New Braunfels ISD officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Aug. 13 for its first district-wide elementary magnet school, CREATE at County Line.

April Jones, CREATE at County Line's principal and campus behavior coordinator, said their mission is to provide an engaging and innovative learning environment where every student is inspired to grow.

“Today marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter as we are embracing a bold vision for learning,” Jones said on Aug. 13.

The details: The school, housed within County Line Elementary at 1200 W. County Line Road, will open Aug. 17 for the 2026-27 school year and serve students from kindergarten to second grade. CREATE at County Line will use STEM, agriculture, culinary arts, outdoor learning, digital media and medical exploration to supplement core instruction, as previously reported by Community Impact.

CREATE stands for the six pillars of the school, which are:

• Curiosity

• Resilience

• Entrepreneurship

• Artistry

• Teamwork

• Empowerment

The Art Collective, a mother-daughter-owned art gallery, is now open at 309 W. San Antonio St. in New Braunfels.

The overview: The art gallery, owned by Michelle Watts and Jessica Taylor Fleigle, opened Aug. 1. The Art Collective showcases Watts' textile and fiber artwork, as well as other artists' work in photography, mixed media, sculpture, wearable art and jewelry.

• 309 W. San Antonio St., New Braunfels

New Braunfels City Council approved a $1.35 million contract with Pape-Dawson Engineers Inc. for the final design of the Gruene Area Multimodal Improvements Project during an Aug. 10 meeting.

What you need to know: The project aims to address pedestrian, bicycle and Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, improvements in the Gruene Historic District, according to agenda documents. The project includes:

Shared-use paths on Gruene Road and Hunter Road
Intersection improvements at Gruene Road and Hunter Road
Intersection improvements at Gruene Road and Rock Street

City Council also gave approval to the New Braunfels Economic Development Corp., or NBEDC, to invest $1.4 million for the final design of the improvement project, which will cover final design, stakeholder outreach and state coordination, according to agenda documents.

What’s next: Project construction is anticipated to begin in 2031, agenda documents state.

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.