Leffingwell Schools the School Board
By maria9574 | January 13, 2011
Mayor Lee Leffingwell warned the Austin Independent School District Board of Trustees that following the facility master plan task force’s recommendation to close down one middle school and eight elementary schools in Austin would cause more problems than than it would fix.
The Austin Chronicle notes that by expressing his opinion on the matter, Leffingwell put a halt to the city's run of bearing a cautious attitude toward intruding on AISD business, bringing back memories of 1999, when former Mayor Kirk Watson offered to create a task force to pick a new AISD superintendent.
The following is Leffingwell’s entire statement:
“I’ve been contacted by hundreds of parents and neighborhood leaders over the past few days expressing concern about the possibility of school closures in Austin. I know that AISD is facing some very difficult budget decisions, and I do not envy them the choices that I know must be made. The City of Austin plays no formal role in those decisions.
“However, I feel obligated to share my personal view that as the City continues to work to reduce expensive suburban sprawl and facilitate sustainable growth in Austin’s urban core, the prospect of closing successful central city schools clearly runs counter to our community’s long-term planning goals.
“We know that families with children will not move into Austin neighborhoods—or stay in Austin neighborhoods—where there are not good public schools. Losing good schools in the urban core would plainly make many of our goals as a city dramatically more difficult to realize.”
Photo courtesy of albradenphoto.com.
