Listen
School’s out for the summer, but when Austin ISD students return in the fall, they’ll be navigating some big changes in how they get to school. KUT’s education reporter Greta Díaz González Vázquez will help get us up to speed.
It’s been one year since deadly floods tore through the Texas Hill Country. Residents of the Sandy Creek neighborhood in Travis County are honoring the neighbors they lost.
The FIFA World Cup is in full swing. KUT’s Jimmy Maas joins us to talk about tonight’s match between the U.S. and Belgium — which has suddenly gotten a lot more interesting.
Plus a Few Headlines mentions in the show today:
- Two overnight shootings in Austin left 3 people dead this Fourth of July weekend.
- The city of Austin visited 127 different homeless encampments between May 11 and June 5
Austin Signal is made possible by listeners like you. You can support our work by making a donation at supportthispodcast.org
The full transcript of this episode of Austin Signal is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Syeda Carillo [00:00:08] School’s out for the summer, but when Austin ISD students return in the fall, they’ll be navigating some big changes in how they get to school. KUT’s education reporter Greta Diaz-Gonzalez-Basquez will help get us up to speed. And it’s been one year since deadly floods tore through the Texas Hill Country. Residents of the Sandy Creek neighborhood in Travis County are honoring the neighbors they lost.
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:33] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Syeda Carrillo.
Syeda Carillo [00:00:38] Country music with a Filipino twist? Love the sound of that. We’ve got a conversation with Austin Music Adobro. And the FIFA World Cup is in full swing. KUT’s Jimmy Moss joins us to talk about tonight’s match between the U.S. And Belgium, which has suddenly gotten a lot more interesting. That’s all coming up today on Austin Signal. It’s Monday, July 6th. This is Austin Signal. I’m Syeda Carrillo. A few headlines to start you off. Two overnight shootings in Austin left three people dead this Fourth of July weekend. The separate incidents happened in North Austin outside of a sports bar and Northeast Austin in the parking lot of a strip club. The shootings are still under investigation. We’ve got more on this at KUT.org. And the City of Austin visited 127 different homeless encampments between May 11 and June 5. That’s according to a memo to the City Council from the Austin Homeless Strategies and Operations Director. That covers the first month of the city’s enhanced efforts to clear these camps. According to the memo, 303 tons of debris were removed by homeless encamps management teams and 35 people were connected to shelter services. The Austin Independent School District is scaling back its transportation services for next school year. The biggest change includes middle schools and high schools moving into what’s called a hub model. KUT’s education reporter Greta Diaz-Gonzalez-Fazquez is here now to tell us more about it. Hey, Greta. Hi, Syeda. So, Grete, we know that AISD has these major changes coming to its transportation system. Why is that happening?
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:02:27] Yeah, so you might remember in June, the district passed a budget and that budget included 205 millions worth in cuts. And those cuts impacted classrooms, they impacted the central offices, they impacted 508 positions at least. And part of it also was cutting back on transportation and that will impact thousands of families across the district. Absolutely.
Syeda Carillo [00:02:53] You’ve reported on many of the other changes that are coming to the district and things that have been proposed as a result of this budget deficit. What are the major changes coming to transportation system specifically?
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:03:06] Yeah, so you mentioned one of them, which is the biggest one, which is the hub system. Um, right now the bus goes or the busses go through neighborhoods and have more stops, they will move to have a hub system for middle schools and high schools, and the district has says that this will increase their route efficiency and ride times for students. And these hubs will be Austin libraries, elementary schools, um, post office offices, transit centers. Are right now looking into what will be safe for students. And so instead of having neighborhood stops, they will have these hubs, the speak hubs, where students will be picked up and dropped off. This already, the system has already been in place for some schools, for magnet schools, like Keeling, Lively and Richards, Lhasa, for example. And another change is that we’ll stop providing after school transportation. So that will be for like extracurricular activities, field trips, sporting events, or maybe even competitions. Also, students are eligible for transportation if they live more than two miles from their assigned campus. There are 19 schools that have transportation even though kids live closer than those two miles. So like the closest is 0.4 miles. Those 19 schools will go back to the rule of like two mile rule. You have to live that close or that far. They will also discontinue transportation for the alternative learning center. So those are the biggest ones that will have more impact. These are really s-
Syeda Carillo [00:04:34] changes that are going to touch a lot of different areas of the district. Can the district just decide to make this kind of move to pull back on these transportation services? Is that something that is allowed by state law?
