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Austin ISD Moves Forward With Consolidating Two East Austin Elementary Schools

Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon
/
KUT
The Austin ISD board of trustees plans to consolidate Norman Elementary with Sims Elementary.

The Austin Independent School District is proceeding with plans to consolidate Norman and Sims elementary schools in East Austin. The schools will become one campus, but it's unclear which one will close. 

At a board of trustees meeting earlier this week, Superintendent Paul Cruz said the consolidation will happen by August 2020. 

The bond voters passed last month allows the consolidation to happen. It wasn't explicitly laid out in the bond proposal, but $25 million from the bond will be used for renovations at the consolidated school.

AISD Trustee Ted Gordon raised concern about the timeline. He said residents did not vote on the consolidation when casting ballots, and the district shouldn't move so fast. 

"I would caution us about assuming that precisely what was laid out there is precisely what's going to happen," he said. "We do need to have community input, and we particularly need to work with the schools that are involved in ways that take their considerations into consideration as we decide what to do with these things."

The timeline for the project says the board and district will make a final decision on the consolidation this month.