Matias's Weekly

Welcome to the 2025-26 school year! Summer feels like it went in the blink of an eye, but I hope each one of you got a chance to spend some time with loved ones and got some much-deserved rest.

We’ve been hard at work in Austin ISD over the summer and I’m excited to kick the school year off with a new format to my weekly updates. This year’s Matias Weekly will shift to look back at three things our team accomplished in the last week and what’s on the horizon for the week ahead. We work hard to adjust to whatever our students and staff need during the week, so I’m hoping to show more substance to the transformational work we’re doing as a school system. But don’t worry! If you really want to know what I’m doing every day, head over to Instagram and follow me at @matiasaisd.

So let’s look back at the last week:

  • On Monday we launched the results of the school consolidation and boundary change data rubric, which highlight misalignments within the district. This could mean underenrollment, overenrollment, empty or too-full boundaries, or poor building conditions.

    • I’ve said it before, but this is not a closure list and any campus could be affected by changes regardless of its placement on the list. We then met with our trustees on Thursday for an information session to unpack the data and have a discussion about the next steps of the process. Our team will review the data and develop a proposed consolidation and boundary change plan by Oct. 9 and trustees are scheduled to vote on the plan in November. The earliest any changes will begin is the 2026-27 school year.

    • Let us know what you think as we begin work on the second part of our consolidation tool, contextual analysis and scenario development. This short feedback form will help us gauge how well our community understands the school consolidation rubric and gives you the opportunity to share open-ended feedback about your school and the consolidation process. The Phase II Survey: Rubric Release will be available from Aug. 14–Sept. 26, 2026.

  • Mid-week we received the 2024 and 2025 accountability results from the Texas Education Agency. A huge part of our team’s day on Wednesday was poring over the data and ensuring we were ready to support campuses with communication tools for families and information needed to understand the ratings. We have some incredible bright spots that show our district is moving in the right direction. I want to give a special shoutout to Langford Elementary School for going from an F to a C — that’s huge!

  • Finally, we closed out the week with the 2025 convocation to officially kick off the 2025-26 school year! I had an incredible time celebrating our staff, including Region 13 Teacher of the Year Pooja Mulgaonker and the staff at Guerrero Thompson and Padron elementary schools, which have the most Teacher Incentive Allotment payouts in the district! It’s incredible to see our teachers get the recognition they deserve. And a special thank you to Nala Dare Adams, Joslin Elementary School first-grader for being the voice of convocation and for the Sunset Valley cheerleaders, Eastside Early College High School drumline and the Burnet Middle School dance team for sharing your talents with us. Let’s go have a great year!

Sunset Valley Elementary School Cheerleaders

Last week was incredible. Here’s what I’m looking at for the upcoming week:

  • I kicked off today with the Austin Police and Safe Routes for School for a back-to-school press conference focused on safety. It takes all of us to make sure our kids get to school and home safely, and I’m grateful for the partnership with the city to improve roads for our students who bike and walk to school. Drivers, please keep an eye out for our students and buses while on the roads as we get into this new school year!

District and city leaders gather to celebrate new school zone beacons.

  • Tuesday, I’m getting on a bus at 6:30 a.m. for the first day of school! For the first two school days of every year, I get to drive across the city and visit our schools and see our campuses come alive again with our students back in classrooms. I’m excited to visit our three restart middle schools — Burnet, Dobie and Webb; see Oak Hill Elementary School’s newly-opened bond space and check in on some campuses that are moving the needle on student achievement. Follow along on our social media to check out where we go!

  • We’ll close out the week with August’s Board Voting Meeting where trustees will formalize the student device policy. During the latest legislative session, Texas lawmakers passed, and Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law, House Bill 1481, which prohibits students from using personal devices on district premises during school hours. Exceptions will be allowed for medical needs and special education accommodations.

I hope everyone has an amazing first week of school! Do you have anything that needs to be on my radar? Let me know and you could see it featured here!