Austin ISD trustees approved a last-minute plan Thursday night to close Paredes Middle School weeks before the start of the school year in a tense vote following increased scrutiny from board members and calls for more transparency.

Board members demanded more transparency and proactive planning from the district in the future ahead of approving the closure in a 7-2 vote. Trustees Fernando de Urioste and LaRessa Quintana voted against the plan. 

The proposal was announced last week and was quickly followed by contentious conversations with parents and community members preceding the official vote. Superintendent Matias Segura addressed parents Wednesday in a standing-room-only meeting at the school’s library, explaining to a heated crowd that student academic growth data did not give him the confidence that the school could improve enough within the next school year to break the state accountability chain.

The school was put under a state-mandated improvement plan last year after receiving three consecutive failing accountability ratings. If the school were to receive a fourth failing rating for the 2025-26 school year, it would be one school year away from potentially triggering a state takeover of the district.

Segura’s plan was met with frustration and confusion from parents and community members who questioned the rushed timing of the announcement and said the move presented academic and social challenges for students. Students will be reassigned to Bailey or Mendez middle schools by the end of the week, district leaders said, and the Texas Education Agency must give final approval for the closure to be permanent. The timing of the agency’s response remains uncertain. 

The vote

Austin ISD leaders said employees already signed on to work at Paredes would be reassigned to other positions in Austin ISD, including at Bailey and Mendez.

Austin ISD Trustee Candace Hunter on Thursday night asked for a contingency plan, questioning Segura’s confidence that the TEA would approve the proposal, pointing to district leaders’ recent misplaced assurances that a SB1882 request denied by TEA in May would be approved. 

“We cannot undo this,” said Hunter. 

Trustee Arati Singh requested district leaders create a public dashboard listing schools with three or more unacceptable ratings from the state, testing data and other metrics that determine schools’ state ratings and progress. Singh said she would like to see a draft of the dashboard by the next voting meeting, which is scheduled for August.

“I feel like I am going to have to support this but we cannot continue to have surprises like this, that is just not acceptable,” Singh said. “No more surprises. I am supporting this vote only because, as usual, if I don’t, I feel like I am putting the whole district at risk of a takeover, but it is getting harder and harder to support things at the last minute.”

The sparsely-attended board meeting came in the wake of listening sessions held by district leaders at the affected campuses earlier this week after the announcement of the proposed closure.  

“The confusion, the lack of direction for these students, the teachers, the parents, it’s been apparent, it’s not right,” said parent Elena Torres-Ponce, whose child is a rising eighth grader at Paredes, in her speech to district leaders at a listening session Wednesday night. “Is it because a big part of our community, of our students, reside east of I-35? Is it because we have a large population here who can’t speak up for our kids because of the current political environment that we live in? Or because y’all just forgot us?”

The sudden move to close Paredes comes as Austin ISD awaits TEA’s ratings of Dobie, Webb and Burnet middle schools, which are expected Aug. 14 and could determine the district’s future if any of the schools receive a fifth failing accountability rating. Meeting that threshold would automatically trigger a state law that requires Education Commissioner Mike Morath to either close the school or appoint a board of managers to replace the school board.

Why is Paredes Middle School closing?

Segura said at board and community meetings this week the data from beginning to the middle of the year showed improvement in math and reading, but student scores then fell. The numbers, he told parents Wednesday at a meeting at Paredes, did not give him enough confidence the school would improve enough academically to avoid another unacceptable grade from the state in the coming school year.

“We didn’t quite get to where we needed to be for the 2026-27 school year,” Segura said Wednesday. “Over the course of the last many weeks, as information came to Austin ISD, as we planned for the 2026-27 school year, it became clear that it was going to be very difficult for me to support our students continuing on at Paredes without making a significant change.”

Segura also cited a large number of vacancies, which he said made it difficult to “ensure that we would have the educator that your student deserves in the classroom.” He said staffing challenges combined with student progress data showed a challenging gap to close within the next school year and the recommendation to close Paredes was a hard decision to send students to schools that have demonstrated success.

Torres-Ponce said the previous school year was tumultuous for Paredes, with several changes in school leadership, including principals moving in and out throughout the school year. Looking at the academic performance data presented by district leaders, Torres-Ponce said she noticed the dips in student achievement match the timeline of changes in school leadership almost exactly.

She said the decision to close Paredes comes in the wake of disappointment and lack of answers from Austin ISD throughout the school year. Now, she said, students and families are paying the price.

“They didn’t want the input from this community,” Torres-Ponce said. “For them to just come here, show up to tell us it is closing, that is not a good look. This is all unacceptable. Somebody in this administration needs to be held accountable.”

A community shaken by sudden change

Wednesday’s meeting was filled with tense commentary from parents questioning the decision and abrupt timeline. They asked administrators to consider the detrimental impact the sudden change would have on students. It was one of several meetings district leaders held this week to hear from affected families and staff about the proposed change. Every parent who spoke echoed the same sentiment: It’s too soon.

For Melissa Sanchez, whose child is a rising sixth grader at Paredes, the timing is particularly challenging because her son requires speech therapy, has an individualized education program through special education and is in the special education life skills program, requiring time to acclimate to new environments.

Sanchez said she had already met with her son’s future teachers, asked questions about the services available for her son to ensure his needs were met and researched the options available for him to join sports, which she said her son enjoys.

“I had all of that figured out,” Sanchez said. “I made him feel comfortable, he had familiar faces coming here.”

Sanchez said her daughter recently graduated from the school and had a good experience with notable academic improvement. Now she is left worrying about the short time frame and the impact it will have on her son, who struggles with change and needs to be introduced to new environments slowly.

What happens next?

Austin ISD leaders said Wednesday parents will begin receiving notifications about which school their student is reassigned to as early as Friday if the plan is approved. District leaders also said in a board meeting Tuesday they will have counseling and support services, including through external partner organizations such as Communities in Schools, available to help students with the transition.

Transportation to students’ newly reassigned schools would follow the district’s policy of only providing transportation for students who live two or more miles away, not including zones identified as hazardous.

Staff will be reassigned to new positions across Austin ISD, including at Bailey and Mendez middle schools, according to district leaders. Austin ISD leaders said they are working with staff, including through a survey, to determine their placement.