Austin ISD is looking to close 13 campuses before the 2026-27 school year as part of a sweeping plan to fix its nearly $20 million budget deficit. Officials said the move could save the district more than $25 million.
The plan, released Friday, includes closing 10 elementary schools — Barrington, Becker, Bryker Woods, Dawson, Maplewood, Oak Springs, Palm, Ridgetop, Sunset Valley and Widen — along with Bedichek and Martin middle schools and Winn Montessori.
The full plan, along with an interactive tool parents can use to see how it affects them, is available here.
Austin ISD Board President Lynn Boswell said the district is choosing to close schools as public education is “under attack” and underfunded by the state.
“The sadness, anger and fear that people are feeling right now is real, and it is the flip side of the love that people have for our public schools,” she said. “And I am so sorry, and I am so sad that we are at this moment.”
Superintendent Matias Segura said the district factored in the quality of school buildings and enrollment in the decision-making process.
“The sadness, anger and fear that people are feeling right now is real and it is the flip side of the love that people have for our public schools. And I am so sorry, and I am so sad that we are at this moment.”Austin ISD Board President Lynn Boswell
Despite Austin’s population growth, enrollment has steadily declined over the past 10 years. Austin ISD now serves roughly the same amount of students as it did in the ‘90s, but it has 20 more school campuses.
Accountability ratings were also a factor, Segura said, as the district is dangerously close to being taken over by the state.
About half of the schools on the closure list have been flagged for failing grades three years in a row. The new plan reassigns some students at failing schools into higher-performing ones. Schools that receive the majority of students coming from failing schools will get extra resources to help students improve.
“If we don’t address those risks, there could be interventions from the state that limit our ability or even take away our ability to lead our school system in a way that we as a school system believe,” Segura said.
The plan also includes new attendance boundaries for nearly every school and major programming changes.
Austin ISD’s campus-wide dual language program, which teaches all students in both English and Spanish, will be moved to Pickle, Wooten, Odom and Sanchez elementary schools — schools near where more emergent bilingual students live, according to the district. Those schools will all be “non-zoned,” meaning any student can apply to attend regardless of where they live in the district.
Austin ISD will hold virtual open houses on Oct. 14, 16, 27 and Nov. 8 to hear from families before the plan is voted on by the board of trustees on Nov. 20.
Segura said feedback will be used to refine the plan, but that “doing nothing” is not an option.
“The urgency to protect the school district is real, and the status quo is not possible,” he said. “We just don’t have that luxury.”
