The Austin Independent School
District is being investigated again
by the Texas Education Agency.
This time the investigation is
focused on the district celebration
last month of Pride Week.
We're gonna have more about that
story and the Attorney General is
a powerful role.
Governors, senators, and even vice
presidents got their start as AG.
Is Ken Paxton next?
That's coming up on today's show.
The Austin Signal is a production
of KUT News, hosted by
Jerry Quijano.
Plus, have you ever wanted a handy
one-stop guide to everything Austin?
Well, lucky for you, we already have
that here at KUT, and we're bringing
you even more ways to know about
the city so many of us call home,
the latest on the field guide to
Austin, and an update on Austin's
outlet that survived.
Got a lot coming up for you today.
That's up next on Austin
Signal.
Howdy out there, you are listening
to Austin Signal.
It is the final Monday of the
month, April 27th.
I'm your host, Jerry Kekano.
Thank you for kicking off the week
here with community-powered
public radio.
This is KUT News.
State officials announced last week
an investigation of Austin ISD
over the district celebration of
Pride Week.
It follows a complaint from
conservative state Board of
Education member Brandon Hall from
the Fort Worth area.
Greta Diaz-Gonzalez-Vasquez is
here to tell us more.
She is KUT's education reporter.
Good afternoon, Greta.
Hi Jerry!
So first, can you tell us a bit
about Austin ISD's Pride Week
celebrations and what actually took
place?
Yeah, so this is an annual
celebration, and this year was from
March 23rd to March 27th,
and the theme was be you-tiful.
Beautiful. Be you-Tiful.
Okay, okay. So the district sent
guidelines to teachers and families
in advance, and
all activities were to happen
outside instructional time.
So either before or after school
or during lunch even, and they
were all voluntary, all activities
were voluntary. Okay.
And so each day had a different
activity. So Monday students brought
photos of their families to feel
proud of themselves.
Tuesday there were walkie socks to
show that they were unique.
And you know, there were other
activities, another day they were
encouraged to sit with somebody else
at lunch to see the diversity
of schools. And on Friday,
each grade level were a different
color. On previous years,
the district had provided a
suggested curriculum and distributed
even like they had even distributed
swag but this year they didn't
and under guidelines officials said
that this year would look different
due to a quote ever-changing
environment.
Okay, so it sounds like there are
lots of activities going on, but it
maybe had been pared down a little
bit from years past a
little.
The investigation appears to have
been opened because of a complaint
from a member of the State Board of
Education.
Can you tell us more about that, and
what is he alleging?
Yeah, so in early March State Board
of Education member Brandon Hall,
who represents the Fort Worth area,
not Austin, said he had concerns
about AISD breaking the law and,
quote, indoctrinating students by
celebrating Pride Week.
He went as far as to say that AISC
needed to be defunded and that
Superintendent Matias Segura needed
to have to be criminally
investigated.
Here he is talking about AIST with
the conservative nonprofit Texas
Values that was back in March.
Instead of focusing on education,
they're focusing on gender identity
and celebrating pride and things
like that.
My constituents are very concerned
about that. I think people across
the state are.
We don't stop it in Austin ISD.
We're going to see a lot more of
this across the state.
So we need to make a statement and
set an example.
We will not put up with you breaking
the law.
Sahal is saying that AISD is
now complying with Senate Bill 12,
it was passed last year, and the law
prohibits diversity, equity and
inclusion duties that reference
gender or sexual orientation
in K-12.
Okay, so we've heard from Hall.
What have you heard from AISD so
far?
So we reached out to the district.
And while they confirmed that the
Texas, Texas education agency
had launched an investigation
in March, they didn't comment on the
matter, but I have to add, Jerry,
this is not the first time the
district has come under scrutiny
this year, and it
is also not the last, but,
I will back up.
I will start from the beginning, or
at least the beginning of the year.
In February, Texas attorney general
Ken Paxton said he had launched an
investigation after AIU
students participated in walkouts.
