- So equity by design has been a path towards transformation for our district.

- Our students deserve quality facilities with working air conditioning, functioning restrooms, and athletic facilities that are not dilapidated or dangerous to even utilize.

- I want to look at what it means to win or more precisely in policy arenas, how we get to the win.

This is important because even more important than fighting for justice is achieving justice.

(light music) My name is Kevin Michael Foster, and I'm the Vice President of the Board of Trustees for Austin's Public School District.

Tonight you're gonna hear from three voices representing different perspectives on one of the most important moments in the history of Austin schools.

- I'm Dr. Anthony Mays, the interim superintendent of Austin schools during the historic moment Dr. Foster referred to.

That moment was the passage of an education bond that will fund the rebuild or repair of 114 schools in a way that tips the scales toward equity.

Dr. Stephanie Hawley was the district's equity officer during that moment.

(audience applauding) - Good evening and thank you for being here.

As Dr. Foster said, you're going to hear this evening about three different stories, and I'm starting with the first story.

(audience applauding) So I'm Dr. Stephanie Hawley.

And I've been Austin ISD's equity Officer since 2019.

And one of my greatest joys as the equity officer is I get to listen deeply to the community, to the students, to caregivers.

And I hear a lot about our district.

I hear the things that people love, people are proud of, and I also hear about the problems and challenges.

But people often have great solutions.

And so when I left higher-ed to serve in this capacity, I knew I was walking into something called School Changes.

It was very controversial initiative and at its core was the closure of 12 schools.

We had done the calculations and determined it was too costly to keep a lot of our under-enrolled and aging buildings open.

School Changes also included a lot of academic programs, but it was immersed in power dynamics and politics and the district's racial history and the usual business interests.

And sadly for me, it was clear that the decisions had been made without the community and with financial and business focus.

And worse, we didn't entertain any proposals from the community the decision had been made.

So as you might imagine, many caregivers, students and alumni wanted to tell the brand new equity officer about this top down decision that was opening old wounds.

Everything from the closing of the the black high school decades ago, crosstown busing, the just persistent underfunding of Spanish education for our emergent bilingual students.

And so I was listening and learning from the people whose schools were on that closure list, and it became my priority to listen to them because they were the people with the least amount of power in this situation.

So dozens of people from diverse backgrounds talked to me over several weeks and many with powerful stories.

But it was a conversation with one bright-eyed little black girl who changed my heart and my mind about how I needed to do my work as an equity officer over the next few weeks.

So Theresa was this typical high energy third grader.

She had two fluffy Afro puffs that bounced when she twirled and skipped in the hallway.

And her mother, who was a teacher, had arranged for her to give me a tour of the school.

And so she showed me everything.

She was very proud of everything about the school, her artwork on the wall, the cafeteria.

There's a big mural in front of the school.

And she ended her tour with me in the courtyard with the bunnies.

And she told me, when kids are having a bad day, they can go out to the courtyard and they pet the bunnies till they calm down.

And I thought, wow, what an amazing space.

But one of the other things that I learned in talking to Theresa, I asked her, I said, is there anything else you need me to know?

I learned that Theresa was in foster care and she had been with three different families, but every one of those families had made sure she got back to this school.

So this was something that was permanent for this child at this point.

And so as I was getting ready to leave, I said, is there anything else you need me to know?

And she said, I don't want you to close my school.

I tried not to be offended because I didn't wanna tell this 8-year-old I had only been in the district a couple of weeks and I didn't have the power to close or not close her school.

But the other thing is I didn't wanna pretend that her school wasn't on that list of 12 because it was.

And so I asked her, I said, what would you miss most if your school closed?

And she said everybody and everything.

And she started listing the teachers and her friends and cafeteria worker, librarian, custodian.

And I thought, I gotta do my work much differently.

And when we finished, she gave me a big hug, I thanked her.

And that's the last time I saw Theresa.

But Theresa lives with me as an equity officer.

She inspired me then to take some bold steps and she still inspired me to help our district leaders look through an authentic equity lens at the displacement and harm we can sometimes do to vulnerable students and communities because we are not listening and acting.

