The Austin school district headquarters, Monday, Jun., 13, 2022.
Stephen Spillman/Special to American-Statesman
Weeks before the school year begins, Austin Independent School District will close Paredes Middle School immediately because of continued academic struggles, the district said in a statement. The decision will mark an unexpected 11th school closure in the past year.
In a meeting with campus staff on Wednesday morning, Austin ISD officials told employees that the school will close because of projections the campus will receive a fourth consecutive F rating from the state this year, according to Education Austin, the district’s largest employee union.
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Superintendent Matias Segura proposed the closure “after reviewing academic growth data over the summer and readiness for the school year,” he said in a statement released to families Wednesday. The school board will meet next week to vote on the proposed closure.
If Paredes Middle School scores a fifth F rating after the 2026-27 school year, the state could take over the entire district. But a possible takeover already looms over the district.
Austin ISD is already facing drastic Texas Education Agency intervention if any of three North Austin middle schools receives another failing rating in state-issued campus scores that will be released Aug. 14.
The state’s A-F campus rating system grades schools largely based on student performance on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, tests. If a campus receives five F ratings in a row, the state must either close down the offending school or take over the entire district. In a takeover, the state sidelines the elected board of trustees in favor of an appointed board of managers and often replaces the superintendent.
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Paredes Middle School will be the 11th campus that the district closes this year, after trustees in the fall voted to shutter another 10 campuses and International High School, a program for students new to the country. If the board approves the change, Paredes students would attend Bailey or Mendez middle schools.
“While this is a difficult decision, we must maintain high expectations and rigor for all our students,” Segura said. “This student-centered approach to our work required us to make this proposal based on the trends we’re seeing at Paredes.”
Change of plans
The closure of Paredes is an abrupt pivot from a June announcement that more school closures could be coming for the 2028 school year. At that time, Segura delayed a comprehensive redrawing of attendance boundaries, which has not been done in years. The June announcement also walked back statements Segura made in April that more school closures this fall were unlikely.
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The announcement comes just days after Austin ISD ended a partnership with the nonprofit Texas Council for International Studies, to run Dobie, Burnet and Webb middle schools in North Austin. The district initially partnered with TCIS in the hopes of fending off a state takeover. Each of the campuses has four consecutive F ratings.
In May, the Texas Education Agency rejected the district’s bid to partner with TCIS to buy more time for the three chronically underperforming schools to improve academics, moving the district closer to state intervention. Austin ISD will instead operate the three schools this year.
“It is either the district takes some action now or during the year, and they’re taking the action now,” said Education Austin President Ken Zarifis. “While it’s a really difficult situation, we believe of the actions, it’s better.”
Segura said that every Paredes employee will be placed in a new position in Austin ISD and that no staff member will lose their job.
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The South Austin school enrolls about 630 students, but it had been slated to enroll more students next year. Some students from Bedichek Middle School, which was one of the 10 campuses that closed this summer, were expected attend the school.
The news infuriated Elena Torres-Ponce, whose son would have started eighth grade at Paredes in August.
“I feel totally let down by this administration,” she said.
As of 4 p.m., Torres-Ponce hadn’t received official communications about the closure from Austin ISD but had heard the news from school staff.
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Last fall, Torres-Ponce attended meetings at the campus because she was worried the middle school might close as part of the district’s efforts to shutter schools amid enrollment declines. Administrators told her then that she’d know about the school’s future by December 2025 — getting the news a few weeks before school starts is upsetting, she said.
She worries about her son making such a quick transition. All of his friends attend Paredes, and she is concerned that they now may be split up with little notice.
“None of this is right,” she said.
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The school board will meet next Tuesday to discuss the proposed closure and is expected to vote on the decision the following Thursday.