Linton Davis, Candidate for AISD Place 7

1. Taxpayers' Dollars – please respond by February 26, 2026

Currently the AISD has the highest M&O rate of any ISD in Tarrant County. Staff has started budgeting for the paying of recapture (“Robin Hood”). How fiscally responsible should the board be with taxpayers' dollars and why? How high of a priority should fiscal responsibility be and why? What are your suggestions to be more fiscally responsible?

It is absolutely critical that our constituents feel that they are getting excellent value for their property tax dollars. Right now, we are a C rated district with an A rated budget. That is not excellent value. We need to utilize zero-based budgeting across the board to assess our spending, and this includes bond packages. It seems to me that it doesn’t make sense to spend money on new facilities and rehabilitating older facilities until we look at the impacts of declining enrollment and make some tough decisions about our facilities footprint. Of course, we need to re-assess our programs and student discipline process to ensure that our teachers are able to focus on teaching. One thing, given our student population, we need to ensure that every student has access to breakfast and lunch. All students need to be able to function at the best of their ability while in the classroom while not worrying about their next meal while socializing with other students.

2. School Closures – please respond by March 5, 2026

On January 20, 2026 the board voted to close Blanton Elementary at the end of the school year. Do you agree with this decision? Why or why not? How difficult of a decision is it to make?

I understand and have empathy for parents going through changes like this; however, the premise of my campaign is to bring objective and non-emotional analytical capabilities to the Board. I support the decision to close Blanton, and I’ll say up front that I don’t think that this will be the last school closure, given the decline in our student population. Hopefully, we can turn that around by focusing on teaching kids how to think and improving student performance across the board. School Choice is here to stay, and the focus is on making the AISD the schools of choice in Arlington and across the metroplex. Once we achieve that and our student population starts growing, then we can have the conversation about expanding our facility footprint. But for now, the right answer is to get the most bang for our buck and that includes right sizing of our facilities and our property.

3. Teachers' Salaries – please respond by March 12, 2026

Is having the highest teachers' salaries in the north Texas area a good thing? Why or why not?

Teaching is a calling, not a profession and the people that we want in our classrooms are not necessarily drawn by money. That being said, our teachers still have to eat, they have to live well, and most have children that eventually want to go to college. I don’t know if having the highest salaries is absolutely necessary, but having competitive salaries certainly is and we have that in Arlington. What we need to do to improve teacher satisfaction is to focus on having our teachers teach our kids how to think without worrying about tests and/or worrying about discipline issues within the classroom.

4. Student Achievement Goals – please respond by March 19, 2026

The district has performance improvement plans where the goals are for less than 50% of the students meeting or exceeding grade level expectations on the state achievement assessments. Is this acceptable? Why or why not? What are your suggestions regarding student achievement goal plans?

Having a goal of less than 50% of our kids meeting or exceeding grade level expectations is unacceptable, period. That means that 50%+ of our children are not getting the necessary foundation to become the person that God created them to be and that’s on us as parents and on our school district. We correct this by:

- Setting new expectations for performance in reading, writing and arithmetic that reflects all students performing to 85% of grade level.

- We focus on enhancing both verbal and written communication skills; I-Phones are not a child’s friend in learning or in developing their social skills.

- Students that do not perform to expectations need to either have a remedial summer program or should be retained.

- Discipline issues within the classroom will not be tolerated. This may require expansion of in-school suspension and counseling and/or, in difficult circumstances, out-of-school suspension where the child is returned to the parents until established behavioral norms can be demonstrated. All days on out-of-school suspension are counted as absences.

5. Communications – please respond by March 26, 2026

If you receive an e-mail from a constituent on an AISD issue and the constituent logically laid out and well documented the issue, will you respond to the constituent? Why or why not? What actions will you take?

Once a parent has exhausted all efforts with the Teacher, the Principal, and the Administration, I will listen to their concerns in an effort to help achieve a win/win outcome for all parties involved. I was raised at a time where, when it came to disciplinary issues, I was guilty unless by some miracle I could prove myself innocent. (That only happened once in seventh grade math!) If the issue has not been brought up within the local school, then I’ll kindly refer the constituent to the appropriate Teacher / Administrator. If it has been brought up without satisfactory local resolution, then I’ll inquire if the issue has been elevated beyond the local school. I trust Dr. Smith and his staff to do this right. I would expect that most of the communications that I would get will involve some level of resetting parental expectations regarding the school’s obligations and the student’s performance standards.

6. Issues – please respond by April 2, 2026

What is the most important issue the board is currently facing? Why? What are your suggestions for addressing this issue?