Arlington ISD Unveils New Schools Strategy

District hopes for greater community, business involvement

The Arlington Independent School District unveiled what it believes will be its recipe for success on Monday.

"Inspired learners, effective leadership and an engaged community are really critical for our success," said Dr. Marcelo Cavazos, interim Superintendent of AISD.

Those three points are steering the direction of AISD schools over the next three years, schools whose administrators will be given more freedom to address the unique needs of their school.

"The thinking is, when you meet your performance standards you should have some autonomy as a campus to meet your creativity and your innovation, to propel you passed those performance standards you're measured up against and really unleash that creativity that we know exists at the local level, at the campus level," said Dr. Cavazos, AISD’s third superintendent in five years.

Coming off a year that included massive cuts to budgets and resources, and another tight financial year expected at the state and, in turn, local level this year, the district will rely more on community engagement from parents to businesses.

"How do we keep students in school to graduate? How do we enhance their educational attainment?" asked Wes Jury, President of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce, highlighting the two main goals of the business community's efforts in working with AISD.

"They're the future workforce. More and more jobs are coming to the workforce, the workforce isn't moving to the jobs," added Jury. "The critical issue is will we have the workforce in Arlington to attract those higher paying better jobs. If not, we'll lose out."

That increased community support comes to the relief of Arlington teachers, who have recently faced increased pressure.

"If we don't have the support of the parents and the community, then we can't effectively educate their children," said Stephanie Hudson, President of the Arlington branch of the Association of Texas Professional Educators.

While it's up to the teachers to teach, AISD stresses that it’s up to the entire community to make learning possible.

"Our students and the success of our district, really is going to take all of us," said Dr. Cavazos.

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