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:04:47] Yeah, yeah, the state does a lot of it because really transportation requirements for school districts are not that demanding. The TA only requires districts to provide transportation for certain students with either receiving special education or certain students with disabilities who wouldn’t be able to attend school. So those are the only requirements. And also, AISD officials had said that for every mile that there were every dollar that They know for every mile the TA gives them or the state gives them $1 and they spent they spend $7.22. So there’s a big budget gap. And so they’re like, if we don’t have money for this, then we’re scaling back if it’s not required. Right, that makes sense.
Syeda Carillo [00:05:24] Well I know Greta, you’ve been talking with families in the Austin ISD community and getting their responses to these changes. What have you heard from them?
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:05:33] Yeah, some people have told me that they worry that this will impact attendance rates and of course, which students it will impact, which students won’t be able to get there. Others have told me that they are worried about which students will have access to after school activities that are also part of the students development. Some families have concerns about how this will change their morning or their afternoon. Somebody I talked to was Katrina Kincaid who has three kids, one in elementary, one in middle school and one in high school. And yeah, this is what she told us.
Katrina Kincaid [00:06:02] It does not work for families that have parents that are both working or single parents or even families that might not have their own transportation to get their child to one of these hubs.
Syeda Carillo [00:06:18] Well, Greta, I know you’re going to continue to follow this issue closely. We’ve been speaking with KUT’s education reporter Greta Diaz-Gonzalez-Vasquez. Greta thank you again for talking with us about this issue on Austin Signal.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:06:29] Thank you, Saeeda.
Syeda Carillo [00:06:41] Born in the Philippines and growing up in Texas, the Austin-based musician Adobro is blending his two cultures in his new album Right Here, Right Now. Austin Signal host Jerry Quijano spoke with Adobo about his music and what’s at the record.
Jerry Quijano [00:06:58] So tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into Austin and how did you get into country music?
Adobro [00:07:03] Yeah. So I originally moved to Texas in 2001. Brought here from my parents. They’re both nurses. So obviously Houston has the biggest medical center. And I basically went and lived there for about 17 years in Houston area, and then moved down to Austin, trying to find my own place in music. Growing up, I am a, I’d like to think I’m a songwriter first. And some of my favorite songwriters, unbeknownst to me, when I looked at their discography, are all country songwriters.
Jerry Quijano [00:07:39] Who are some of those songwriters?
Adobro [00:07:41] I’ll name my favorite, actually, even since the MySpace days when I was 15 and found him. His name is Dave Barnes, and to me, songwriters like him, I just think it’s great music. And then, little did I know, he has people like Blake Shelton cutting his songs. For me, the storytelling of country music has always been inside, and as I get older and the more I play music, because I’ve been playing it awesome for about over decade now. Doing all different sorts of things, it’s kinda cool that I’m kinda going back full circle to be like, hey, I like sitting down playing my guitar and I like playing these songs and why not, you know?
Adobro [00:08:24] Now I’m smiling like I stole the sun, trying to play it cool but I’m coming under Oh, dang, I’m in love
Jerry Quijano [00:08:47] And it’s all your
Adobro [00:08:48] Oh
Jerry Quijano [00:08:50] Yeah, I feel you on that because I grew up here in Texas as well and country music is a huge part of my life growing up. Funny enough though, I think there are times where people lampoon country lyrics because they can be like, oh, you just put a truck and you put a beer and you’d put church on Sundays. But like the country music that I grew up with in the 90s, which your music kind of reminds me of, it’s deeper than that. So tell us a little bit about how you approach songwriting in your country music.
