Band Director Casey Thompson demonstrates the flute on the first day of school at Marshall Middle School on Monday August 14, 2023. Marshall Middle may receive its first ever attendance boundaries under a plan being considered by trustees.
Jay Janner / American-Statesman
Students from six elementary schools in Northeast Austin could be zoned to Marshall Middle School next year as part of an effort to create the school’s first attendance boundary.
The Austin Independent School District also plans to reassign a small portion of Linder Elementary School’s attendance area to a nearby campus to relieve overcrowding at the school. The school board is slated to vote this month on the plan.
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The proposed changes could take effect as soon as fall 2027 and would mark the first step in Austin ISD’s broader effort to redraw attendance boundaries across the district. District leaders have twice postponed attendance boundary changes and now expect comprehensive changes won’t come until 2028.
Officials say the changes around Marshall Middle and Linder Elementary are essential to ensure campuses aren’t overcrowded and to allow more students to stay together from elementary through high school, which can improve long-term academic planning and community building.
Under the proposal, students from Blanton, Overton, Andrews, Pecan Springs, Harris and Jordan elementary schools will attend Marshall. Students at these schools and Norman-Sims Elementary can already opt to attend the campus — but only about 41% do, according to district data.
Norman-Sims students would be assigned to Kealing Middle School, under the proposal.
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Marshall Middle School nears the end of construction Wednesday, May 31, 2023. The school board is slated to vote on an attendance boundary proposal for the middle school.
Mikala Compton/American-Statesman
The plan assigns more students to Marshall than can fit the campus’ footprint. The campus can serve 915 students, but if every student zoned to Marshall attended the school, the campus would enroll 962 students.
But Raechel French, the district’s executive director of planning and learning environments, isn’t worried that the school will be overcrowded. Students across the district often transfer to campuses that they are not zoned to, she said.
“There is just no instance where every single zoned kid wants to go to their zoned school,” French said.
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Unifying an East Austin community
East Austin has long called for a unified attendance map that doesn’t split up students from one elementary school between multiple middle schools, said trustee Candace Hunter, who represents Northeast Austin. Many East Austin advocates have said splintering students as they move from elementary through high school can fracture a shared sense of community or academic continuity.
The district should be prepared to invest resources in Marshall, Hunter said. Of the six elementary schools assigned to Marshall under the proposal, three have an F rating, one has a D, one a C and one a B on the state’s A-F system for rating schools. Marshall scored a D on the 2026 accountability ratings.
“That is a lot of concentrated need in one middle school that is already struggling itself,” Hunter said. The proposal “unifies that community. For the first time ever, they’re going to be going (to middle school) together. That’s worth the risk, but that’s also worth the investment.”
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To deal with enrollment growth, French has also proposed assigning a small section of Linder’s boundary to nearby Travis Heights Elementary, which would change where 111 students attend class. A newly renovated $56.4 million Linder campus reopened in August using funds from the $2.4 billion 2022 bond.
Officials decided to address boundaries for Linder and Marshall because of acute needs at both schools, French said this fall. The proposal comes after several community meetings to gather feedback about the suggested boundaries at both campuses.
If the board approves the boundary for Marshall, it will be the first time that the middle school has a zoned attendance area. The campus opened in 2023 and was constructed using $60 million from the 2017 $1.05 billion bond.
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If middle school students in Northeast Austin want to continue at the school they attend this year, their families can apply for a transfer, French said.
Families can provide feedback on the proposals through Oct. 29 by filling out an online form, but should send opinions by Oct. 22 if they want their thoughts to shape the final recommendation to the board, French said. Trustees plan to vote on Oct. 29.