After immigrating to the United States, Mclean said her Mexican American grandparents passed on little of their Spanish language to their children.
“My heritage has mostly been lost,” Mclean said. “My husband and I ... wanted to make sure that our kids spoke Spanish.”
Mclean said her children have thrived at Becker—a wall-to-wall dual language campus where all students are taught in both English and Spanish. A couple months into the 2025-26 school year, however, Mclean said she is concerned about the campus’s future amid AISD’s school consolidation process.
What’s happening
Austin ISD officials have discussed relocating wall-to-wall dual language programs at Becker, Ridgetop, Reilly and Sunset Valley elementaries to campuses where a greater number of emergent bilingual students reside. This unofficial proposal comes amid the district’s plan to consolidate schools in the 2026-27 school year, which could include closing and merging campuses, adjusting attendance boundaries, and revising its transfer policy.
Over time, the four campuses have shifted to serving less emergent bilingual students and more non-emergent bilingual, or English-proficient students, AISD Director of Planning Services Raechel French said at a community meeting Sept. 9. In a letter to parents Sept. 17, Becker Elementary Principal Travis Barrett said “the current imbalance between emergent bilingual students and English-proficient students has, at times, underserved even our emergent bilingualism.”
AISD officials said the district would ideally like these wall-to-wall campuses to serve 50% emergent bilingual students and 50% non-emergent bilingual students.
“That balance ensures strong language models in every classroom and prevents either language from becoming ‘dominant,’" Barrett said in the letter to families.
The district held four virtual meetings with community members and staff from Sept. 6-15 to discuss its school consolidation plans, including the future of the wall-to-wall dual language campuses.
AISD is aiming to fill 85%-90% of its seats by eliminating around 8,600-13,100 vacant seats, or $30 million in cost savings. This comes as the district looks to cut costs amid a $19.7 million budget shortfall and declining enrollment that is projected to drop by nearly 11% over the next decade, according to a new demographic report by MGT.
Additionally, 12 campuses may require closure or other interventions after receiving three consecutive failed ratings from the Texas Education Agency.
A closer look
AISD will continue offering some dual language services at many campuses where there are a certain number of emergent bilingual students, French said.
For its four wall-to-wall dual language campuses, the district may “try to locate and merge with a campus that has a larger number of emergent bilingual students” to achieve a 50-50 split of emergent bilingual and non-emergent bilingual students, said Yvette Cardenas, AISD executive director of academic programs, at a Sept. 15 meeting.
“We are very committed to ensuring that if you are part of a dual language program, your community will be there as much as possible in another location,” French said Sept. 15. “It's really trying to focus on kind of moving and merging with another school, not just starting over.”
The district cannot keep its current wall-to-wall programs open while starting new ones as “staffing our dual language programs districtwide is really difficult,” she said. Students will not be zoned to the new wall-to-wall dual language campuses but may choose to go there, French said.
What parents are saying
Dozens of parents spoke about their love for Becker Elementary at a Sept. 18 board meeting, highlighting the campus’s academic success and strong community. Several parents told Community Impact that Becker’s unique program and culture attracted families to the district.
“We're in this boat because of lack of enrollment,” Becker parent Alex Aponte Coulbourn said about the school consolidation process. “Why aren't people enrolling? Maybe because they're not exposed to the type of community that I've seen at Becker.”
Ridgetop Elementary parent Joshua LeMaire said he is concerned about the feasibility of relocating the campus’s dual language program and the potential closure of his neighborhood school.
“I want to live in my community where my school is and have my child be friends with the kids in the neighborhood,” LeMaire said. “You can't just drag and drop a successful school program into another school.”
Parent Tanner VanEssen transferred his two Hispanic children to Becker Elementary so they could reclaim the language of their ancestors. While his children’s experience in the dual language program at Becker has been "absolutely amazing," VanEssen said he and other parents now feel like their voices don’t matter.
“The lack of transparency between the district and us is probably the main point of frustration and friction now,” VanEssen said, “We're hearing these rumors that may or may not be true, but we can't get a hold of the district to validate or find out what's going on.”
What’s next
French said the district is “being vague” about the changes to the wall-to-wall dual language campuses as officials are working with principals to develop transition plans.
The district will begin crafting transition plans for “the communities that would be perhaps leaving a campus, and the community that would be welcoming and receiving some other students and families,” Cardenas said Sept. 15.
On Oct. 9, district officials will present a draft school consolidation plan that will go to the board of trustees for approval Nov. 20.
The district will share plans with opportunities for adjustments at community meetings between Oct. 9-Nov. 20, an AISD spokesperson told Community Impact. Community members can click here to complete a consolidation survey.
