Can you believe it’s already the 4th week of school?
I want to thank students, parents and community members who have taken the time to talk to me during my school visits and events. I’m especially excited to hear you bragging about our amazing Austin ISD teachers and staff. I hope you’ll consider nominating an outstanding teacher, principal or counselor for the H-E-B Excellence in Education Awards.
This past week, I got to see Paredes Middle School’s volleyball coach, Sarah Williams, in action. I loved seeing her coach the team with such passion and drive to build up each of her players. Coach Williams was in tears as she praised her team for how much they’ve improved since the start of the season. And not only is she a great coach, she’s a stellar teacher; last year she was named Paredes’s Teach of Promise!
This Wednesday, across every campus, we will commemorate the events of September 11, 2001. In keeping with HB 1501, we will honor the memory of the lives lost, as well as remember the heroic efforts of our first responders, and observe a moment of silence at the start of the day.
Monday, September 9
I’ll start the day with a meeting to discuss updates for the TEA agreed order and our monthly submissions. Later in the morning I have my senior staff meeting where we’ll focus on academic initiatives, budget and enrollment. In the afternoon, I have one-on-one meetings with Austin ISD Trustees — first with the Board President, Arti Singh; then with Board Vice President Kevin Foster; and finally, with Trustee Kauffman.
Tuesday, September 10
I will start today off visiting a few campuses. After that, I’m be meeting with Education Austin President, Ken Zarifis. In the afternoon, I have a meeting with Andrew Hairston, Director of the Education Justice Project at Texas Appleseed. The rest of the afternoon will be spent at the first Executive Leadership Meeting of the year. I am committing to meet regularly with this group of leaders so that we can all be on the same page and work effectively together on the district’s key initiatives. This meeting is held by me, and includes all executive directors and above across all divisions. This month we’ll focus on our budget transformation process, Proposition A and alignment of equitable resource allocation for our schools.
Wednesday, September 11
This morning, I will get to hang out with our hard working principals at the first Principal Roundtable Meeting of the year. I’ll then attend the Star of Texas Ceremony hosted by the Governor’s office, where Austin ISD Police Sergeant, Val Barnes, will be honored. Back in December 2023, Sergeant Barnes responded swiftly to a threat at the risk of his life, and was instrumental in keeping our campuses safe.
After the award ceremony, I’ll have a lunch meeting with a couple community partners from Wisdom En Familias and Community Advancement Network. This afternoon, I’ll have a one-on-one meeting with Trustee Lugo, and then an Austin Partners In Education Executive Committee meeting.
Thursday, September 12
I’ll start today with a one-on-one meeting with Trustee Whitley Chu. After that, I’ll attend the I-35 North Cluster and Fast Growth District Meeting. This meeting includes superintendents along I-35 in Central Texas. We spend time sharing strategies so we can all better support our students and staff in Central Texas. I’ll then spend the afternoon preparing for the Board Information Session happening this evening.
Friday, September 13
Friday is a work day, where I can focus on progressing deliverables and getting updates on initiatives. I’ll also update and finalize my action items from the week as well as sign contracts and other legal documents. This can take some time as I like to read everything I sign.
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This document has been translated using an AI-powered machine translation tool through Thrillshare. As a result, it may contain inaccuracies, errors, or inconsistencies that do not reflect the original content accurately. Austin ISD strives for high-quality translations and has a dedicated translation team, but sometimes we might have to use AI tools for critical or time-sensitive communications.