Austin Business Journal reports, "The Austin Independent School District plans to consolidate operations amid a tough financial outlook and could either sell or lease up to 13 school sites that it's considering closing.
The district published a proposed consolidation plan Oct. 3 in which 13 schools would be closed and most of the district’s attendance boundaries would be altered. The proposal is aimed at addressing anticipated enrollment declines and financial challenges, with the AISD’s approved 2025-26 budget projecting a $19.7 million deficit and the potential consolidation forecast to save more than $25 million.
“To protect the quality of education in Austin ISD, we must reassess where our limited resources are spent,” Superintendent Matias Segura said in a statement. “This draft plan is designed to refocus our investments and align with our guiding principles: minimize impacts, balance enrollment, align feeder patterns and focus on long-term stability.”
The schools that are proposed to close include:
- Barrington Elementary School, 400 Cooper Drive
- Becker Elementary School, 906 W. Milton St.
- Bedichek Middle School, 6800 Bill Hughes Road
- Bryker Woods Elementary School, 3309 Kerbey Lane
- Dawson Elementary School, 3001 S. First St.
- Maplewood Elementary School, 3808 Maplewood Ave.
- Martin Middle School, 1601 Haskell St.
- Oak Springs Elementary School, 3601 Webberville Road
- Palm Elementary School, 7601 Dixie Drive
- Ridgetop Elementary School, 5005 Caswell Ave.
- Sunset Valley Elementary School, 3000 Jones Road
- Widen Elementary School, 5605 Nuckols Crossing
- Winn Montessori, 3500 Susquehanna Lane
The proposed school closures could be finalized during the AISD's Nov. 20 board meeting.
The plan outlines three options for each of the sites under consideration for closure — reuse, lease or sell.
Under the reuse option, AISD could repurpose some of the sites to meet other district needs, although they wouldn't serve K-12 grades. For the lease option, AISD would maintain ownership but lease the sites to third-parties and potentially yield community benefits, such as the district's lease with the nonprofit United Way for Greater Austin that turned the previously closed Pease Elementary School into a child care center and hub for early education. Under the sale option, the AISD would issue a call for offers and then sell a closed campus to the highest bidder.
"Each campus will be reviewed in terms of how it supports the district’s overall strategy to best serve students and staff," the consolidation plan states.
A framework will be created to recommend the best option for each site that ends up closing, the district said, and then the AISD's board would be asked to sign off on the subsequent real estate decisions. Factors that will come into play when sites are being considered for repurposing, leasing or a sale include adjacent land uses, deed restrictions, facility conditions, projected area growth rates and estimated market values.
According to the consolidation plan, AISD staff will start the process of exploring the options for the sites in January and will make recommendations to the board by the end of the current school year — the last day of which is May 28.
In addition to the consolidation play, the school district has been making other efforts to improve its financial condition. Among them, it recently opened up sponsorship opportunities for some of its key districtwide facilities."
Source: Austin Business Journal
Written by: Sean Hemmersmeier
Published: October 6, 2025
Posted by Grossman & Jones Group on
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