It's not enough to just listen, but we have to take action.

I did know that in order as a new equity officer, I knew that I was going to have to help build relationships and coalitions and educate people.

I knew all those things were crucial.

And so I kept asking, how could those of us who knew there was a better way to make decisions, what were we gonna need to do before the board voted in just a few weeks?

So fortunately, we had a cultural proficiency office, which was led by Dr. Angela Ward at that time.

And we partnered to facilitate conversations, worship shopped exhibits of the district's racial history, exhibits of the district's racist history.

Our many learning experiences were well received by our staff and by our senior leaders.

And even one senior leader started co-facilitating workshops with me.

She was so taken.

We wound up training over 300 staff and leaders in a very short time, just in the basic principles of equity.

So despite all that relationship building and all that coalition building and all of the workshops, we closed Theresa's school anyway.

And we closed three others.

And in less than a year, Theresa's school community was scattered across central Texas.

We lost students, we lost teachers, we lost families to surrounding charters, and we lost any remaining trust that we had in those communities.

And as district leaders fear, power, and politics divided us.

We were clearly aware of the pain and damage we were inflicting on our most vulnerable communities, but many people genuinely believed it was the only answer to a financial problem.

So how do we get to equity from here?

I returned to a model that I'd been working on at Austin Community College for many years called Equity by Design for Education and Nonprofits.

And it's an ever evolving model, but at its core it's about doing things with communities, with communities, not to communities.

So in the summer of 2022, we proposed an historic win-win for Central Texas, which was a $2.44 billion bond package.

And we propose that more than 80% of those funds be invested in the very communities we had sought to close in 2019.

(audience applauding) Every school, regardless of family, the family socioeconomic level is receiving funds for enhanced safety and security and educational opportunity.

And the business community will benefit as they repair our aging buildings.

73% of our voters demonstrate their belief in not buy-in, but belief in our ability to take action to repair those buildings that needed it the most.

And through all this, it mattered how we got to that bond package.

It wasn't just what we did, but it was how we did it.

It wasn't charity, it wasn't pity, it wasn't reparations.

It was us sitting with our community to work together.

So equity by design has been a path towards transformation for our district.

It's been a a path toward redemption as we've moved from closing schools to opening hearts and to opening minds.

Most importantly though, equity by design is the light that is helping us put children like Theresa at the center of all of our decision making.

(audience applauding) - Before June 13th, 2022, I had not imagined being invited to serve as the interim superintendent for a school district serving 73,000 students.

I certainly did not anticipate being at the helm as we attempted to pass a record $2.44 billion bond.

I recall feelings of excitement and trepidation all at the same time.

In my 20 year plus career, I had been focused on creating opportunities for students and improving student achievement.

I had navigated the impacts of Hurricane Harvey in Houston and a minor Ebola crisis in Dallas ISD.

But passing a bond.

Yeah, that wasn't there.

When I arrived in Austin, ISD in October, 2020 to serve as the chief of schools, the buildings were empty.

We had yet to return to school campuses for in-person learning due to COVID-19.

And there were challenges with transitioning families, faculty, and students back to campus.

There was still rampant fears that had not been addressed about returning to school safely, a new administration, moving a community through a frightening situation where relationships, community, and trust had yet to be established.

To say it was a challenging time for me during leadership will be a complete understatement.

Did I mention that I had never passed a bun?

(audience laughing) Despite my inexperience with the bun i understand that trust and communication are necessary for a positive culture.

And that sincerely, working towards a positive culture, were going to be critical for succeeding at and allowing the work to take place.

One board member's words rang in my ears, they won't vote for this if they are unhappy.

Don't trust us and don't like the district.

The equity by design process was there for us and critical.

And yet tough and fair questions from public officials and private citizens remained.

Why should we support this bond?

We don't know you.

We don't know who will be leading this district next.

What assurances do we have that you all will be good stewards of our trust and our money?

I initially lacked the answers to those questions.

I did not know where the district was headed either.

But wherever we were headed, we needed a leader who was committed to helping make things better for our school district.

