On a March morning, third-grader Talia Martinez began class in the backseat of her mother\u2019s maroon Honda sedan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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She and her co-teacher, kindergartener Lily Dowis, instructed a class of make-believe students to write sentences. The girls traced letters in spiral notebooks, while Selina Martinez, Talia\u2019s mother, changed lanes on busy Highway 290\u00a0en route to Becker Elementary<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSo far we have written two sentences: we just need one more after we read this book,\u201d Talia told her imaginary class.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In the 15-minute ride to Becker Elementary from the girls\u2019 homes in South Austin, they read aloud and tried to quiet a couple of their rowdier \u201cstudents,\u201d who they called Michael and Jolly.\u00a0<\/p>\n The backseat schoolhouse emerged about a year ago, but the two\u00a0families have been carpooling since the children were toddlers attending daycare. This spring, Talia and Lily had to break the news to their pupils that class as they knew it was ending.\u00a0<\/p>\n The girls\u2019 school\u00a0\u2014 Becker Elementary\u00a0\u2014 closed this summer, as part of a sweeping Austin Independent School District plan to shutter 10 campuses<\/a> to address declining enrollment<\/a> and a $181 million budget deficit<\/a>. Now, the children are heading separate ways: Lily and her brother, Finn, to Austin ISD\u2019s Mills Elementary and Talia to the private The Girls\u2019 School of Austin.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The change means no more morning carpools, school concerts or classroom parties together.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to lose that,\u201d Selina said. \u201cNot that relationship, but it\u2019s going to look different.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Selina Martinez does her daughter Talia\u2019s\u00a0hair at home before heading out to the door for carpool to Becker Elementary School, April 16, 2026. Talia attends third grade at Becker but will need to move to a new school with AISD closes the elementary school at the end of the 2025-26 school year.<\/p>\n Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman The morning commute to Becker Elementary will change for Selina Martinez and her daughter Talia when the school closes at the end of the school year. The Martinez family share pick-up and drop off duties with another family in their neighborhood, but that will soon change as Talia will be headed to a different school.<\/p>\n Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n For years, Austin advocates and families fought against the possibility of sweeping school closures.\u00a0While research points to negative short-term academic outcomes for children<\/a>, the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University found closing under-enrolled schools can save districts money.<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In 2019, the district closed four schools, largely in historic Hispanic areas of East Austin<\/a>. Last year, Austin ISD trustees voted to shutter 10 more campuses and the International High School for students new to the country.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n District officials have said the move was necessary to save money and align resources with a rapidly shrinking student body. Last school year,\u00a0student enrollment dipped below 70,000 for the first time since the early 1990s<\/a>.<\/p>\n As families at closing campuses evaluated their options for next school year<\/a>, Austin ISD leadership hoped to retain as many students as possible. By late May, more than 2,270 of the nearly 3,380 students enrolled at the closing campuses had already registered for another Austin ISD school, according to district data. Many families don\u2019t register for school until fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n Exactly how the closures will reshape Austin ISD isn\u2019t yet clear. Some Austin ISD families worried that the closures would drive parents, betrayed by the loss of a beloved school, out of an already shrinking district.\u00a0Others who committed to stay are questioning the future of a district that is already grappling with the\u00a0possibility that more schools may have to close<\/a>.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Drew and Selina Martinez shake hands with Young People\u2019s Workshop founders Monica Moreno and Ramon Aguirre after taking a tour of their Spanish dual immersion school, Jan. 15, 2026.<\/p>\n Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman Selina and Drew Martinez sit at their dining table, examining school ranking spreadsheets on Jan. 21, 2026. The Martinez family must rank which AISD schools they are most interested in sending their older daughter, Talia, to fourth grade at after her current school, Becker Elementary, closes at the end of the school year. The district will take these rankings into account, but each school has limited spots so families may not get into their first choice.<\/p>\n Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n Bittersweet farewell<\/p>\n The board\u2019s decision to close schools gutted the Martinezes.