Austin ISD helping to acclimate Afghan refugee families fox7austin.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from fox7austin.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Beginning this fall,
Austin ISD parent-teacher associations will no longer be allowed to fund staff positions at their schools, a decision met with mixed reactions across the broadly diverse urban school district. Some campus communities felt bruised by the district s haphazard communication and speedy timeline for change at their schools, while other stakeholders were incredulous that AISD ever allowed such a practice in the first place.
The decision impacts 31 staff positions at a dozen elementary schools, almost all of which are whiter and wealthier than the district as a whole. A May 3 letter to principals from district leaders outlining the changes, months after AISD put in place new
When schools closed a year ago, Michelle Wallis, executive director of the Austin Ed Fund, knew her priority would be making sure families had food on the table. Inspired by districts outside of Texas launching similar initiatives, she started the caregiver meals program to provide food to parents alongside the food the Austin district was distributing to children.
The first version of the program was active for just a few weeks in March before running out of funding. Wallis restarted the program in May with a combination of city money and private donations.
Just over a year after the first meal was distributed, the program has delivered 1.27 million meals.