AUSTIN (KXAN) — Facing financial struggles, the Austin Independent School District could take drastic steps and could close some middle and elementary schools across the city to help resolve its budget challenges.
The district said declining enrollment, rising education costs, inadequate state funding and budget shortfalls have spread the district’s resources too thin across too many campuses. The district started the year with a more than $19 million budget deficit in the general fund. The general fund helps cover teacher salaries and daily operational expenses.
On Friday, AISD released its preliminary draft plan to close 11 elementary schools, including a Montessori school, and two middle schools.
The schools listed for closure in the draft plan include: Bedichek and Martin middle schools, as well as Barrington, Becker, Bryker Woods, Dawson, Maplewood, Oak Springs, Palm, Ridgetop, Sunset Valley, Widen and Winn Montessori elementary schools.
In addition to the building closures, International High School will transition from a school co-located at Northeast Early College High School to a program at Navarro Early College High School.
The district also said Pickle, Wooten, Odom and Sanchez elementary schools will be repurposed to campus-wide, non-zoned Spanish dual language programs.
AISD said it is moving school-wide dual language programs closer to where emergent bilingual students live and also making them non-zoned programs.
AISD said the financial impact will mean more than $20 million in immediate gross savings.
District Superintendent Matias Segura said the list is a draft, and the board will look over the plan on Oct. 9. From there, the district will hold several meetings with the community. The final vote on the plan is set for Nov. 20.
Parents react
There have been rumblings for a while on which schools will be closed, and one of those schools is Becker Elementary.
“Watching something we have built over the years that we love, that my kids love, that is a home to them, go away and us be told that it doesn’t matter how much our kids love the school, it is heartbreaking,” Becker parent Tanner VanEssen said.
Becker students will be reassigned to Zilker Elementary School and the school-wide Spanish dual language program will then relocate to merge with Sanchez Elementary and become a non-zoned program, according to the district.
Becker is one of the schools that offered dual language programs, but will now be moved to Sanchez Elementary school as Becker will close.
“I think the dual language charter schools and private schools … they are happy right now because they are about to get an influx of people,” VanEssen said.
Austin ISD said Becker has many students who travel in from other areas to participate in the program, and the campus only serves 20% emergent bilingual students.
Some AISD parents told KXAN that they would consider leaving AISD if their school closed.
“Once we talk to the core group of our kids’ friends and our parent friends, we are going to try to make a group decision that is best for all of us that we can go to as a community to a district or charter school that is going to accept us,” VanEssen said.
How did AISD get here?
In April, AISD began gathering and reviewing data on how schools were running based on size, condition, number of students and costs. The district also launched a community survey to receive feedback.
In June, AISD held town hall meetings and workshops looking into academic programming , boundaries and student transfers.
Following these early steps, a data rubric was put together to assess all 116 Austin ISD campuses.
Each school was given a score based on its size, condition, how much it cost to run and how many students were enrolled.
Austin ISD Trustee weighs in
“Today, the boot of the State is on AISD’s throat and we are forced to make decisions that will change our community for generations. The AISD administration has put forward a proposal for school consolidations and closures in response to years of underfunding from the state. I understand the intentions and pressures that led to this proposal, but based on this current draft I will be voting NO,” Austin ISD Trustee Kathryn Whitley Chu said in a statement to KXAN.
Whitley Chu said the district should not be closing schools that are in demand and have strong academic results.
Parents told KXAN they will continue to fight against the closures and hope to have further discussions with AISD trustees and administration.
“We should not be closing historic schools that tie to our community together and we need to have the patience to allow the community to study the proposal and effectively weigh in,” said Whitley Chu in a statement.
For more information about Austin ISD consolidations, check out their website.
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