In August 2025, the Texas Education Agency released its A-F accountability ratings for every public school district in the state. Bastrop ISD received an overall grade of C.
That is not catastrophic. But for a district that just asked voters to approve a $321.5 million bond, that employs more than 2,000 staff, and that spends nearly $200 million per year educating roughly 20,000 students, a C is not something to shrug off.
Dig into the numbers behind the letter grade and the picture gets worse.
The Report Card
The TEA’s accountability system evaluates districts on three domains: Student Achievement, School Progress, and Closing the Gaps. Here is how Bastrop ISD scored:
| Domain | Grade |
|---|---|
| Overall | C |
| Student Achievement | C |
| School Progress | D |
| Closing the Gaps | C |
The D in School Progress is the most concerning line on this report. School Progress measures whether students are performing better over time and whether the district’s results compare favorably to similar schools. A D means the answer to both questions is largely no.
In plain language: students in Bastrop ISD are not making adequate progress from year to year, and the district is underperforming compared to districts with similar demographics and resources.
The Campus-Level Reality Is Worse
District-level averages can mask what is happening inside individual schools. When you look at campus-level ratings, the underperformance becomes stark.
Cedar Creek Elementary: F
Cedar Creek Elementary received the worst possible rating — an F — for 2024-2025. It earned F grades in Student Achievement, School Progress, Academic Growth, and Relative Performance, with a D in Closing the Gaps.
The STAAR data behind that F is alarming:
- Only 14.18% of 3rd graders were proficient or better in reading — compared to a state average of 52.02%
- District-wide reading proficiency for that grade was 28.78%, meaning Cedar Creek is significantly underperforming even within Bastrop ISD
- Math proficiency was 42% and reading/ELA was 41% across all tested grades — both well below state benchmarks
In the 2023-2024 school year, only 25% of Cedar Creek students met grade level in reading and just 15% met grade level in math.
Camino Real Elementary: D
Camino Real earned a D overall, with an F in Student Achievement and Relative Performance, a D in School Progress and Academic Growth, and a C in Closing the Gaps.
- Only 23% of students scored at or above “Meets Grade Level” in reading — 31 points below the state average and 34 points below the Austin-area average
- Only 15% of students met grade level in math — 30 points below the state average
These are not marginal shortfalls. At Camino Real, roughly three out of four students are not meeting grade-level standards in reading, and more than four out of five are not meeting them in math.
$321.5 Million Bond. $196 Million Budget. These Results.
In May 2023, Bastrop ISD voters approved a $321.5 million bond package — one of the largest in the district’s history. The bond funds include:
- $272.8 million for new schools, classroom expansion, replacing aging buildings at Mina Elementary, converting intermediate schools into middle schools, and constructing new academic buildings at the high school level
- $31 million for major capital improvements including renovations, additional classrooms, driveway improvements, and playground equipment
- $17.7 million for safety, security, and operations including a new multipurpose facility for the BISD Police administration
The district’s adopted expenditure budget for 2025-2026 totals $195.9 million, including $39.9 million in debt service (bond repayment). Per-student spending runs approximately $10,355 to $12,381 depending on which expenditure categories are included.
The district also authorized in 2025 the sale of the remaining $89.4 million in bonds from the 2023 voter-approved program, with a repayment schedule of approximately 28 years.
The question every taxpayer should be asking: if we are spending nearly $200 million per year and have committed to over $300 million in bond debt, why are two elementary schools earning D and F ratings? Why is only 14% of one school’s third graders reading at grade level? Why did the district earn a D in the single metric — School Progress — that measures whether things are getting better?
Money is clearly not the constraint. Something else is.
The Restructuring — Necessary or Distraction?
Bastrop ISD is undergoing a significant structural reorganization for the 2025-2026 school year, driven largely by the bond construction. The district is transitioning to four high schools, four middle schools (serving grades 6-8, up from separate 6th-grade centers and 7-8 middle schools), and ten elementary schools.
New attendance boundaries have been approved for elementary and middle schools to balance enrollment across the new and existing campuses.
Restructuring can be positive when it leads to better resource allocation, more age-appropriate environments, and improved student outcomes. But restructuring also consumes enormous administrative energy — redrawing boundaries, reassigning staff, integrating new facilities, and managing the inevitable disruption that comes with change.