You might remember this, a high
school student, mainly high school
students in Austin,
walked out earlier this year to
protest ICE law enforcement.
Then in March, Paxton also said
that he had notified the district
against a complaint regarding SB
8, which is better known as the
bathroom bill.
It forbids students from
going into bathrooms that are not
consistent with the sex assigned
at birth.
And I said, it is not the last
time because today Paxton announced
that he's following up on that
previous investigation and he
alleges that a student went into a
bathroom they shouldn't have had
at the AISD Performing
Arts Center.
So today Ken Paxton is
saying that he sent out another
letter to the district asking for
documents or documentation showing
that the district is enforcing rules
consistently across the district.
He also said that he will continue
holding AISD accountable and
ensuring that AISd is complying with
the law.
But Jerry, we have not heard what
has come out of these
investigations, so we will keep an
eye out.
Yes, yes, we will definitely keep an
eye out. This is just one thing that
Austin ISD is dealing with
at the moment.
You were at last week's school board
meeting, and we have about a minute
left. What stood out to you from
that meeting?
Yeah, so there were a couple
of things, Jerry.
First is that Superintendent Matias
Segura announced that there wouldn't
be any more school closures,
but he did say that the district
will move on with changing
boundaries and that this will
happen in the fall.
The district will hold community
meetings. They have already posted
the dates on their website, but they
haven't posted the places.
But if people want to keep up with
the dates, they can check it out.
It's also divided by...
Zones, district zones, so
people can go to the closest
meeting that, you know, that
is best for them.
They also talked about budget
cuts and we will keep an eye on that
because the district has a 181
million dollar budget deficit
and they will be making cuts
and these cuts will potentially or
very likely impact campuses
and thus students.
And so we will
working on it during May.
And then it's expected
to be approved in June and it
starts in July.
Alright, that is Greta Diaz Gonzalez
Vazquez, KUT's education
reporter, we'll have a link to her
latest in today's show notes.
Greta, thank you.
Thank you, Jerry.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott and
former Vice President Kamala Harris
have something in common.
They both served as their state's
attorney general.
I'm sure they have other things in
common, too.
KERA's Caroline Love reports their
time in that role helped launch
their national political careers,
and Texas AG Ken Paxton
hopes that he is next.
Harris and Abbott aren't the only
notable former attorneys general who
moved up into higher office.
U.S. Senator John Cornyn from Texas
was also AG.
So was New York Governor Andrew
Cuomo and his predecessor,
Elliot Spitzer.
Paxton has been Texas Attorney
General for over a decade.
Now he's challenging Cornynn in
the Republican primary runoff
election.
A lot of Texas voters have already
checked the box next to Paxton's
name on their it more than once.
Attorney General is a statewide
office, just like governor or
senator.
Thomas Gray says running for AG is
good practice for campaigning for
higher office.
He's a political science professor
at UT Dallas.
It's like the backup quarterback has
already played a bunch of games
against the first string and has
shown he can do it.
The AG role can be a good place
to build a political profile.
AGs have flexibility to be more
creative and less reactive
than a governor.
Sometimes something happens in the
state and the governor has to
respond, like a natural disaster
or a mass shooting.
An AG might file a lawsuit or
launch an investigation related to
such an event, but they usually
don't have to.
Jashua Blank from the Texas Politics
Project says AGs can spend
more time on issues that are
important to their political agenda.
They really don't have a lot of
limits on their ability to
choose the issues on which they want
to align themselves.
And that's a really powerful asset.
There's no other office in
state government like that.
Many of Paxton's lawsuits focus
on national Republican priorities
and issues that are important to
President Donald Trump.
He filed multiple lawsuits on
abortion access and gender-affirming
care for minors, and he
challenged the 2020 election
results.
Focusing on those issues is
strategic.
If done right,
you can sort of
tick the boxes of the
constituencies that you will need in
future. That's Rebecca Dean.
