Crunch Fitness continues to expand with the opening of another North Austin location.

The overview: The company’s gyms include large free weight areas, a variety of workout machines and cardio equipment. Crunch Fitness offers group fitness classes as well as relaxation and recovery services, such as a sauna, HydroMassage, tanning and red light therapy.

The new location will also feature a Pilates studio available to those with the gym’s top-tier membership.

The new location joins a host of other sites Crunch Fitness opened in the Austin metro area this year. The company opened a location on West Parmer Lane in Austin, on Lohmans Spur Road in Lakeway and along I-35 in New Braunfels, while other locations are expected to open soon in Georgetown and Hutto.

• Opened Oct. 28

Austin ISD trustees approved improvement plans for struggling campuses Oct. 29 and heard early options for cutting at least $60 million from the 2027-28 budget, including reductions to turnaround school funding and arts and PE staffing.

What parents should know: Trustees approved six turnaround plans, four targeted improvement plans and 16 local improvement plans due to the Texas Education Agency by the end of November, district staff said.

Families can follow progress at these campuses on a public dashboard the district launched Sept. 15 to track academic and staffing data at schools with unacceptable state ratings, as previously reported by Community Impact.

Budget explained: Payroll makes up 89.9% of the budget, compared with a national average of 81%-83%, Chief Financial Officer Katrina Montgomery said.

Reserves would end the year at 13.77%, below the 15% minimum Singh said board policy requires. Reaching 15% would take about $10 million in additional cuts, Montgomery said.

Cities and counties across Central Texas have recently considered new and existing contracts with the security technology company Flock Safety as debates surrounding public safety and mass surveillance heighten.

The overview: Flock Safety builds a variety of products utilized by law enforcement agencies, businesses, schools and communities, including Automated License Plate Readers, video cameras and drones.

Gov. Greg Abbott froze the use of state funding for Flock cameras on Aug. 28.

Concerns from Central Texas residents include fears surrounding mass surveillance, collecting and sharing of data with outside agencies, such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and misuse by law enforcement agencies.

In 2025, CEO and founder of Flock Safety Garrett Langley released a statement emphasizing that the company does not sell data, allows customers to decide independently what is shared with other agencies and does not have any contacts with ICE.

Cities and counties across Central Texas have responded in varying ways to the discussion surrounding the benefits and disadvantages of Flock equipment.