AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Austin Independent School District told parents Wednesday that a dozen of its schools could face closure after receiving their third F-rating from the state. The district also has the option to initiate a campus “restart” that would likely require it to replace some or most of its core-teaching staff.
According to the letter from Superintendent Matias Segura, another 11 campuses will have to develop similar turnaround plans for the next school year because they received their second unacceptable rating from the state. Nine more will have to create a “targeted improvement plan” after receiving their first F-rating.
The decisions around what to do with the more than two dozen AISD schools come as the district has already begun what have been described as “disruptive” campus “restarts” at three of its lowest-performing schools: Burnet, Dobie and Webb Middle schools. All three campuses earned their fourth F-rating from the state in August.
The anticipated changes are also happening as district leaders work to determine which of its 116 schools will be closed to cut costs and lower the district’s $19 million deficit.
“As we move into our next phase of analysis, accountability ratings now place some important limits on how we can combine schools and reassign students,” Segura said in Wednesday’s email.
The board will hear preliminary plans for consolidating schools and the draft plans for improving the schools with unacceptable ratings in early October. The board will vote on the turnaround plans on Nov. 9 and on the plans to close schools on Nov. 20.
Delayed A-F ratings
While the F-ratings date back several years, the public learned about three years’ worth of ratings in the span of four months because of lawsuits that blocked the Texas Education Agency from releasing accountability scores earlier.
The court previously blocked the agency from publicly disclosing the 2023 ratings after a coalition of more than 100 school districts sued, arguing the state had not properly notified them about changes to how ratings are calculated. The agency blocked TEA again from releasing the 2024 ratings when a smaller contingent of school districts filed a lawsuit over how the state’s standardized test scores, STAAR, were being calculated.
But in April, a judge approved TEA to release the 2023 accountability ratings and in July, the court gave the greenlight for the agency to release the scores from 2024. The 2025 ratings were always slated to go public in August.
The lawsuits, in some cases, delayed the public from understanding how close some schools were to more serious state intervention. Under Texas law, when a school earns five consecutive unacceptable ratings, the Texas Education Commissioner has the authority to appoint a new superintendent and temporarily appoint a board of managers to act in place of the elected school board for the entire district.
“It’s also crucial to recognize that if we fail to better support struggling schools and the students they serve, the entire district can be taken over by the State of Texas if any campus receives five F ratings in a row,” Segura said.
Next steps
According to the letter, the district will meet with staff at the 12 campuses that have received three consecutive unacceptable ratings starting this week.
At Burnet, Dobie and Webb, the district made significant changes to staff going into the 2025-26 school year as a part of its effort to improve scores at the campuses.
The district would only retain and hire teachers at those schools who met a new standard — specifically, certified teachers with at least three years of experience and who demonstrated student growth in the top 20% districtwide. The teachers also had to hold a recognized, exemplary or master teacher designation.
As a result, the district said 84% of Dobie’s core teaching staff would not be returning for the 2025-26 school year, 39% won’t be back at Burnet Middle School, and 53% won’t return to Webb Middle School.
Records show the district had to find new positions within the district and at other campuses for the core teachers who were not qualified to return, and some educators chose to resign. Email records show the district also asked teachers at other Austin ISD campuses who did meet the criteria to transfer to one of the underperforming campuses.
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