On Aug. 11, district officials revealed the results of a data rubric ranking campuses based on the potential need for closure, boundary changes or transfer policy updates. In October, district officials will use these rankings along with further analysis to recommend a school consolidation package to the board of trustees.
“We need to figure out how to create healthy, vibrant schools in Austin ISD with a balanced student population that can be supported for years to come,” Superintendent Matias Segura said at a press conference Aug. 11. “Right now, we’re just too thin.”
What’s happening
This summer, district officials created a data rubric to rank all 116 campuses from one to five based on seats filled, facility condition, cost per student and educational suitability. The higher a campus ranked, the more AISD might consider the campus for potential changes, such as closing the school, merging the school with another campus, adjusting its attendance boundaries or updating its transfer policy, according to AISD information.
The rubric also included a support and resource index to measure the level of student need. The index lowered a campus’s score by accounting for demographic groups, such as special education, economically disadvantaged or emergent bilingual students.
"It is very possible that anywhere on this list that a school could be impacted, because we are a network," Segura said. "What you do to one school or one change that you might make is going to have impacts to adjacent schools as well."
The highest-ranking campuses were Ridgetop, Blackshear and Maplewood elementaries, Covington Middle School and McCallum High School. Those campuses were followed by Joslin, Gullett, Bryker Woods and Barton Hills elementaries, and Mendez Middle School.
Click here to view the full data rubric results.
Some context
AISD’s school consolidation process comes as the district is looking to reduce its expenses and invest more resources in fewer campuses, district officials said.
“When you look at this list, it's intended to identify where we have misalignments... so that when we come out of it, we do have a system that improves how we allocate resources,” Segura said about the data rubric. “Right now we do not have the funds to properly resource all 116 campuses that we operate and maintain.”
The district is projecting a $19.7 million budget shortfall for fiscal year 2025-26 after making $44 million in reductions and anticipating $45 million in land sales. More than 22,000 of the district’s seats are empty as over 12,000 students have left the district in the last 10 years, according to AISD information and the Texas Education Agency.
The district is aiming to realize $30 million dollars in savings through the school consolidation process, Segura said at an Aug. 7 board workshop. This would involve eliminating around 8,600 to 13,000 seats in the district, which would allow AISD to fill 85-90% of its total seats, according to district information.
Community Impact asked Segura how many schools AISD might close at an Aug. 11 press conference.
“There are a variety of ways that we can actually get to the $30 million reduction in overall costs,” Segura said. “It's not going to be a few schools or a handful of schools. It'll have to be more than that.”
What’s next
District officials will now complete a contextual analysis of the rubric results, looking at:
- Who attends a campus
- How the building is used
- What programs a campus offers
- Transportation
- Accountability ratings
