'Save Maplewood Concert and Rally' features local bands, pays tribute to beloved school

Maplewood Elementary rally held

Local bands are coming together to show support and raise awareness for a beloved Austin ISD elementary school facing closure.

AUSTIN, Texas - Local bands came together to show support and raise awareness for a beloved Austin ISD elementary school facing closure.

What we know:

The Save Maplewood Concert and Rally was held at Cherrywood Coffeehouse at 1400 E. 38th ½ Street.

The rally came about after two Maplewood parents shared the outpouring of love for the school with friends in the Austin music community.

Erika Wennerstrom of Heartless Bastards, The Tender Things, and DJ Topaz of Golden Dawn Arkestra stepped up to put together the concert to help lift up the community and show support for the beloved school, says a release.

Maplewood parents delivered remarks throughout the program and the Maplewood Choir performed.

Opponents of the closure plan note that out of the 13 schools marked for closure, Maplewood is the only one with an A rating from the TEA and that consistently has high attendance from neighborhood families.

Austin ISD's plan to consolidate and close schools

AISD releases consolidation, closure plan

Austin ISD has released its consolidation and boundary change for the next school year. This comes as the district faces uneven enrollment, a budget shortfall, and accountability requirements. FOX 7 Austin's Angela Shen reports.

Big picture view:

Austin ISD released their draft plan to close and consolidate campuses on Oct. 3.

The plan calls for 13 schools to be closed across the district:

Barrington ES (students reassigned to Guerrero Thompson or Wooldridge ES based on address)
Becker ES (students reassigned to Zilker ES)
Bedichek MS (students reassigned to Covington, Paredes, Lively or Mendez MS based on address)
Bryker Woods ES (students reassigned to Mathews or Brentwood ES based on address)
Dawson ES (students reassigned to Galindo ES)
Maplewood ES (merge with Campbell ES)
Martin MS (temporarily close, students reassigned to Kealing, Lively, or General Marshall MS based on address)
Oak Springs Elementary (merge with Blackshear ES)
Palm Elementary (students reassigned to Perez ES)
Ridgetop Elementary (students reassigned to Reilly ES)
Sunset Valley Elementary (students reassigned to Cunningham or Boone ES based on address)
Widén Elementary (most students reassigned to Rodriguez ES, small number to Houston ES)
Winn Montessori (students reassigned to Andrews, Pecan Springs, or Hart ES based on address)

Other changes include:

Transitioning the International High School from a school co-located at Northeast ECHS to a program at Navarro ECHS
Turning four schools into campus-wide, non-zoned Spanish dual language programs (Sanchez ES, Odom ES, Pickle ES, Wooten ES)
Starting campus-wide application-based Spanish and Mandarin language immersion programs at Joslin ES; Joslin students would be reassigned to Cunningham or Galindo ES based on address
Repurposing Govalle ES as new location for districtwide, non-zoned Montessori students; Govalle students would be reassigned to Ortega or Zavala ES based on address

The plan would also redraw boundaries for 98% of the district's schools, changing feeder patterns.

In the Oct. 3 draft plan, the district says the board wants to keep the Martin and Bedichek MS buildings and will work with the community to "re-envision [their] future and programming."

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The district says it used a data rubric to look at the student populations to come up with this plan.

AISD says they'll save over $20 million from staffing. That, combined with closing facilities and associated transportation, will create a total of $25.6 million in savings.

For more information and the full plan, click here.

Dig deeper:

This is not the first time Maplewood Elementary and other campuses named in the 2025 plan have been on the chopping block.

In 2019, Dawson, Maplewood, Palm, and Ridgetop were on the list of potential closures, alongside eight other schools. Of those 12, Brooke, Metz and Pease elementary schools were ultimately closed.

What's next:

AISD is hosting many conversations between the superintendent and the community and families until Nov. 5: