Jesse's role : Organizer, Austin Interfaith, Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF)

Project: Create Austin's first autonomous, community led public school

The Innovation School Project was a local organizing campaign to create the first public school in Austin, TX to be led by it's own neighborhood community - parents, teachers, staff, neighbors, students and administrators collaboratively. Funded by a grant from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), it involved intensive organizing within the Austin school district. Together local Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) organization Austin Interfaith and local AFT affiliate Education Austin developed a team of local leaders and a strategy to create the first "campus based in-district charter school." That's the technical term for a local, public school, overseen by the elected school board, that transitions it's governance so that key decisions about curriculum, scheduling, budgeting, and more are made collaboratively by a board of parent, teacher, staff, administrator and community leaders.  

For more information, visit:

www.thesinnovationschoolproject.com

http://www.austininterfaith.org/innovative_schools

Press about the Innovation School Project:

Switch to Charter Means More Innovation at Travis Heights, Austin American Statesman

How Travis Heights Elementary Could Change Schools in Austin, KUT News

AISD's First Homegrown Charter School Promises Real Life Lessons, KVUE & KHOU