AISD says all schools at risk, but parents worry for poor areas
AISD is asking student families and district staff to weigh in about closures through an online survey open until June 6Austin ISD officials aren’t ready to say which of the district’s 116 schools will be closed and consolidated to save money as they navigate their ongoing budget deficit.
“We’re looking at all schools,“ AISD’s director of planning, Raechel French, told KUT News last week. “Every single school right now is on a level playing field. There is no secret list.” Perhaps, but most of the schools the district seems most likely to close – those that are struggling to meet accountability standards, with older buildings and declining enrollment – are in poorer areas of town. Nonetheless, AISD is asking all student families and school staff in the district to completefor the process. Over the summer, administrators will examine the survey feedback and create a data analysis process – they’re calling it a “decision-making tool” – to help identify which schools may close. The tool will be presented to the board of trustees for their approval on June 26. It will be used to evaluate data over the summer. By the end of August, a list of schools that could be consolidated will be ready. On Oct. 9, the administration will present its recommendations to the board. The board will vote on school closures Nov. 20. Come August of 2026, the schools will be shuttered.Meanwhile, parents and teachers at the three schools on the front lines of the closure crisis – Dobie, Webb, and Burnet middle schools – are criticizing the district. All three schools scored F’s when the state of Texas released accountability ratings in April, forcing AISD to quickly create turnaround plans that require the replacement of the schools’ principals and about half of their teachers. The school communities learned of the turnaround plans only three weeks ago. Since then, AISD has rushed to find new principals and teachers. Several of Webb’s current teachers spoke about the process at the May 22 meeting of the board of trustees. Parents at Lamar Middle School discuss temporary consolidation possibility with Dobie Middle School- Brant Bingamon Cecilia Leonard, a math teacher at Webb, described it as destructive. She said communication from district officials has been chaotic. She asked about the state rules which require that only principals who have proven to be “transformative” – that is, who have overseen successful turnarounds in the past – may be employed at schools undergoing a turnaround. Melissa Brockway, a special education teacher at Webb, called the restaffing process illogical. “You say you want to attract and keep highly effective teachers, but you are driving them out through fear and instability before getting input from the community,” Brockway said. “All of our jobs were posted and principals were not given the option to reapply. Now we are being pressured to give an answer of whether we will stay or go without knowing the principal, without seeing a finalized contract, and without knowing the length of the workday, the workweek, or the work year.” None of this was news to the trustees and they took in the comments with resignation. Fernando de Urioste asked Superintendent Matias Segura to present a plan for better communication with the families facing the loss of their neighborhood school. Kathryn Whitley Chu noted the unpleasant meetings AISD leaders recently held at Dobie, Webb, and Burnet, saying, “We have to do better.” David Kauffman asked Segura to share the emails the district is getting from families and staff at those schools. Kauffman also called on the district to provide evidence that school closures actually save money, saying he has seen studies which show that such savings are small. He said closing schools may increase spending on transportation, remediation learning, and other services, reducing the cost savings. “In particular, I would love to go back to the recent school closings in Austin,” Kauffman said, referring to the closure and consolidation of Sims, Metz, Pease, and Brooke elementary schools in 2019. “Is there evidence from those closings that they generated actual savings in the short term, in the long term?”has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.
Burnet Middle School Dobie Middle School Matias Segura Webb Middle School
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