She's a political science professor
at UT Arlington.
Texas has become a leader for
championing often divisive
conservative causes at the national
level with Paxton as AG.
And he hasn't had to do much
compromising as the AG of a
red state.
That's different from legislative
seats, like a U.S.
Senate seat.
Cornyn has been in office for more
than two decades.
He sometimes has had to work with
Senate Democrats to get things done.
Paxton argues that makes him
the more conservative candidate.
Gray says Paxton's campaign
messaging on Cornyn's record goes
something like this.
Senator Cornyn compromises.
Senator Corbyn gives in to
liberal demands.
And what A.G.
Paxton has done is basically never
give in to that compromise.
Paxton is leveraging his record
as attorney general in his Senate
campaign.
The candidates who want to succeed
Paxton as AG could wield the
office for their own political
agenda someday, but first
they need to get elected.
Blank says that can be challenging.
Most candidates that they have not
run statewide find
themselves bewildered by
the amount of ground they have to
cover, the amount money they have
raised to be able to put up ads.
Whoever Texans choose as
their next AG will head a powerful
office with national political
influence.
And they'll have the opportunity to
wield that power to potentially
follow a path to a higher office
like others before them.
That was KERA's Caroline
Love.
We are about to take a break here on
Austin Signal, but before we
go, a quick update on a story that
we shared with you last week here on
the show.
Archery club students from Highland
Park Elementary and Austin, the ones
who don't barf, well they
won big over the weekend at the US
Western Nationals in Salt Lake City.
The team scored a first place win
and two students, Madeline
and John Fox, were named individual
champions.
That's Highland Park's first ever
individual champions at the national
tournament.
The school will celebrate with the
trophy walk on May 10th.
And in case you missed that story
and you don't know what I'm talking
about about the barfing thing, we
have more at kut.org
slash signal.
We have more show after this break.
Thanks for being with us.
This is Austin Signal.
This is Austin Signal, welcome back.
Last week we told you about how the
nest of Athena, the great horned owl
who has for years nested at Lady
Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, had
failed.
One of her outlets sadly died,
another was rescued.
That owl is currently being
rehabilitated at Austin Wildlife
Rescue.
Experts are still trying to figure
out what exactly went wrong
in this situation, but some clues
are emerging.
Luz Moreno Lozano is here.
She has been following this story
and she's got the latest for us.
Howdy, Luz. Hey, Jerry.
So first off, I'm definitely worried
about that little owlet.
How are they doing?
What's the status there?
Yeah, you know, I went to visit him
last week.
He, I think he's gonna be okay.
They have really high hopes
for him.
When I saw him, it was kind of late.
He'd already eaten dinner.
So he was very cozy in his
little incubator.
So yeah, I thinks he's going to be
okay, he's doing well.
Okay. He's gonna, he's doing well.
Okay, that's good to hear.
In case you haven't seen, we have
some video online at KUT,
or on our Instagram rather.
It's the cutest little thing you've
ever seen.
Okay, so let's talk.
Let's go back to Athena and talk
about her nest.
You've been speaking with experts.
What do they have to say about the
factors that may have caused this
failure?
Yeah, you know, I talked with the
Cornell people who are basically
running the the the
camera were running the camera and
they had a lot of speculation.
But yeah, Ben kind of talk with us
about it and you can hear him a
little bit more and more about this.
If for some reason he had
abandoned or disappeared
for some reason, like an injury,
that could be one determining
factor as to why there was a lower
food supply because the male is
generally tasked with providing
most of the food, especially during
the early window of the nestling
period.
Yeah, so okay, so we're learning a
little bit more obviously, but you
know, there's been a lot of
speculation like was he injured?
Did he abandon the nest?
Was something happening?
You know, we've had a lot of rain
lately, maybe that was a
contributing factor.
But yeah, it does sound like if
something did happen to him, and
since he is the main food provider
that that could be a factor.
