House of Shan is opening its first brick-and-mortar location, House of Shan Cottage, on Bee Cave Road on Aug. 28.

The overview: House of Shan was founded in 2020 by Shannon Buth, offering a variety of clothing and accessories, including custom trucker hats.

Since its founding, House of Shan has donated $5 from every purchase to charities supporting women and children, along with raising over $125,000 last summer for Kerr County flood relief, Buth said.

• 8907 Bee Caves Road, Austin

Material Bespoke Stone + Tile, a design and stoneware store, relocated from Westlake to North Austin in early August.

The overview: Material Bespoke offers stone, glass and ceramic tiles, along with custom architectural stonework most commonly for bathrooms, kitchens, other interiors and exteriors.

The company has other locations in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, California, Georgia and Colorado.

The details: Material Bespoke moved due to lease ending at the Westlake location.

• Relocated Aug. 3

Ahead of the 2026-27 school year, public school leaders in Community Impact’s coverage areas shuttered at least nine individual schools to respond to repeated state accountability issues and stave off state intervention. A new Texas Education Agency rule may make it harder for districts to do so in the future.

The details: Beginning Aug. 16, if a district closes a D- or F-rated campus and transfers the largest share of students from the closed campus to a school with a C, D or F rating, the closed campus’ rating will be assigned to the new campus. 

Districts will only avoid transferring a shuttered school’s rating history if they relocate a plurality of students to an A- or B-rated campus.

Stay tuned: The TEA is scheduled to release A-F ratings for the 2025-26 school year on Aug. 14. If a school receives five failing ratings in a row, the TEA is required under state law to close that campus or replace the district’s board of trustees with a state-appointed board of managers.

Check out some of the most-read stories about the Austin area from Aug. 10-13. 

1. Franklin Barbecue to temporarily close in East Austin

2. Cedar Park officials approve $5.6M for transportation, community projects

3. New running shoe store to open in San Marcos outlets

4. Claw machine arcade coming soon to New Braunfels

5. Discount Tire opens second location in Georgetown

6. H-E-B plans store upgrades in Pflugerville