There is big change coming to Austin ISD as the district is beginning the process to close and consolidate schools. The district said the move comes after six years without an increase in school funding from the state, as well as declining enrollment. There were 74,645 students in Austin ISD in the 2021-22 school year and in the 2023-24 school year there were 73,707. view article

There is big change coming to Austin ISD as the district is beginning the process to close and consolidate schools. The district said the move comes after six years without an increase in school funding from the state, as well as declining enrollment. There were 74,645 students in Austin ISD in the 2021-22 school year and in the 2023-24 school year there were 73,707. view article

Judson Middle School, Candlewood Elementary School and Franz Leadership Academy will remain open for the time being. Board members in the Judson Independent School District passed motions on Wednesday night to not close the campuses. Families and students expressed strong feelings about the potential school closures. The district cited financial hardships and declining enrollment as reasons for considering the closures. view article

Lamar Elementary School, one of eight El Paso Independent School District schools that was to close next year, will remain open indefinitely after the newly elected school board on Tuesday voted 5-2 to reverse the previous board’s decision. Daniel Call and Valerie Ganelon Beals, the only remaining trustees on the board who voted in favor of the closures in November, voted against keeping the school open. view article

Fort Bend ISD is built for more than 100,000 students, but recent demographic projections show enrollment stagnating around 80,000 students until 2034, an outlook that could force school closures to save money, officials told a full boardroom Monday. Closing or consolidating some of the 19 elementary campuses with less than 600 students could save the district $13 million, auditors said. view article

The El Paso Independent School District's board voted 5-2 to reopen Lamar Elementary, one of eight schools previously slated for closure as part of a district-wide redesign plan aimed at addressing a $32 million deficit. Board member Daniel Call strongly opposed the proposal, stating, "This is an arbitrary reopening of only one school, with no real rationale." He added, "Reopening Lamar Elementary is going to cost 3.2 million dollars per year." view article

A candidate who won her bid for the Humble ISD school board on May 3 has now been declared ineligible after her opponent challenged her candidacy, a district spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. Brittnai Brown, a former educator, was sued by opponent Tracy Shannon after the election, and the lawsuit cited voter records that showed that Brown did was not registered to vote in the district for the required six months before the filing deadline to run for the board. view article

The Calvert ISD School Board unanimously voted to censure member James Green at an emergency board meeting on May 7. He was among a dozen suspects arrested during a 2-day prostitution sting in Waco in late April. view article

The Canutillo Independent School District, like many across the Borderland, is grappling with a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall. At Tuesday’s board meeting, trustees took steps to begin closing that gap, voting not to renew the contracts of nearly a dozen teachers. view article

Fort Worth ISD’s school board votes Tuesday night on whether to approve a district plan to close 18 elementary and middle schools over the next several years. Education reporter Wayne Carter is at the district headquarters for the meeting. view article

Fort Worth ISD students took to the District Service Center on the night of May 20 with a message: Keep their schools open. For their teachers. For their friends. For their education. “I think Edward J. Briscoe is one of the best schools and the teachers are so kind,” elementary student Aniyah Henderson told trustees. view article

Trustee Chris Todd resigned, effective May 31, after deciding to move to Florida. Todd said he was not planning to leave in the middle of his term, but he will be taking a new job opportunity at a church, and it is the right decision for his family and him. “It is exceptionally hard to leave the community that ... I've spent basically my entire life in,” Todd said. “This is a super special community, and I hope that this board will realize and remember that the work that you're doing really does make a difference for this community.” view article

The Fort Worth Independent School District Board of Trustees voted 8-0 with no discussion or comments, to approve a plan developed by district administrators to close 18 campuses, mostly elementary schools, over the next five years. Parents from Briscoe and De Zavala elementary schools packed the board room Tuesday night, many took a back seat and allowed their children to speak about why their schools should stay home. view article

Fort Bend ISD is built for more than 100,000 students, but recent demographic projections show enrollment stagnating around 80,000 students until 2034, an outlook that could force school closures to save money, officials told a full boardroom Monday. Closing or consolidating some of the 19 elementary campuses with less than 600 students could save the district $13 million, auditors said. view article

ProPublica and The Texas Tribune found nearly three dozen school districts were missing required campaign finance reports online. Now lawmakers are pushing to impose steep penalties on local governments that fail to abide by the law. view article

After voters rejected conservative Katy ISD board member Victor Perez on Election Day, his critics are calling for the removal of policies regarding book bans and transgender students that he once championed. Perez lost his seat to newcomer James Cross in the May 3 election. Perez ran a campaign that promoted conservative values; Cross avoided partisan politics into his campaign. view article

Two candidates who expressed opposition to gender identity and book removal polices adopted by Fort Bend ISD have been elected to serve on the school board, according to unofficial results from Saturday’s election. Afshi Charania’s win against board vice president Rick Garcia, along with Angie Wierzbicki’s win of a seat being vacated by David Hamilton, represent a shift in the board's makeup following several controversial decisions by trustees, including a gender fluidity policy passed in April and a book removal policy passed last year. The gender policy requires school district administrators to notify parents if their children ask to be called by a pronoun that does not align with their gender assigned at birth, while the board gave the Fort Bend ISD superintendent direct authority over community challenges to library materials, bypassing a book review committee. view article

Frisco ISD voters have chosen Trustees for three School Board seats, according to unofficial election results. Voting ended May 3 in the municipal election that included three seats on the Frisco ISD School Board. Stephanie Elad was reelected in Place 3, while Suresh Manduva was elected in Place 1 and Renee Sample in Place 2. view article

