Info

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents 2

Our Vision 4 Executive Summary 6 Deliverable Organization & Timeline 7 Overview of Process 10 Decision Making: One Tool, Two Parts 11 MGT Consulting Group’s Role (The Demographer) 12 Community Engagement 12

How did we make our decisions? 14 What is our process? 16 What will happen next? 16 Northeast & East Austin Elementary Schools 17 Closure & Program Change Summary 17 Shifts in School-wide Dual Language 18 Northeast Austin ES Closures & Program Changes 18 East Austin ES Closures & Program Changes 19 Northeast & East Austin Boundary Changes 21 South Austin Elementary Schools 22

Closure & Program Change Summary 22 Shifts in School-wide Dual Language 22 South Central Austin ES Closures & Program Changes 23 Southeast Austin ES Closures & Program Changes 24 South Austin ES Boundary Changes 24

North & South Central Austin Elementary Schools 26 Closure & Program Change Summary 26 Shifts in School-wide Dual Language 27 North Central Austin ES Closures & Program Changes 28 South Central Austin Closures & Program Changes 28 Central Austin ES Boundary Changes 29 North & Northwest Austin Elementary Schools 30 Closure & Program Change Summary 30 North Austin ES Closures & Program Changes 30 North Austin ES Boundary Changes 31 Northwest Austin ES Boundary Changes 32 Middle Schools (North of the River) 33 Closure & Program Change Summary 33 North Austin MS Closures & Program Changes 33

North Austin MS Boundary Changes 34 Middle Schools (South of the River) 36 Closure & Program Change Summary 36 South Austin Middle School Closures 36 South Austin Middle School Boundary Changes 36 High Schools 38 Closures & Program Change Summary 38 High School Program Changes 38 Boundary Changes (North Austin High Schools) 38 Boundary Changes (South and Central Austin High Schools) 39 Policies & Practices 40 Grandfathering 40 Changes to Enrollment and Transfers 41 Boundary & Transfer Review Process 43 Transportation 43 Budget Impacts 45 Financial Impact of Austin ISD School Consolidation 45 Reinvesting in Students 48 Financial Impact of Austin ISD School Consolidations 48 Bond Reallocation 50 Real Estate 51 Academics & Programming 53 Academic Framework 56 Special Education 57 Program Re-alignment 58 Dual Language 60 Early Childhood 63 After School Care at Elementary Schools 63 Transition Plans 65 Staffing 65 Student & Family Support 65 Campus Community Transition 66 Moving Operations & Logistics 68 TAPS & Accountability 69 School Consolidation: TEA Accountability and TAPS 69 The Intersection of Accountability and Consolidation 70 Current Timeline and Next Steps 71

Glossary of Terms 73

Our Vision

Our vision is simple but powerful: every family should have access to an excellent neighborhood school , one that is vibrant, well-resourced and able to meet the needs of every child.

The truth is, we cannot currently afford to provide this in the way our schools and system are set up now. Due to declining enrollment, rising education costs, inadequate state funding, and budget shortfalls, the district's resources (staffing, funding for supplies and materials) are currently spread too thin across too many campuses.

We must do hard things so we can reinvest in what matters most — strong academic programs, outstanding teachers, modern facilities and the wraparound supports that help every student succeed. This process is a necessary step to reinvest resources into our schools that need it most.

We are not starting from scratch. We are implementing lessons learned from previous closure processes and integrating recommendations from our Long-range Plan (LRP) and Equity Assessment into how we interpret quantitative data and work with our demographic partners to ensure geographic and programmatic balance.

This plan will:

● Create clean feeder patterns so communities can stay together

● Address misalignments between our school buildings and enrollment

● Ensure our programs meet their original intent and can be stable over time

● Prioritize long-term access to neighborhood schools

● Reduce our overall costs as a district so we can reduce our budget deficit, and better resource schools

The consolidation and boundary change process is designed to create the following benefits:

● Robust academic, arts and athletic programs across the district

● More consistent electives, specialized courses, after-school and enrichment activities across campuses

● Greater opportunities for collaboration and peer learning

● Reduced teacher vacancies

● Reduced need to rely on uncertified teachers

● More robust campus staffing levels at the schools that need it most

● Greater ability to keep cohorts of students together with their peers through elementary, middle and high school

● Achieve greater financial stability with more dollars going directly towards the things that benefit our students

Executive Summary

Below is a high-level overview of major changes and impacts including school building closures, program changes, boundary changes, feeder pattern alignment and estimated financial impacts.

13 School Building Closures:

● Barrington ES ● Becker ES ● Bedichek MS ● Bryker Woods ES ● Dawson ES ● Maplewood ES ● Martin MS ● Oak Springs ES ● Palm ES ● Ridgetop ES ● Sunset Valley ES ● Widén ES ● Winn Montessori

International High School will transition from a school co-located at Northeast ECHS to now a program at Navarro ECHS.

List of Proposed Changes to School-type or Programming Shifts:

Four (4) schools repurposed to campus-wide non-zoned Spanish dual-language programs: ● Pickle ES ● Wooten ES ● Odom ES ● Sánchez ES

One campus-wide non-zoned language immersion program: ● Joslin ES

One campus repurposed to new location for districtwide non-zoned Montessori : ● Govalle ES

Boundary changes & Balanced Enrollment:

● 98% of schools with substantial boundary change

● Projected district-wide utilization increased from 76% to 82% (goal was 85%)

Feeder Pattern Alignment:

● Before: Numerous campuses with multiple splits, the most fractured feeder having a 5 way-split

● After: All but two schools split to no more than two campuses. Only nine instances of splits less than 30% of the student body and only two where it’s less than 20%

Financial Impact:

● Campus Staffing: Over $20 million in immediate gross savings (see financial impact section)

Deliverable Organization & Timeline

What’s Happening?

This draft plan will be presented at the Board Information Session on October 9, 2025. From there, Austin ISD will hold several meetings, both in-person and online, focusing on different areas of the district. These meetings will give families and community members a chance to:

● Learn more about the plan

● Ask questions

● Suggest potential refinements to the plan, understanding that any change would have ripple effects that could reduce overall efficiencies and sustainability of the plan

● Share thoughts and ideas about how we can best support our school communities during this change

What’s in this deliverable?

This packet provides a comprehensive overview of the plan to consolidate schools and adjust school boundaries across Austin ISD. It walks you through:

● How the district made these decisions

● Estimated Cost Impact

● Proposed Policy Changes

● Proposed Updates to Academics and School Programs

● Transition Planning

What’s proposed for my school?

Each school has its own section that explains the proposed changes. In the plan, you will see:

● Maps that show current and draft boundaries ○ What this means for your child in SY 26-27 ○ Feeder pattern changes

● The following section provides a look into our decision making process, grouping the schools into different planning areas of Austin: ○ Elementary Schools ■ Northeast & East Austin ■ South Austin ■ North & South Central Austin ■ North & Northwest Austin ○ Middle Schools ■ North of the river ■ South of the river ○ High Schools

● An Interactive Map of Preliminary Draft Boundary Changes with an address locator

What’s Next?

● The final vote on the plan is set for November 20, 2025

● If the plan is approved, changes will begin in the 2026–27 school year

The November 20 board vote is an important date to ensure we have time to prepare for the 2026–27 school year.

In order to be ready for the upcoming school year, the district will need time to:

● Set up our enrollment systems with new boundaries so families can enroll as soon as possible ● Ensure we have the leaders and teachers in place for each school community ● Give leaders and teachers time to plan for the upcoming year ● Collaborate with school communities to merge programs, experiences and traditions thoughtfully for a successful transition

FAQ’s

● What’s happening between now and November 2025? We will be offering virtual open houses on the following dates to walk through the proposed changes and provide an opportunity for questions and ideas ○ October 14, 2025 ○ October 16, 2025 ○ October 27, 2025 ○ November 8, 2025

● When will enrollment and registration open? Round 1 enrollment will begin in early Spring 2026. See updates to our enrollment and transfer policy for more information.

● When will staffing decisions be made? Principals will be selected in December. Refer to the Staffing Guide for more information.

● When will transition planning begin? We’ve already started collecting information that needs to be considered and will be able to start in earnest once the consolidation package is approved on November 20. Refer to our Transition Plans section for more information.

Stay Updated

To get the latest information and updates about this plan, visit: http://www.austinisd.org/consolidate

Overview of Process

Phase I: Data Collection and Creation (April June 2025)

We began by gathering and reviewing our own data to better understand how our schools are running based on size, condition, number of students and how much it costs. This phase was complemented by the launch of a comprehensive community survey to ensure the public's perspectives and priorities were included from the very beginning of our work.

We also established values, priorities, and hopes with our board.

Top Values & Priorities (in order of importance by trustee rank and overall frequency): ● Acknowledge history and ensure burden of consolidations spread as equitably as possible ● Ensure decisions support long-term efficiency and realistic cost savings ● Consider programming — how can we maintain and even improve what is offered? ● Be empathetic and thorough in our transition planning, for staff and families ● Avoid TEA takeover ● Align feeder patterns & Vertical Teams

Hopes: ● This should be a comprehensive, transparent, systems approach that does not “bow to privilege”. ● This will be disruptive. “We can do hard things” if we provide the proper support. ● Be future-focused. Acknowledge the past and work together for a better, stronger Austin ISD.

Phase II: Analysis and Refinement (June October 2025)

With the data collected, we moved into Phase II: Analysis and Refinement. This phase was guided by the board's principles and the community values identified in the survey. To deepen our understanding, we hosted town halls and deep-dive workshops focused on critical areas such as academic programming, boundaries and student transfers. This work also included a refinement of our rubric.

A significant part of this phase was a contextual analysis. As we conducted our contextual analysis, we continued to consider the findings from the rubric but we went beyond the initial data. We explored specialized programming, historical context, student campus experience, feeder

patterns, population shifts, and transportation. To support this, we conducted a second survey and distributed a Principal Feedback Form for further insights.

As we conducted our contextual analysis, we continued to weigh the findings from the rubric, but in some cases, it was necessary to step beyond it and look at the system as a whole and apply Austin ISD’s guiding principles for boundary changes. This work was highly collaborative, involving regular sessions with a demographer and a diverse team of district specialists representing special education, school leadership, student support, academics, and transportation.

Phase III: Finalization and Approval (October November 2025)

We are now entering Phase III: Finalization and Approval. The process will move from creation to public review with the release of a draft plan. We’ll dedicate this period to socializing the plan and actively seeking feedback from the community to identify any potential gaps, blind spots or necessary transition considerations. This crucial feedback loop is essential for refining the plan to ensure it is comprehensive and ready for implementation and final approval.

Post-Board Approval: Making the Transition (November 2025 and beyond)

_See section on Transition Plans for more information_

Decision Making: One Tool, Two Parts

The Data Rubric (Part 1) was an objective, quantitative tool designed to assess all 116 Austin ISD campuses. Each school was given a total score based on its size, condition, number of students, and how much it costs to run.

The total score indicated the level of alignment between a school's building size, building quality, enrollment and cost, weighted by the level of student need. The rubric showed school-level misalignments but not district-wide patterns or current boundaries issues.

As we conducted our contextual analysis (Part 2), we continued to weigh the findings from the rubric, but it was necessary to look at the system as a whole and apply our guiding principles.

The role of the demographer and the Austin ISD Steering Committee was critical in executing the data-driven decisions while ensuring geographic and programmatic balance

● Who was in our Steering Committee? The steering committee was composed of district leadership representing Talent Strategy, School Leadership, Academics, Operations, Planning, Communications, Student Support, and Special Education. We also brought in subject matter experts for specific programs (e.g. dual language, after school care, PreK, etc.), enrollment, transportation, and Executive Directors over specific campuses. We reached out to campus administration for specific feedback when applicable.

MGT Consulting Group’s Role (The Demographer)

MGT Consulting Group works as the demographer for Austin ISD to provide data-driven analysis and long-term planning tools centered on student population (where students live) and geography. They leverage Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to perform essential services and also work with the City of Austin and the development of construction that is factored into the analysis.

MGT Service Description & Relevance to Consolidation

Enrollment Forecasting

Creating shortand long-term projections of student enrollment to anticipate future capacity needs. The projections are for 5-10 years.

Boundary Studies

Analyzing attendance zones to recommend adjustments or redistricting to balance enrollment and utilize facilities efficiently.

GIS Mapping Using precise mapping to determine where students live to accurately inform attendance area changes and facility planning.

Community Engagement

Past Opportunities:

Topic Date

Consolidation & Boundary Process Kick-off Sessions

May 27, 2025 June , 2025

Consolidation & Boundary Process Virtual Open Houses

June 23, 2025 June 24, 2025

June 25, 2025 (2 sessions)

Consolidation Workshops July 14, 2025 Virtual July 15, 2025 Virtual July 15, 2025 In-person July 16, 2025 In-person

Contextual Analysis Community Conversations

September 6, 2025 September 9, 2025 September 10, 2025 September 15, 2025

Surveys Phase l Feedback Form Phase ll Feedback Form Phase lll Feedback Form

Upcoming Opportunities:

Topic Date

Open Virtual Houses October 14, 2025 October 16, 2025 October 25, 2025 November 8 , 2025

Virtual Comment Card

How did we make our decisions?

Closing schools is never easy, but we must make thoughtful decisions to balance resources while keeping neighborhood schools accessible to families.

Guiding Principles

We follow our Guiding Principles wherever possible when making our decisions:

1. Minimize Impact

2. Balance Enrollment

3. Clean Feeder Patterns

4. Long-term Stability

Minimize Impact

We know what we are doing will impact almost all of Austin ISD. That being said, we were mindful of what level of impact we are proposing and who will be impacted in all our decisions.