Adobro [00:09:19] Sure, yeah, I mean, it’s kind of like, um… I grew up with country music always around. The new love I have for country music is more me now going deeper in discography, but it’s always kind of like you said, I’ve always heard like 90s type of music like, and don’t get me wrong, in the album that I have, the new album, it’s a kind of touch base on all of my favorite genres, or I guess what they, I hate that word, but like genres of like country music like one will sound like a straight up like the fireman like like a shuffle just straight george straight and then the next one you’re like yo is that a zack brown jimmy buffett tune yes it is because i come from island roots so i also really tend to go lean on that direction too because that’s something natural for me
Jerry Quijano [00:10:10] So how are you blending your Texas roots and your Filipino heritage? How are you blending all of that up into something that nobody else is doing out there?
Adobro [00:10:17] Oh man. So, you know, it actually came a lot easier than I thought it was going to when I sat down and said, hey, how am I going to combine like the two cultures that help shape who I am, right? So the more I thought about it, like Filipino folk songs, right. I mean, that’s probably a first to a lot of people, but there’s different types of folk songs, but it’s almost the same where those both worlds like. Country music and Filipino folk music, kind of, when you really look at it, I mean, you were like describing the Tejano and country music, it kind of shares the same core values. If I were to translate Filipino songs, it talks about tradition, it talk about family, it talks of pride for one’s community, you know? It gathers people together. It kind of goes hand in hand. And so when I put those songs, especially the storytelling part of the music together, it was like, whoa, this isn’t that actually hard. I’m just basically singing what both of these kind of cultures love to talk about. Now, the cool part is though, I did bring a lot of different Filipino traditional instruments in there. So you’ll hear it sprinkle. And I also like to sing a little bit of words in Tagalog, which is the Filipino language, into some of the songs. So you will be like, You hear a little spring like, what does that mean? Oh, okay, that’s kind of cool.
Jerry Quijano [00:11:39] And what are some of the instruments people might be hearing?
Adobro [00:11:41] Uh, one of my favorite is a jaw harp. It’s basically made of wood, but it’s basically like, doink, doink doink. It’s like one of the traditional Filipino instruments and you’ll hear it like, maybe instead of where I would have put a banjo in a tune, you’ll here that and you’re like, yo, that’s sick. Or I got two huge bamboo sticks in the Philippines. We call it tinikling. It’s what you do with the dance and you hit them together. That’s a really cool clap sound, you know?
Jerry Quijano [00:12:20] Well, it’s been great meeting you. I also got to meet your wife and your daughter today. Since you’ve become a father, how has that changed the way that you look at music or you make your music? How have things changed since becoming a father?
Adobro [00:12:31] This is a great question. I thought about this this morning when I was making coffee.
Jerry Quijano [00:12:36] Alright, well I’m expecting a great answer then.
Adobro [00:12:38] Well, now you got me in my head. Well, no, it’s definitely It’s definitely changed the way I’ve looked not just at music but in life But if we’re talking about music wise, I mean, I’m constantly still writing So I have learned to not overthink and that is a very big thing that’s happened since I’ve become a family man Because you don’t really have enough time if my baby goes starts crying. I’m like, alright, I gotta get up I gotta make sure if I got a feeder if I gotta changer, you know, same thing with now an idea in music If I have an idea, I just immediately put it down, not overthink it. I don’t think of like crazy words or I don’t think, I just, this is what my feeling is and that’s what I gotta do. And that’s, it’s kind of awesome. It’s kind almost like what the album’s about. It’s like all about right here, right now. It’s being present.
Adobro [00:13:24] Sun on my shoulders, boots in the grass Radio’s playing, the day’s moving fast No use chasing, what’s going on ahead I got it all, right here instead
Jerry Quijano [00:13:46] We’ve been talking about the album. You have an album release party coming up. Tell us the details
Adobro [00:13:51] Yes, my album release party is going to be at Antone’s on July 12th, from 6 to 10. It’s gonna be more than just a release party. I wanted to share trying in a way not where you can just hear it but maybe somehow physically feel what this album is about because it is about not just me falling in love, getting married and having my child but it’s also my history of like my Filipina culture, how I learned to love and be with Texas culture too. So. It’s almost like this community event. I have a lot of Filipino nonprofits coming in. Shout out FYPATX. I have not just Texas style food and barbecue, but I also have Filipino food vendors coming in, there’s traditional dance groups doing teeny cling. There’s just a whole bunch, a plethora of artists. There’s gonna be custom cowboy hats. Shout out if you guys like that kind of stuff, you know? And it’s kind of like a Filipino fiesta meets Texas dance hall kind of thing going on.
