Anatomy of Our Power-Outage Decision-Making

I'll never take electricity for granted again! After Wednesday's rolling blackouts and many of our schools valiantly carrying on in darkened classrooms, I deeply value every watt of power we get from Austin Energy. Happily, Austin was fully-powered this morning, and all schools opened on time. (From now on, every time I flip a light switch, I'll say a little "thank you.")

Just this afternoon, at about 12:15 p.m., I received word that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has officially canceled the emergency energy procedures that began yesterday morning.

Wednesday's rolling power blackouts were mandated by ERCOT. They caught everyone by surprise, especially Austin Energy, and no one knew how long it would take to bring stability to the power system. Please know that no one contacted AISD for permission or approval in this matter. It is within ERCOT's authority to act independently from the City and AISD. After limited communication from ERCOT about what was happening, AISD was told early on Wednesday morning that schools and hospitals would be protected from the blackouts. Further, they told us that blackouts would work in short intervals of seven or so minutes, and then "roll" to other areas of the city. That is why we maintained business as usual, and continued with our normal work schedule. Later in the morning, after school started, they alerted us that schools were not protected. Some of our campuses lost power for an extended time, some had intermittent power, and some never lost power at all. The evolution of the situation was impossible to predict throughout the day. 

A question I've gotten is about the timing of our communications yesterday. I'm sure that staff at the affected schools felt alone in the world when power went out. I know the staff here at the Administration Center did. Throughout the morning, we labored to gather information, consult with City and Austin Energy officials, assess conditions at individual campuses, "predict" the future, form the content of our messages, and send out e-mails and telephone calls to parents/caregivers and staff — and all this was done through periods of intermittent power here at CAC. In this age of almost instant communication, we're not accustomed to waiting for clarification and direction, but when the tools break down — the tools needed to process and communicate information — we must be patient and continue to do our best with the job at hand.

Having students in our care is a responsibility that I take very seriously, and this speaks to the question of why I did not close affected schools early on Wednesday. Once a child has climbed aboard a school bus or entered a school building, we are responsible for their welfare. When school is in session, it is always best that we observe a normal schedule. Our parents/caregivers expect us to safeguard their children during specific hours, and they arrange their own schedules and jobs accordingly. This is how I frame the issue:

• School is the safest place for our students, especially our youngest children.
• Employers do not always "early dismiss" their employees who are parents/caregivers of students, so children could be left unsupervised or stranded.
• Informing parents/caregivers of an early dismissal is hit-or-miss, and can lead to confusion and missed connections.
• Students may return to an empty home and may be locked out; or they could be unsupervised in places elsewhere than their homes, unknown to their parents/caregivers.
• Safety must always be our top priority, and releasing more than 84,000 students in the middle of a school day invites trouble and unsafe conditions for kids and anxious disruptions for families. It's as simple as that.

I've also gotten a few questions about why we waited until this morning to decide if we should open schools on time today or have a delayed start. Simply put, last night there was no information from the City, Austin Energy, or ERCOT to suggest such an action was needed. I was always in contact with key officials who knew the data and provided advisory information. It was clear: wait until morning.

In situations like this, in circumstances like this, I will not make a definitive decision until I have up-to-date and accurate data. As soon as I learned that rolling power blackouts would not take place today — at around 4:30 a.m. and following the early-morning conference with officials at the Austin-Travis County Emergency Operations Center — I made the decision to open schools today on the normal schedule. So far, as there have been no power outages, it was the right decision and I believe it was reached in the appropriate manner.

Tonight we'll be facing another situation: a snow forecast. The calls have already started ... "Will schools close on Friday?" 

I want to be clear about my decision-making protocol: Unless treacherous conditions are prevalent before the morning, at about 4 a.m., I'll consult with law enforcement, transportation, and weather officials to determine if the roads are safe enough for students to travel to school. We will post an announcement at about 5 a.m. on our website, and will contact all local news media about our decision. Please check these sources for information at that time.

Events of this week have been unusual, and I'm very proud of our teachers and other staff members who cared for students on Wednesday in trying conditions. Their efforts to keep campus activities normal in very abnormal circumstances were top-notch. Thank you, staff. You're the best!

Going Green, Saving Green

With energy on our minds, following Austin's rolling blackout, I wanted to inform you about new energy conservation and efficiency initiatives we are launching that are both good for the environment and bring the district much-needed cost savings. At AISD, we subscribe to the theory that you can find ways to do good and do well at the same time. These green initiatives include the following:

Energy Efficiency

• We will shut down our offices, except for a few essential services, during the week of July 4-8 and will observe four-day, ten-hour per day, work weeks during the weeks of June 27-July1, July 18-22, and July 25-29. That will save the District $470,000.
•  All our campuses are working to reduce energy use, based on strategies presented to principals in September. We are providing every campus with its three-year usage data to help the schools evaluate their progress in reducing energy use. That will be produce a savings of $500,000.
• We are collaborating with the Environmental Defense Fund to identify additional energy conservation and efficiency strategies, such as identifying energy-efficient equipment that will be guaranteed to reduce costs through reduced energy use by a sum greater than the cost of leasing this equipment.
• We are pilot testing Smart plugs to reduce energy usage in office equipment, such as copiers, desk-top computers, and printers.
• AISD was awarded a $900,000 grant from the State Energy Conservation Office (SECO) for an application developed by our Office of Facilities to place solar energy generation systems at Akins and Bowie high schools and Covington and Mendez middle schools.
• AISD also received a $4.3 million loan from SECO to finance a second lighting retrofit, using lower voltage light, at all of our secondary schools, as well as to achieve other energy efficiencies. The benefits of these improvements will be an estimated $438,770 in annual energy savings and will assist in the loan repayment.

Single-Stream Recycling and Food Waste Composting

• On January 3rd, AISD initiated single-stream recycling at all AISD facilities. The District now has the ability to recycle an expanded list of items, including mixed paper, office paper, newspaper, cardboard, boxboard, junk mail, plastic containers (#1-#7), tin cans, aluminum cans, and glass bottles.
• In addition, an elementary-school educational food-waste composting program, which was piloted last spring in the cafeterias at four elementary schools, is being expanded to all elementary school cafeterias. A roll-out program reaching four schools a week began January 18th.
• To facilitate and provide information about single-stream recycling and composting, Texas Disposal Systems staff visited every campus during the first two weeks of January to meet with principals, head custodians, recycling coordinators, and elementary school cafeteria managers to review the process and address any concerns regarding single-stream recycling. TDS is now visiting each elementary school to conduct training on the food waste composting program.
• Texas Disposal Systems believes AISD is the first school district in the nation to use single-stream recycling and food waste composting on a large scale and to have a specially created webpage on recycling and composting to track the amounts recycled and composted by school.