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t only the building, although they loved Becker\u2019s art deco schoolhouse and lush garden. It also wasn\u2019t just the dual-language instruction that taught Talia in English and Spanish, something the family felt righted a historic wrong in the Martinez family.\u00a0<\/p>\n The community had taken their hearts. Every volunteer day at the school\u2019s lush vegetable garden and fundraiser filled with music and food were something special\u00a0\u2014 the parents and staff had poured their love into the place. Losing a space that brought people together was frightening for so many families because it put at risk what many people had worked so hard to build, said James\u00a0Dowis, Lily\u2019s father.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe community\u2019s still there, but it\u2019s going to take more effort to keep it at the same level,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The closures also forced single mom Esther\u00a0Flores to find a new school for both her girls.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Her daughter, Ariel Fletcher, a rising eighth grader, attended Bedichek Middle School while her youngest, Alyssa, who will be in third grade next year, attended Dawson Elementary, a campus tucked between traditional Austin ranch houses and sleek designer new-builds on the rapidly developing South First Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n The goodbye to Dawson, which both of her girls attended, felt untimely. For about a decade, Flores’ children played on the sunny playground or learned new steps for the annual Snowball Dance or Harvest Hop, where students performed routines for their parents.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe were just connected to that school,\u201d Flores said. \u201cWe don\u2019t live in that part of town, but we were part of that community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Bedichek, a South Austin stalwart, also felt like home with its embrace of families\u2019 Latino culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThe assistant principal would put music on (at lunch) and start dancing cumbia,\u201d Flores said.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the gym in early April, sitting on rows of folding chairs with her classmates, Ariel struggled to hold back her emotion as school leaders led the students in a goodbye ceremony.\u00a0<\/p>\n The students clapped their thighs, stomped on the metal bleachers and yelled, as staff unveiled brightly colored posters with Bedichek\u2019s bobcat mascot, which students had helped paint.\u00a0<\/p>\n Next year, Ariel will attend Covington Middle School, her third middle school in three years. Given the choice between three nearby middle schools, Covington immediately stood out to Flores because of its strong athletics program. She filed an appeal so her daughter could attend.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Alyssa will go to Galindo because many of her friends are attending, and the school made more sense for the family\u2019s transportation plans. Getting both kids to and from school can be a puzzle, and transportation arrangements were one of\u00a0Flores’ first concerns when she heard the campuses would close.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cY\u2019all are really stressing me out as a single mom,\u201d she said of AISD.\u00a0<\/p>\n Talia Martinez speaks with a teacher from Oak Hill Elementary as she tours the school, March 6, 2026. Martinez is touring schools within and outside of AISD, looking for a new dual language program to replace the program she attends at Becker Elementary School, which will close with the school at the end of the academic year.<\/p>\n Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman Selina Martinez holds her daughter Talia as they take a tour of Oak Hill Elementary, March 6, 2026. Oak Springs has a dual language program, which is important to the Martinez family as the school Talia currently attends, Becker Elementary, will close, along with its dual language program, at the end of the academic year.<\/p>\n Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman Talia Martinez examines Spanish-language instruction on a whiteboard in a fourth grade classroom at Oak Hill Elementary School, March 6, 2026. Martinez and her family are searching for new options for dual language programming within and outside of AISD due to the closure of her current school, Becker Elementary.<\/p>\n Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman Selina and Talia Martinez walk the halls of Oak Hill Elementary during a tour of the school, March 6, 2026. The Martinez family are exploring options within and outside of AISD for Talia to attend fourth grade, since her current school, Becker Elementary, will be closing.<\/p>\n Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman Talia and Selina Martinez walk outside to the large playground area at Oak Hill Elementary during a tour of the campus, March 6, 2026.<\/p>\n Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman Talia Martinez climbs on a structure at the Oak Hill Elementary School playground during a tour of the campus, March 6, 2026. Martinez and her family were interested in touring the school because of the dual language program. Talia currently attends dual language third grade at Becker Elementary, but will need to enroll elsewhere when the school closes at the end of the academic year.