Austin Independent School District trustees are considering merging several schools to reduce costs in the wake of budget shortfalls.
During a board of trustees meeting Thursday, district leaders weighed community concerns and the economic benefits of consolidating schools as the district faces a massive $110 million budget deficit for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
Trustees focused on a survey taken by roughly 14,000 parents and members of the public who named a range of potential concerns and benefits associated with consolidation.
Among the stated concerns were teacher quality and academic excellence, while some identified benefits included balanced resources and program choice.
“School consolidations are not the end game. … We’re not just doing this for the sake of consolidating schools. There’s some bigger goals that we’re trying to achieve,” said Trustee Arati Singh.
“One, the most immediate reason, is to save money. … We are in a dire situation. We know that,” she added.
Singh also cited the necessity to ensure “high-quality neighborhood schools.” A third factor, she argued, was to reconsider whether application-based schools and special programs were “equitably spread throughout the district.”
“Equity” was also a concern for Trustee Kevin Foster of District 3, who suggested that the consolidations could disproportionately affect majority black and Hispanic schools in East Austin.
“I will not support anything that ends up, on the equity lens, screwing over one side of town more than another,” said Foster, adding that fiscal responsibility should be weighed “in the context of educational equity.”
During a previous virtual meeting on June 5, Austin ISD administrators stated that while some campuses were overcrowded, there were still approximately 25,000 empty seats across the district.
“Is it 50 percent full or is it 150 percent full? We definitely see both extremes throughout our district, and that just highlights how much we need to balance things throughout,” said Raechel French, Austin ISD’s director of planning services.
Austin ISD administrators announced in May that the district was gathering input on merging schools starting in the 2026–27 school year, emphasizing their intention to avoid deeper budget cuts and “safeguard the academic experience.”
Currently, there is no official list of schools being considered for consolidation.
In addition to school consolidations, Austin ISD is also implementing spending cuts to attempt to reduce its deficit.
Earlier this month, Superintendent Matias Segura sent an email to parents revealing that the district would implement a 20 percent reduction in central administrative staff by August 1.
Austin ISD’s enrollment has been declining over the past several years after benefiting from decades of meteoric growth. By 2023, the district was averaging around 8,000 fewer students enrolling per year compared to the period before 2020.