The risk is that the district focuses so heavily on the logistics of reconfiguration that it loses focus on the core problem: too many students are not learning at grade level. New buildings do not fix bad instruction. New boundaries do not raise reading scores. And new debt service does not improve math proficiency.
What the State Averages Tell Us
Statewide, the 2025 STAAR results showed a mixed picture. Reading scores generally approached or surpassed pre-pandemic levels, with notable gains in third-grade reading. Science, including high school biology, also showed progress.
But math continued to decline statewide, and several high school End-of-Course subjects including English I and English II also fell. Social studies results weakened.
Bastrop ISD’s challenges are not unique. Many Texas districts, particularly those serving high-growth, economically diverse populations, are struggling with post-pandemic learning loss, teacher turnover, and the difficulty of scaling quality instruction across rapidly expanding campuses.
But “not unique” is not the same as “acceptable.” Bastrop County taxpayers are not paying for average. They are paying for results. And the results are not there.
The Financial Rating Is Fine. That Is Not the Point.
It is worth noting that Bastrop ISD received an A (Superior Achievement) on its financial integrity rating for 2024-2025, scoring 96 out of 100. The district allocates 84% of its budget to instruction and related student services and has implemented debt management practices that have saved over $40 million since 2009.
This means the district is competently managing its finances. Books are balanced. Audits are clean. Bond proceeds are being deployed as promised.
But financial integrity and academic performance are two different things. A district can get an A in financial management and a C in actually educating children. That is precisely what happened here. The money is being managed well. It is just not producing the academic outcomes that $196 million a year should deliver.
What Parents and Taxpayers Should Do
1. Look up your child’s campus rating. Visit TXSchools.gov or the Bastrop ISD Academic Performance Reports page to see the A-F rating for your specific school. Do not assume the district average applies to your campus. Cedar Creek and Camino Real parents are dealing with a fundamentally different reality than parents at higher-performing campuses.
2. Attend school board meetings. The Bastrop ISD Board of Trustees meets regularly and these meetings are open to the public. The board approved the 2025-2026 budget, authorized the sale of $89.4 million in remaining bond debt, and oversees the restructuring plan. If you are a taxpayer funding this district, you have every right — and an obligation — to ask questions about academic performance.
3. Ask about intervention plans. When a campus earns a D or F, the TEA requires the district to implement a Targeted Improvement Plan (TIP) or a Comprehensive Improvement Plan. Ask the superintendent and board what specific interventions are being deployed at Cedar Creek and Camino Real. What is the timeline for improvement? What benchmarks are being used? Who is accountable?
4. Monitor the restructuring’s impact on academics. The transition to new grade configurations and new campuses for 2025-2026 will be disruptive. Watch for early indicators: benchmark test results in the fall, mid-year STAAR diagnostic data, teacher retention numbers, and whether the new campus leaders are focused on instruction or consumed by logistics.
5. Vote in school board elections. The May 2 uniform election may include school board races. These are decided by tiny margins because turnout is abysmal. If you care about what is happening in Bastrop ISD classrooms, the most direct lever you have is your vote for the people who govern the district.
The Bottom Line
Bastrop ISD is not a failing district. A C is middling, not catastrophic. The financial management is sound. New facilities are being built. The district is growing and adapting.
But middling is not good enough — not when two elementary campuses are earning D and F ratings, not when 85% of students at some schools cannot read or do math at grade level, and not when taxpayers have committed over $300 million in bond debt on the promise that investment produces results.
The parents of the roughly 20,000 students in Bastrop ISD deserve better than a C. The taxpayers funding this district deserve to know why School Progress earned a D. And the students — especially the third graders at Cedar Creek who are four times less likely to read at grade level than the state average — deserve immediate, aggressive intervention.
Conservative governance is not about spending less. It is about demanding more from every dollar spent. Right now, Bastrop ISD is not delivering.
Data sourced from the Texas Education Agency A-F Accountability Ratings (2024-2025), TXSchools.gov, Bastrop ISD Academic Performance Reports, STAAR assessment results, Bastrop ISD 2025-2026 Adopted Budget, and the 2023 Bond Program. For campus-level data, visit TXSchools.gov or bisdtx.org.
Bastrop County Conservatives is a community organization dedicated to promoting conservative values and civic engagement in Bastrop County, Texas. Visit BastropCC.com to get involved.