Austin ISD releases consolidation, boundary change plan; 13 schools on chopping block

AUSTIN, Texas - Austin ISD has released its consolidation and boundary change for the next school year. This comes as the district faces uneven enrollment, a budget shortfall, and accountability requirements.

Letters went out to every family on Friday afternoon. There has been a lot of anticipation for this plan. 

What we know:

Under the plan, 98% of AISD schools have a boundary change.

AISD says over the past decade, they've lost more than 10,000 students, leaving 25,000 empty seats in the district. Despite making $100 million in non-campus budget cuts, the district still faces a $19.7 million shortfall. The district says the plan will make sure every school is better-resourced.

"Our budget is dire. We're truly fighting to save our district," Lynn Boswell, AISD board president said. 

"Doing nothing is not possible. We just don't have that luxury at this moment. I am not going to risk our values and our ability to control this school district by delaying a vote," superintendent Matias Segura said. 

Some schools are underenrolled, while others are overenrolled. District leaders also want cleaner feeder patterns from elementary to middle and middle to high school. 

The plan

Most notable in the plan are 13 building closures:

• Elementary schools: Barrington, Becker, Bryker Woods, Dawson, Maplewood, Oak Springs, Palm, Ridgetop, Sunset Valley, Widen, Winn Montessori
• Middle schools: Martin, Bedicheck

Four schools would be repurposed to campus-wide, non-zoned Spanish dual-language program, and there would be one campus-wide application-based language immersion program. 

One campus would be repurposed to a new location for districtwide, non-zoned Montessori. International High School will turn into a program at Navarro ECHS. 

The district used a data rubric to look at the student populations to come up with this plan. 

AISD says they'll save over $20 million from staffing. That, combined with closing facilities and associated transportation, will create a total of $25.6 million in savings. 

"It puts us in a much better position," Segura said.

He says they'll try to reassign staff where they can. 

"We have created a process that gives us a very, very high probability of keeping the vast majority of our staff who want to stay with us, with us," he said.

Parent reaction

The other side:

Laura Garcia's two kids go to Becker Elementary. She transferred them there for the dual language program.

She spoke to FOX 7 Austin ahead of the announcement.

"I wish it was something that wasn't told to us on a Friday at 5:30," she said. "It's really worrisome because where is my child going to go to school? I feel like that piece is the most difficult to me. There's been a lot of speculation about us being transferred to Sanchez, which I won't do. It's further. I already drive 25 minutes coming to Becker, going home, so it's a lot and it's scary."

District leaders say the news came on a Friday because of the state reporting period for board documents. Plus, the principals of each school have meetings with their staff on Friday afternoon.

"It really had all to do with doing it in a very thoughtful, like human, respectful way to our staff, coupled with the challenges with the new law," Segura said.

What's next:

If your child is at a school that stays open, they can keep going there even if your address is in a new boundary. You can put your address into this interactive map to see if you have a school change.

Any school that requires a turnaround plan will bring that requirement with them to the new campus. Money from the 2022 bond program will be reallocated if it originally went to a school that's closing.

The school board has yet to discuss the boundary change plan. There will be community input events in the coming weeks. 

A board vote is expected on Nov. 20.

For more information and the full plan, click here. 

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