Austin ISD releases updated consolidation and boundary change draft plan

AUSTIN, Texas - Austin ISD has released its updated consolidation and boundary change draft plan, which could close 13 schools. 

The backstory:

Austin ISD is grappling with 25,000 empty classroom seats, a nearly $20 million budget shortfall, and low performance at some campuses.

"I can tell that if we don't do these now, all it's going to do is make those decisions and those impacts introduce greater risks to our system," said Superintendent, Matias Segura.

To address these issues, the district’s draft plan released earlier this month proposes boundary changes at 98% of schools. Thirteen campuses are also being considered for closure, possibly the largest closure and boundary realignment in district history.

"We arrived at this draft plan through a process and now the time is to really dive deep and see if we have it right, how can we improve, but I cannot stop a hard decision based on just one community's voice without understanding how it impacts the whole," said Segura.

Since its release, more than 7,000 parents and community members have submitted feedback on the proposal.

Dig deeper:

Here is a summary of plan updates:

Outstanding areas of exploration

• The Zilker and Galindo ES boundaries
• Location of Montessori
• How to resolve a three-way split for Small MS
• Location of Garza Independence HS and Martin MS
• Location of Alternative Learning Center and Mendez MS
• How to ensure Bedicheck MS continues to serve as  a school
• Looking at feasibility of continuing construction of new Oak Springs ES
• Bryker Woods Student reassignment
• Exploring the voting and implementation timeline

The continuation transfers policy says your child can stay at their current school (if it's staying open) even if your boundary changes. Boundary changes affect students most when they are starting a new school level.

Elementary schools

If you are at Sanchez ES and are currently in 3rd or 4th grade English/ESL, you can stay and participate in a temporary English/ESL strand.

They plan to continue offering a dual language strand at Montessori.

They made a small change to the boundary between Zavala ES and Ortega ES to ensure the majority of Govalle ES students are reassigned to Zavala ES to support its implementation of Govalle's turnaround plan.

Joslin ES will become a school-wide non-zoned elementary school offering Spanish and Mandarin language immersion programs.

Odom ES students currently at 3rd and 4th grade English/ESL classrooms can stay in a temporary 4th and 5th grade English/ESL strand to finish out at Odom. Joslin ESL students can finish out at their school as well, same with Pickle.

AISD will no longer be offering 6th grade across elementary schools. Current 5th grade students at Blazier ES can attend Paredes MS or apply to transfer to another middle school.

The boundary between Cowan ES and Boone ES will follow Longview Road instead of West Gate Blvd.

AISD is proposing to adjust the boundary between Baranoff ES and Kocurek ES and reassign Brodie Springs back to Baranoff ES. Part of this change is also proposed to include the reassignment of Palomino Park from Kocurek ES to Baranoff ES to remove a small split at the high school level.

There are additional small boundary changes between Kocurek ES and Baranoff ES and between Kiker ES and Clayton ES due to road configurations and neighborhood connections.

They're also proposing a change in the boundary between Boone ES and Cunningham ES. This would result in Boone welcoming more students from the closure of Sunset Valley ES.

The Barton View neighborhood was reassigned back to Oak Hill ES based on community feedback.

Bryker Woods ES will close and be reassigned to Casis ES and Brentwood ES.

Dual language Mandarin will be offered at Wooten ES.

Matthews ES will receive students reassigned from Barton Hills ES living west of Mopac.

There are additional boundary changes proposed between Padron ES, Wooldridge ES, and Guerrero-Thompson ES. Students from Wooldridge ES will no longer move to Guerrero-Thompson ES. Instead, an additional group of Wooldridge students will go to Padron ES to make sure Wooldridge doesn't get too full.

Maplewood ES dual language program

There are no changes to the proposed school closures on the updated plan. Maplewood ES is one of the schools that could close. The updated plan says their dual language program will move to Campbell and phase out when the last group of 5th graders finish. New students won't enter dual language at Campbell. They can apply to other campuses that have the program. 

Lisa's Bennett's two kids are in the Maplewood dual language program. While she's glad her kids can finish the program, she has concerns as well. 

"What are they going do to make sure that the teachers are able to stay until the end of the phase out?" she said. "I have a kindergartener who's in dual language. If the door is closing behind him each year on the way out, I am worried that if the teachers are just going to kind of be fired at the end of each of his school years, that it would almost be irresponsible for them to not try to find other employment before that last day."

Instead of walking to school at Maplewood, they'll have to drive to Campbell. She says walking to Maplewood has been good for community building. 

"That's a really special part of our morning and the travel to Campbell would be further," she said.

Both schools also have strong academics.

"Our concern is whether both of us can preserve our successes in a combined environment with larger class sizes," Bennett said.

She says there should be more discussion on a draft closure list.

"It's been frustrating to us because we have seen from the release of this draft plan that was not really being considered a draft closure list," she said. "Closures are the most critical part of this plan you've released. Why is the only part of the draft you're willing to discuss tweaking boundaries?"

Middle schools

The portion of Andrews ES and Harris ES south of 290 will feed into General Marshall MS. Norman-Sims will now feed into Kealing MS.

There is a proposed change in boundary between Webb MS and Burnet MS, reassigning students north of 183 to Webb and removing the split from Brown ES. There's a small boundary change between Dobie MS and Burnet MS, aligning with a change in elementary boundaries between Wooldridge ES and Guerrero-Thompson ES.

Elementary students at Harris and Andrews living north of 290 will feed into Webb, and students south of 290 will feed into General Marshall MS. It creates a three-way split for Kealing which now feeds into Eastside ECHS, LBJ ECHS, and Northeast ECHS.

There is a change in boundary between Lamar MS and O. Henry MS, aligning with changes to Brentwood ES when they adjusted the reassignment of Bryker Woods ES students.

They're proposing some changes to the Goryzcki MS boundary. Students from Granada Hills who were originally assigned to Small MS will be reassigned back to Goryzcki.

The Barton View neighborhood will be reassigned to Small MS.

The boundary between Mendez MS and Lively MS is adjusted to send more Bedicheck students to Mendez rather than Lively.

The boundary between Covington MS and Mendez MS will change to reduce splits in feeder pattern for Williams ES and Pleasant Hill ES.

High schools

The Barton View neighborhood was reassigned back to Austin HS. There's an additional boundary change between Austin HS and Travis ECHS.

The boundary between Northeast ECHS and Eastside ECHS changes slightly, using Manor Road west of Airport as the new boundary. The boundary between Eastside ECHS and LBJ ECHS also changed.

There's a boundary change between Navarro ECHS and McCallum HS, as well as between McCallum HS and Austin HS. There's also a small boundary change between Bowie HS and Crockett HS and Bowie HS and Akins HS.

Transfer policies

Younger siblings of a currently enrolled student will be guaranteed a transfer to the same school unless the superintendent declares a campus is over capacity prior to the opening of the general registration window.

Existing transfers will remain in place until a student graduates from that school, as long as the school is not being closed.

What's next:

The Board is expected to vote on the plan on Nov. 20, but there are many more opportunities for community input. 

For the full plan and to search changes based on your address, click here: https://www.austinisd.org/consolidate.