Ironically, my deer in the headlights glare proved to be essential for listening before moving into a role of full throated advocate for a bond that would rebuild our oldest schools and repair additional aging facilities, it was critical that I listened and learned of the pain and frustration of the history of Austin ISD, and our marginalized black and brown community.

In my interim role, it was important to galvanize our team around the challenges associated with the work.

Austin being different or weird, as they say, requires a different approach to engagement.

As a leader, it was vital to learn and understand the quirks that run our city.

There was someone in every corner for me to check in with for support.

Knowing those people and sometimes who could reach them was critical.

The cool thing was that I did not have to do the work alone.

Everyone in the administration, our principals, our staff funded with focus and drive amid staffing shortages and a pandemic and uncertainty across the city, state, and nation.

Communicating the content of the bond and our intentions to be good stewards of public dollars took countless hours.

During this time back to back nights with the citizen led long range planning team and the bond steering committee.

Late nights, long Saturdays and early Sundays were a standard for every school district member.

Several Austin ISD employees literally became ill from grinding endlessly to get the bond over the finish line.

Folks like Community Engagement Officer Gloria Bedolla, Chief Operation Officer, Matias Segura and Community Engagement Director Ali Ghilarducci led our street teams with passion and inspiration.

With the support of our board, our team took cues when there was a need to pivot our focus or adopt new strategies to reach our communities.

Despite the hurdles, I was fortunate to have a board president Geronimo Rodriguez and board members like Trustee Kevin Foster, who recognize that our students and the quality of their experiences and our schools hung in the balance.

Our students deserve quality facilities with working air conditioning, functioning restrooms and athletic facilities that are not dilapidated or dangerous to even utilize.

I've now accepted the superintendency in Alief Independent School District outside of Houston, but I will forever be grateful to the nine trustees and the supportive employees of Austin School District.

Together we made history tangibly and dramatically improving the facilities for our students, teachers, and communities.

What did we accomplish?

In 2022 we adopted our first balanced budget in seven years, I was selected as the first African American male to lead the district.

(audience applauding) And our community pastor, a record setting bond of $2.44 billion.

(audience applauding) Most importantly, with more than 80% of those dollars being spent in schools, serving our students with the greatest needs.

(audience applauding) I'm grateful for the work that we have done together for the students of Austin and for this season in my life in the capital city, and for what God allowed me to be a part of here.

(audience applauding) It is wonderful to be in the beautiful Boyd Vance Theatre of the George Washington Carver Museum Cultural and Genealogy Center in Austin, Texas as we record black academic season 11 before a live studio audience.

Tonight we've been talking about what is arguably the biggest win for social justice and education in central Texas history, and doing so from three different institutional vantage points, the equity chief, the superintendent, and in my case, a school board member.

I want to look at what it means to win or more precisely in policy arenas, how we get to the win.

This is important because even more important than fighting for justice is achieving justice.

In the November, 2022 election, justice for many of us was setting the stage to rebuild or modernize Austin school facilities, which as was mentioned, with having most funds go to historically marginalized communities.

As others noticed, the bond was necessary because our schools are in need of repair or modernization.

But getting it right meant countering the reality that facilities inequities have been a structural feature of our system.

So let's start with how we got to our state of inequity.

For most of our city's history, our neighborhoods and facilities were segregated.

Following the Civil War, blacks migrated to Austin and others were already here.

And together they established Freedman communities, each with their own school and church.

They had names like Wheatville, Kincheonville, Clarksville, Robertson Hill, and Gregory Town.

In 1928, the city council adopted a plan that moved all black folk to one side of town denying them services if they refused and promising separate but equal facilities, including schools.

Over the decades, the resources built on the minority side of town were woefully deficient compared to the white side.

Roads were paved on one side of the city and not the other.

Streetlights came to one side of the city and not the other.

And schools.

Schools were built to modern standards in one place and bare bones in another.

And when it came to maintenance, we would care for schools on one side of town while neglecting others.

Even if we now devote similar resources to upkeep, we would still have the inequity.

Maintenance can't change that one school was built with high ceilings, beautiful gyms and courtyards while another was built with the basics.

Finally, in Austin, too many of our schools generally are super old.