We want to minimize the daily impact on getting to school. This means we want travel to be easy , so schools should be near the center of their boundary when we can. Wherever possible, boundaries follow natural dividers like major roads, rivers, and neighborhoods to make them easier to understand.

We are also allowing broad “grandfathering.” This means that if the school your child currently attends is not closing or being repurposed for a campus-wide program, your child can stay there, even if your boundary changes, no matter what grade you are in. Because of this, we are paying close attention to enrollment and transfer patterns. We want to make sure schools don’t become too full while these changes go into effect.

This expanded grandfathering policy will reduce the impact on current students , understanding that boundary changes affect students most when they are just starting a new school level. We do need to ensure we see the benefits from these hard changes as soon as we can. This means incoming elementary students (Pre-K and/or Kindergarten), 6th graders, and 9th graders will need to attend their new zoned school or apply to transfer to another campus beginning the 2026–27 school year. This includes siblings. See our grandfathering policy for more information.

We are proposing the addition of new non-zoned elementary programs supporting Spanish dual language, Mandarin and Spanish language immersion, and Montessori. These are schools that don’t have a boundary and are 100% transfer campuses. These have the dual benefit of supporting these programs closer to their original intent while also allowing us to minimize the closure of schools in the areas of town where we are trying to limit impacts (e.g. the north eastern crescent of

Austin). We can balance the number and size of neighborhood schools with the number of students living within each boundary and maintain access to programs that Austin ISD families want.

Balance Enrollment

Our “Balance Enrollment” Guiding Principle states that we are going to reduce our extra seats so that 85% of Austin ISD seats are being used. We are closing 13 schools which gets us close to this goal at 82% of seats being used based on our projected enrollment for the 2026-2027 school year when the changes will go into effect.

Where our schools are located does not always align with where families choose or are able to live in Austin. We also know that this will continue to change over time _(Refer to our Boundary and Transfer Review Process for how we will address this)_. This means that some campuses are underused while others are too full. We aim to ensure that schools are neither too full nor too empty by 2030. An important initial step in changing boundaries is to ensure that the number of students who live within each boundary matches the number of students each school can fit. Our changes in transfer policy will help ensure enrollment trends towards the capacity. However, this will not occur right away (i.e. next school year) due to grandfathering. Refer to our Policy Updates for the grandfathering process.

Clean Feeders

We want clean feeder patterns from elementary to middle school and from middle school to high school so communities of students stay together and campuses can plan together. Boundary changes should avoid splitting communities too many times or into very small groups. Each time a boundary at one grade level changes, we have to look at the impact to the other grade levels to either ensure alignment or confirm that any splits aren’t too small.

Long-term Stability

We cannot change where people live and we cannot change where schools are located. We want to ensure all students have convenient access to a zoned school. When we look at our boundaries, we focus on the data about our “reside students," the students who live in each neighborhood. Based on the number of “reside students” living within each boundary, we look at which schools need the most substantial realignments (either really full or really empty) and start there. We also only consider how many students can fit in the building itself and not how many we could fit if we use portables, even if they already exist on site. This does not mean that all portables will go away but in keeping with our focus on long-term stability, it was important to look at the main building in our initial decision making, knowing that portables are available on some campuses if needed.

What is our process?

We look at what is happening at the campuses nearby and also how full or empty the entire area is. Sometimes closures are an option (e.g. if there is more space across schools than students who live in a certain area) and sometimes they are not (e.g. if the number of students living in an area matches how many students that the schools can fit).

To better match the number of students living in each area with the size of each school, we are changing boundaries. We started with schools whose boundaries were most out of sync with the size of their building (e.g. schools that were either too full or too empty based on who lives there). Then we looked at surrounding schools and reassigned students to balance across the area. As a result, nearly all schools were affected by a boundary change.

The following section provides a look into our decision making process, grouping the schools into different planning areas of Austin:

● Elementary Schools ○ Northeast & East Austin ○ South Austin ○ North & South Central Austin ○ North & Northwest Austin ● Middle Schools ○ North of the river ○ South of the river ● High Schools

What will happen next?

We know merging communities and programs will be challenging. Each school community has its own programs, traditions, and strengths. Starting in Spring 2026 , we will work closely with families and staff to merge school communities thoughtfully. Our goal is for new, combined campuses to reflect the best of each and to honor what is most meaningful. This includes formal programs such as IB or Fine Arts but also clubs and traditions that campuses value and families have supported. The goal is to maintain what is great about each campus and create a new school community that reflects that. _Refer to our Academics & Programming and Transition Plans sections for more information._

Northeast & East Austin Elementary Schools

In East Austin, there are more school seats than students. This means the area does not need as many neighborhood schools as it currently has. Some school boundaries are too crowded, while others are half-empty.

After careful review, we are closing two school buildings in East Austin , closing one school in Northeast Austin , turning two schools into non-zoned programs , and redrawing boundaries so that every family has access to a nearby school.

See this Interactive Map of Preliminary Draft Boundary Changes with an address locator

Closure & Program Change Summary

● Maplewood ES will close and merge with Campbell ES.

○ The future of Campbell ES’s fine arts program will be determined during the transition process in the spring.

● Oak Springs ES will close and merge with Blackshear ES.

○ The future of Blackshear ES’s fine arts program will be determined during the transition process in the spring.

● Winn Montessori will close and its students will be reassigned to Andrews ES, Pecan Springs ES, and Hart ES based on their address. A non-zoned Montessori program will be relocated to Govalle ES.

○ The part of Winn Montessori’s that is moving to Hart ES was already separate from the rest of Winn’s boundary. We planned to fix this during the process no matter what, regardless of closure.

● Govalle ES will become the new home of the non-zoned elementary Montessori program , welcoming students from Winn Montessori. Govalle ES neighborhood students will be reassigned to Ortega ES and Zavala ES, based on their address.

● Sánchez ES will support a non-zoned school-wide Spanish dual language program, welcoming students from Becker ES. Sánchez ES neighborhood students will be reassigned to Allison ES, Zavala ES, and Travis Heights ES based on their address. See “Central Austin Elementary Schools” for more information about this change.

Shifts in School-wide Dual Language

We are moving our school-wide dual language programs (formerly referred to as wall-to-wall) closer to where emergent bilingual students now live and making them non-zoned programs. In Austin ISD, our Bilingual Education Model is Dual language and is intended to serve 50% emergent bilingual students and 50% non-emergent bilingual students. Where emergent bilingual students live in Austin and where the programs are currently located make this dual language ratio challenging.

Due to its location and strong dual language enrollment, Sánchez ES will support this program in East Austin as we merge Becker ES with Sánchez ES. _(see South Central Austin Elementary Schools and Program Realignment for more information)._ In this merger, we strongly encourage existing dual language students at Sánchez ES to remain. The goal is to maintain what is great about both Becker ES and Sánchez ES while making the school-wide programs more accessible to emergent bilingual students.

Northeast Austin ES Closures & Program Changes

Andrews ES, Blanton ES, Harris ES, Pecan Springs ES, and Winn Montessori are all clustered in the same part of Austin. Together they have enough space for ~2700 students but only ~2000 students live within their current boundaries. We will close Winn Montessori and relocate the Montessori program to ensure the number and size of neighborhood schools match the number of neighborhood students.

Harris ES, Pecan Springs ES , and Andrews ES are all being modernized. Many students that attend Winn Montessori already travel from outside the neighborhood, while other nearby schools serve more local students. By centralizing the Montessori program to Govalle ES , we can keep Montessori available while balancing the number of students across the remaining schools.

While Winn Montessori neighborhood students will be reassigned to Andrews ES, Pecan Springs ES, and Harts ES, we are hoping those families wanting Montessori will continue to travel to the new Montessori program location just south off of Springdale Rd.

We plan to continue offering a dual language strand at Montessori in 2026–2027, with students merging from both campuses. New enrollment in the dual language program will be limited, and we want to be transparent that the long-term future of the dual language strand is uncertain. Since families near the new Montessori location will have access to a non-zoned Spanish dual language program at Sánchez ES, and because it has been challenging for the district to support both Montessori and dual language, our main focus will be on strengthening Montessori. As the program transitions to Govalle ES, we will carefully monitor enrollment and family interest. If the dual language strand is not able to sustain itself over time, it may be gradually phased out.

East Austin ES Closures & Program Changes

Together, Maplewood ES and Campbell ES have space for ~900 students but only ~540 students live within their current boundaries. We want to keep students and communities together whenever we can. Maplewood ES does not have enough space for all students, but Campbell ES does and its building is in better condition. We will be closing Maplewood and merging these students into Campbell ES. The future of Campbell ES’s fine arts program will be determined during the transition process in the spring.

Blackshear ES, Oak Springs ES, Govalle ES, Ortega ES, Sánchez ES, and Zavala ES are all clustered in the same part of Austin. Together they have enough space for over 3,000 students but only ~1500 students live within their current boundaries. Allison ES and Norman-Sims ES are both nearby and also have more room than students living in their current boundaries. We are proposing to close one school and convert two into non-zoned programs to ensure the number and size of neighborhood schools match the number of neighborhood students.

Both Oak Springs ES and Blackshear ES are extremely under-enrolled. We will be closing Oak Springs ES and merging these students into Blackshear ES. Oak Springs ES does not have enough space for all students, but Blackshear ES does. The future of Blackshear ES’s fine arts program will be determined during the transition process in the spring. _See the section on “Bond Fund Reallocation” for more information on how consolidations impact the 2022 bond._

Instead of closing more schools in this area, some are shifting focus to serve new roles for the district. To understand how we chose specific campuses, we have to take a broader look at the impact of boundary changes in this part of Austin.

In this area, Allison ES, Ortega ES , and Norman-Sims ES are all too empty.

● Allison ES is being modernized and past a reasonable stopping point of halting the new construction, so we need to keep the building. Because it sits along the river and on the edge of our district, the best way for Allison ES to grow while still being easy for students to access is to reassign students from Sánchez ES who live south of the river.

● Ortega ES ’s current boundary sits between Norman-Sims ES and Govalle ES and is along the edge of our district. Since Norman-Sims ES also needs more students, the only other option for Ortega ES to increase is for us to reassign students from Govalle ES. Since it is already a natural divider, we reassigned students living east of Airport Blvd from Govalle ES to Ortega ES.

● We extended the boundary for Norman-Sims ES north to capture more students. This worked well as Pecan Springs ES needed to make space to receive students from Winn Montessori, which will close.

The remaining three schools in this area to evaluate are Govalle ES , Sánchez ES , and Zavala ES. Considering the shifts discussed above, there are only enough students left to completely fill one school building. That means only one of the three schools needs to stay a neighborhood school.

Govalle ES and Sánchez ES are both new modernized buildings we want to keep but most of the students in this remaining area live closest to Zavala ES. Instead of closing these campuses , we decided to have Zavala ES continue as the neighborhood school and convert Sánchez ES and Govalle ES into new, non-zoned programs open to any Austin ISD student. This creates a good geographic spread between non-zoned and neighborhood schools , ensuring families have a choice while keeping a nearby neighborhood option.

_Note:_ _We are still refining the boundary between Zavala and Ortega to ensure student assignment percentages comply with requirements set by Govalle's turnaround plan._

Govalle ES will become the new home of the non-zoned Montessori program. Centralizing the program to Govalle ES is convenient for broader Austin ISD and its location on Springdale Rd is convenient for families moving from Winn.

● Students who currently participate (or want to participate) in the Montessori program can remain. We will support families and staff to help them understand what it means to attend and work in a Montessori school and how the program works.

● Govalle ES neighborhood students will be reassigned to Ortega ES or Zavala ES through boundary changes.

● Students from Govalle ES and Winn Montessori will be prioritized next year; other students can apply to participate in the program.

● We plan to continue offering a dual language strand at Montessori in 2026–2027, with students merging from both campuses. New enrollment in the dual language program will be limited, and we want to be transparent that the long-term future of the dual language strand is uncertain. Since families in the area will have access to a non-zoned Spanish dual language program at Sánchez ES, and because it has been challenging for the district to support both Montessori and dual language, our main focus will be on strengthening Montessori. As the program transitions to Govalle ES, we will carefully monitor enrollment and family interest. If the dual language strand is not able to sustain itself over time, it may be gradually phased out.

Sánchez ES will support a non-zoned school-wide Spanish dual language program. Sánchez ES was chosen because it already has strong dual language enrollment and serves many emergent bilingual students nearby.

● Students who currently participate (or want to participate) in dual language can stay at Sánchez ES.

● Sánchez ES neighborhood students will be reassigned to Allison ES, Zavala ES, or Travis Heights ES through boundary changes.

● Dual language students from Sánchez ES and Becker ES will be prioritized next year; other students can apply to participate in the program.

Northeast & East Austin Boundary Changes

To better match the number of students living in each boundary with the size of each school, we are changing boundaries:

● Boundaries for Ortega ES, Harris ES , Norman-Sims ES , Allison ES , and Zavala ES will expand because fewer students live within these boundaries than the schools can fit.

● Blanton ES’s boundary will get smaller, reassigning a group of students to Harris ES which needs to grow. To create cleaner boundaries along major roads and keep school sizes balanced, small parts of Blanton ES’s boundary will also move to Pecan Springs ES, Andrews ES, and Harris ES.

● There is a small change between Jordan ES and Overton ES, sending a small group of students from Overton ES to Jordan ES, currently separated from their school by a railroad.

