At close to 2 o’clock in the morning on Friday, Nov. 21, after hours of debate, the Austin ISD Board of Trustees voted to close eight elementary schools, two middle schools, and International High School.

The voting meeting opened with nearly two hours of public comment, almost all AISD parents and teachers asking trustees to vote “no” on the school closures. Andria Hyden, director of bands at Bedichek MS, one of the schools up for vote, took the stand. “My students are not worried about test scores or budgets, but about losing their friends, their teachers, and their sense of belonging,” Hyden said.

Almost nine hours after public comment began, some parents remained still, waiting to learn the fate of their children’s schools. A few parents wearing Becker Elementary T-shirts, one of the schools that will close, watched the vote take place with tears in their eyes. “It’s a real loss. People are mourning for a reason,” AISD Board President Lynn Boswell said.

The trustees voted three times: first, to approve 24 turnaround plans ordered on Sept. 3 by the Texas Education Agency for AISD schools that received two or more consecutive unacceptable accountability scores in 2023, 2024, and 2025. The vote occurred less than 24 hours before the district would be required to submit the TAPs to the state agency, along with other school districts across Texas, by 6 o’clock on Nov. 21.

Second, they voted to close seven schools – Barrington, Dawson, Oak Springs, Winn, and Widén elementaries, and Martin and Bedichek middle schools – under their TEA-required turnaround plans. All seven schools have collected three unacceptable (D and F) ratings since 2023, largely based on low scores on STAAR exams. The closure of the seven schools was approved 7-2, with trustees Andrew Gonzales and Fernando de Urioste voting against. 

Third, they voted to close three more schools: Sunset Valley, Ridgetop, and Becker elementaries. The schools represent three out of four in the district that currently use a Spanish-English, wall-to-wall dual-language model, and do not have required turnaround plans. 

AISD parents brought signs protesting the trustees’ approval of the school closures on Thursday, Nov. 20 Credit: Sammie Seamon

Nonetheless, the district still argues it is necessary to close the schools next fall to save enough needed money (with savings now estimated by the district to be $21.5 million), and that larger dual-language programs would better serve emergent bilingual students, learning English as a second language, when moved elsewhere in the city. The closure of the three schools was approved 6-3, with trustees Kathryn Whitley Chu, Gonzales, and de Urioste voting against.

Before the vote, trustee Kevin Foster said he was “not planning to vote no,” as he thought he would. “We have beautiful dual-language communities that are serving 14% emergent bilingual kids. And those bilingual-certified teachers … are disproportionately serving kids for whom learning Spanish is enrichment. And we don’t have enough teachers serving kids who desperately need to learn English,” Foster said.

Superintendent Matias Segura said he felt “devastated” by the school and program closures, but reminded trustees that the TEA can revoke local control of the school district if accountability ratings at turnaround schools do not improve next year. “This is difficult, and I wish we didn’t have to do it, but the pressures are gargantuan. And without significant change, we will not be the school district that can ultimately protect who we are moving forward,” he said.

Back in September, district officials presented families at turnaround schools with three possible outcomes: first, to have their school close and get reassigned to a new school with a better accountability rating (the option AISD chose for seven schools). Secondly, AISD could “restart” the school, meaning a complete rehiring of leadership and faculty who qualify as TEA-defined “highly qualified teachers” and change of curriculum under the TEA’s “Accelerating Campus Excellence” model. Thirdly, they could bring in a third-party charter to restart the school.

Five schools, which all have three consecutive unacceptable accountability scores, will be restarted by the district next fall with rehired faculty and new curriculum: Linder, Sánchez, Pecan Springs, and Wooldridge elementaries, and Paredes MS.

Twelve additional schools, which have two consecutive unacceptable accountability scores, are undergoing “school improvement,” which will mean “intensive” changes to curriculum and instruction next year but not a complete restart: T. A. Brown, Govalle, Hart, Houston, Jordan, Norman-Sims, Overton, Padrón, Pickle, and Wooten elementaries, and the all-girls middle school Sadler Means YWLA. Eastside ECHS received a TAP for federal accountability reasons, though it has only one unacceptable score, and will also undergo the school improvement plan.

A survey was sent out Friday to all AISD employees to collect their campus preferences, indicating where they want to work and teach next year, with priority given to teachers displaced by closed and restarted schools. Segura has committed to retaining all AISD faculty and staff next year who’d like to stay with the district.

When the district released the now-approved consolidation plan on Nov. 14, some parents were surprised by unexpected changes from the previous draft. One, the district is no longer preserving the three campuswide dual-language programs at Becker, Ridgetop, and Sunset Valley elementaries, which will close next fall. Rather, Odom, Pickle, Sánchez, and Wooten, where the wall-to-wall programs were originally supposed to move, will only have two-way dual-language in some classrooms. Reilly ES, the fourth existing campuswide dual-language school, will also lose that program next fall and instead gain a Montessori program.

“At this point, it feels like a program closure, not a ‘program move,’” Chali O’Connor, a Ridgetop parent, said during public comment.

Odom ES will be the only non-zoned, campuswide dual-language program next fall, and the current neighborhood students zoned for Odom will be reassigned to Pleasant Hill ES (but have priority to transfer to Sánchez, Pickle, Wooten, and Odom). Wooten ES will gain a two-way Spanish-English and Mandarin dual-language program.

Moreover, International High School, which supports multilingual newcomer students to the U.S., will close, and it’s no longer being moved as a program to Navarro HS as planned. Students will be provided with “specialized newcomer support” at their regularly assigned school. Segura said there’s not enough demand right now for the program: “We’ve been impacted by changes at the federal level regarding immigration, and International High School has certainly been impacted,” he said.

The TEA will either approve AISD’s turnaround plans or give an initial rejection with feedback within 60 days. Boswell emphasized the importance of submitting plans that will be accepted by the state agency, and actually work to raise accountability ratings across the district.

“The scores measure one thing, they don’t measure everything. They don’t measure who our kids are, or the work that’s happening on campuses, or how much our kids are learning and growing,” Boswell said. “And it’s the measure we have to live by.”

My school will close under a turnaround plan.
Where am I reassigned?

Barrington ES → Guerrero-Thompson ES (B-rated, 75% assigned) & Wooldridge ES (3 UA, 25% assigned)

Bedichek MS → Covington MS (C-rated, 58% assigned), Mendez MS (B-rated, 13% assigned), Paredes MS (3 UA, 23% assigned)

Dawson ES → Galindo ES (C-rated, 100% assigned) 

Oak Springs ES → Blackshear ES (C-rated, 100% assigned)

Martin MS → Kealing MS (A-rated, 61% assigned), Lively MS (C-rated, 26% assigned), Marshall MS (D-rated, 13% assigned)

Winn Montessori → Andrews ES (D-rated, 80% assigned), Pecan Springs ES (3 UA, 20% assigned)

Widén ES → Rodríguez ES (D-rated, 100% assigned)

My school will close as a “modified program move.” Where am I reassigned or given priority transfer?

Becker ES → Galindo ES, Zilker ES, first priority transfer to Sánchez ES

Ridgetop ES → Reilly ES, first priority transfer to Pickle ES

Sunset Valley ES → Cunningham ES or Boone ES, first priority transfer to Odom ES

Data sourced from Austin ISD

This article appears in November 28 • 2025.

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