This situation was the backdrop for our last two school bonds.

One in 20 7, one in 2022, you heard from an equity official and a superintendent.

So what's the role of a school board member?

to correct for a history of inequity we need to invest in communities that have been systematically looked over.

So we task the administration, as you heard, including the equity office, to put forth an equity forward proposal.

Their community generated proposal included security improvements, heating and air conditioning, repairs, and thorough modernization of seven high schools, five middle schools, and 12 elementary schools.

It was public health, it was socioeconomic and racial justice.

It was efficiency.

But history shows us that just because something is good and just doesn't mean it will come to pass.

Anything designed with equity in mind can be revised towards inequity.

So once an equity forward proposal is put forth, we must one, protect it less inequity, creep in during revision.

And two, BO board members must help ensure that the bond is accepted by the voters.

So first, protecting the proposal.

If you want a proposal to pass, you must ensure that the proposal is data backed.

It's logic unimpeachable.

This creates protection against the pushback that will come.

But also, and this is unsettling, you should ensure that those with power will see something in their proposal that benefits them.

Derek Bell, a veteran of the Civil Rights era litigation and policymaking explained that if those with power do not see benefit for themselves in an initiative, they will not generally support it no matter how noble.

What do I mean?

Well, here's how this plays out.

In our case, on a critical night, just before the board would approve the final proposal to put before voters, the equity forward proposal was presented with over 90% of the investment directed towards historically marginalized communities.

But overnight things changed.

Now, at this point, we could have dug our heels in and insisted upon returning to the original proposal, but that would have likely and predictably led us to impasse.

So keeping Derrick Bell's teaching in mind, we needed a third way, an additive approach.

It is easier for powerful entities to find more money and do well by all than it is to convince them to give up something themselves.

With that logic in mind, the bond proposal was enlarged and both sides got what they wanted.

And to be clear, the final compromise still directed well over 80% of the bond dollars towards predominantly minority communities.

Now the second piece is actually seeing the bond pass.

Things pass because they resonate.

So we surveyed community members asked questions, we're in Texas, how do you feel about the effectiveness of state government?

Community members said, are you serious?

Okay, we're not hitching our message to that wagon.

How do you feel about school safety?

It's important, but not overwhelmingly.

Wow, that was surprising.

But we listened.

How do you feel about your school board?

Yeah, we don't like 'em.

(audience laughing) How do you feel about your teachers?

We love them.

How do you feel about your kids going to aging, falling down facilities?

Yeah, if you haven't heard, we're not too pleased with that.

Okay, again, alright, one more question.

After all this equity talk, how do you feel about spending our money ensuring equity?

Not feeling that.

So when we took all of what many of us thought, thought were the coolest aspects of the bond and presented it to potential voters, they talked to us and they told us, we love teachers.

We don't like aging facilities.

So with all due respect to those of us elected officials, we kept working, but we were clearly not the ones to fully actualize the message.

So what do we do?

We have our teachers share the simple message repair our schools.

Here's what that looked like.

- [Narrator] Last year we spent as much money renting AC units as it cost to hire 25 teachers like me.

Wanna free up funding to hire more teachers?

Fix the AC.

- Simple, right?

And effective, the bond passed, as you heard, with a 73% approval.

The bond passed with a 73% approval.

(audience applauding) The process was arduous and complex and involved dozens and dozens of community members, teachers, staff.

And one of the critical pieces was understanding interest convergence theory.

The notion that while it is true that justice must be demanded, the surest way to get power to move towards doing right is to ensure that there's something in it for them as well.

This is what got us to the passage of a bond that dramatically improves facilities for our kids.

Perfect?

No.

A historic win?

Yes.

And for perspective, lots of folk thought the 2017 bond was equitable.

In reality, that bond perpetuated inequality, over 60% of the funds in that bond went to higher income communities.

So what Austinites approved here was huge.

A multi-billion dollar bond that does something for all of the schools in our city.

But with the overwhelming majority of funds going to those schools, we have served least well.

Those that are title one, predominantly Latino, and with the largest percentages of black students as well.

(audience applauding) And that's a win we can live with.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (playful music)