ATX-CPF: Impact 9/25/2025

In light of Leander ISD's growing budget shortfall and declining enrollment in some parts of the district, the board of trustees voted Sept. 18 to implement an open enrollment policy starting next school year. 

How it works: Prior LISD policy language restricted interdistrict transfers to nonresident students with some exceptions, such as children of nonresident district employees.

The updated policy will now allow for nonresident interdistrict transfers, but district documents state transfer decisions will continue to take building capacity, grade-level enrollment and program needs into consideration.

Students are also required to be in “good standing,” and an appeals committee and centralized denial process will remain in place.

More details: The number of transfer requests at the start of the 2025-26 school year was slightly down from last year, which had 1,058 requests with 942 approved and 116 denied.

In 2025-26, there were 910 transfer requests, with 754 approved and 156 denied.

Looking ahead: The transfer request window will open in January for the 2026-27 school year.

Reveal Resource Center, a faith-based Cedar Park nonprofit providing food, clothing and diapers to residents, marked its 15th anniversary with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Sept. 22.

How to help: Community members looking to get involved are encouraged to donate, volunteer and attend fundraising events with the organization, staff said.

Reveal Resource Center is 100% volunteer-based and needs help packing food, distributing clothes and handing out diapers.

Additionally, the center is requesting donations of canned beans, vegetables, fruit, tomato sauce and meat, as well as pasta, cereal, oat meal and breakfast bars.

• 1150 S. Bell Blvd., Cedar Park

Kitchell representative Cameron Glass gave an update on the Justice Center complex project to Williamson County commissioners at a Sept. 16 meeting, including the need for new facilities and the process for site selection.

The construction and real estate company is the manager for the project, which will build a new jail and office space in Georgetown.

The history: The current Justice Center was built in 1990. At that time, Williamson County had a population of about 139,000 residents, according to the United States Census Bureau.

Today, Williamson County is home to almost 730,000 residents.

About the project: Commissioners have discussed building the new Justice Center complex outside of downtown Georgetown. Although the court has not identified a site yet and is still in the preliminary stages of planning, Kitchell anticipates a $1.5 billion project through “phased, strategic investment,” Glass said.

Kitchell has looked at 35 potential sites for the project, 10 of which fit the needed criteria. The county will need at least 80 acres of buildable land to house the facilities, Glass said.

Harbor Health is expanding its presence in the Austin area, following acquisition of 10 Austin-area Village Medical clinics. 

What happened: In a Sept. 18 news release, Harbor Health announced that through an acquisition of 32 total clinics from VillageMD, growing its local presence and entering the Dallas, El Paso and San Antonio markets.

Austin Community College’s RiverHacks hackathon will coincide with NASA’s third annual International Space App Challenge, where teams can participate in open data challenges and network with space leaders and experts.

The gist: The ACC Center for Government and Civic Services is collaborating with The Space Workforce Incubator for Texas to host the RiverHacks hackathon and the Austin portion of the NASA International Space Apps Challenge, Oct. 4-5 at the Rio Grande campus.

The global event encourages participants to leverage free, open data from NASA and their international space agency partners to create innovative solutions for Earth- and space-related challenges.

Open data may include:

• Satellite imagery
• Climate and weather records
• Planetary data
• Astronomical data
• Earth observation data