Okay, excuse me, there were also
reports of an injured male owl found
near the wildlife center.
Do we know if that was Athena's
partner or what happened to
that owl in the first place?
Yeah, you know, it's hard to say
if it was her mate.
They're not tagged.
And so without, you know knowing
that, and you know
all their markings are all very
similar. So it's hard to see if it's
him.
You know, and they're not sure what
happened. You know this woman who
I talked to on Friday basically was
like her name is Suzanne and she was
like, I was just walking
by from my home
office and saw this thing on my
porch and I was like confused at
first and then I realized it was an
owl and he was there for and so
I had to...
You know, do something to help them.
But yeah, she, you know she explains
that a little more for us and you
can hear a little bit more about
that.
I called 311 and they sent someone
out to pick it up later that evening
and I
had hoped what I understood was when
they picked it up that it was going
to go to the Austin Wildlife Rehab
Center in Elgin and
that's what I was told that they
were going to do after they picked
up either that night or the next
morning.
So unfortunately, if you read my
story already, you know that they
did pick them up and they took them
back to the Austin Animal Center
because it was so late in the
evening. So that's normal protocol.
They'll take them back and then in
the morning, they'll deliver the
owl, or in this case it was an owl,
but the animal to the rehab center.
Well, they got back that morning
and the owl unfortunately had died.
Um, I talked with the Austin
animal center on Friday and
she told me that his wound
on his wing was really infected.
Like it already had maggots
in it. I mean, he, like, we don't
know how long he was injured or what
happened.
And so she thinks that like, you
know, they bought him in, they were
getting ready to take him in and he
just, you know, couldn't make it to
the next morning.
Very sad ending.
Going back to the outlet who
was able to survive and hopefully
has a bright future.
Yeah.
What does that future look like?
Do you know how much time he might
be spending with Austin Wildlife
Rescue?
Yeah, they're thinking probably till
like July or August,
raising baby owls, especially great
horned owls. It takes them a good
amount of time to like get oriented.
But if you did read that story,
you know that he's gonna be placed
with a surrogate owl, which is very
exciting. Yeah.
And this, she's basically a foster
mom, and she takes care of like
a dozen babies a year.
And she just like feeds them and
raises them and teaches them to be
an owl.
And so he'll be placed with her
until he's ready to be released.
Okay so a little bit of good news
to go on and hopefully maybe we'll
have you back to continue to find
out what this recovery looks like.
It would be a pleasure.
Does this owl have a name yet?
He doesn't have a name yet.
I've seen some circulation online
that they want to name him Phoenix,
which would be pretty appropriate.
Um, but obviously, you know, the
Wildflower Center, if they do decide
to do that, um, you know,
they'll, they will decide.
Okay.
Alrighty, that is KUT's Luce Moreno
Lozano. Thank you for the update,
Luce.
In Austin, whether you're
one of those unicorns born and
raised here or you're a transplant
like the rest of us, it seems
like there's always something new to
learn about the city and always
something to discover or
perhaps rediscover.
Now, if there was only a place
online specifically focused on
fleshing those things out for all of
us. Well, that's where KUT's
field guide to Austin comes into
the picture.
For more about this, we've got Wyn
Davis, a digital editor at KUT,
and the project manager for Field
Guide to Austin.
Welcome to Austin SignalWin.
Thanks for having me.
So, for a listener who might
not be familiar with the Field
Guide, give us a few examples of
some of the things that KUT has done
with the field guide so far.
Yeah, so so far we have a
field guide to running spots in
Austin, some great swimming
holes, you know we have some
critter coverage going on, so if you
want to know more about venomous
snakes in Austin and want to look
out for, be aware of,
bobcats, coyotes,
we also have some history features
in there, pronunciations, which
are a big thing.
A big thing here in Austin and
across the state of Texas.
It sounds like it really
covers your experience or covers
one's experience here in Austin.
