district, the school, and the community of parents involved will be dumped in the laps of another group of educators and parents who have been busting their asses just to keep their heads above water at Lamar, an already overcrowded school that is falling apart, infested with rodents, and facing the same struggles any other inner city school does.  But we're not supposed to be upset about that for some reason.

Posted

Definitely. I just find it funny they didn't mention it on the article. Give us the true cost of going back to what it was before. 

Posted
16 minutes ago, Deej said:

Definitely. I just find it funny they didn't mention it on the article. Give us the true cost of going back to what it was before. 

I assume they'll be able to re-use most of the hardware, but the round trip labor costs are gone in the wind.

Posted
2 hours ago, Samson's Wig said:

I think you're right about this, for sure.   The state is coming, whether we like it or not. Destroying a year of education for two middle schools to save the jobs of people who have been failing at them is nonsense.  The district is fucked either way, but they're not doing anything here that is putting the kids or education first.  No matter how this shakes out next week, AISD will lose a lot more students before next fall.  Vouchers alone will drive a lot of it (although I can't imagine where exactly there is going to be room in private schools for all the people who will want to bail), but you'll see half the kids at Lamar gone even without the voucher program if this cockeyed plan is passed, which it will be as they've done their damndest to ensure there is almost no input from the public, and the transcript of their last meeting makes it clear they have no intention of listening to the actual stakeholderes involved. 

Priority number one is to make sure no one at the central office loses their job, followed by ensuring that no administrators at Dobie lose their jobs, and then no teachers at Dobie lose their jobs.  Nowhere in the analysis, outside of pandering pablum, is what might be best for all of the students involved.  Nowhere is there any discussion about how AISD has failed these kids, or how they have had years to do something about it and have not acted until now, when their hand is forced.  And this is just as much a reason why AISD is failing as the state's machinations.  And most of these people are still going to lose their jobs, they may just delay it for a year or two by sacrificing some kids.  The (only) public meeting on this before they vote on Thursday is on Monday evening and it is going to be raucous. I expect it to go very similarly to how the meetings went the last time they tried to force busing around 2019 (for the same purpose of blending test scores instead of fixing problems at underperforming schools).   Some people will raise valid concerns about overcrowding, safety, and how classrooms that already have an average of more students per teacher than the law allows at Lamar (36 per teacher), and they will just be told their concerns are invalid and based solely on their inherent racism.   Some people will also say some shit that is indeed racist.  Nothing constructive will be accomplished.   

In the end, the failures of the state, the school district, the school, and the community of parents involved will be dumped in the laps of another group of educators and parents who have been busting their asses just to keep their heads above water at Lamar, an already overcrowded school that is falling apart, infested with rodents, and facing the same struggles any other inner city school does.  But we're not supposed to be upset about that for some reason.

Why Lamar and not Webb or Burnet?

Posted (edited)
19 minutes ago, MAUFRAIS said:

East bound lake Austin boulevard onto redbud next.

Is it just me or did they recently add a second set of bollards between the bike lane and turn lane that have really fucked that up?  

 

edit:  Yes.  So fucking dumb.
image.png.f443f84e52e3e5ce93043026c876f251.png

Edited by Mittens
Posted
Why Lamar and not Webb or Burnet?
The school they send them to needs to have an A or B grade (or be a new campus).

So the next question should be why not split the Dobie kids between Lamar and Murchison. Or even better, send them to the new middle school, Marshall is closer than Lamar and only has 400 kids (this year).
Posted
12 minutes ago, smoky said:

So the next question should be why not split the Dobie kids between Lamar and Murchison.

I live in NW Hills, and even I find the favoritism shown by AISD to Doss & Murchison disturbing.  The new construction is just mind-boggling, and totally unnecessary when you consider the shitholes we have all over the district.

Posted
4 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Even the guy who likes the bike lanes gets it: 

Klipp is not surprised the city got so much negative feedback.

“It doesn’t shock me at all. I feel like the bike lanes were installed with very little notice to any of the residents. It seemed like they just kind of popped up overnight, and it was a shock to the system, especially for people who live on the streets, with the bike lanes. I think some advanced notice or communication from the city about what was being implemented before it was done would have probably alleviated some of that shock,” said Klipp.

The city does shit like this all the time without having any conversations with the neighborhoods. Why? Just get some fucking feedback and information about what would be beneficial before plowing ahead. Have a conversation before wasting money based a consultant's recommendations for a road they've driven probably twice, FFS.

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Posted
4 minutes ago, Cap33 said:

The city does shit like this all the time without having any conversations with the neighborhoods. Why? Just get some fucking feedback and information about what would be beneficial before plowing ahead. Have a conversation before wasting money based a consultant's recommendations for a road they've driven probably twice, FFS.