While a proposal to split the Keller Independent School District has been shelved — at least for now — a legal fight over the issue remains active. Cary Moon, a member of the Heritage Legal Task Force, is part of an ongoing lawsuit against several members of the Keller ISD Board of Trustees filed by the Heritage Homeowner's Association. The lawsuit, which names five members of the board, alleges that some trustees concealed plans to divide the district and violated the Texas Open Meetings Act. view article

The Texas Education Agency is warning Fort Worth ISD that it is at risk of a potential state takeover. This comes after the 2023 school accountability ratings were released a few weeks ago. view article

As Cy-Fair ISD trustees prepare to approve a budget for fiscal year 2025-26 this June, district leaders said they could struggle to maintain competitive salaries due to the limited funding they receive from the state. CFISD Chief Financial Officer Karen Smith broke down the district’s budget outlook at the May 5 board meeting, including a comparison of neighboring districts’ teacher salaries and the average amount of revenue they receive from the state based on average student attendance. view article

Another shakeup is underway for the embattled Keller Independent School District. After months of upheaval, more than 14,000 voters have spoken by voting for candidates against splitting up the district. “This tells me this was a change election,” said trustee-elect Randy Campbell. view article

The proposed change in the code of conduct is set to be discussed this Thursday at a board briefing. Top of mind for the district is safety and security following the April Wilmer-Hutchins High School shooting, still fresh on the minds of everyone in attendance. The last update from the district was that the student who let the armed classmate in was identified, but that student's punishment criminally or administratively is still unclear. view article

BROWNSVILLE — Elon Musk’s wish to create his own city just came true. On Saturday, voters living around SpaceX’s rocket testing and launch facility in South Texas approved a measure to incorporate the area as a new city. Soon after polls closed at 7 p.m., Cameron County election officials confirmed that overwhelming support among early voters clinched the election in favor of creating the City of Starbase.  Unofficial results later in the night showed the election was a landslide: 212 voted in favor; 6 opposed. view article

Voters on Saturday ousted Katy ISD’s politically conservative board president in the aftermath of controversial gender policies he supported. Victor Perez lost his position 1 seat to longtime educator James Cross, according to complete but unofficial election results, which show Cross received 58% of the vote in the school district west of Houston. view article

James Cross, a 30-year educator and school administrator, vowed to steer the district away from political agendas and improve student outcomes after he ousted board president Victor Perez in the Katy ISD May 3 school board election. view article

There is another shakeup for the embattled Keller Independent School District. After months of upheaval, more than 14,000 voters in Keller ISD have spoken. “This tells me this was a change election,” said trustee-elect Randy Campbell. view article

At Carroll ISD in Southlake, where national headlines have been frequent, students and parents are rallying behind two familiar faces they say represent stability in a district gripped by potential change. At a packed school board meeting Monday night, the community showed up — not for a football game, but for their principals. view article

Issues about control of book purchases and how curriculums teach race and gender have led to change on many boards, including Keller, Katy and Mansfield ISDs  Conservative school board candidates across Texas suffered an array of defeats in Saturday’s local elections, marking a clear setback for the Republican-aligned movement to shape how grade school curriculums and library books confront issues of race, sex and gender.  The sweeping losses for conservative school board hopefuls also served as an early sign of potential backlash to the nascent administration of President Donald Trump, ahead of a 2026 midterm in which a number of statewide offices will be on the ballot. Midterm elections historically have spelled trouble for the incumbent president’s party in down-ballot races.  Saturday’s elections saw the defeat of numerous conservative school board trustees in the Tarrant County suburbs surrounding Fort Worth, the epicenter of the state’s recent culture war fights over how students should learn about race and gender. All seven school board candidates in contested races who were endorsed by the Tarrant County Republican Party lost their elections. view article

Two Northside Independent School District school board trustees held onto their seats while union-backed challengers ousted two incumbents in a fiercely contested election on Saturday. Voters returned trustees Carol Harle and Karen B. Freeman to board seats in districts 6 and 7, respectively, while challengers Sonia Jasso and Laura Zapata prevailed in districts 2 and 5. view article

Mansfield ISD voters remade their school board in the May 3 election, giving challengers strong leads over incumbents, including the board president and secretary, in all three races on the ballot. School district residents cast ballots after an election season that’s seen heightened outside political involvement and debates about the role of partisanship in local government. view article

Prosper and Celina voters have the opportunity to participate in various races in the May 3 election, including Celina ISD’s bond program, Celina City Charter amendments and various elected positions at the city and school district level. view article

Trustees of the Bowie Independent School District approved all the offered contracts for professional educators during last week’s meeting. After a brief executive session the board returned to open session to approved the contracts. Several staff members are retiring include Kathy Green, principal at Bowie Elementary; Chris Cornelison, assistant principal at Bowie Junior High and Kristi Hunt at Bowie High School. view article

We’re learning more tonight about Fort Worth ISD’s plans to close at least 10 campuses as the district faces a drop in enrollment. At Dunbar High School on Monday, district leaders held the first of four community meetings this week, laying out which campuses could have to shut their doors. “It is at the point where we are actually having to put names of schools for the possibility,” said Dr. Karen Molinar, Superintendent with Fort Worth ISD. view article

A community meeting is kicking off Monday night in Fort Worth ISD as the district prepares to make a final decision on which schools to close or consolidate. These meetings are taking place in Fort Worth ISD as district leaders struggle with a $17 million budget shortfall. Formal decisions on closures have not yet been made, but trustees are expected to get an update on May 6 and could vote as early as May 22. view article