Is that what you envision the field
guide being kind of like a handy,
your one stop guide to everything
to Austin?
Yeah, I mean, I think it's exactly
what you were saying.
The idea is that whether you were
born here and raised here or you
moved here, it's a great way to
discover and rediscover what makes
Austin, Austin.
So, you know, maybe you just need a
reminder of the great
things you can do in the city,
some of the fun happening around
you, or maybe you're new and you
don't know where to start and you
can just dive in.
Yeah, there's always a discussion
about, like, who is the authority on
what Austin is or
what Austin will be in the future,
so who are some of the people who
are writing these field guides?
Yeah, so one really cool
thing about this is that we like to
pair our reporters,
editors, really anyone in, you
know, the KUT public media
stratosphere, I guess,
of who is really
passionate about this to write the
story. So we're looking at people
who are experts or, you know,
we have someone who's really into
running. She wrote the running spot
one. People who are really
excited about the
animals in Austin writing those.
Yeah, it's, you know, sometimes
here in journalism, your beat is
your beat. You can't cover all the
stories that you want to cover, but
I've seen a lot of people have fun
with these field guide entries,
because it's something that they're
passionate about as well, so it's
not only just a guide
to Austin, but it's coming from an
expert in that guide, or in
that field, rather.
So there was this first run of
entries into the field guide.
I understand that there's gonna be
more coming out.
Yeah, so we have some new
stories publishing this week, really
excited about them.
One of them is, you know, your entry
guide to birding in Austin,
everything you need to know to get
started.
There's actually a pretty big
birding community here, I feel like,
and there are a lot of people in the
station who are very passionate
about the bird.
I was gonna say, are you talking
about Austin or are you talking
about KUT specifically?
Because it seems as though we have a
booming population of birders here.
Yeah, definitely, I mean, definitely
within KUT.
People get excited.
Yeah, there's one about cycling in
Austin.
So, you know, maybe you're not super
comfortable biking on the
roads here.
That can help get you to that point
where you are.
What else do we have coming?
We have one about rock
climbing in Austin, we've one about
Mexican restaurants to check out.
Um, we have one coming that
is eight tips
from librarians from
the Austin Public Library on like
what they think are the most
exciting things, so a reporter went
out and talked to them.
That one's pretty cool.
There's a wide variety of things
that you can do at the Public
Library that people might not know
about.
Okay, so that was going to be my
next question. Have you learned a
good deal from being the project
manager of the field guide?
Oh, totally, you know, I mean,
I went to school in Austin, but
you can only learn so much when
you're a college student.
So I feel like I've really learned
more past, you know,
my little area that I lived in
when I was in school.
Definitely even, you know, a
frequent user of the public library,
but I still learned things while
editing these stories.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's funny the person who's
working on that story sits right
next to me and so I use the
library quite frequently as well So
I'm excited to hear what I
don't know and you can find lots
of things that maybe you don't know
or maybe you just need a little
Rediscovery of in the field
guide to Austin We have been
speaking with Wynn Davis a digital
editor for KUT and a project
manager for the field guy to Austin
we're gonna have a link to the field
Guide in our show notes, but You
can also find more at kut.org
slash field guide win.
Thanks for your time.
Thanks, Jerry.
And thank you out there for spending
your Monday afternoon here
with Austin Signal.
And yeah, definitely check out the
Field Guide to Austin.
I've been out to several KUT and
KUTX events where
we're meeting lots of people who
are new to Austin or have been here
for six months.
And they're using Google, they're
their search engine of choice to
look up all these different things.
The Field Guide Austin has you
covered with so much already and
we'll be bringing you more.
Again, you can find that in the
podcast show notes.
And at kut.org
slash signal.
Rayna Sevilla is our technical
director, Alexa Hart is our
producer, and Kristen Cabrera is
our managing producer.
I'm your host, Jerry Quijano.
Austin Signal will be back tomorrow.
We'll talk to you then.