The Austin Independent School District hosted its first State of the District address Tuesday morning to unveil where Austin's education programs are headed.
"We must change what we're doing in our school district to serve our kids," AISD Superintendent Meria Carstarphen said.
Carstarphen said one of the ways to achieve such a drastic change is to use technology of the present, not the future.
She introduced new innovation learning stations that will be in 900 classrooms across the district.
Carstarphen addressed the fact that Newsweek magazine rated seven of AISD's high schools as some of the best in the country.
However, nine other schools were rated academically unacceptable last year.
"It paints the real picture about us," Carstarphen said. "We are a divided city. We're a divided city in how we do developments. We're a divided city with how we serve some of our kids in some of our communities."
AISD parent Susan Moffat asked Carstarphen about the divide and what the district plans to do to address the problem.
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The road ahead for AISD
News 8’s Jennifer Borget has more on AISD’s first State of the District address.
 
Carstarphen speaks out
News 8’s Jennifer Borget sat down with AISD superintendent Meria Carstarphen to talk about the changes ahead for Austin’s schools.
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"We need to get everyone involved and see what's working in our schools, and get a high level of education for every kid at every campus. Unfortunately that's not happening right now," Moffat said.
Carstarphen shared information about low attendance and graduation numbers, urging community members to help with the upcoming attendance campaign to get kids in their desks on time.
"Get your kids to school. Make sure your kids go to school. The district can't educate them if they're not in school. That's an important part that the parents can play," Carstarphen said.
Increasing attendance won't just benefit the kids, but also the budget.
"If we simply reduced the number of absences by half across the district, excused and unexcused, I could generate $20 million," Carstarphen said.
Which is a very significant number--AISD has a $20 million budget gap for the next school year.
Carstarphen will be giving another address Tuesday evening at 7 p.m.