South Austin Elementary Schools

In South Austin, there are more school seats than students. That means the area does not need as many neighborhood schools as it has today.

After careful review, AISD is closing three school buildings in South Austin, converting two into non-zoned programs , and changing boundaries so that every family has access to a nearby school.

See this Interactive Map of Preliminary Draft Boundary Changes with an address locator

Closure & Program Change Summary

● Sunset Valley ES will close and its neighborhood students will be reassigned to Cunningham ES and Boone ES based on their address. The school-wide dual language program will relocate to, and merge with, Odom ES and become a non-zoned program.

● Widén ES will close. Most students will be reassigned to Rodriguez ES and a small number to Houston ES , depending on their address.

● Palm ES will close and students will be reassigned to Perez ES , which has space to accommodate all Palm ES neighborhood students after minor boundary adjustments with Houston ES and Langford ES.

● Odom ES will become a non-zoned school with a school-wide Spanish dual language program , welcoming students from Sunset Valley ES. Odom ES neighborhood students will be reassigned to Pleasant Hill ES.

● Joslin ES will become a non-zoned elementary school offering Spanish and Mandarin language immersion programs. Joslin ES neighborhood students will be reassigned to Cunningham ES or Galindo ES , based on their address.

● There are no changes to Uphaus Early Childhood Center at this time.

Shifts in School-wide Dual Language

We are moving our school-wide dual language programs (formerly referred to as wall-to-wall) closer to where emergent bilingual students now live and making them non-zoned programs. In Austin ISD, our Bilingual Education Model is Dual language and is intended to serve 50% emergent bilingual students and 50% non-emergent bilingual students. Where emergent

bilingual students live in Austin and where the programs are currently located make this dual language ratio challenging.

Sunset Valley ES currently hosts the dual-language program in South Austin, but many students travel in from other areas to participate and the program serves less than 30% emergent bilingual students. We will be relocating the school-wide Spanish dual language program from Sunset Valley ES to Odom ES. Odom ES is less than three miles away and has a higher number of emergent bilingual students living nearby. It is also a new modernized building we want to keep and is currently too empty. Making Odom ES non-zoned also creates healthy geographic spread between neighborhood schools, helping create cleaner feeder patterns. If all dual language students from both Sunset Valley and Odom choose to continue with the program, we will start at 43% emergent bilingual participation, much closer to our goal.

In the merger of Sunset Valley and Odom, we strongly encourage existing dual language students at Odom ES to remain. The goal is to maintain what is great about both Sunset Valley ES and Odom ES while making the school-wide programs more accessible to emergent bilingual students.

South Central Austin ES Closures & Program Changes

Cunningham ES, Joslin ES, Odom ES, Pleasant Hill ES, St. Elmo ES and Sunset Valley all serve the geographic area just south of Ben White. Together they have enough space for almost 3,200 students but only ~1900 students live within their current boundaries. We are proposing to close one school and convert two into non-zoned programs to ensure the number and size of neighborhood schools match the number of neighborhood students.

Since they are all close together, Cunningham ES , Sunset Valley ES , and Joslin ES were looked at together as a group to determine next steps for possible closure and program changes. Across the three schools, there are only enough neighborhood students to fill one school. This meant one would stay at a neighborhood school, while the other two could close or become non-zoned programs open to all Austin ISD students. Since the school-wide dual language program at Sunset Valley ES will move to Odom ES , Sunset Valley ES will close, and the neighborhood students will be assigned to Boone ES and Cunningham ES. Cunningham ES will continue as the neighborhood school.

Joslin ES will become a new multilingual learning option in South Austin. As a non-zoned program, Joslin ES will allow for overflow of current families participating in the school-wide dual language programs if these programs get too full and/or they prefer more of an immersion style experience versus true dual language (which requires the 50% emergent bilingual population). In addition, Joslin ES’s neighborhood students who live north of Ben White will be reassigned to Galindo ES so they don’t have to cross the highway to get to school. The remaining Joslin ES neighborhood students will be reassigned to Cunningham ES.

Southeast Austin ES Closures & Program Changes

Blazier ES, Blazier Intermediate, Houston ES, Langford ES, Palm ES, Perez ES, and Widén ES are all clustered in the same part of Austin. Together they have enough space for over 5,300 students but only ~3900 students live within their current boundaries. This doesn’t account for the 348 additional seats available at Uphaus Early Childhood Center. We are proposing to close two schools to ensure the number and size of neighborhood schools match the number of neighborhood students.

Langford ES and Houston ES are both new modernized buildings we need to keep. Widén ES ’s building is in poor condition and Rodriguez ES can accommodate almost all students. Widén ES will close and its neighborhood students will be reassigned to Rodriguez ES and Houston ES , based on their address.

Palm ES will close and its neighborhood students will be reassigned to Perez ES. Palm ES and Perez ES serve different adjacent neighborhoods, but Palm ES does not have enough students in its boundary to fill the school. Perez ES is nearby and has room for all students.

We will be reviewing offering 6th^ grade across elementary schools in Austin ISD. There are plenty of seats at nearby middle schools.

● While we are not proposing a boundary change for Blazier ES, the number of PK-5th grade students living in Blazier ES’s current boundary aligns with the size of the building. However, since they are managing this currently, we can continue to offer 6th grade at Blazier ES for the 2026-2027 school year but will work with school leadership to determine a timeline for phasing out 6th grade.

South Austin ES Boundary Changes

South Austin elementary schools have closer to the right number of school seats for the number of students who live there. However, boundaries need to be better balanced as some schools are too empty and others too full. The schools listed below are the ones that needed the biggest changes.

● The boundaries for Bear Creek ES, Linder ES, Menchaca ES, and Oak Hill ES will all shrink because more students live within each boundary than the school can fit.

● The boundaries for Boone ES , Clayton ES , Cunningham ES , Houston ES , and Mills ES , will all expand because fewer students live within each boundary than the school can fit.

● The boundaries for Pleasant Hill ES an d St. Elmo ES overall needed to increase in size but each also reassigned some of their own neighborhood students to ensure clean feeder patterns and make use of major roads or railways.

We then looked at the surrounding schools while keeping our guiding principles in mind: ensuring that it is easy and safe to get to school and school boundaries are balanced with the size of each building.

● Some schools will experience “ trades ” in their boundaries, where they send some students to one school and receive students from another. This happens at Casey ES, Cowan ES, Kiker ES, Kocurek ES, and Williams ES. Their boundaries stay around the same size but “shift.” For example:

○ The boundary for Clayton ES needed more students so some Kiker ES students were reassigned there. This meant that Kiker ES’s boundary shifted east to ensure it remained balanced while also helping balance Bear Creek ES (which was too full) and using W. Slaughter Ln as a consistent boundary. This in turn impacts Kocurek ES. Here we used Brodie Ln as a natural divider and shifted Kocurek ES’s boundary a bit south.

○ Since Boone ES needed more students, some were reassigned from Cowan ES. Since Cunningham ES on the other side of Cowan ES was able to take on Sunset Valley ES and Joslin ES students to its north, the students living south of William Cannon Blvd. will be reassigned to Cowan ES.

● The boundary changes for Patton ES, Oak Hill ES , Houston ES, Rodriguez ES , St. Elmo ES, and Williams ES students based on the location of major roads or railway locations.

● Right now, Perez ES’ s boundary stretches over the area for Langford ES. This means some students pass by another school to get to their assigned one. To fix this and keep school sizes balanced, we are reassigning those students to Houston ES and Langford ES.

● Baldwin ES and Baranoff ES both have minor boundary changes.

Blazier ES will not experience a change in boundary. Most students assigned to this campus are south of the school itself. There is no easy way to reduce the boundary since the school is at the northernmost edge of its boundary which is also sandwiched between a major highway and the edge of the district.

North & South Central Austin Elementary Schools

In Central Austin, there are more school seats than students. That means the area does not need as many neighborhood schools as it has today. After careful review, AISD is closing four school buildings in Central Austin , shifting some programs , and changing boundaries so that every family maintains access to a nearby school. There are also some changes to the grade levels available at some campuses.

See this Interactive Map of Preliminary Draft Boundary Changes with an address locator

Closure & Program Change Summary

● Becker ES will close and students will be reassigned to Zilker ES. The school-wide Spanish dual language program will relocate to, and merge with, Sánchez ES and become a non-zoned program. See “East Austin Elementary Schools” for more information about Sánchez ES

● Ridgetop ES will close and students will be reassigned to Reilly ES. The school-wide Spanish dual language program will relocate to, and merge with, Pickle ES and become a non-zoned program. See “North Austin Elementary Schools” for more information about Pickle ES

● Bryker Woods ES will close and students will be reassigned to Mathews ES and Brentwood ES depending on their address.

○ The future of Bryker Woods ES’s IB program will be determined during the transition process in the spring.

● Dawson ES will close and students will be reassigned to Galindo ES , which has space to accommodate all students.

● Reilly ES will no longer offer a school-wide Spanish dual language program and will instead provide dual language programs as its enrollment requires, similar to most of our elementary schools. Reilly ES will also welcome neighborhood students from Ridgetop ES , which will close. The school-wide Spanish dual language program will move to, and merge with, Wooten ES and become a non-zoned program. See “North Austin Elementary Schools” for more information about Wooten ES

○ Students participating in the Mandarin dual-language program can continue this program at Doss ES or at the non-zoned Joslin ES Mandarin & Spanish Language Immersion Program.

○ We will work with staff and leadership to determine what staffing makes the most sense for both Reilly ES and Wooten ES since the Reilly ES building will remain open.

● We will not be offering 6th grade at Mathews ES starting next school year.

● There will be no changes to Rosedale at this time.

Shifts in School-wide Dual Language

We are moving our school-wide dual language programs (formerly referred to as wall-to-wall) closer to where emergent bilingual students now live and making them non-zoned programs. In Austin ISD, our Bilingual Education Model is Dual language and is intended to serve 50% emergent bilingual students and 50% non-emergent bilingual students. Where emergent bilingual students live in Austin and where the programs are currently located make this dual language ratio challenging.

Ridgetop ES , and Reilly ES currently host these programs in north central Austin, but many students travel in from other areas to participate. The program at Ridgetop ES serves only 14% emergent bilingual students. Reilly ES is closer to our 50% goal at serving 44% emergent bilingual students. There is a large number of emergent bilingual students living just north of these campuses along Highway 183, between Burnet Road and 290 and we are able to relocate the school-wide Spanish dual language programs from Ridgetop ES to Pickle ES and Reilly ES to Wooten ES to flank both ends of this area of Austin. Both are less than three miles away from the original campuses. We considered if we could maintain Reilly ES as one of the two non-zoned schools but needed the two north locations to be a bit spread out; the central location of Reilly ES made this difficult. A school its size is also needed to serve neighborhood students in this part of Austin.

Becker ES currently hosts this program in south central Austin, but many students travel in from other areas to participate and the campus only serves 20% emergent bilingual students. We will be relocating the school-wide Spanish dual language program from Becker ES to Sánchez ES , around three miles east of the current campus. Sánchez ES has healthy dual language enrollment and a large number of emergent bilingual students living nearby. It is also a new building we need to keep but there are more school seats available than there are students living in its neighborhood.

In the merger of these campuses, we strongly encourage existing dual language students at the receiving campuses (Pickle ES, Sánchez ES, Wooten ES) to remain. The goal is to maintain what is great about both campuses while making the school-wide programs more accessible to emergent bilingual students. If all dual language students from both Ridgetop & Pickle, Reilly & Wooten, and

Becker & Sánchez choose to continue with the program, we will start at 52%, 67%, and 47% emergent bilingual participation respectively, much closer to our goal.

North Central Austin ES Closures & Program Changes

Ridgetop ES will close and students will be reassigned to Reilly ES. Reilly ES has more neighborhood students attending and a larger building in better condition that can accommodate all of Ridgetop ES ’s neighborhood students after boundary adjustments with Harris ES. Ridgetop ES neighborhood students will have the option to attend Reilly ES or participate at the new non-zoned school-wide dual language programs at Pickle ES or Wooten ES.

Bryker Woods ES is a small campus in poor condition and nearby schools have space to accommodate all Bryker Woods ES neighborhood students. Small campuses are difficult to operate long-term as the building cannot accommodate the ideal number of teachers per grade level that we’d like and therefore, rely on portables. Since we are not making decisions that rely on future bond programs to make the campus bigger and have a surplus of seats in this part of Austin, we are closing Bryker Woods ES.

● Most students will be reassigned to Matthews ES and a small portion to Brentwood ES. This small area allows for cleaner boundaries and reduced splits in our feeder pattern.

● The future of Bryker Woods ES’s IB program will be determined during the transition process in the spring.

We will no longer be offering 6th grade at Mathews ES starting next school year and will be reviewing this across other elementary schools in Austin ISD. There are plenty of seats at nearby middle schools.

● This change is important for Mathews ES to ensure there is space for all current Mathews ES students and those they are welcoming from Bryker Woods ES. The number of PK-5th grade students living in Mathews ES’s new boundary aligns with the size of the building.

● While we are not proposing a boundary change for Lee ES , the number of PK-5th grade students living in Lee ES’s current boundary aligns with the size of the building. However, since they are managing this currently, we can continue to offer 6th grade at Lee ES for the 2026-2027 school year but will work with school leadership to determine a timeline for phasing out 6th grade.

South Central Austin Closures & Program Changes

Barton Hills ES, Becker ES, Dawson ES, Galindo ES, Travis Heights ES, and Zilker ES are all clustered in the same part of Austin, south of the river and north of Ben White. Together they

have enough space for over 3,000 students but only ~1600 students live within their current boundaries.

