Cindy Anderson (Texas)

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Cindy Anderson

Nonpartisan

Prior offices

Austin Independent School District At-large Position 8

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Contact

Personal website

Cindy Anderson was a member of the Austin Independent School District At-large Position 8 in Texas. Anderson assumed office in 2016. Anderson left office in 2020.

Anderson won the seat in the at-large general election on November 8, 2016.

Elections

2016

See also: Austin Independent School District elections (2016)

Five of the nine seats on the Austin Independent School District school board were up for general election on November 8, 2016. District 2 incumbent Jayme Mathias filed for re-election and defeated challenger Andy Anderson. Cindy Anderson defeated fellow newcomer David Quintanilla filed in the race for the open at-large seat. District 3 incumbent Ann Teich, District 5 incumbent Amber Elenz, and District 7 incumbent Yasmin Wagner won re-election without opposition.

Results

Austin Independent School District, At-large General Election, 4-year terms, 2016
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Cindy Anderson	55.76%	92,070
David Quintanilla	44.24%	73,037
Total Votes		165,107
Source: Travis County Clerk, "Travis County Election Results," November 21, 2016

Endorsements

Anderson received the endorsement of The Austin Chronicle on October 21, 2016.

Campaign themes

2016

Anderson submitted the following responses to a candidate questionnaire from Austin Kids First Action:

“	Why do you want to be elected an AISD Trustee? I have spent the last decade volunteering at Austin ISD in multiple capacities and leadership positions serving all of our students. Each and every one of those experiences has provided me with valuable insight about our campuses, neighborhoods and how we operate as an institution. This work has culminated in a desire to take my service to the next level. Public education, and more specifically, Austin ISD, is my passion and has been for over a decade. My focus is 100% on serving our students, staff and community, supporting Austin ISD in providing the highest level of education for ALL of our students. What personal and professional experiences (e.g. education, high-level leadership roles, previous board experience) most qualify you for service as an AISD Trustee? I am a parent of two, a 2015 AISD graduate and a current AISD sophomore. My children have attended AISD schools from elementary to high school, providing me with first hand experience as to how what we do downtown impacts our students, families and staff. Over the last ten years I’ve also held multiple PTA officer positions at two different schools, served on campus CAC and numerous AISD district-level committees and advisory bodies: DAC, BAC, BFAC, DTPC, CTEAC, HB5, and Strategic Planning. I’ve served on the Executive Board of the Austin Council of PTAs for the last 5 years, holding three different leadership positions for an organization that supports roughly 16,000 local PTA members and leaders across 114 PTAs in AISD. All of this work has allowed me to work regularly with students, parents and community leaders from all over Austin. Prior to my volunteer work, I spent over 5 years working as a legal assistant in a variety of areas of law and 6 years working for a major insurance company. Both provided significant exposure to legal statutes, documents and policies, making me very comfortable in understanding, applying and drafting new policy. I believe that my experience, combined with my institutional knowledge of AISD leadership skills and passion for public education, have uniquely prepared me for this position making me the most qualified candidate for AISD At-Large Trustee. What, in your view, are the three biggest challenges facing AISD? What are the district’s greatest strengths? Like many large urban public school districts, Austin ISD faces specific challenges simply because of its sheer size. We employ nearly 12,000 people, support 130 campuses (plus administrative facilities) and educate over 83,000 students, within a budget of roughly $1.3 billion. We have many needs and insufficient funding streams in order to meet them. Implementing the right programs and initiatives (and with fidelity) and allocating as much of those resources directly to classrooms is key to achieving the best possible educational outcomes for all of our students. Communicating our vision timely and clearly and to a wide variety of stakeholders that often have different priorities is challenging. Our students and their families also speak over 90 different languages. The affordability of living in Austin impacts our families as well as our employees. It affects enrollment (how we attract and retain students as well as how we utilize our facilities), competitive compensation, employee retention, and so much more. The decline in enrollment results in less money. Despite our many challenges, Austin ISD has significant strengths. Our high school graduation is at 89.7%, an increase of over 15% since 2008. We boast some of the most recognized schools and programs in the State and in the Nation. We have Dual Credit, ECHS, robust fine arts, SEL, libraries and more that our competitors do not have. We have the largest number of National board certified teachers of any district in the State. We have the best certified, classified, teaching and administrative staff anywhere, not to mention extraordinarily dedicated community partners. What expectations do you intend to set for the upcoming term? What will be your top goals and priorities? I would like us to continue to focus as a Board on framing our work intentionally around creating policies and environments that support and empower our staff and Superintendent. We must have the same high expectations for all of our students and allocate resources accordingly to drive needed improvement that will bridge and ultimately eliminate achievement gaps. Our African-American, ELL, economically disadvantaged and Special Education populations historically track lower graduation rates and lower percentages of students considered to be “college ready” when compared to other student groups. More specifically, we need to work with the Administration to set stretch targets supported by clear strategies identified by the Administration that focus on high quality instruction with a rigorous curriculum across all of our neighborhood schools. We must measure progress frequently, with regularly scheduled conversations, evaluating whether we’ve sufficiently allocated the necessary resources to support this priority. I will continue to prioritize and support Pre-K for both 3 and 4 year olds. High quality Pre-K programs can greatly improve Kindergarten readiness and help bridge future academic success, especially for our most vulnerable students. We must continue to invest in and expand programming in all of our schools to prepare all of our students for success in college, career and life. This necessitates close collaboration with our local employers and partners to continue to design and align curriculum that produces the highly skilled workforce that our community needs. We also need to increase opportunities to showcase career opportunities to all of our students and help them connect career goals to educational pathways.	”
—Cindy Anderson (2016)

See also

• Austin Independent School District, Texas
• Austin Independent School District elections (2016)

External links

• Search Google News for this topic
• Campaign website