{"id":28366,"date":"2018-02-27T14:21:21","date_gmt":"2018-02-27T14:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=28366"},"modified":"2018-02-27T20:21:31","modified_gmt":"2018-02-27T20:21:31","slug":"aisd-makes-potentially-huge-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=28366","title":{"rendered":"AISD makes potentially huge move"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Well, ruffle my hair and call me Frankie!<\/p>\n

I spoke rather skeptically in an earlier blog post about whether Amarillo’s public school board would take this step, but — as is often the case — they proved me wrong.<\/p>\n

The Amarillo Independent School District Board of Trustees voted 7-0 Monday to begin researching ways to dramatically change its voting plan. It wants to look at how it can move from an at-large plan to one that elects trustees from single-member districts.<\/p>\n

It’s a realization of the changing demographics within the district and whether the school board reflects the needs and wishes of all 33,000 students and their parents.<\/p>\n

This decision doesn’t guarantee a change in the voting plan. It does move the district a big step forward toward that end.<\/p>\n

Trustees, acting on a recommendation from the lone African-American on the board, James Allen, have directed the AISD legal team to begin researching ways to achieve the transition.<\/p>\n

AISD comprises many disparate neighborhoods comprising residents of equally disparate socio-economic backgrounds. There are plenty of high-end neighborhoods, along with neighborhoods at the other end of the scale.<\/p>\n

And, yes, we also have this issue of racial and ethnic diversity. Amarillo’s student body census is comprising an increasing number of Latin-American, African and Asian backgrounds. Their needs are quite different from their Anglo classmates.<\/p>\n

AISD doesn’t elect trustees from a purely<\/em> at-large system. It instituted a cumulative voting plan some years ago to settle a lawsuit brought by Latin-American residents.<\/p>\n

AISD’s legal counsel has many issues to consider. I’m glad the board has given the OK to begin that journey.<\/p>\n

So, let the studies commence. May they bear fruit.<\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, ruffle my hair and call me Frankie! I spoke rather skeptically in an earlier blog post about whether Amarillo’s public school board would take this step, but — as is often the case — they proved me wrong. The Amarillo Independent School District Board of Trustees voted 7-0 Monday to begin researching ways to … Continue reading AISD makes potentially huge move<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6251],"tags":[214,316,6515,4279],"class_list":["post-28366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-news","tag-aisd","tag-amarillo-isd","tag-at-large-voting-plan","tag-single-member-districts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28366"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28370,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28366\/revisions\/28370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}