Dawson ES and Becker ES have the fewest number of neighborhood students attending their school and there is space for all students in nearby schools. We will be closing both schools.

We want to keep students and communities together whenever we can. Galindo ES has a large building and plenty of space to fit all of Dawson ES neighborhood students. We first explored also reassigning some Becker ES students to Galindo ES but ultimately decided against this as putting too many new students at once into Galindo ES may negatively impact the school’s ability to support Dawson ES ’s turnaround plan. Instead, we chose to reassign all the Becker ES neighborhood students to Zilker ES, which has space after a boundary adjustment with Galindo ES , using Oltorf Rd. and Lamar Blvd. as natural boundaries.

We also changed Galindo ES ’s boundary since we are trying to avoid students having to cross a highway to get to school wherever we can. We are reassigning Galindo ES neighborhood students living south of Ben White to St. Elmo ES. Galindo ES will also welcome students from Joslin ES and have a boundary change with Zilker ES.

Central Austin ES Boundary Changes

To better match the number of students living in each boundary with the size of each school, we are changing boundaries in Central Austin. While the schools which had the most out of sync boundaries were able to be balanced by reassigning students from closures or schools becoming non-zoned, some additional boundary changes were required:

● The boundaries for Highland Park ES and Linder ES will all shrink because more students live within each boundary than the school can fit.

● Mathews ES will also have additional small boundary changes so we can avoid having small groups of students sent to schools across major roads. Students living west of Mopac will be reassigned to Casis ES. Students living east of I-35 will be reassigned to Blackshear ES.

● Brentwood ES, Barton Hills ES, Casis ES, and Travis Heights ES all have minor boundary changes along major roads or to balance the population with an adjacent campus.

● There are no boundary changes planned for Gullett ES or Lee ES.

North & Northwest Austin Elementary Schools

In North Austin, there are more school seats than students. That means the area does not need as many neighborhood schools as it has today. After careful review, AISD is closing one school building in North Austin , turning two schools into non-zoned programs , and redrawing boundaries so that every family has access to a nearby school.

See this Interactive Map of Preliminary Draft Boundary Changes with an address locator

Closure & Program Change Summary

● Barrington ES will close and students will be reassigned to Guerrero Thompson ES and Wooldridge ES , based on their address.

● Wooten ES will become a non-zoned school with a school-wide dual language program, welcoming students from Reilly ES. Wooten ES neighborhood students will be reassigned to Pillow ES. See “Central Austin Elementary Schools” for more information about this change.

● Pickle ES will become a non-zoned school with a school-wide dual language program, welcoming students from Ridgetop ES , which is closing. Pickle ES neighborhood students will be reassigned to Hart ES. See “Central Austin Elementary Schools” for more information about this change.

North Austin ES Closures & Program Changes

Barrington ES, Cook ES, Guerrero Thompson ES, McBee ES, Padron ES, Wooldridge ES , and Walnut Creek ES are all clustered in the same part of Austin, north of 183 between Mopac and I-35. Together they have enough space for over 4,800 students but less than 3,000 students live within their current boundaries. We are closing one school in North Austin , converting two schools into non-zoned programs, and changing boundaries to better match the number of neighborhood students with the size of each school and avoid crossing major highways to access your zoned school.

There is a large number of emergent bilingual students living in North Austin along Highway 183, between Burnet Road and 290 and we are able to relocate Ridgetop ES to Pickle ES and Reilly ES to Wooten ES to flank both ends of this area of Austin. These moves are mergers. We strongly encourage existing dual language students at Pickle ES and Wooten ES to remain. The goal is to maintain what is great about both campuses while making the school-wide programs more accessible to emergent bilingual students.

Wooten ES will become a non-zoned school with a school-wide dual language program, welcoming students from Reilly ES.

● Students who currently participate (or want to participate) in dual language can remain at Wooten ES , while Wooten ES neighborhood students will be reassigned to Pillow ES. Pillow ES will also have major boundary changes with Padron ES and McBee ES.

● Dual-language students from Reilly ES and Wooten ES will be prioritized next year; other students can apply to participate in the program.

Pickle ES will become a non-zoned school with a school-wide dual language program, welcoming students from Ridgetop ES , which is closing.

● Students who currently participate (or want to participate) in dual language can remain at Pickle ES , while other Pickle ES neighborhood students will be reassigned to Hart ES.

● Dual-language students from Ridgetop ES and Pickle ES will be prioritized next year; other students can apply to participate in the program.

Barrington ES and Guerrero Thompson ES are located across the street from one another. Between the two of them, they can support over 1,300 students but only ~700 live within their current boundaries. Barrington ES will close and students will be reassigned to Guerrero Thompson ES or Wooldridge ES based on their address. At first, we looked at reassigning all Barrington ES students to Guerrero Thompson ES but because Barrington ES has to implement a turnaround plan, no more than 51% of students at the receiving school can come from Barrington ES. To meet this rule, we split students between two campuses. Guerrero Thompson ES’s boundary will expand south to include Barrington ES students living north of Little Walnut Creek. Barrington students living south of the creek will move to Wooldridge ES. To make room, some Wooldridge ES students will be reassigned to other schools based on where they live. We aligned these boundaries at the middle school level for clean feeder patterns.

North Austin ES Boundary Changes

To better match the number of students living in each area with the size of each school, we are changing boundaries in North Austin. We started with schools whose boundaries were most out of sync with the size of their building, schools that were either too full or too empty based on who lives there. Then we looked at surrounding schools and reassigned students to balance across the area. As a result, nearly all schools were affected by a boundary change.

● The boundaries for Brown ES, Highland Park ES, and Linder ES will all shrink because more students live within each boundary than the school can fit.

● The boundaries for McBee ES will expand because fewer students live within this boundary than the school can fit. Due to the shape of Austin ISD’s overall boundary, the new boundary for McBee ES is split into two parts. These students were reassigned to

McBee ES from Pillow ES , providing them easier access to get to school. McBee ES also had too few students in its current boundary, so this helped fill the school.

● Pillow ES ’s boundary extended far north. Students living in this northern portion had access to multiple closer elementary schools. Reassigning Pillow ES students living north of 183 to Padron ES and McBee ES allows the school to accommodate all of Wooten ES , which will support a non-zoned program.

● Some Wooldridge ES students will be reassigned to Padron ES to make space for some of Barrington ES , which will close and Brown ES , which is too full. These reassigned students all have easy access south to 183 to access Padron ES.

● When Pickle ES students were reassigned to Hart ES , we adjusted Hart ES’s boundary. To make room, students living in the northern part of Hart ES’s boundary were reassigned to Graham ES. Then, some students from Graham ES were reassigned to Walnut Creek ES. Walnut Creek ES had too few students in its current boundary, so this helped fill the school. While this new boundary crosses a highway, it was the best option because McBee ES, on the other side or Walnut Creek ES, also has too few students.

● Cook ES has a minor boundary change with Padron ES since it has room for more students.

Northwest Austin ES Boundary Changes

● Davis ES and Summitt ES all have minor boundary changes with Padron ES. Students that live east of Mopac will be reassigned to Padron ES to limit students crossing a highway to get to school. Changes align with those at middle school to create clean feeder patterns.

● There are no boundary changes planned for Hill ES.

● Doss ES has a boundary change between Highland Park ES which shares a boundary and is too full. Doss ES will continue supporting Mandarin dual language.

Middle Schools (North of the River)

In North Austin, there are more middle school seats than students. After careful review, AISD is closing one middle school building in North Austin and redrawing boundaries so that every family has access to a nearby school.

See this Interactive Map of Preliminary Draft Boundary Changes with an address locator

Closure & Program Change Summary

● Martin MS will temporarily close. Students will be reassigned to Kealing MS , Lively MS , and General Marshall MS based on their address. The board would like us to keep Martin MS building and will work with the community to re-envision its future and programming.

● We created a boundary for General Marshall MS , which did not exist before. The new boundaries for Blanton ES , Jordan ES , Norman-Sims ES , Overton ES , and Pecan Springs ES will feed 100% into General Marshall MS.

● For the 2026–27 school year, there are no anticipated changes to middle school magnets, application-based programs, or single-gender schools. This includes Kealing MS and fine arts at Lamar MS.

North Austin MS Closures & Program Changes

If we include the two single-gender middle schools in North Austin, we have space for over 11,000 middle school students north of the river but only ~7350 students live in this part of Austin. We are not allowed to close Burnet MS , Dobie MS , or Webb MS due to their ongoing implementation of their turnaround plans.

Martin MS and Kealing MS are only two miles apart. Together they can serve more than 2,000 students, but only about 1,350 live in their boundaries and the new General Marshall MS boundary will make those numbers even smaller. Today, only a small percentage of neighborhood students attend Martin MS and closing this campus would impact fewer neighborhood students, and fewer students overall, than if we closed Kealing MS. Martin MS does not have enough space for all students, but Kealing MS does.

We will be closing Martin MS temporarily. We will work with the community to re-envision its future, such as a PK-8 campus or other option that best serves the area. Current Martin MS neighborhood students will be reassigned to Kealing MS, Lively MS, or General Marshall MS based on where they live.

● Martin MS students living south of the river will be reassigned to Lively MS.

● The northeast portion of Martin MS will be reassigned to General Marshall MS, aligning with the new elementary boundaries which will feed into the campus.

● The remaining Martin MS students will be reassigned to Kealing MS.

_See the section on “Bond Fund Reallocation” for more information on how consolidations impacts the 2022 bond._

The new Kealing MS boundary uses I-35 and the river as natural dividers, which makes it easier for students to get to school. Kealing MS neighborhood students west of I-35 will be reassigned to O. Henry MS. The resulting size of Kealing MS’s boundary maintains space to continue its magnet program. New middle school boundaries match up with elementary and high school changes to keep feeder patterns clean.

North Austin MS Boundary Changes

To better match the number of students living in each area with the size of each school, we are changing boundaries for Middle Schools in north Austin. We started with schools whose boundaries were most out of sync with the size of their building. Lamar MS was too full in terms of enrollment and how many students live within its boundary. Dobie MS also has too many students living within its boundary compared to its size. General Marshall MS was our other anchor as it did not have a boundary at all. When working to balance these three, surrounding schools are impacted through reassignments and ultimately, all schools were affected by a boundary change.

● General Marshall MS’s New Boundary: As part of this process, we created a boundary for General Marshall MS.

○ When the school opened in 2023–24, eight elementary schools could choose to feed into it: Andrews ES, Blanton ES, Harris ES, Jordan ES, Norman-Sims ES, Overton ES, Pecan Springs ES, and Winn Montessori. These schools were originally split among Martin MS, Webb MS, Lamar MS, and Dobie MS. General Marshall MS cannot fit all the students from these schools.

○ Since General Marshall MS is our comprehensive middle school located furthest northeast and its specific adjacencies to certain elementary schools, it made sense for Blanton ES, Pecan Springs ES, Overton ES, and Jordan ES to feed into it. After reviewing the number of students living within each boundary and feeder patterns, we also added Norman-Sims ES.

○ Since there isn’t space in General Marshall MS for all current priority elementary schools, Andrews ES and Harris ES will feed into Webb MS. Winn Montessori is closing.

○ Today, about half of the students at General Marshall MS live within this new boundary. The boundary will have just one split at high school, with students going to either Northeast ECHS or LBJ ECHS.

● The boundaries for Lamar MS, Dobie MS, will shrink because more students live within this boundary than the school can fit. Lamar MS changes also correct small splits and match high school boundaries.

○ While Dobie MS has low enrollment, its boundary is actually too full. Since we are making changes based on where people live and we want to align changes at the high school level for cleaner feeder patterns, students living east of 183 were reassigned to General Marshall MS. Some of the minor boundary changes between Dobie MS and Burnet MS were to align with elementary school boundaries and remove splits in the feeder pattern.

○ Lamar MS is too full and we needed to create a boundary for nearby General Marshall MS. Students east of Lamar Blvd will be reassigned to Webb MS until Berkman Dr. which marks the start of General Marshall MS's new boundary. Other changes with Murchison MS and O. Henry MS align with major roads and waterways and match changes in elementary boundaries. We aligned changes with elementary and high schools to reduce splits in the feeder pattern.

● O. Henry MS has a boundary change between Small MS to support transportation efficiency and make it easier for the students south of the river to access a middle school close by. This also allows us to reassign Kealing MS students living west of I-35 to O. Henry MS, ensuring that Kealing MS has room for Martin MS and to maintain space for its magnet program.

● Webb MS receives some students from Lamar MS. The other changes to the Webb MS boundary were impacted by feeder patterns and reducing splits from elementary school to middle school and middle school to high school.

● We made changes to Burnet MS 's boundary to match the updates made at elementary schools (some Murchison MS students were reassigned to Burnet MS to match the reassignments from Summit ES and Davis ES to Padron ES). Wooldridge ES boundary extended east to receive students from Brown ES (too crowded) and Barrington ES (closed); Burnet MS’s boundary extended as well. This helps create a more balanced path to middle and high school. Students were also reassigned using major highways as dividing lines.

● NOTE: Due to the turnaround plans being implemented at Burnet MS, Dobie MS, and Webb MS, elementary students moving to middle school in SY 26-27 who were reassigned

to any of these campuses have the option to continue on to their previously assigned school. Please refer to the individual school pages for specific information.

Middle Schools (South of the River)

In South Austin, there are more middle school seats than students. After careful review, AISD is closing one middle school building in South Austin and redrawing boundaries so that every family has access to a nearby school.

