AUSTIN, Texas — The Austin Independent School District’s board of trustees met Oct. 29 for a work session on a districtwide consolidation plan that administration officials say aims to address enrollment imbalance and budget pressures.

The meeting opened with Superintendent José Segura saying the district had received more than 6,500 public comments and, by his count, “over 7,000 of these cards” that staff had reviewed. Trustees heard 20 pre-recorded public comments during the meeting and extended discussion into eight topic areas — from dual-language programming and Montessori to middle- and high-school feeder alignments.

The most sustained public feedback focused on a set of neighborhood elementary schools slated for closure in the draft plan. Several parents of Bryker Woods Elementary told trustees that closing the school would damage a neighborhood hub that keeps families in AISD. “You would see our neighborhood association meetings happening in our cafeteria in the evenings,” Mackenzie Coronado said in a recorded comment. Parents and community members warned trustees that past closures led to enrollment loss and that this plan could trigger further attrition. “Every family that leaves costs AISD $13,000 plus in annual per-pupil funding,” parent Ben Hooten said in a recorded comment.

Segura said the administration has used community feedback to refine the draft and will release an updated version Oct. 31 with several stand-alone addenda: an academic-framework addendum, a special-education transition plan, a finance addendum, and an enrollment-and-transfer-policies addendum. He listed several specific commitments that will be reflected in the next draft:

- Continuation transfers will include rising sixth- and ninth-graders if their feeder school changes, allowing students to finish a planned feeder path.

- Transfer students at a school proposed to close or to have program changes will be guaranteed a spot to “stay with their peers at the new school location.”

- Prekindergarten students will be allowed to continue at their current campus.

- Staff and sibling transfers will be automatically approved unless denied by the superintendent (the administration noted application-based programs are treated differently).

- Students who reside in attendance zones for new schoolwide dual-language programs will receive transportation to that campus (Segura cited Pickle, Sanchez, Wooten and Odom as examples for the proposed plan).

Segura said staff would also annotate the Oct. 3 materials to show which sections changed, link specific community comments to those changes, and post redacted comment-data and themed summaries.

Trustees pressed the administration for more campus-level financial work. Several asked for sensitivity modeling that shows the budget impact under a range of attrition scenarios (e.g., +/-1, 3 and 5 percent) and for clearer accounting of additional transportation costs. Trustee Hunter said the board’s ad hoc budget committee had requested scenario runs (for example plus/minus 1, 3 and 5 percent) and an accounting of a proposed $25 million offset; Trustee Kaufman and others reiterated the need for per-campus projections.

Montessori and dual-language programming drew sustained debate. Administration staff proposed moving Wynn Montessori to a non-zoned East Austin campus so the program can be supported more centrally. Trustees and staff discussed whether zoned Montessori can meet Texas accountability measures if it remains neighborhood-based, or whether an application-based or non-zoned model is necessary. Dr. Maxwell and other academic leaders cautioned that combining two different models on a single campus creates staffing and instructional challenges, particularly in early literacy and numeracy.

Trustees asked for clearer, campus-by-campus academic pathway information for students who would be rezoned. Superintendent Segura said staff will run lists of students who would be reassigned and model those students’ likely course needs so secondary schools can plan schedules and staffing ahead of any final boundary changes.

Other topics and site-specific issues discussed included the administration’s proposal for the Martin middle-school site (staff floated a configuration to move existing Garza programming into Martin to create a 6–12 campus) and several neighborhood-specific adjustments in the South-Central and Southwest parts of the city. Trustees repeatedly asked staff to show how each proposed change affects transportation, walkability and safety for students, and how a change would alter the number of buses and route costs.

The board did not vote on any motion during the workshop. Trustees asked for additional deliverables before any final action: an updated draft on Oct. 31 with the listed addenda, a campus-by-campus financial analysis to be presented on Friday following the workshop, and clearer timelines and transition plans for special-education placements and staffing. Segura said translations of documents may follow early next week as the materials are finalized.

Next steps: administration officials committed to the Oct. 31 update, to posting annotated and redacted community feedback tied to changes, and to delivering the requested sensitivity analysis and special-education transition guidance ahead of trustees’ later deliberations. The board left the workshop with ongoing requests from multiple trustees for additional engagement with affected communities and more detailed, campus-level evidence of the plan’s fiscal and programmatic effects.

The session adjourned at 10:59 p.m.