As Lyla Dille prepared for the first day of school, she hung charms, plush animals and bracelets on her backpack. Over the summer, the fourth grader was excited to go back to Travis Heights Elementary. She knew students from Becker Elementary, which closed in May, would come in and was eager to make them feel welcome.
But a week before summer ended, Lyla learned she wouldn’t start the school year at Travis Heights. Austin ISD officials told families on Aug. 12 that flooding and water damage had occurred during building improvements and students would have to start the school year at Dawson Elementary.
Lyla went through many feelings.
“First I was excited, then I was mad, and then I was nervous, and then I was confused, and then I just had a bunch of questions,” Lyla told her dad.
Michael Minasi
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KUT News
As parents dropped their kids off at Travis Heights for them to take the bus to Dawson, construction workers repaired the roof of one of the buildings on the first day of school.
Travis Heights families are not the only ones adjusting to new campuses and communities after AISD officials closed multiple schools to help the district save $21 million and improve accountability ratings. Dawson was one of the shuttered campuses that the district planned to sell to help balance the 2026-27 budget.
Ian Dille, Lyla’s dad, said that as awful as it was that Dawson closed, the Travis Heights community is lucky there was an empty campus for them to use. Dille said the family has made small adjustments, like driving Lyla to the bus stop to get to Dawson instead of biking to Travis Heights. But Lyla isn’t too worried and said riding the bus with her friends adds a layer of excitement to the start of school.
Dille’s son also went to Travis Heights, so in the last six years the family has seen the school administrators overcome the challenges of a pandemic, welcome a large influx of Afghan refugees, and now welcome kids from another school while moving temporarily to another campus.
“Again and again I’ve seen them come across these really big challenges and just take them in stride,” Dille said. “And kind of keep rolling and just focus on getting kids educated and keeping them safe, making them feel loved.”
Michael Minasi
/
KUT News
Lyla Dille’s adjusted their morning routine after the flood of Travis Heights. Instead of biking, she will now take the bus to school, which she’s excited about.
Aleshia Bonilla, a former Becker parent, said moving to Travis Heights feels like a double-edged sword because she and her son lost the community they had spent years making but she feels welcomed in the new school.
“Losing that, no matter how excited you are for moving into a new school, it’s always traumatic in some ways,” Bonilla said. “I am very grateful that we have the kind of community like Travis Heights to go into, because they’ve been incredibly welcoming.”
When the flooding announcement came, Bonilla said she felt it was one more thing her family would have to overcome. But then she realized the flooding meant that everyone, not just Becker kids, would be trying to figure things out.
“I can see a silver lining for the Becker kids, that they get more of a chance to get to know the Travis Heights kids in an environment that’s new to everyone,” she said.
Over the summer, Travis Heights school officials and the parent teacher association held parent meetups and ice cream socials to welcome families to the school. Carly Gratton, a member of the Travis Heights PTA, said new friendships were formed over the summer, and now, problem solving will help them bond.
“We’re all starting somewhere new together and figuring this out together,” Gratton said. “We can all try to be problem solvers and get through it together.”
Gratton said administrators, teachers and families jumped into action when news about the water damage came out. They moved entire classrooms to Dawson, donated materials to teachers who lost things in the flooding, and created drop-off and pick-up plans.
Michael Minasi
/
KUT News
Travis Heights officials and parents worked together to move classrooms to Dawson and to create safe drop-off and pick-up sites for students.
The district told families it anticipates returning to the Travis Heights campus within a few weeks, though it’s unclear how long students and teachers will remain at Dawson. During a board meeting last week, Superintendent Matias Segura said he approved an emergency contract for repairs and was expecting to reopen the school as quickly as possible.
Before getting on the bus, Lyla said she would miss the gym at Travis Heights, but she was excited about exploring Dawson and its big playground. She said she felt bad for the Becker kids who were coming in because their school had to close, but that she would try to become friends with them by being nice.