Austin Independent School District leaders on Friday presented a draft consolidation and turnaround plan that would close Barrington Elementary, reassign the majority of its students to Guerrero Thompson Elementary and a smaller number to Wooldridge Elementary, and move Barrington’s state-required turnaround plan with the students to the receiving campus.

“I'm Matias Segura, the superintendent for Austin ISD, and I wanna thank you for being here this morning,” Superintendent Matias Segura said as he explained the district’s reasoning. “We have over 20,000 empty seats in Austin ISD” and the district must identify “efficiencies in the system by removing empty seats,” he said.

The draft, released in early October and described at the meeting by Ally, senior executive director of communications and community engagement for Austin ISD, and Christine Steenport, operations officer, would take effect for the 2026–27 school year if approved. The district plans to publish a revised draft on Oct. 31, discuss it in a public board workshop Nov. 6, and hold a final board vote Nov. 20.

Why it matters: The district says the plan aims to align feeder patterns, reduce unused capacity and sustain programs such as dual-language instruction by moving them to neighborhoods where emergent bilingual families live. Superintendent Segura said the move is also intended to address state accountability timelines: Barrington has three consecutive unacceptable accountability ratings, which requires a state-mandated turnaround plan. “If our plan isn't accepted the state can take interventions up to installing a board of managers,” Segura said.

What the draft proposes and how it would affect Barrington
- Majority reassignment. The draft assigns most Barrington students to Guerrero Thompson Elementary and a smaller group to Wooldridge Elementary, using neighborhood boundaries (district staff pointed to Walnut Creek as a dividing line in the maps shown).
- Turnaround plan transfers. Ally and Christine explained that when a campus subject to a turnaround plan is closed and students are reassigned, the turnaround plan must move with the students to the receiving campus and be implemented there. Christine Steenport said the district will appoint principals in December after a November board vote; the appointed principal would then hire staff for the combined community under the turnaround staffing criteria.
- Timeline for families and staff. If the board approves the draft, the changes would take effect August 2026. The district said it will freeze external hiring in January and select principals in December so those principals can participate in staffing decisions. Families would receive placement emails in February and special education teams will offer ARD meetings and transition visits in August, district staff said.

Staff protections and transitions
District leaders repeatedly assured families that the district will work to place existing staff. Christine Steenport said the district will pause external recruitment so employees affected by closures can be rehired elsewhere in Austin ISD. Segura said the district will run match fairs in February and March and that he would not terminate staff as a matter of policy; he rejected a social-media claim that the district planned to fire hundreds of teachers as “absolutely not true.”

Special education and program continuity
Dr. Cherry Lee, assistant superintendent of special education, told a parent that therapy services (speech, occupational, physical therapy and nursing) would continue and that staff providing specialized programs would be offered positions at receiving campuses. She said families would be notified of placements and offered ARD meetings and meetings with new case managers.

Resources and finances
The district said the consolidation effort is a districtwide exercise: staff cited roughly $25 million in savings from the proposed consolidations and said the district plans to reinvest over half of that amount into the 24 schools that currently have turnaround plans, to lower student-teacher ratios and add counselors and instructional coaches.

Community concerns and district responses
Parents, staff and community members at the meeting raised several recurring concerns:
- Pace and community input. Commenters said the process felt rushed and that families did not feel heard. Segura and other staff said engagement began in spring with a district survey that drew more than 14,000 responses and that the district developed a rubric based on that input; they acknowledged the timeline is compressed because of state accountability deadlines.
- Construction swing space. Wooldridge is scheduled for a 2022 bond modernization that requires a swing site during construction. Commenters asked whether Guerrero Thompson, Barrington or Adobe Pre-K would serve as swing space; staff said they had started planning with the city and could finalize swing-space decisions only after the board vote.
- Property and reuse. Questions about the school site and adjoining parkland were raised. District staff said future uses of surplus school sites will be decided by the district’s public facilities corporation and the board; options include sale, lease or repurpose, and the district cited an example of repurposing a former school site with a United Way partnership for affordable child care.
- Equity and neighborhood impact. Multiple speakers urged the district not to concentrate burden in East Austin and to preserve neighborhood schools. Segura said the plan aims to distribute change across the district and avoid placing disproportionate burden on any single area.

What is not decided or finalized
The draft discussed at the meeting is not final. District staff said the board will consider revisions on Nov. 6 and vote Nov. 20. Staff repeatedly said certain items are contingent on board approval and on state acceptance of required turnaround plans; they declined to promise alternatives the state would reject. No formal board action or vote took place at this community meeting.

Next steps
District leaders asked families to submit comments through the public comment form (open through Oct. 28) and to review the revised draft when it is posted Oct. 31. Segura and staff said they will refine the plan based on feedback but emphasized the district must meet state deadlines for turnaround plans or risk state intervention.

Ending
The district reiterated that staff protections, transition supports for students with special needs, and reinvestment in turnaround schools are central elements of the draft. “We are taking input every single day,” Segura said. The board’s public workshop on the revised plan is scheduled for Nov. 6, with a final vote tentatively set for Nov. 20.