Draft Consolidations & Districtwide Boundary Deliverable
Table of Contents
- Our Vision
- Executive Summary
- Deliverable Organization & Timeline
- Overview of Process
- Decision Making: One Tool, Two Parts
- MGT Consulting Group’s Role (The Demographer)
- Community Engagement
- How did we make our decisions?
- What is our process?
- What will happen next?
- Northeast & East Austin Elementary Schools
- South Austin Elementary Schools
- North & South Central Austin Elementary Schools
- North & Northwest Austin Elementary Schools
- Middle Schools (North of the River)
- Middle Schools (South of the River)
- High Schools
- Policies & Practices
- Academics & Programming
- Glossary of Terms
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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
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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)
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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: 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 weigh 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
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- 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 short- and 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 I Feedback Form
- Phase II Feedback Form
- Phase III Feedback Form
Upcoming Opportunities:
- Open Virtual Houses
October 14, 2025
October 16, 2025
October 25, 2025
November 8, 2025
- Virtual Comment Card
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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
d 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,