See this Interactive Map of Preliminary Draft Boundary Changes with an address locator

Closure & Program Change Summary

● Bedichek MS will close and students will be reassigned to Covington MS, Paredes MS, Lively MS, and Mendez MS based on their address. The board would like us to keep the Bedichek MS building and will work with the community to re-envision its future and programming.

● AISD is exploring next steps with the 1882 partnership in place at Mendez MS given its 2025 accountability scores.

● For the 2026–27 school year, there are no anticipated changes to middle school magnets, application-based programs, or single-gender schools. This includes the Alternative Learning Center , Lively MS , and fine arts at Covington MS.

South Austin Middle School Closures

We have space for over 9,000 middle school students south of the river but only ~6000 students live in this part of Austin. Covington MS, Lively MS, and Mendez MS in particular have fewer students within each of their boundaries than their schools could fill. Closing Bedichek MS allows us to reassign these students to these campuses and better align the number and size of middle schools with the students who live within each boundary. We want to keep the Bedichek MS building and will work with the community to re-envision its future, such as a future PK-8 campus or other option that best serves the area.

South Austin Middle School Boundary Changes

To better match the number of students living in each area with the size of each school, we are changing boundaries for South Austin middle schools. While the schools which had the most out of sync boundaries were able to be balanced by reassigning students from the closure of Bedichek MS, some additional boundary changes were required:

● The boundary change between Gorzycki MS and Bailey MS helps Gorzycki MS shrink and Bailey MS grow. Smaller additional changes were made to each school to balance the size of middle school boundaries in this area or create a cleaner feeder pattern.

● Small MS has a boundary change between O. Henry MS to support transportation efficiency and make it easier for the students south of the river to access a middle school close by. Some Small MS neighborhood students were also reassigned to Covington MS to provide better feeder alignment from elementary school. With an additional change between Goryzcki MS , the overall number of students assigned to Small MS increased slightly, which may impact the number of transfer seats available over time.

● Paredes MS will receive some students from Bedichek MS while some Paredes MS students will be reassigned to Mendez MS. These shifts clean up feeder patterns and use major roads and greenways as natural dividers. The railroad tracks also became a natural divider between Paredes MS and Bailey MS , reassigning some students from Paredes MS to Bailey MS.

High Schools

The overall number of seats available for high school students aligns well with the number of high school students in Austin ISD. However, some of our schools are very empty while others are very full, both by enrollment and by size of its boundary. We will be balancing this through boundary changes impacting all high schools.

See this Interactive Map of Preliminary Draft Boundary Changes with an address locator

Closures & Program Change Summary

● International High School will close as a campus and continue supporting students as a program at Navarro ECHS.

● For the 2026–27 school year, there will be no changes to high school magnets, application-based programs, or single-gender schools. This includes, Ann Richards SYWL Clifton Career Center, the Alternative Learning Center, Garza Independence HS, or Rosedale at this time.

High School Program Changes

● Mirroring shifts we have seen throughout the nation, our population of international students has reduced dramatically. While we are committed to supporting these students in Austin ISD, I nternational HS will close as a campus and will continue operating as a program at Navarro ECHS. If you currently attend International HS you can participate in the International Program at Navarro ECHS, return to your zoned school, or apply to transfer to any other campus. Transportation will not be provided for those on a transfer.

Boundary Changes (North Austin High Schools)

We started with our high schools who have boundaries which have much fewer students in their boundaries than the school can fit ( LBJ ECHS ) and those with boundaries which have many more students than their school can fit ( Akins ECHS , McCallum HS ).

LBJ ECHS does not have enough students in its current boundary to fill even half the school. Because it sits on the edge of the district, its only boundary options are with Northeast ECHS and Eastside ECHS. Eastside is a smaller high school, and its boundary already matches its size. That left us with Northeast ECHS as the option with which to substantially adjust boundaries. We reassigned most Northeast students who live north of 183 and east of I-35 to LBJ. Due to the odd shape of our district, this creates a split boundary for LBJ ECHS. School access is still convenient along the highway with similar drive time as before. To bring in more students, we also expanded LBJ ECHS’s boundary west to include more of General Marshall MS’s feeder area.

McCallum HS is too full, and it sits right next to Northeast ECHS. Since many Northeast ECHS students were reassigned to LBJ ECHS, Northeast ECHS now has space to take on part of McCallum HS’s boundary. McCallum HS neighborhood students living east of I-35 will move to Northeast ECHS , and those living south of MLK will move to Eastside ECHS. Using MLK as a boundary makes more sense because students who live closer to Eastside ECHS will now actually be zoned there. It also creates a cleaner boundary for both schools. McCallum HS has additional boundary changes between Austin HS and Anderson HS to balance the size of each. The small reassignment of the Navarro ECHS living south of 183 and a group of Austin HS students to McCallum HS each uses major roads as clean dividers. These changes match those done at middle schools to reduce splits in these communities.

Navarro ECHS has minor boundary changes between Northeast ECHS and McCallum HS driven by boundary changes at the middle school level and reducing splits in the feeder pattern.

Boundary Changes (South and Central Austin High Schools)

Austin HS neighborhood students living south of 290 will be reassigned to Crockett ECHS. This makes some bus routes shorter and more efficient and helps Crockett ECHS since the school is too empty and needs more students to match its size. At the same time, some Crockett ECHS students will be reassigned to Akins ECHS. While this may seem surprising because Akins ECHS is already too full, it makes sense based on where families live and the layout of major roads. We were able to reassign other areas of Akins ECHS’s boundary to Crockett ECHS and Travis ECHS to reduce Akins ECHS’s size overall.

Travis ECHS is too empty. Similar to what we did at elementary schools and middle schools, we are using the river as a natural boundary. Eastside ECHS neighborhood students living east of I-35 and south of the river will be reassigned to Travis ECHS. The boundary extended south, reassigning some students from Akins ECHS and Crockett ECHS , to balance the size of high school boundaries with the number of students who can fit in each school. Since Austin HS’s boundary shifted a bit in the south, it had room for more students. Some Travis ECHS neighborhood students on its western edge will be reassigned to Austin HS.

While the boundary for Bowie HS is a bit too large for its size, we were only able to make minor shifts in its boundaries. The school building sits on the far east side of its boundary. Reassigning students to Crockett ECHS would mean families living right next to Bowie HS could be zoned for another school. Akins ECHS was not a good option either since its boundary is even more crowded than Bowie HS’s. In the end, we reassigned a small part of Bowie HS to Akins ECHS and a small part to Crockett ECHS. This change between Akins ECHS creates a clean alignment from elementary school through middle and high school. The change between Crockett ES creates a more clean boundary, using West Gate Blvd as a consistent boundary line.

Policies & Practices

This section of the deliverable explains how Austin ISD policies and practices are changing to better reflect our guiding principles and district improvement goals.

It outlines what families can expect when it comes to staying at current schools or applying for a transfer.

What You’ll Find in This Section

● Grandfathering Policies ● New Transfer Rules ● Transportation Policy Updates ● Boundary & Transfer Review Process

Grandfathering

Families will have three choices:

1. Move to your newly zoned school

2. Stay at your current school (grandfathering)

3. Apply for a new program or general transfer

All families will still need to re-register your student in Enroll Austin for the 26–27 school year. No students are automatically re-enrolled.

As part of Austin ISD’s school transitions, some students may qualify to stay at their current school even if their address was reassigned due to a boundary change. This is called grandfathering.

“Grandfathering”: All families who wish to continue at their current school or program, will need to apply when Enroll Austin opens for SY 26-27 general enrollment. The transfer will be granted , however, it must be requested.

● If your school is not closing and your current program is staying the same , your child can continue attending the school through the final grade level it offers.

● If your child is in a special program (like Dual Language or Montessori) and that program is moving to a new school, they can continue in the program at the new location.

● Transportation will not be provided for grandfathered students.

NOTE: Due to the turnaround plans being implemented at Burnet MS, Dobie MS, and Webb MS, elementary students moving to middle school in SY 26-27 who were reassigned to any of these campuses have the option to continue on to their previously assigned school. Please refer to the individual school pages for specific information.

FAQ’s

● Will siblings also be grandfathered? Currently enrolled K-12 Austin ISD students will be grandfathered, if the family indicates their interest by applying for transfer. PK students will continue to follow current policy. Siblings who are not currently enrolled in Austin ISD will not be automatically grandfathered to a particular campus in future years. Families will use the enrollment policies and procedures that are in place for the year their student enters Austin ISD. Note that newly-enrolling siblings have a higher priority for transfer in the current priority structure.

Changes to Enrollment and Transfers

As part of the school consolidation process, Austin ISD is updating how student transfers work. These changes are designed to make things more fair and simple for families.

● Round 1 : Program Applications Only

○ Round 1 will start in early Spring 2026

○ Families can only apply to special programs (like magnets, dual language, fine arts, Montessori etc.). Each program decides who can join by eligibility check, lottery, or rubric, which are published on their websites.

○ Austin ISD will continue to use the "First Best Choice" system, which tries to place each student in the program they ranked highest.

○ No general transfer requests or enrollment in your zoned school will be accepted during this round.

● Round 2 : General Transfers & Enrollment at Zoned Campus

○ This will start after Round 1 closes, mid-Spring 2026

○ Some special programs may still accept students if they didn’t fill up in Round 1.

○ Any student can enroll at their zoned campus.

○ This round will be shorter and use a lottery system for general transfers instead of first-come, first-served.

○ General transfers still use the same priority structure we currently use.

● Round 3 : Enrollment at Zoned Campus, Pre-K, & Special Cases

○ This will start after Round 2 closes, later in Spring semester 2026

○ This round will start earlier than in past years.

○ Only families with special situations can apply for transfer.

○ Pre-K applications will also open in Round 3.

○ Waitlists stay active across all three rounds—if a space opens up, you might still get a seat.

FAQ’s

● How do you decide how many students can be accepted into a school? General transfer capacity will be determined by a combination of building capacity (total available seats), staffing capacity (how many staff we think we can hire), and program and academic needs (how many sections we want to offer, additional supports needed, program requirements, etc.).

● How are Special Education services impacted? Changes to the transfer policy do not affect campus assignments to provide special support services like Special Education or bilingual support. Students who need these services could still attend schools outside their zone if required.

● Will transportation be available for transfer students? No. Transportation rules for transfers do not change. General transfers will not be eligible for school bus service, including grandfathered students. Some programs and circumstances will continue to be eligible for school bus services, according to policy. [See transportation policy section]

● Can we expect any other changes? Yes, there may be limits on how many transfer students a school gets, to keep schools balanced. We will also be including transfer policy in our regular boundary and transfer review process. See the next section for more information.

Boundary & Transfer Review Process

One of our guiding principles during this process was a focus on long-term stability. We promised to set up a review process for school boundaries and transfer rules so they stay fair and up to date across the district. The Long-Range Plan gave recommendations for how often reviews should happen, and we will use those ideas to shape our process.

We will start formally defining our policy for this review process in January 2026. Our first review will begin in Summer 2028, two years after the consolidation changes go into effect. Note that this review does not mean we will make additional changes to boundaries or transfer policies but will hold us accountable to ensuring enrollment stays balanced.

The policy will incorporate: ● Establishing that our optimal utilization is 80-95% seats filled for each campus.

● Studying enrollment, transfer patterns and programming to understand why some schools have too many or too few students.

● Using demographic reports to see where student numbers might grow or decline in the future.

● Enforcing and reviewing limits on transfers (determined by new transfer policies) when schools are too full or too empty to keep enrollment balanced and sustainable over time.

Transportation

The mission of AISD Transportation is to provide safe, reliable and professional transportation service for our students in an efficient and effective manner according to the parameters set forth by the District’s policy, and in adherence to applicable State and Federal Laws.

Here are the highlights of changes:

● Students can ride the bus if they live 2 or more miles from their zoned school OR if walking means crossing hazardous traffic.

● Busing routes will be based on the student’s primary registered address once new boundaries are finalized.

● Special previous rules giving buses to students living very close (.4 miles) to 14 elementary schools and (1 mile) to 10 secondary schools are being discontinued with new boundaries and consolidations.

○ Here are the impacted schools:

■ Elementary Schools: Andrews, Blackshear, Campbell, Dawson, Harris, Oak Springs, Metz/Sánchez, Pecan Springs, Zavala, Norman-Sims, Odom, Winn, Widén, Jordan.

■ Middle Schools: Dobie, Martin, Webb, Burnet, Garcia YMLA, Sadler Means YWLA

■ High Schools: Northeast, Travis, Crockett and Eastside Memorial.

● Grandfathered or transfer students will NOT be eligible for bus service.

● Transportation for students with disabilities, including specialized transportation outlined in an IEP or 504 Plan, will continue

● Non-zoned dual language schools and the Montessori program will not get transportation.

● For Emergent Bilingual (EB) students: if their zoned school doesn’t offer dual language and their assigned dual language campus is over 2 miles away, they are eligible for transportation.

● Eastside Memorial HS will no longer offer district wide transportation, Transportation will be provided per transportation policy of two or more miles or if it is considered hazardous to walk to school for the students within the assigned attendance area.

● Additionally, International HS students will be assigned to their zoned home schools and will not be offered district wide transportation anymore as the campus is moving to an integrated program at Navarro ECHS. Transportation will be provided per transportation policy of two or more miles or if it is considered hazardous to walk to school for the students within the assigned attendance area.

All student transportation will be provided per approved Board transportation policy.