They put in a roundabout in our neighborhood at a T intersection that was never a problem.  Two legs had the right of way, the third had a stop sign.  Simple.  Now it's a roundabout with 3 yield signs that is not only too tight for larger trucks but people blow through 2 out of the 3 yields all the time.  Accidents are bound to happen.  Well done, Austin.

Posted
2 hours ago, gsoda3 said:

Why Lamar and not Webb or Burnet?

Presumably because they have low scores as well, but the scores aren't published until next week, I believe.  The state is requiring the Dobie kids to be moved to a school with an A or B rating, or in the alternative that a charter school is set up for them.   The district isn't even considering the charter option, as the admin sees it as a gateway to losing their jobs, although they'll pitch it as letting the fox in the henhouse, which is also true.  That they're considering putting 550 kids into a school that is already insanely overcrowded to the point of being unsafe tells you how desperate they are, and that they have had absolutely no plan for this even though it's been coming for years.  These kids have been failed by lots of different groups.

 

Posted
24 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

They put in a roundabout in our neighborhood at a T intersection that was never a problem.  Two legs had the right of way, the third had a stop sign.  Simple.  Now it's a roundabout with 3 yield signs that is not only too tight for larger trucks but people blow through 2 out of the 3 yields all the time.  Accidents are bound to happen.  Well done, Austin.

Yeah, that stupid mini roundabout is the most representative thing I've ever seen for Austin's leadership.  It cost a ton of money and made things worse.  At least the roundabout on the other side of town was an improvement.

Posted

Murchison and Marshall are being discussed for the Dobie kids. As JimmyJazz mentioned, there is favoritism towards the Doss/Murchison/Anderson parents. It’s mostly fear based as the HP/Lamar/McCallum parents are more altruistic.

I do think the community is scared of “losing” Lamar though. Not that long ago many families went private for middle school only in that area. My guess is we end up with a 3 way split.

Also, I’m glad I don’t work for AISD anymore 😏

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Posted
1 hour ago, Larry T. Spider said:

I do think the community is scared of “losing” Lamar though. Not that long ago many families went private for middle school only in that area. My guess is we end up with a 3 way split.

When my daughter started kindergarten at Highland Park in 2010, we heard that a ridiculously low percentage of fifth graders were going to Lamar (I recall 25%, but my memory could be exaggerating). We figured it would be either Kealing or St. Theresa’s for middle school. But by the time she was in fifth grade it seemed like 80% of the kids were going to Lamar. It was pretty impressive how Lamar improved so much and drew the parental support from the Highland Park community. It turned out to be a pretty great middle school experience for both our kids, and I fear this latest issue with Dobie, along with mother fucking vouchers, are going to cause more parents to forgo Lamar like so many used to.

Posted
3 minutes ago, South Austin said:

When my daughter started kindergarten at Highland Park in 2010, we heard that a ridiculously low percentage of fifth graders were going to Lamar (I recall 25%, but my memory could be exaggerating). We figured it would be either Kealing or St. Theresa’s for middle school. But by the time she was in fifth grade it seemed like 80% of the kids were going to Lamar. It was pretty impressive how Lamar improved so much and drew the parental support from the Highland Park community. It turned out to be a pretty great middle school experience for both our kids, and I fear this latest issue with Dobie, along with mother fucking vouchers, are going to cause more parents to forgo Lamar like so many used to.

Your estimates are about right. The former principal George Llewellyn and a few groups of HP parents willing to give Lamar a shot completely changed the trajectory of the school. 

There are quite a few families out there that had their older kids go to private middle school but went to Lamar for their younger ones after the changes.

 

Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

They put in a roundabout in our neighborhood at a T intersection that was never a problem.  Two legs had the right of way, the third had a stop sign.  Simple.  Now it's a roundabout with 3 yield signs that is not only too tight for larger trucks but people blow through 2 out of the 3 yields all the time.  Accidents are bound to happen. 

I keep hearing this when roundabouts are installed. When do the accidents start? 

Edited by Bozo_Casanova
Posted

Is AISD ever going to renovate or rebuild McCallum? My niece graduated from there four years ago and that campus was in rough shape.

Posted
14 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

I keep hearing this when roundabouts are installed. When do the accidents start? 

I'm sure they have.  Do you seriously discount my personal experience of having the right of way and starting to advance only having to hit the brakes because some oncoming driver was clearly going to (and did) ignore their yield sign?  I mean, sure, be the contrarian urban planner, but for fuck's sake, the behavior at my neighborhood roundabout is routinely unsafe.  It wasn't before.

Posted
7 minutes ago, royiv said:

Is AISD ever going to renovate or rebuild McCallum? My niece graduated from there four years ago and that campus was in rough shape.

