At a community meeting at Maplewood Elementary, Austin Independent School District leaders outlined a draft plan to consolidate Maplewood Elementary into Campbell Elementary and explained related changes to transfer rules, staffing plans and bilingual programming.

Superintendent Matias Segura said the proposal is part of a districtwide effort to address falling enrollment, deteriorating funding streams and “inefficiencies” in seat allocation. “This is not a function of our students. It's not a function of our staff. It's a function of our inability as a school district to provide those resources,” Segura said, placing the consolidation in the context of a roughly $10,000,000 net increase the district received in state funding that he said is insufficient against a $1,000,000,000 operating budget and a decline of about 2,500 students this year.

Why it matters: Austin ISD officials said the district must reduce excess seats and realign feeder patterns so neighborhood schools can be stabilized and staffed consistently. Staff described five priorities driving the draft plan: aligning feeder patterns, addressing a persistent budget deficit, stabilizing programming (including dual language strands), reforming transfer policies and breaking chains of state accountability sanctions the district says could lead to more severe interventions.

What the draft would do: District staff said the current Maplewood attendance boundary would be rezoned to Campbell and that the bulk of Maplewood’s students would be reassigned to Campbell beginning in the 2026–27 school year if the board adopts the plan. The district said it would publish a revised draft on Oct. 30, discuss it at a board workshop and on Nov. 6, and seek a final vote on Nov. 20.

Transfer and enrollment clarifications: Administrators said the operating procedures in the revised draft will guarantee that students who previously transferred into a campus will be permitted to follow that cohort into the receiving school. “If you have a student who has transferred into a school like Maplewood, they will 100% be approved to transfer into whatever school that that school is moving into, the cohort,” a district leader said. The district also said it will automatically approve sibling transfers into the receiving campus. Enrollment rounds will be adjusted going forward, and families were told they should expect an enrollment decision window roughly mid‑February through mid‑April in the next cycle.

Programs and staffing: District staff said they want to preserve community culture where possible while planning site‑specific staffing scenarios. On dual language programming, district staff said Maplewood’s existing dual language strand would move into Campbell but the district plans to stop new entrants into that strand over time because the combined cohort of emergent bilingual students did not meet thresholds staff use to allocate bilingual teachers. “You have 14% emergent bilingual participants in your dual language program,” Yvette Cardenas, executive director of academic programs, said while explaining why the district proposed a phase‑out of new enrollments into that strand.

Staffing assurances and limits: Teachers, classified staff and parents asked whether all staff could move intact to the consolidated campus. Segura said the district intends to find positions for affected employees but declined to guarantee that every single staff member could remain in the same configuration after consolidation. “They will have a job in Austin ISD,” he said, and added, “I cannot guarantee” that every incumbent would keep the same role at the receiving school. Staff said principals and site teams will work through multiple staffing scenarios included in the district’s attachments and that final allocations will be determined with school leaders and staff participation.

Title I and funding questions: Parents pressed whether Title I allocations that support interventionists would continue. District leaders said Title I allocations to the district depend on counts of economically disadvantaged students and that the district is losing Title I funding as those counts fall; staff said they would “look specifically” at campuses that might fall below thresholds to try to preserve needed allocations. District staff also noted the district will submit roughly 438 waivers/exceptions this year for ESL/bilingual staffing citywide, including about 161 bilingual exceptions, illustrating constraints on bilingual‑certified staffing.

Community reaction and next steps: Parents, teachers and PTA leaders raised concerns about the pace of the process, the timing of principal and staffing decisions, outreach to Campbell families, preservation of Campbell’s culture and the risk of families withdrawing students to charters or private schools. District staff acknowledged engagement gaps and said they would schedule additional campus‑level meetings before the Nov. 20 board vote. The district repeated the schedule: revised draft Oct. 30, board discussion Nov. 6 and anticipated vote Nov. 20; the proposed effective implementation year is 2026–27.

What remains unresolved: District leaders said some commitments — such as priority consideration for Title I allocations and targeted supports for turnaround campuses — will be pursued, but they declined to promise a one‑for‑one job guarantee for all staff. They also said details of site‑level staffing, program phasing and transition plans will be worked out with principals, staff and families through the transition planning process if the board approves the consolidation.

The district asked families to continue submitting questions via comment cards and said staff would post the revised draft Oct. 30 and hold further meetings; trustees will consider community feedback during public board sessions in early November.