FAQ’s

What will be the change to my students' bussing? All transportation routes are created and determined by the students primary registered address of the students with the district. We are not able to create routes until we have the final boundary data and student data to input into our bus routing system. Please register/enroll early!

Budget Impacts

Financial Impact of Austin ISD School Consolidation

Austin ISD is consolidating schools to save money and reinvest those funds into academics and student support. This helps address the district’s budget deficit by eliminating redundant costs and using resources more effectively.

FY 2025-26 Budget Deficit & Shortfall

For FY 2025–26, the proposed budget includes a $19.7 million shortfall, which would further lower the balance to $142.9 million, or $45.0 million below the 20% goal.

These declines reflect increased property tax protests, investments in school improvement and turnaround efforts, additional staffing and contracted services in Special Education, and rising utility costs.

Recognizing these financial pressures, the Board adopted an amended fund balance policy allowing the District, under extenuating circumstances, to reduce the fund balance to 15% for up to three years—provided the Superintendent and Chief Financial Officer present a plan to restore it to 20% by FY 2027–28.

Maintaining a healthy reserve is critical for financial stability. Falling below the 20% threshold limits flexibility, strains cash flow, and may affect the District’s credit rating. While temporary use of reserves may be necessary, continued reliance on them is not sustainable and underscores the need for long-term structural solutions.

Importantly, this challenge extends beyond Austin ISD. Districts statewide are grappling with similar pressures as state funding lags inflation and enrollment growth, forcing many to adopt deficit budgets. Read more about what happens when a district loses students? The district gets less money, eventually having no choice but to shrink.

Fund Balance Policy

The Board’s current policy, CE (LOCAL), requires the District to maintain an unassigned fund balance of 20 percent. However, with an estimated $19.7 million deficit in the current budget, even with significant reductions and cost-saving measures, the District would face challenges adopting a balanced budget that meets this requirement in the upcoming fiscal years.

To provide temporary flexibility under extenuating circumstances, the Board adopted a policy revision in June 2025 allowing the fund balance to dip as low as 15 percent for up to three years,

provided that the Superintendent and Chief Financial Officer present a clear plan for restoring the fund balance to 20 percent by Fiscal Year 2027–2028.

Under this policy, the Board expects that both the deficit and fund balance shortfall will be addressed no later than FY 2027–28, when the District must once again meet the 20 percent target.

The projected fund balance levels are as follows:

● FY 2024–25: below 20% ● FY 2025–26: below 20% ● FY 2026–27: below 20% ● FY 2027–28: restored to 20% or higher

For more details, see the _June 2025 adopted CE(LOCAL) Fund Balance Policy._

Immediate Anticipated Savings

Consolidation is designed to generate substantial savings right away, primarily in staffing and operational costs.

● Campus Staffing: Over $20 million in immediate savings

○ The largest savings come from school staffing, with over $20 million conservatively projected right away.

○ Most of the savings come from reducing duplicate administrative and support positions in schools that are merging.

○ These funds can instead support classroom programs, student services, and instructional resources.

○ We will be substantially reinvesting savings into enhanced staffing at campuses that have been consolidated with Turnaround Plans. Refer to the next section for more information.

● Facility Operations: $300,000 Immediate Savings, $3 million annually over time

○ Closing and merging schools cuts costs for utilities, custodial work, and maintenance.

○ $300,000 in immediate annual savings in utility savings alone.

○ Removing old portable classrooms adds another estimated $3 million in yearly savings.

○ Long-term, AISD avoids major expenses from repairing or upgrading older buildings.

● Transportation:

○ As schools consolidate and routes are combined, AISD expects more long-term savings in fuel, bus maintenance, and driver costs.

Reinvesting in Students

The main goal of these savings is to strengthen academic programs and ensure all students have access to the resources they need.

● Strategic Reinvestment at TAP Campuses:

○ For some of the TAP campuses is budgeted an average of $800,000 for new staff positions , such as assistant principals, instructional coaches, content interventionists, and the strategic staffing allotment.

○ Situation dependent, an additional $200,000 per campus is set aside for teacher coaching and leadership support through the TNTP Lighthouse & Learning Lab program.

● Expansion of Specialized Programs:

○ Montessori program

○ Dual Language campuses and related services

Financial Impact of Austin ISD School Consolidations

The figures below represent estimated one-year gross savings associated with school consolidations, as well as potential reinvestments to support transition efforts and program enhancements. These projections capture annual savings, not cumulative multi-year totals, and are subject to refinement as implementation plans are finalized.

School consolidations result in a range of cost adjustments across staffing, operations, and support services.

● Staffing changes impact multiple employee groups, aligning personnel with the consolidated campus structure and student enrollment. ● Non-staffing adjustments are primarily enrollment-driven, with no savings anticipated under the assumption of stable district enrollment. ● Utility costs may reflect slight reductions; however, full savings are dependent on the future sale of properties, as the District remains responsible for maintenance of vacated facilities. ● Transportation strategies are focused on route optimization and centralized pickup models, supporting long-term operational efficiencies. ● Food Service adjustments include savings in supplies and contracts, as well as staffing reductions aligned with campus changes.

Additionally, the removal of outdated portable classrooms will help reduce ongoing maintenance and operational expenses.

FTE Estimated Savings Elementary Staffing 559.50 $15.4 M Non-Staffing $0 Utilities $0.2 M Transportation TBD Food Service 24.00 $1.2 M Subtotal, Elementary 583.50 $16.8 M

Secondary Staffing 164.50 $5.4 M Non-Staffing $0 Utilities $0.1 M Transportation TBD Food Service 6.00 $0.3 M Subtotal, Secondary 170.50 $5.8 M

Other Disposal of Portable Classrooms $3.0 M Subtotal, Other $3.0 M

Total Estimated Gross Savings 754.00 $25.6 M

Less: Reinvestment Costs Reinvestment TAP -$12.6 M Expansion of Dual Language TBD Expansion of Montessori TBD Subtotal, Reinvestment Costs -$12.6 M

Grand Total Net Savings 754.00 $13.0 M

As shown, the estimated net savings total approximately $13.0 million on an annual basis. Over the next three fiscal years, transition and reinvestment costs may shift as implementation progresses and program expansions are finalized. The District will continue refining multi-year projections to ensure that short-term efficiencies align with long-term sustainability and student support goals.

Bond Reallocation

Right now, Austin ISD is working on two major efforts at the same time.

● The 2022 Bond Program: Voters approved $2.4 billion to repair schools, add new technology, and rebuild aging buildings. By law, bond dollars can only be spent on buildings and equipment. They cannot be used to fix the district’s budget deficit.

● School Consolidation and Boundary Changes: Some schools are closing and students are moving to other campuses.

Because of consolidation, some schools that were set to receive bond funds will no longer need them if the school closes. In some cases, improvements have already been made at schools that are now closing. While this is unfortunate, students have already benefited this year from safer and better-functioning buildings. We expected some money loss in this process, but the long-term savings and stronger support we’ll be able to give schools and students make it the right choice.

Next Steps for Bond Funds and Facilities

The consolidation process requires specific actions regarding the $2.4 billion Bond funds and facilities:

Assessment

● Review Bond Over-Budget Status: The 2022 Bond is projected to be significantly over budget due to rising construction costs and inflation. This status must be factored into any decision of reallocation of funds. ● Evaluate Receiving Schools: Make sure the campuses that will take in new students have the space and resources they need.

Reallocation Strategy

● Develop a Rubric: Create a clear system for how funds from closed campuses will be reallocated to other schools.

Compliance and Communication

● Stay Legal and Accountable: Work with legal and financial experts to make sure all bond fund changes follow state and local rules. ● Maintain Transparency: Update project lists and share changes clearly to affected school communities, the School Board, and the Community Bond Oversight Committee

FAQs

● What will happen to the money my campus was supposed to get now that my building is closed? When a school closes, the money from the 2022 Bond that was set aside to fix or rebuild that school is not lost. But we also have to face the fact that the bond is currently over budget because of rising construction costs and inflation. Because of this, the district will carefully look at savings from projects that will no longer happen (like those at schools that are closing) and decide how to reinvest that money into other schools that are staying open, ensuring that the students that the funds were intended for will benefit from improvements.

● My student is now reassigned to a school receiving a modernization, what does this mean for my student? As part of our consolidations, a portion of current Winn Montessori neighborhood students will be reassigned to Andrews Elementary and some of Barrington ES neighborhood students will be reassigned to Wooldridge ES. Both schools are receiving a building modernization. While the Campus Architectural Team (CAT) has already begun the design phase, we are happy to open this process to Winn and Barrington families who are interested in providing input and participating in the planning for their children's future school.

Real Estate

In January 2026, District staff will start the process of exploring the future use of the closed campuses. For each campus, staff will make a recommendation to the Board by the end of the current school year about whether to reuse, lease or sell.

Reuse

If the District recommends reuse , it means the campus will be repurposed to accommodate the District's administrative needs. The campus will not reopen to serve grades K-12.

● A current example of reuse is Metz School , which houses Health Services & Nursing, Library Media Services, STEM Department, Construction Management Department & Planning Department and serves as an outdoor learning center and field trip location for the outdoor OWL Center for Austin ISD students.

Lease

If the District recommends a lease , it means the District will maintain long-term ownership of the campus but lease it to a third-party organization. The goal will be to yield some community benefit while also reducing or eliminating the cost burden of operating and maintaining the campus.

● A current example is Pease Schoo l, where the District entered into a long-term lease agreement with United Way for Greater Austin to operate an early childhood education center at their sole cost.

Sale

If the District recommends a sale , it means the District will issue a call for offers and sell the campus to the highest bidder to maximize revenue.

● A current example is the former Rosedale Schoo l, which the District is in the process of selling to OHT Partners, a local developer and builder of multi-family residential buildings.

To guide the evaluation process, the District will create a decision making framework to determine a recommendation on whether a former campus location should be reused, leased, or sold. Each campus will be reviewed in terms of how it supports the District’s overall strategy to best serve students and staff.

While the framework has not yet been finalized, it is expected to include factors such as facility condition, projected area growth, and estimated market value. Additional considerations may include adjacent uses (such as City parks) and any deed restrictions that could limit future use of the campus or surrounding properties.

All recommendations on reuse, lease or sale will be brought to the Board of Trustees for review and approval prior to implementation. The community will have the opportunity at that time to provide public testimony before any action is taken.

Academics & Programming

The end goal of consolidations is to improve and better resource schools for all students. Part of our Long-range Plan includes recommendations and a starting point for defining Baseline Programming. Austin ISD has work to do here and to do things right, it takes time and additional layers of community engagement. Below we discuss our process for defining our Academic Framework as a district, including baseline programming.

In academics, the district has faced significant challenges and disruptions over the past several years that have led to misalignment in the system. Until recently, there has not been consistency in the educational program. Examples abound:

● While academic resources existed, they had been used sporadically and without widespread, curriculum-based professional learning to support them. ● Instructional materials had been adopted, but their consistent usage at all campuses had not been an expectation, nor had all campuses been provided the same access to all materials. ● An instructional playbook along with various instructional strategies and models were created and incorporated into curriculum documents, but strategies were not an expectation in all classrooms and were not connected to the powerful research around content-based instructional strategies. ● The district’s bilingual education model suffered from previous years of schools following a model of their choice, rather than a district-wide expectation that all students in bilingual education benefit from a dual language model. ● While individual classrooms excel at building relationships with students as a result of foundational work the district has done around social and emotional learning, these relationships have not been coupled with extremely high expectations that every student can, and will, perform on grade level and be held accountable for their learning. ● Instructional leadership expectations had been communicated but lacked a consistent system for instructional leader professional development focused on high quality classrooms and supporting teachers with feedback. ● To exacerbate these issues, our most vulnerable schools faced a teacher retention rate that was 20% lower than non-Title 1 schools.

In effect, each campus had been left to design their own instructional program and set their own expectations for student achievement. The academics and school leadership teams were structured to provide individualized support to campuses rather than aligning and building strength of academic programs and resources for all campuses. As a result, most teaching and learning had fallen short of grade-level expectations, and teachers often lowered the rigor for students who were behind.

We know from looking at our data and from working with the community to develop our Long Range Plan that not all students are receiving the same academic experience. We know that students come a variety of backgrounds, and it is a moral imperative that the district provide equity in education by ensuring a strong academic foundation for every student, regardless of race or socioeconomic background.

This last year, the district has reset to build that strong foundation, beginning with a focus on our youngest learners coming into the system.

● Elementary schools were resourced with the full scope of high quality instructional materials for every content and in the language of instruction according to our Dual Language model.

● Austin ISD rewrote its curriculum documents to support teachers in the usage of these instructional materials, and both content-specific and multilingual specialists collaborated to create dual language curriculum in every content that matched the DL model and language allocation plan.

● Clear priorities were set for early literacy in the K-2 classrooms, knowing that building a strong literacy foundation in every student would be the cornerstone of their academic success.

● Elementary campus leaders received ongoing, consistent support and professional learning throughout the year in becoming literacy leaders on their campuses.

● Fidelity to language of instruction became a focus in professional development sessions and classroom observations to highlight a needed area of improvement that is critical to effective dual language instruction.

● Middle and high schools increased their focus on research-based instructional strategies through content, and began extensive work on small group instruction in the classroom to better meet the needs of students.

● High schools established clear data systems for College, Career, and Military Readiness so that each student could be tracked in their pathways to support their long-term success.

The district has begun to see the results of this work.

● Campus accountability ratings have improved: whereas the district had 30 campuses that received an F rating in 2023, and still 29 campuses in 2024, that number has been reduced to 23 campuses in 2025.

