Overview
- The board approved the closure in a 7–2 vote Thursday night, with trustees LaRessa Quintana and Fernando de Urioste opposed.
- About 353 incoming seventh- and eighth-grade students will be reassigned by address to Bailey (roughly 55%) or Mendez (roughly 45%) for the 2026–27 school year.
- Austin ISD says all 63 Paredes employees will be placed elsewhere in the district and there will be no layoffs, while officials cite 18 current staff vacancies at Paredes including 14 teaching openings as a factor in the decision.
- Families and some trustees protested the late summer timing of the decision, raising urgent questions about transportation, course placement, extracurricular plans and how receiving schools will absorb the students.
- The district published a 13-page turnaround modification saying the Paredes building will not operate as a school next year and could be repurposed, and TEA’s final campus ratings due Aug. 14 could still affect wider state accountability actions.