Paredes Middle School, July 22, 2026. AISD announced there will be a vote on the immediate closure of the school next week.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Less than a week after announcing the surprise closure of a South Austin middle school with years of academic struggles, Austin Independent School District board members questioned the recommendation to close Paredes Middle School so close to the start of the school year.
Austin ISD leaders announced the proposed closure as the district faces threats of a looming state takeover because of academic failings at three North Austin middle schools.
Article continues below this ad
A sign reminds parents to register their children for the next year at Paredes Middle School, July 22, 2026. AISD announced there will be a vote on the immediate closure of the school next week.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
The sign in front of Paredes Middle School, July 22, 2026. AISD announced there will be a vote on the immediate closure of the school next week.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
The decision to close Paredes now is based on slow academic improvement and staff vacancies, Superintendent Matias Segura said at a meeting Tuesday night.
“We are not in a position to ensure that our students at Paredes Middle School grow academically in 2026-2027 school year,” Segura said.
Austin ISD officials said some of the diminished academic performance in the second half of the school year came about because of “disruptions” at the school. The disruptions were related to the principal of Paredes being placed on leave from Dec. 16 to Feb. 26, according to the district. A spokeswoman said she couldn’t discuss the reason for the leave because it was related to a human resources issue.
Article continues below this ad
On Thursday, Segura said it’s likely Paredes will recieve a fourth failing rating from the state, which would inch the campus closer to triggering a possible takeover of the entire school district.
The late move for Paredes students is rushed, said trustee Andrew Gonzales, who represents South Austin, including Paredes. When the school board voted in November to close 10 campuses, the district spent months of careful planning to help students transition to their new school, he said.
“Paredes students are being deprived of that opportunity by this recommendation coming when it is,” Gonzales said.
Trustee David Kauffman, who represents Southwest Austin, described the decision as “shocking.”
Article continues below this ad
Community advocates and parents called on Austin ISD leaders to be more transparent about the closure, which angered Laurie Solis, who lives near Paredes. She serves as vice president of vertical teams and training for the Austin Council of PTAs.
During the Tuesday night meeting, Solis said she is frustrated by “a longstanding lack of urgency, priority and care from district leadership in serving the Paredes community” and the closure, which “reflects, at best, a failure to plan proactively,” she said.
Declining academic performance
If tustees approve the change, most Paredes students will be re-zoned to Bailey Middle School, and about 45% of Paredes students will move to Mendez Middle School. Shuttering the campus will affect 848 students and 88 staff members, including 58 teachers.
Article continues below this ad
The move will mean that a state-mandated turnaround plan meant to improve student test scores at Paredes will shift to Bailey, which the state rated a C in its 2025 campus letter grades.
Austin ISD testing showed student performance at Paredes largely improved in the first semester of 2025-26, but dropped in the second semester, according to data presented Tuesday.
“A lesson for us as leaders is as a system we need multiple data points,” Chief of Staff La Kesha Drinks said. “That is a fine line between overtesting and having enough data points to make sound projections.”
Student performance in math dropped steeply from the middle to the end of the year. While 46% of eighth graders appeared on track to pass the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, test at the middle of the year, only 32% were still on track at the end of the year, according to internal testing.
Article continues below this ad
Staff vacancies also presented a challenge. As of Tuesday, Paredes had 18 vacancies, including 14 open teaching positions. Having that many vacant educator positions would make it challenging for Paredes to fulfill the tenets of its academic turnaround plan, Segura said. Paredes had 39 teachers in the 2024-25 school year.
Academic outcomes ‘have not progressed’
In announcing the closure last week, Segura said the district made the decision because Paredes’ “student academic outcomes have not progressed at the accelerated rate needed.”
“While this is a difficult decision, we must maintain high expectations and rigor for all our students,” Segura wrote in a message to families.
Article continues below this ad
The state assigns ratings to public school campuses each year, largely based on results from the STAAR tests. If any campus receives five failing ratings in a row, the state can either shut down the campus or take over the entire school district, replacing elected trustees and the superintendent with appointees.
Paredes has three consecutive F ratings, starting with a failing grade in 2023. But the school’s overall score increased from 47 out of 100 in 2023 to 59 last year.
Student math performance increased slightly between 2025 and 2026, with passage rates improving from 31% to 34%. However, reading scores dropped slightly. Only 56% of Paredes students passed the STAAR test in 2026, compared to 58% last year.
Across Austin ISD, 65% of sixth, seventh and eighth graders passed the math STAAR test and almost 75% of district students passed the reading test. The state is expected to release 2026 scores on Aug. 14. Districts often use student testing data to calculate the scores their campuses will receive in advance of the ratings release.
Article continues below this ad
Three North Austin middle schools — Dobie, Burnet and Webb — could receive a fifth consecutive F rating this year, which would trigger a state takeover.
In 2025, Austin ISD had 12 campuses with three F ratings in a row. Austin ISD closed seven of those schools at the end of the 2025-26 school year. Closing Paredes would bring the number of campuses with three consecutive failing ratings down to four.
Segura told trustees on Tuesday that Austin ISD had enough information about school ratings to assure families that the district wouldn’t recommend any more last-minute closures.
Next steps for Paredes families
Trustees are slated to vote Thursday on the proposed closure of Paredes, which would be the 11th district campus to close in 2026.
Article continues below this ad
Austin ISD plans to set up in-person registration clinics and a phone bank to communicate with Paredes families about the change.
Segura suggested that staff at both Bailey and Mendez get the stipends that Paredes staff would have received because of the additional duties required under the academic turnaround plan. Closing the school will save $7.4 million, but the move to the new campuses will cost $4.9 million.
The Texas Education Agency will need to approve the updated turnaround plan if trustees OK it, but Segura wasn’t sure exactly when the agency would respond.
Article continues below this ad