● 63% of our schools experienced an increase in student achievement scores, and for the first time, all middle schools either grew or stayed consistent in their scores.

● High schools with critical needs earned C ratings, such as LBJ and Northeast Early College High Schools.

● 2nd grade early literacy scores have shown marked improvement, with every single student group demonstrating improvement from 2024 to 2025.

● Likewise, the district has met or exceeded its 2025 scorecard goals for 3rd Grade Literacy and 3rd Grade Numeracy, demonstrating clear improvement in student achievement from previous years.

Today we face historical funding and resource challenges to continue this work. Much of our recent success has been a result of community and outside donor funding, allowing us to work with a partner to create in-district systems of coherence and support in academics. With this funding we have been able to horizontally and vertically expand our work to build the academic foundation by including more schools that serve as intensive leader and teacher coaching models and learning labs for our highest needs campuses – 37 total elementary campuses participate with 6 of those being the intensive model “Lighthouse Schools,” and 12 middle schools participate with one of those being a Lighthouse School. This partnership has been critical as the district has made difficult decisions to reduce central office staff that support campuses.

The fact remains that we are doing more with less, and while all students have shown progress, our most historically underserved students are not progressing at a rate that would achieve equity in student outcomes in the years to come. We have a long way to go in the state accountability system because reductions in campuses that receive F ratings are good signs of progress, but 23 campuses overall with F ratings is an unacceptable number. While community and donor support will continue to be critical, the district must also make the moves necessary to be able to invest in and sustain this work ourselves long-term to match our partners’ investments. School consolidations offer a way for the district to reduce the strain, increase funding availability, and increase staff’s ability to support and resource our highest need schools.

What You’ll Find in This Section

● Academic Framework Plan ● Special Education (SPED) Services ● Program Re-alignment Overview ○ Dual Language Programs ○ Montessori ○ IB ○ International High School ● Early Childhood Programs ● After-School Care

Academic Framework

Austin ISD is committed to its continued work in defining the academic foundation and programming that every student should have, and will build an Academic Framework as part of this foundation and for clarity of the educational program in the face of consolidations.An Academic Framework creates the roadmap for quality learning in Austin ISD. It makes sure every child has access to strong instruction, rich programs, and aligned opportunities, no matter which school they attend.

What to Expect:

Spring 2026: The district will design an Academic Framework that strengthens academic achievement and aligns educational programming to improve the experience for every student.

Summer 2026: Through a collaborative process, the district will review programming, gather feedback, and align departments to support schools. These steps will guide schools opening in the 2026–2027 school year.

We are working on a more refined timeline and will provide this in November.

The Academic Framework will guarantee that every student has access to consistent, high-quality learning experiences. It will define curriculum, guide teaching and learning, and ensure students have pathways to college, careers, and creativity.

Some decisions will be “Tightly Held” (Non-Negotiable: District Level). These are decisions that are the same for the whole district:

● Vision and mission as a district ● Beliefs about education and learning ● District and programmatic goals ● Priorities for student well-being ● An instructional model ● Standards and learning objectives students must meet ● High-quality curriculum and instructional materials ● Assessments aligned with learning objectives ● Baseline programming expected at all campuses

Other decisions will be “Loosely Held” (Negotiable: School/Classroom Level, but aligned to district goals). These are areas where schools and teachers have flexibility, as long as they connect back to the district’s vision, mission, and goals:

● Decisions on individualizing interventions based on student need ● School and classroom processes and procedures ● Teaching and engagement strategies ● Supplemental instructional resources ● Extra programming beyond the baseline ● School-level hiring and staffing decisions

Special Education

Students will still get the services listed in their Individualized Education Program (IEP). This includes support like speech therapy, counseling, occupational or physical therapy, dyslexia help, personal care, assistive technology, and transportation.

If your child needs to attend a different school for services, an ARD meeting will be held before the school year ends to make that decision.

What to Expect:

Spring 2026: ARD meetings will be held if your child needs services at a new school.

Summer 2026: Families will receive a welcome email by August 1 with a chance to meet your child’s new case manager and visit the school.

In the 2026–2027 school year, special education teachers, TAs, and related service providers will be assigned to schools based on student needs. At this time, no reduction in special education staff is expected.

FAQs

● If my school is closing, when will I meet my students' new case manager? By August 2026, your child’s new principal will email information for an in-person opportunity for you and your child to tour the campus and meet your child’s case manager.

● Will transportation services continue as they are now? Transportation for students with disabilities, including specialized transportation outlined in an IEP or 504 Plan, will continue without interruption. The special education and transportation teams are partnering to ensure services are in place on the first day of school.

● Will there be a reduction of special education teachers or Teaching Assistant (TA) positions staffing at campuses in SY 26-27? At this time, no reduction in current special education Teacher or TA positions is anticipated. Special education teachers, teacher assistants, and related service providers (e.g., speech, occupational/physical therapists, behavior specialists) will be reassigned to receiving campuses based on projected student needs.

● Will my students' Extended School Year (ESY) Services change? ESY programming will not be interrupted by the consolidation or boundary changes. If your student qualifies for extended school year services, these services will be provided as determined by the ARD committee and outlined in your child’s IEP. ESY services will be held at designated campuses across the district, and families will be notified in advance of the assigned location.

● If my student will be attending a new campus, how will they receive Section 504 Services? Before the first day, the new school’s 504 Coordinator will send a welcome letter, and teachers will know your child’s 504 Plan so they can provide the right support right away.

Program Re-alignment

What is changing now?

We are making shifts to our school-wide dual language programs, Montessori, and International Baccalaureate (IB), and International High School.

Non-zoned School-wide Spanish Dual Language*

● We have a strong vision for the future of dual language and outline that further in the next section. The most notable change is the relocation of the district's four existing school-wide Spanish dual language (DL) programs (Becker ES, Ridgetop ES Reilly ES, and Sunset Valley ES).

Non-zoned Montessori*

● The move of the Montessori program at Winn is also a part of the program alignment. We know that there is desire from the community to grow the program. By movement to another location at Govalle ES, we will be able to centralize the location for all Austin ISD families.

● We plan to continue offering a Spanish dual language strand at Montessori in 2026–2027, with students merging from both campuses. New enrollment in the dual language program will be limited, and we want to be transparent that the long-term future of the dual language strand is uncertain. Since families near the new Montessori location will have access to a non-zoned Spanish dual language program at Sanchez ES, and because it has been challenging for the district to support both Montessori and dual language, our main focus will be on strengthening Montessori. As the Montessori program transitions to Govalle ES, we will carefully monitor enrollment and family interest in dual language. If the dual language strand is not able to sustain itself over time, it may be gradually phased out.

*For all our non-zoned programs, we will establish specific enrollment metrics to ensure the programs stay true to their purpose. We want to ensure our school-wide dual language programs remain close to serving 50% emergent bilingual students and our Montessori program continues with its Campus-Specific Enrollment Policy, prioritizing the enrollment of in-district students who qualify for free and reduced meals, free Pre-K, or are currently or were formerly in foster care or experience homelessness.

International Baccalaureate

We are closing Bryker Woods ES which currently offers the International Baccalaureate (IB) program at elementary. However, Bryker Woods is not part of the feeder pattern to Murchison MS and Anderson HS, which offers this program at the secondary level. Bryker Woods ES is unable to be added to this feeder pattern, due to the distance between these schools. Murchison MS and Anderson HS also do not have space to absorb students from Bryker Woods ES. The IB program will be included in the transition discussions and community collaborations with Mathews ES as the campuses merge.

International High School

Mirroring shifts we have seen throughout the nation, our population of international students has reduced dramatically. While we are committed to supporting these students in Austin ISD, we will be closing International High School as a standalone campus. Instead, we will shift these supports as a program housed at Navarro ECHS, as Navarro ECHS is where most of our students at International HS are zoned.

What may change later?

Bedichek MS and Martin MS will be temporarily closing starting in the 2026-2027 school year. We will work with each community to re-envision their future , such as a PK-8 campus or other option that best serves the area.

As part of the district’s academic vision, we will also continue to explore and review :

● Specialized programs like dual language (one-way and two-way), Montessori, and IB ● Opportunities in Career and Technical Education (CTE), fine arts, and AVID ● What is working now, what should continue in the future, and what changes may be needed over the next two years ● Alignment of academic programs with the boundary and transfer review process ● Accountability to ensure that programs meet district goals and improve student outcomes

From music and art to bilingual education, advanced academics, and career readiness courses, the framework will outline what every child can expect. By streamlining and strengthening academic programming, the district can save resources while also delivering consistency across all schools.

Dual Language

Austin ISD values the power of dual language learning. Dual language programs benefit both emergent bilingual students and non-emergent bilingual students by building academic skills in two languages, preparing children for future opportunities, and honoring the languages spoken in our community.

What to Expect:

As a district we are working to ensure balanced classrooms in two-way dual language programs, so students can learn side by side in healthy, effective language pairings. We are also reviewing feeder patterns to make sure students who begin dual language in elementary school can continue the program through middle and high school.

Fall 2026 : Before school starts in Fall 2026, we will have identified which campuses will continue offering one-way and two-way dual language programs , and which new campuses may begin offering them.

The district’s goal is to strengthen dual language programs. Some elementary schools will become School-wide Dual Language campuses, meaning every classroom will offer dual language learning for both emergent bilingual and non-emergent bilingual students. This maintains consistency by keeping a balanced ratio of 50% emergent bilingual students and 50% non-emergent bilingual students , which research shows is effective for student success. By carefully planning around boundaries, staffing, and student enrollment, we will ensure students can thrive in dual language programs that are sustainable, rigorous, and accessible.

We currently offer school-wide dual language programming (e.g. “wall to wall”) at the following campuses: Becker ES, Reilly ES, Ridgetop ES, and Sunset Valley ES. However, their building locations compared to where emergent bilingual students live in Austin make reaching our 50% emergent bilingual participation ratio challenging (currently these programs enroll 14–44% emergent bilingual students depending on the location). We will be moving these school-wide dual language programs closer to where emergent bilingual students now live.

By moving and merging these programs with other nearby campuses, we will be able to get closer to our goal of 50% emergent bilingual participation. We know moving programs will be challenging. We will partner with campuses to maintain as much staff , community , and traditions as possible.

In the merger of these campuses, we strongly encourage existing dual language students at the receiving campuses (Odom ES, Pickle ES, Sánchez ES, Wooten ES) to remain. The goal is to maintain what is great about all campuses while making the school-wide programs more accessible to emergent bilingual students.

While we know not every family will choose to enroll at the new program, the following tables share data which informed our decision making.

Current “Wall to Wall” Capacity versus the new “School-wide” locations:

School Mergers

Total Seats Available at Existing “wall to wall” Campus

Total Seats Available for SY26-27 at new “school-wide” location

Potential Utilization of building based on current PK-4 dual language enrollment across both schools Ridgetop ES → Pickle ES

216 652 93.71%

Reilly ES (Spanish) → Wooten ES

324 532 77.26%

Becker ES → Sánchez ES 488 532 137.41% Sunset Valley ES → Odom ES 630 532 88.16% TOTALS 1658 seats 2248 seats

*We have enough seats for all current students enrolled in the relocated programs to find a spot in a school-wide dual language program. However, not everyone is able to travel across Austin ISD to access a program. Since we could become too full at Sánchez ES if every student decides to enroll, we have decided to offer a new language immersion program in South Austin: a non-zoned

Spanish & Mandarin Immersion program at Joslin ES. This will provide up to 412 additional seats depending on how we structure the program.

Current “Wall to Wall” Participation versus the new “School-wide” locations:

School Mergers

Current Emergent Bilingual Participation at Existing “wall to wall” Campus (reside & transfers)

Potential Emergent Bilingual Participation at new location in SY 26-27, if all PK-4 dual language students from both schools enroll Ridgetop ES → Pickle ES 14.21%^ 51.55% Reilly ES (Spanish) → Wooten ES 44.41%^ 66.91% Becker ES → Sánchez ES

20.00% 47.06%

Sunset Valley ES → Odom ES

27.70% 43.07%

FAQs

● What are the models of bilingual education in Texas? State code allows early-exit, late-exit, one-way dual language, and two-way dual language. Austin ISD has chosen one-way and two-way dual language.

● Why are ratios important? Balanced classrooms (50% emergent bilingual, 50% non-emergent bilingual) are proven to support student growth in both languages.

● Will all schools keep their dual language programs? Not all. Some may expand, others may begin new programs, and some may phase out based on enrollment and boundary changes. Any updates to dual language programming district-wide will be shared in Spring 2026.

● Where do emergent bilingual students tend to live in Austin ISD? There is a large number of emergent bilingual students living just north of Highway 183, between Burnet Road and 290, in Southeast Austin, and smaller areas of density throughout South and East Austin.

Early Childhood

Austin ISD will continue offering high-quality Pre-K 3 and Pre-K 4 programs across the district. Some Pre-K locations might change, but families will still have strong early learning options.

What to Expect:

November–December 2025: AISD will look at which Pre-K campuses might change due to school consolidations.

December 2025–January 2026: We will confirm which schools will offer Pre-K 3 and Pre-K 4. We’ll work closely with Pre-K partners and school leaders.

August 2026 and beyond: We’ll keep checking how Pre-K is going and make improvements if needed.

Throughout, AISD will continue working closely with our partners to offer strong Pre-K options for families.

