Transfers frozen for 29 Austin ISD schools in 2014–15

At the Austin ISD board of trustees' Dec. 16 meeting, Superintendent Meria Carstarphen announced which schools will not accept transfers for the 2014–15 school year to maintain stability in tracking patterns or address overcrowding.

"There are 29 schools that will be frozen and 24 at which space will be re-evaluated after priority transfers are approved," she said.

Schools frozen to transfers in 2014-15 are:

• Akins, Anderson, Austin, Bowie and McCallum high schools;
• Burnet, Gorzycki, Murchison, O. Henry and Paredes middle schools; and
• Baldwin, Baranoff, Blazier, Brentwood, Bryker Woods (grade 5), Casey, Casis, Clayton, Doss, Graham, Highland Park, Hill, Kiker, Langford, Lee (grades 3 and 5), Menchaca, Pickle, Rodriguez and Travis Heights elementary schools.

Additionally, the district will monitor and possibly freeze transfers at Bedichek, Dobie, Kealing, Lamar, Martin, Small and Webb; as well as Andrews, Cook, Davis, Gullett, Harris, Hart, Houston, McBee, New North Central Elementary, Odom, Palm, Patton, Perez, Ridgetop, Summitt, Sunset Valley and Wooldridge elementary schools.

Trustee Robert Schneider said the district should address boundary issues affecting overcrowding at some of the schools. For example, he noted students who live in the Greyrock Ridge subdivision in Southwest Austin are zoned to attend Baranoff, so they pass by other elementary schools during their daily commute on MoPac.

"It's hard to sell a home if you're a builder when you're asking families that move into those homes to make those kinds of travel arrangements just to get their kids to [school]. I think that we need to be very cognizant of the way that what we're doing is impacting the entire community," he said.

Trustee Ann Teich said she agreed with Schneider's comments and noted that the board and AISD staff are working diligently to complete the district's facility master plan, which will address boundaries, enrollment and other issues when it is complete in 2014.

Parents can submit student transfer requests to AISD for the 2014–15 school year starting Jan. 6.