Jerry Quijano [00:14:52] Fantastic. Alright, we have been speaking with Austin-based country artist Adobro. We’re gonna have a link to that event in today’s podcast, Show Notes. Thank you again for your time. Oh, thank you guys.
Adobro [00:15:03] Life shines brightest, bright in right now We don’t need to
Syeda Carillo [00:15:12] This is Austin Signal, we’ll be right back.
Adobro [00:15:15] Love like this is what we
Syeda Carillo [00:15:21] This is Austin Signal, welcome back. Yesterday marked one year since deadly floodwaters tore through the neighborhood of Sandy Creek in Northwest Travis County. A new memorial aims to honor and remember the lives that were lost. KUT’s Kaylee Hunt reports.
Kailey Hunt [00:15:37] Dozens of people gathered at the historic Round Mountain School and Community Center along Big Sandy Creek on Sunday. They were there to honor and remember the nine people who died in last year’s flood.
Linda Hambrick [00:15:49] What that horrible disaster took was not fair and will never be forgotten.
Kailey Hunt [00:15:55] Linda Hambrick is president of the Friends of Round Mountain School. The memorial took place at the restored one-room schoolhouse west of Leander.
Linda Hambrick [00:16:04] And even through our tears we have all come together to find a community that has been here for all these years, unformed. We mourn what we’ve lost and are now embracing what we have found.
Kailey Hunt [00:16:23] After a performance from a choir, a group of Boy Scouts unveiled a monument in front of the schoolhouse. The simple structure resembles a cross and was created using steel recovered from flood debris. At its base are bricks engraved with the names of the people who died. For Georgia Bishop, one name in particular stood out, Felicity Jarmon.
Georgia Bishop [00:16:45] You know, I mean she was quiet, you know, she acted all sweet and quiet at first before you got to know her, you know and You know we just started talking and we
Kailey Hunt [00:16:55] became close friends. Felicity, her brother Braxton, and her stepmother, Alyssa Martin, died after their home collapsed and was swept away by floodwaters. Bishop says she still remembers the sinking feeling that overcame her when she realized her 16-year-old best friend was missing.
Georgia Bishop [00:17:12] One of my friends. I asked her, I was like, hey, she’s not answering any of my calls, like what’s… And she was like Georgia, the house is gone, their house is gone, everything down the road is gone and they’re missing. And it’s just, I’ll never forget like that feeling that I instantly got after I heard.
Kailey Hunt [00:17:33] Those words come out of her mouth. Bishop, who graduated from Glenn High School in Leander in May, carried a portrait of Felicity with her as she accepted her diploma and walked the stage. She says before the flood, the pair talked about traveling the world together after graduation. Instead, last month, Bishop traveled to Washington, D.C. With a group called Extreme Weather Survivors to advocate for disaster relief. Like many others in the community. Bishop and her mother remain displaced as a result of home damage from the flood. There’s a lot of uncertainty right now for Bishop, but one thing she won’t stop doing any time soon is talking about Felicity and Felicity’s brother Braxton.
Georgia Bishop [00:18:14] Like any time I’ve thought of them, or if they’ve even popped up in my mind, I bring them up, you know what I mean? Because I believe no one is ever truly gone, if we all just remember them and talk about them and speak about them, you know?
Kailey Hunt [00:18:33] Sunday’s memorial was the first step in keeping their names alive. Dan Daly, Virginia Daly. Betty West, August Panning, Alyssa Martin, George West, Braxton Jarman, Felicity Jarman and Gary Troge. I’m Kaylee Hunt and Leander.
Syeda Carillo [00:18:59] The U.S. Soccer team is the only host nation left competing in this year’s World Cup, and they’ve got a big match against Belgium tonight. They’ll have an extra pair of boots available after a sudden reversal. Here to tell us more is KUT’s Jimmy Maas, one of the hosts of the Vamos Verde podcast. Welcome Jimmy!
