Just past the corner where Rosewood Avenue becomes Oak Springs Drive, a fenced construction site sits empty. Pipes and cement slabs rise from the ground, physical remnants of more than $48 million in improvements to a school that is now scheduled to close.
Those unfinished upgrades at Oak Springs Elementary were funded by a $2.4 billion infrastructure and technology bond approved by voters in 2022, making it the most expensive project tied to a campus the Austin school district plans to shutter.
The bond was pitched as a way to shore up struggling schools as the Austin school district faced mounting financial pressures and declining enrollment. But in November, the school board voted to close 10 schools slated for improvements under the bond, a move intended to help offset a nearly $20 million deficit.
By that point, more than $95 million in bond money already had been spent or committed to campuses headed for closure. The sudden suspension of those projects, aimed at improving learning environments, has upended promises to long-underserved communities and voters who supported the bond package and believed their financial support was a sound investment in the district’s future.
It also has drawn sharp criticism from taxpayer advocacy groups.
“These monies have been wasted, and whether the district cares is unclear. But certainly taxpayers care,” said James Quintero, policy director with the Taxpayer Protection Project at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. “Taxpayers have now witnessed a lot of their money just being wasted on facilities that will go unused.”
Oak Springs is not alone in its predicament. According to records obtained by Austin Current, the phased modernization of Martin Middle School, which was already underway, has a price tag of $36.5 million. Barrington Elementary, which was also set for a complete overhaul, currently has $4.9 million in spent or committed funds. Other targeted renovations include $2.8 million at Widen Elementary and $1.2 million at Bedicheck Middle School. All 10 closing school buildings are expected to shutter following the end of the 2025-26 school year.
Quintero questions why the district sought such a large bond while enrollment for years had been declining.
While the situation may not be unique to Austin ISD, he said, it stands out because of the scale of the spending and the district’s financial strain. While selling or leasing the properties could, hypothetically, recoup some losses, he said the reality is bond dollars have been poured into soon-to-shutter campuses with uncertain futures.
Bonds are used by school districts much like loans a homeowner takes on to purchase or fix up a home, said Tracy Ginsburg, who is the executive director of the Texas Association of School Business Officials. Bond money can be used to fix a school’s heating and cooling systems, repair a roof, remodel an aging building or, if a district is growing, to create and furnish a new school.
In Austin ISD, the district faces more than $3 billion in deferred maintenance for its aging campuses, according to the district’s 2020 facilities master plan.
Almost every school in the district was set to receive some sort of improvement or renovation with the money from the 2022 bond, said Lynn Boswell, school board president. Improvements include technology upgrades, secure vestibules, upgrades to old HVAC systems and fencing around campuses, among other needs.
As a result, any school the board decided to close is likely to have had bond money allocated for improvements. Boswell said board members looked at the consolidation plan in light of the bond dollars allocated by trustees for improvements under the 2022 bond, taking into consideration where significant work had already been done.
As the district moves forward, Boswell said some work, such as HVAC repairs in buildings currently housing students, will continue at the closing schools to keep students comfortable until relocations occur and the buildings’ futures are decided. The decisions about reallocating remaining bond dollars originally earmarked for those campuses will likely involve the district’s Community Bond Oversight Committee, school administrators and community members, before ultimately going to a board vote, she said.
“One way or another, [bond dollars] will go to benefit students in our district,” Boswell said. “That’s what our community voted for, and it won’t look exactly like we planned it to in 2022 when voters approve[d] that bond, but the commitment is that it will still be used for the benefit of our schools and our students.”
Isabel Torres, whose daughter attends third grade at Oak Springs Elementary, said the location of the school allowed her to drop off her child and still make it to work on time. She now worries any relocation will cause her to be late to work.
She feels she is being displaced from the school her family called home, a whiplash after being told previously her student would soon enjoy a newly renovated Oak Springs.
“Now we have no school,” Torres said. “This is not what we voted for here. You are telling me for three years your budget has diminished and you haven’t made any changes or corrections?”
At a recent district Community Bond Oversight Committee meeting, community members tasked with maintaining financial accountability and transparency of school bond dollars questioned administrators from the Construction and Management Department about next steps for the closing campuses. In response, department leaders said the future of many of these school buildings remains unclear. It’s possible the district moves forward with completing renovations of some sort at Oak Springs, opening the revamped building in the future as a different school, or as a structure the district could rent or sell. Such options would require community input and likely a board vote.
The district is still assessing how best to use remaining bond money earmarked for the closing campuses, Christine Steenport, district operations officer, said in a statement to Austin Current. For now, the priority is preparing schools set to receive students from those campuses in August 2026, with the goal of ensuring a smooth transition. That work includes shifting resources from schools being closed, reviewing construction timeline schedules at receiving campuses and making additional repairs as needed.
Steenport added the district is also developing plans for several of the consolidation campuses, including the possibility the schools could temporarily house students while their home campuses undergo bond-funded modernizations that have not yet begun construction.