We have a multi-decade leadership vacuum to go with the worst voters of any large city in Texas, and what success we have had has been the product natural advantages overcoming our collective determination against becoming a great city. 

I don't known what Austin will do, but whatever it is, it will be stupid and myopic, and when it's done we'll blame everyone but ourselves for the results. 

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Posted
12 minutes ago, royiv said:

Is AISD ever going to renovate or rebuild McCallum? My niece graduated from there four years ago and that campus was in rough shape.

It was in rough shape when my brother worked there 35 years ago.

Posted
1 minute ago, jimmyjazz said:

I'm sure they have.  Do you seriously discount my personal experience of having the right of way and starting to advance only having to hit the brakes because some oncoming driver was clearly going to (and did) ignore their yield sign?  I mean, sure, be the contrarian urban planner, but for fuck's sake, the behavior at my neighborhood roundabout is routinely unsafe.  It wasn't before.

100% I put no weight in it whatsoever. Your own example is why - the configuration of the interchange gave you the time and sightline to avoid an accident caused by someone else's negligence. 

There's data on this: roundabouts reduce injury accidents, period. If it is "routinely unsafe," the data will bear that out. And if you can find me a single example of an intersection in Texas that was reconfigured to a roundabout and the result was either more injuries or less throughput, I'll stand down.
But until that time, I will remain skeptical about the perceived danger of things that make you more attentive. 

4 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

It was in rough shape when my brother worked there 35 years ago.

Lots of rats, raccoons and possums living in the ceilings now. 

Posted
11 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

We have a multi-decade leadership vacuum to go with the worst voters of any large city in Texas, and what success we have had has been the product natural advantages overcoming our collective determination against becoming a great city. 

I don't known what Austin will do, but whatever it is, it will be stupid and myopic, and when it's done we'll blame everyone but ourselves for the results. 

So, no?

Posted (edited)
8 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

100% I put no weight in it whatsoever. Your own example is why - the configuration of the interchange gave you the time and sightline to avoid an accident caused by someone else's negligence.

LMAO.  THERE WAS NO NEGLIGENCE by those drivers in the prior configuration.  They literally turned a logical right of way into a 3-way clusterfuck.  Beyond that, the turn radius is so hilariously tight that many vehicles can't even navigate the roundabout.

You don't know what you're talking about.

Edited by jimmyjazz
Posted
40 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

THERE WAS NO NEGLIGENCE by those drivers in the prior configuration. 

Really? No prior history of any negligence of any kind ever? Nobody ever rolled the stop sign at the T even once? Nobody ever sped into it when someone was turning? Not every  Very impressive.
But what I was talking about was that your example of unsafety was someone failing to yield, which didn’t cause an accident.

Posted
8 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Really? No prior history of any negligence of any kind ever? Nobody ever rolled the stop sign at the T even once? Nobody ever sped into it when someone was turning? Not every  Very impressive.
But what I was talking about was that your example of unsafety was someone failing to yield, which didn’t cause an accident.

You're having a real struggle with comprehension.  The drivers on the long leg had no negligence because they had no yield sign or stop sign.  They had the right of way.  The drivers at the intersecting "T" had a stop sign.  If they rolled the stop sign that was their negligence.

Despite these facts, you seem to be incapable of understanding the very simple concept that the City of Austin managed to make a perfectly functional intersection worse in multiple ways by building a roundabout.  I didn't map this one failure to all roundabouts across the world, I'm saying it was a stupid waste of money in this particular case that caused more harm than it developed good and it is a perfect example for this thread.

Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Despite these facts, you seem to be incapable of understanding the very simple concept that the City of Austin managed to make a perfectly functional intersection worse in multiple ways by building a roundabout.

But seriously why’d they put a roundabout there? Usually it’s  precipitated by a resident complaint about the need for traffic calming where a stop sign wouldn’t be appropriate.
Gotta be a report on that 

Edited by Bozo_Casanova
Posted
13 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

But seriously why’d they put a roundabout there? Usually it’s  precipitated by a resident complaint about the need for traffic calming where a stop sign wouldn’t be appropriate.
Gotta be a report on that 

Good question, I don't have any idea.  It just sorta popped up.  I can attest to the fact that every neighbor I've spoken with hates it.

It just seems to be such a waste of money.

Posted
Why Lamar and not Webb or Burnet?

They are required to send these kids to a school that has either an A or B grade on the state scores, and neither Webb nor Burnet score that high.
Posted
The school they send them to needs to have an A or B grade (or be a new campus).

So the next question should be why not split the Dobie kids between Lamar and Murchison. Or even better, send them to the new middle school, Marshall is closer than Lamar and only has 400 kids (this year).

I think Marshall only has grades 6 and 7 this year. They are opening the school over three years, adding a grade each year. So next year they may be at 600 just because of kids moving up and more 6th graders arriving.

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