To learn more:

● Free vs. Tuition-Based Pre-K – Click here ● Current Pre-K 3 Options – Click here ● Current Pre-K 4 Options – Click here

After School Care at Elementary Schools

At this stage, we are carefully reviewing resources and exploring additional funding opportunities to support after-school programs. While we cannot confirm all details yet, our goal is to continue providing students with safe, enriching options beyond the school day.

What to Expect:

Fall 2025: Austin ISD will share early updates about after-school care with families. We will explore funding and licensing needs and meet with school leaders and staff to begin planning. Clear, multilingual information will be provided to all families. Collaboration between merging campuses will begin.

Spring 2026: We will work with principals and after-school care vendors to plan programs. Staff recruitment will begin, and we will start the licensing process for new program sites.

Summer 2026: AISD will host welcome events for families and provide extra support for students during the first few weeks of school.

Fall 2026 and Beyond: We will continue checking in with families every few months and make program adjustments as needed.

FAQs

● Will my child still have access to after-school care? Yes. Austin ISD is working with after-school partners to make sure students still have access to safe and fun programs at their new or merged campuses.

● When will we know which after-school programs are available? We plan to start working with providers in January 2026 or sooner. Final program details will be shared before the end of the school year, if possible.

Transition Plans

This section of the deliverable explains how Austin ISD will guide schools through this transition with care, support, and a clear plan for students, staff, and families.

What You’ll Find in This Section

● Staffing Transitions ● Student & Family Support ● Campus Community Transition ● Moving Operations & Logistics

Staffing

This plan helps guide staffing during consolidations with or without a Turnaround Plan (TAP), program changes, and boundary changes.

What to Expect:

November 2025 : All current staff will receive a Preliminary Preference Survey.

December 2025: Principals will be selected.

January 2026: Staffing allocations will be finalized. TAP campuses will begin hiring, giving priority to staff from consolidated schools. Principals at other campuses will also prioritize hiring based on the number of students transferring from closing campuses.

February & March 2026: Staff who have not been placed in a position are invited to attend internal Match Fairs

Refer to our Staffing Guide for more information.

Student & Family Support

This plan supports students and families during consolidations, closures, or moves. It includes support sessions, welcomes students to new schools, and helps keep things steady over time. Transition sessions for students, families, and staff begin in November 2025.

Long-term support will continue through Fall 2026 with reflections, follow-ups, and regular check-ins for students, staff, and families.

What to Expect:

Fall 2025: Campuses will offer listening circles, clear updates, and on-site counseling. Crisis lines and community resources will also be available.

● The Bridge Team, composed of our district staff, will support classroom check-ins, peer buddy systems, and family sessions to help students handle changes. Small groups may meet to learn coping and stress skills.

Spring 2026: Students can visit new campuses, and staff will get training to support them. Families and students will be invited to share feedback.

Spring 2026: The Bridge Team will help schools celebrate their history with story walls, ceremonies, and digital memories. Support will be available for those feeling sad or worried.

Summer 2026: Receiving schools will hold welcome events, social activities, and community-building. Counselors will check in with students to help them adjust.

Fall 2026: The Bridge Team will guide reflection circles and provide follow-ups to keep supporting students and staff

FAQs

● Who will provide the support? School counselors, mental health professionals, social-emotional learning staff, and restorative practices teams.

● How will families be kept informed? Through clear updates, meetings, and ongoing communication before, during, and after transitions.

● What about students who need extra help? Students with special learning plans or high needs will get extra support and follow-up to make sure their transition is smooth.

Campus Community Transition

Our goal is to make the consolidated moves easy and help every student succeed. By Fall 2026, all students will feel welcome in their new schools. They will get support like counseling, after-school programs, and special events that celebrate their old school while starting new traditions.

AISD promises to keep families informed and supported throughout the process. This includes help with transfers, counseling, and ways to honor the culture and history of schools that are closing.

● For elementary students: There will be special welcome events, school tours, special classroom activities, and family orientation nights.

● For middle and high school students: We will focus on keeping programs strong, feeder pattern alignment, and offering choices in classes and activities.

● Community members, staff, and students will be engaged to form a new school community, together. This may include things related to the identity of the school (e.g. colors, mascot, school name, etc.) and things related to programming, clubs, and traditions.

What to Expect:

We already have great information from principals and community about what they love about their schools through our multiple engagement efforts, surveys, and feedback forms. We have been compiling information for each school that we know needs to be considered in any transition moving forward. We will continue building on this as soon as the consolidation package is finalized, collaborating with each new school community.

● Fall 2025: Community engagement sessions are held with families, students, and staff to ensure understanding of the consolidations. The Board of Trustees votes on the Final Consolidation Plan on November 20, 2025.

● Late Fall 2025: Dedicated teams will be established to support the transitions. Once the official lists of affected students and staff are finalized we can begin planning.

● January – March 2026 : Families can attend principal meet-and-greets, campus tours, and PTA/CAC meetings. The Talent Strategy team begins aligning staff roles and gathering placement preferences. Instructional plans and program details are finalized by March. Campuses will honor building closures with story walls, events, and shared memories starting in April 2026.

● April July 2026: Student support planning, including counseling and social-emotional learning, begins in spring. Facility preparations start in June with movers contracted, inventory completed, and receiving schools cleaned and readied.

● August 2026: Receiving campus teams participate in the Summer Transition Institute for collaboration and training. New staff orientations and classroom preparations take place. Early August welcomes students and families with orientation events and delivery of materials.

● August 2026 – June 2027: The first day of school at consolidated campuses begins in August with all services operational. Continuous support is provided through spring 2027,

including coaching, instructional check-ins, and professional development to ensure student success and community stability.

FAQs

● What support will students and families have? Regular updates, transition events, SEL activities, counseling, registration and transportation guidance, and opportunities to celebrate school legacies.

● How will staff be supported? Planning meetings, surveys to understand placement preferences, and collaboration with new schools. Additional administrative support will be available during the transition.

Moving Operations & Logistics

The Operations team is working to make sure schools have the support they need for campuses receiving students and staff.

AISD will hire movers and give schools packing supplies to safely move books, furniture, and other materials from closing schools to receiving schools.

In 2026, a detailed timeline will be shared with all the steps schools need to take before and after the move.

FAQs

● How will moves be handled? AISD will provide professional movers, packing supplies, and a clear system for transferring books, furniture, technology, and records.

● What happens after the move? Health services, after-school programs, meals, transportation, and technology will all be in place. Teachers will have time to prepare classrooms, and families will receive a district welcome with updated information.

TAPS & Accountability

School Consolidation: TEA Accountability and TAPS

The information below details the intersection of the consolidation efforts, state accountability requirements and mandated turn-around improvement plans.

TEA Accountability Mandates and Intervention

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) issues A-F ratings for all schools, and consecutive "Unacceptable" (F or D) ratings trigger mandated state interventions.

TEA Accountability Ratings:

● Campuses receive an A-F rating based on student achievement, school progress, and closing achievement gaps.

● Twelve of AISD campuses have recently received consecutive "Unacceptable" ratings, which directly impacts the consolidation process.

The Three-Tiered Intervention System:

1. Targeted Improvement Plan (TIP): Required after a school's first unacceptable rating. Less intensive, focused on specific areas.

2. Turnaround Plan (TAP): Required after multiple unacceptable ratings. This is a comprehensive, intensive, and long-term set of changes.

3. Mandated Interventions for TAP Schools: For schools with three or more unacceptable ratings, the plan may include:

a. School Restart: Overhauling the campus with a new faculty and leadership.

b. Closure and Reassignment: Closing the school and moving students to a nearby campus.

c. External Partnership: Partnering with a charter school to manage the campus.

* Per TEA, these strategies can be used in certain circumstances depending on the amount of years of unacceptable ratings.

Risk of State Takeover: The most serious consequence is a state takeover of the entire district if any single campus receives five consecutive unacceptable ratings. This would result in the replacement of the locally elected Board of Trustees with a state-appointed Board of Managers.

The Intersection of Accountability and Consolidation

The TEA requirements directly influence how AISD can implement its consolidation plan.

Accountability impacts HOW we can consolidate: A school's accountability status (requiring a TIP or TAP) now places limits on how it can be consolidated or closed.

The ongoing TAP implementation at Burnet MS, Dobie MS, and Webb MS also limit our timeline for boundary changes. Elementary students moving to middle school in SY 26-27 who were reassigned to any of these campuses have the option to continue on to their previously assigned school. Please refer to the individual school pages for specific information.

Accountability Follows the Student:

● If a student from a school requiring a TAP is reassigned to a receiving school during consolidation, the TAP requirements and resources must follow them and be applied at the new campus. The following table indicates how the TAPs are being reassigned following closures.

● The district cannot simply move students to a higher-rated school or close a school to "sidestep" the state's accountability requirements.

● The TEA-mandated TAPs and TIPs now act as a new layer of urgency and constraint on the decision-making process.

TAP Reassignment

Closures Receiving TAP Location

Barrington ES (TAP) Guerrero Thompson ES

Dawson ES (TAP) Galindo ES

Oak Springs ES (TAP) Blackshear ES

Widén ES (TAP) Rodriguez ES

Winn Montessori (TAP) Andrews ES*

Bedichek MS (TAP) Covington MS

Martin MS (TAP) Kealing MS

*Receiving campus currently requires a TIP

Non-zone Programs Receiving TAP Location

Govalle ES (TAP) Ortega ES

Sánchez ES (TAP) Allison ES *

Wooten ES (TAP) Pillow ES*

Pickle ES (TAP) Hart ES**

Receiving campus currently requires a TIP *Receiving campus currently requires a TAP

Current Timeline and Next Steps

The district is navigating concurrent processes for consolidation and state-mandated improvement.

● Fall 2025: Community engagement meetings on draft Turnaround Plans and the preliminary consolidation/boundary plan.

● November 2025:

○ Board vote on TIPs and TAPs.

○ TEA Submission Deadline for approved Turnaround Plans.

○ Board vote on the final consolidation and boundary plan.

● 2026-2027 School Year: Implementation of approved school consolidations and boundary changes.

Glossary of Terms

1882 Partnership (at Mendez): Under Texas Senate Bill 1882, this is a partnership between Austin ISD and Third Future Schools (a state-approved charter operator) as part of a turnaround plan to improve the school’s ratings.

AVID : A college-readiness program offered at the elementary and secondary levels that prepares students for post-secondary academic and executive functioning success using WICOR (Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization, and Reading).

Balance Enrollment : The Guiding Principle that guides decision-making to reduce extra seats to 85% of the school’s capacity.

Boundary (Attendance Area) : The geographical limits based on natural features, major roadways and neighborhoods that define where a student’s assigned school is based on their residential address.

Bridge Team: School counselors, mental health professionals, social-emotional learning staff, and restorative practices teams who offer listening circles, clear updates, and counseling at campuses to support consolidation transitions.

Closure: Discontinuing the use of a school building for PK-12 education. Future use of the building includes reuse, lease, or sell as determined by the Board of Trustees.

Consolidation: Merging one or more campus communities together as a cost reducing strategy that will ensure every student learns in a well-resourced, fully staffed school with strong programs and support.

Contextual Analysis (of schools): A close look at what programs each school and nearby schools offer and who they serve to understand historical context and how well they are meeting the needs of families in the area.

Data Rubric: An objective, quantitative tool designed to assess all 116 Austin ISD campuses, where the school was given a total score based on its size, condition, number of students, and how much it costs to run.

Dual language campus: A school offering learning in two languages in every classroom, intended to serve 50% emergent bilingual students and 50% non-emergent bilingual students.

Emergent Bilingual (EB) Student: In Texas, an emergent bilingual student is someone whose primary language is not English and is still in the process of learning English while also developing their home language.

Feeder Pattern: The path a student follows as they advance from elementary to middle school, and then to high school. Aligned feeder patterns help maintain continuity and a sense of community by allowing students to advance together from one school to the next, fostering stronger social ties and community pride.

Grandfathering: The school policy that if you already go to a school, you can stay there, even if your boundary changes, no matter what grade you are in.

Guiding Principles: The four main principles used to ensure boundary changes are fair, data-driven and supportive of strong school communities: 1) Minimize Impacts, 2) Balance Enrollment, 3) Align Feeder Patterns, and 4) Focus on Long-term Stability.

Long-range Plan (LRP): A guide developed with the community to help the district improve schools and give all students fair opportunities to succeed, especially in schools that have been underserved. The plan guides both short-term and long-term improvements in learning, buildings, and technology.

Merger: The combination of one or more campuses to form a new campus community with combined programs, experiences, and traditions from each campus.

MGT (Consulting Group): Demographers working for Austin ISD who provide data-driven analysis and long-term planning tools centered on student population and geography using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology.

Modernized Campus: Campus updated to current Educational Specifications with either new or renovated facilities and equipment through 2017 and 2022 bond funding.

Montessori: An approach to teaching with specialized learning materials that emphasize child-centered, hands-on activities that foster independence and self-directed learning.

Portable: A temporary structure on a campus, often used as a classroom, when a campus does not have enough space inside its main building.

Seats (at a campus): The number of students a campus is designed to house and teach.

Special programs: Instruction only at select campuses, including: dual language, immersion language, magnet programs, fine arts, International Baccalaureate (IB) and Montessori.

TAP: A Turnaround Plan is a comprehensive, intensive, and long-term set of changes required by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) because of consecutive failing school ratings.

Transfer: A request to move a student from their assigned campus to a campus of their choice, typically without transportation services.

Non-zoned: A school that does not have a boundary (attendance area), rather is open to 100% transfers.

Zoned: A school that has a boundary (attendance area).