Jimmy Maas [00:19:17] And don’t forget World Cup today, national updates for your public radio station heard right here on QUT.
Syeda Carillo [00:19:23] Hey, couldn’t do it without you, our resident sports expert, Jimmy Moss. Jimmy, everyone is talking about a guy named Flo Balligan. Who is he and why are we hearing so much about him?
Jimmy Maas [00:19:34] So Phalarin Baligan is the US’s, sometimes known as Flo, is the U.S. Team’s top scorer. And he is, for this tournament at least, he is a havoc creator. He gets in the box and he probably, like anyone with a child, everyone suddenly has to figure out what to do about Flo Baligan in the box. And when that happens, he can either score. He can draw attention from the defense and create opportunities for other players to do things score create passes Whatever the case might be he is he draws attention You can’t take your eye off of them when you are a defender or for that matter a us team fan And and so he received a red card last match and which normally means You have to sit out the next game. Right you leave immediately and you’re Uh, you have to go sit in your apartment or wherever they are For the next game and they this time around there was a reversal which almost Like never happens. I mean that the rules of the rules and even if the card was unjust you can debate that all day but the Basically, this is the first time since maybe 1962 that a red card was reversed Wow, and that involved the leader of Brazil talking with FIFA way back then to get a Brazilian player reinstated And so as it happens, and this was claimed yesterday, but not proven until today, that Donald Trump apparently lobbied with Gianni Infantino, who is the head of FIFA, he claims, Infantinos claims that they went through the normal channels and this is how it happened. This is just the way the coin flipped, but, um, you know, there is a lot of clamoring from Belgium and other, other, uh, officials that maybe Trump had his thumb on the scale.
Syeda Carillo [00:21:23] And as we just heard on NPR, Belgium tried to appeal that reversal and that was not successful. Do we have that right?
Jimmy Maas [00:21:30] That is correct. And what’s interesting about this is like Flo Balligan is a birthright citizen of the United States. He is only playing on this team because his mother was not allowed to board a plane and go have her son somewhere else in London where she was headed. So this is a group of people that this administration has not really gone to bat for before. So it’s interesting that like the timing of all of this is, you know, it’s good for the US team. Is it good for the sport, I don’t know.
Syeda Carillo [00:21:59] Yeah, that’s some unexpected political intrigue in this FIFA World Cup conversation. So how much better are the U.S. Team’s chances with him in the lineup?
Jimmy Maas [00:22:09] Uh, you, you might say that they, they stand an even chance of beating them without him. They stand a better chance of meeting them with him. So he is a, he is, uh, creator. Like I said earlier, he, he gets in there and he draws attention, which allows Christian Polisic and these other players to sort of shine. And, um, that is, that his magic sauce. Do other players have that? Maybe, but just not at the level that, uh. Callum or Balligan does.
Syeda Carillo [00:22:37] All right. Well, all eyes are going to be on flow tonight. Heading into these final matches, Jimmy, what has surprised you most about most about this year’s tournament?
Jimmy Maas [00:22:45] Well, this this development is actually the most surprising thing. Normally in soccer, the rules are the rules. We have these technologies. We have video review. We have laser lines to tell whether somebody is offside by a toenail. And this is the one time when they were like, we like the feel of this one without necessarily following the letter of the law.
Syeda Carillo [00:23:06] Well, we’ll be looking out for your analysis after tonight’s match. Jimmy Moss is one of the hosts of Vamos Verde, a podcast all about Austin FC. Thank you, Jimmy. Thank you. And don’t forget, you can keep up with each and every episode of Austin Signal and listen to the show anytime over at KUT.org on the KUT app and wherever you get your podcasts. That’s it for us today on Austin Signal. Rayna Sevilla is our technical director. Alexandra Hart is our producer. Kristin Cabrera is our managing producer, and I’m Syeda Carrillo. Jerry Quijano will be back in the host chair tomorrow. You’re listening to Austin Signal on KUT 90.5. Thanks for being with us.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
