“This initiative is intended to move AISD into the future and to a new plane of performance, ensuring that every student has access to high quality instruction and the best possible learning resources and innovative programing,” AISD Superintendent Dr. John Kuhn said at a Tuesday News conference.
These decisions are a direct result of recent community input events such as the AISD summit meetings and Pathways to Possibility sessions in which the district invited parents and community members to make their desires for future changes, guiding growth and educational structure into the future.
The ‘Building Brighter Futures’ initiative will impact a wide and varied scale of AISD campuses. To make things easier we will break them down by answering questions you might have about the implementation and reasons behind different district decisions.
Why are Ortiz and Thomas elementaries being repurposed?
In Dr. Kuhn’s own words during the Tuesday news conference, “Thomas and Ortiz were chosen to be repurposed because they have the fewest students living in their attendance zones.”
While the district has not determined a specific use for the campuses, Dr. Kuhn says their larger size and more modern amenities make them a prime candidate for alternative district use. It is possible they could be used to house district services such as adult education, or technology staff, as some district services are currently operating out of older or crowded facilities. Though Dr. Kuhn was adamant in not stating any specific planned use, the district to use the coming school year as a planning time to decide what purpose best fits the campus.
Dr. Kuhn also stating that both Ortiz and Thomas elementary schools will remain under district ownership, mentioning a promise he made to the families of the school’s namesakes.
“I’ve made a very deep commitment to the Ortiz family and the Thomas family that the buildings will not be abandoned, they will not be allowed to fall into disrepair, and they will carry the names Thomas and Ortiz and also photographs of the men they’re named after. We will continue to honor these families and what they mean to Abilene and to Abilene ISD,” Kuhn said.
What will happen to students at Thomas and Ortiz?
According to Dr. Kuhn, Thomas and Ortiz will enter a ‘sunset year’ in the 2025-2026 school year. During that time both campuses will operate only 2nd through 5th grade classes. Parents of Kindergarten and first grade students will be given a choice of schools their child would like to attend.
Ortiz students will be able to choose between Purcell, Stafford, and Martinez elementaries. And due to slightly attendance zoning, students at Thomas elementary will be able to choose between Bowie, Taylor, Purcell, and Martinez elementaries.
Ortiz and Thomas students in the 2nd through 5th grades will be able to chose to attend schools from that same list, or remain at their current campus throughout the 2025-26 ‘sunset year’. During the following 2026-27 school year those students will be given the same options for attendance mentioned above.
What will happen to teachers and staff at Thomas and Ortiz?
Teachers and staff will still be needed at those campuses during the sunset year, Dr. Kuhn stating that positions at other campuses will be avalible for remaining staff.
“The other staff members who don’t remain at those campuses. . . we will have places for them throughout the district. Now over time, because of our staffing scenario, through attrition we will be able to reduce staff as we go through this transition,” said Kuhn.
How will fewer campuses result in expanded choices?
Dr. Kuhn told KTAB/KRBC that specialization will be a key aspect of the initiative, saying “we will have a planning year for expanding the number of specialty programs in all AISD elementary schools. These are specialized academic programs that we want to see expand across the district so that every elementary school in Abilene under this program, Building Brighter Futures, will have a specialization to offer students and parents.”
Dr. Kuhn going on to speak on the reason for reducing the number of elementary campuses, saying “by reducing the number of elementary campuses that we are supporting, and staffing, and manning it gives us more resources to concentrate in these specialized campuses.”
How will the ‘Building Brighter Futures’ initiative impact other schools?
Another facet of the ‘Building Brighter Futures’ initiative is expanded school choice within the district. A Pilot ‘school choice program’ will be implemented in the 2025-26 school year, allowing parents of students at Purcell, Stafford, and Martinez elementary schools to choose which school they wish to attend. Dr. Kuhn saying if the pilot program goes well, the district intends to open the school choice program to the rest of the elementary schools in the following 2026-27 school year, meaning the current school attendance zones would be expanded to include multiple schools for parents to choose from within their zone.
“These decisions were made intentionally and carefully, and I want to tell you why we made them – last spring we started asking families, staff, and community members about their hopes and dreams for Abilene ISD, and what we heard was a call for innovation, a deeper commitment to advanced academic experiences for students, better financial stewardship, and more student choices. That feedback combined with analysis of district wide student outcomes and also an analysis of our buildings and how we’re using them led us as a district to conclude that maximizing our use of district facilities will allow us to provide more choices and more innovations for AISD families who want access to innovative and exciting teaching and learning,” said Kuhn.
How will the school choice applications be handled?
Dr. Kuhn acknowledged that each school does have a capacity limit, and there is a possibility that some schools might have more applicants than spaces available, so priority for school acceptance would be given to students that live in the direct attendance zone of that particular school. The process would also prioritize students with siblings that are currently attending that school.
If the number of requests are higher than the number of available seats, once priority has been determined and assigned, Dr. Kuhn says a lottery system will be in place to decide which students are accepted from the requests.
“We don’t want it to be first come first serve. We don’t want our parents to feel rushed and feel like they have to fill out which schools are first choice and second choice and have to do it fast to beat other people. We don’t want it to be a race. We will put those additional names in a lottery and randomly select who gets those spaces,” Kuhn explained.
If I choose a different school, will my child still have transportation?
“Transportation will be available within that geographic grouping of schools. It’s very similar to what we already do. If you live in this attendance zone, your child will go to that school. We’re just expanding that zone out to where it incorporates multiple schools. But we want to provide transportation within that circle of schools so that if a student is currently going to Stafford and they would like to go to Purcell, we want it to be equitable so we are providing transportation,” Dr. Kuhn said.
I still have questions, where can I go to learn more?
In anticipation of this transition, Abilene ISD has established multiple information lines to answer any questions parents and community members might have about the school choice process. A telephone hotline is avalible at (353)794-INFO(4636). Questions can also be submitted by email to the address Chooseyourschool@AbileneISD.org. More details can be found on the new ‘Building Brighter Futures’ tab on the AISD website.
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