<\/p>\n Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman Talia Martinez examines books on the shelf in the Oak Hill Elementary School library during a campus tour, March 6, 2026.<\/p>\n Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n Replanting community<\/p>\n Diana Sanchez didn\u2019t have a hard time choosing her daughter Tessa\u2019s new school, but that didn\u2019t make leaving behind Sunset Valley Elementary any easier.<\/a> Rising fourth-grader Tessa has been at Sunset Valley since she was in prekindergarten. Next year, the Sanchezes, like many other campus families, will head to Odom Elementary, which will become the district\u2019s only whole-campus dual language school.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re lucky because our campus was just uprooted, and we\u2019re being planted somewhere else,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cOther campuses are just being scattered to the wind.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n If anything, saying goodbye to the tight-knit community only got harder as the year drew to a close, Sanchez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sitting in Sunset Valley\u2019s blue carpeted library\u00a0for a final PTA meeting in May, surrounded by the parents she\u2019d spent countless evenings and weekends with, Sanchez began choking up. Their last act as a PTA, which had organized countless fiestas and raised thousands of dollars for school costs, was to formally dissolve itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was just like, \u2018Oh my god,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cIt really started hitting people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Several weeks later, Sanchez braved the heat with a handful of other parents to weed eat the grass around the now-empty school. The lawn already bore signs of change: volunteer parents had disassembled the planter boxes that once grew cucumbers, eggplants and melons, uprooting pieces of the garden that families had so lovingly tended to over the years.\u00a0Later this summer, Sanchez and other parents plan to dig out milkweed, blue mistflower and other precious plants from Sunset Valley\u2019s garden.\u00a0<\/p>\n Soon, those plants will come with them to Odom to be replanted and find a second life in the new space.\u00a0<\/p>\n Long goodbyes<\/p>\n Selina and Drew Martinez were driving to the airport to visit family when they got the call they\u2019d been waiting for all semester\u00a0\u2014 Talia had been accepted into The Girls\u2019 School of Austin, a private school in West Austin.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThat was really a relief,\u201d Drew said. \u201cThat really worked out, after all the stress and everything like that with this experience.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The campus, which serves girls in kindergarten through eighth grade, had stood out to the Martinezes through a dozen tours of area schools. They especially liked the school\u2019s curriculum that emphasizes social justice. The decision ended their months of evaluating Austin\u00a0ISD campuses and private schools.<\/a> They read up on curriculum, estimated drive times and talked with other families.<\/p>\n Originally insistent on a dual-language program, the family eventually set aside that wish in favor of something they felt was more important: a school where they felt\u00a0Talia could thrive and grow.\u00a0<\/p>\n Although the Martinezes filled out an Austin ISD campus preference sheet and seriously considered staying with the district, the decision to close Becker fractured their trust. How could they fall in love with another school if they feared it might shut down, too?\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Drew and Talia Martinez watch Talent Show performances during the final Becker Elementary School Pachanga, the annual end-of-year celebration for the school, May 17, 2026. Becker Elementary closed at the end of the academic year.<\/p>\n Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n Becker\u2019s closure\u00a0unlodged a cascade of uncertainty and distrust about Austin ISD itself. It didn\u2019t help that the closures came so close to a series of other near-existential challenges emerging in Austin ISD.\u00a0<\/p>\n Budget cuts because of a $181 million deficit<\/a>, looming staff reductions and a rising threat that the state might take over Austin\u00a0ISD<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 for the Martinezes, every new piece of information felt like picking at a raw wound. None of it felt fair.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAs individual schools, they\u2019re successful, despite the district,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cWith all the risk of everything that\u2019s going on with the state, that\u2019s where it\u2019s hard to continue to put our faith in there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Sanchez has her own reservations about the district\u2019s long-term stability.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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