The Austin school district must sell two school properties this year to keep its $19.7 million deficit from ballooning. If the old Brooke or Rosedale campus properties fail to sell, district officials may have to go back to the drawing board to explore other ways to save money just months after a painful decision to close 10 schools because of budgetary and enrollment strains.
Neither the Brooke or Rosedale campuses have been used as traditional schools for several years.
The sales must be completed this fiscal year to keep the district's deficit in check. In June, the district predicted the budget gap would be $65 million without planned property sales.
Property sale issue
District officials identified OHT Partners, a developer of multifamily residential buildings across Texas, as the buyer of the old Rosedale campus on West 49th Street. The district executed a sales contract with OHT in August, but is still finalizing the sale.
The campus previously served high need special education students until 2022 when the district used 2017 bond dollars to open a brand new school, also called Rosedale, for the same purpose on Silvercrest Drive.
However, the district’s potential sale hit a snag. The neighborhood around the campus' 1938 covenant restricts all but a few area lots to residential purposes, though the school property was conveyed for “public school purposes,” according to a lawsuit filed by the school district on Oct. 31.
In its lawsuit, the district asked a Travis County district judge to declare that the kind of multifamily development that OHT would like to build aligns with decades-old deed restrictions on the old Rosedale property.
The lawsuit, filed in the 201st District Court of Travis County, named about 150 property owners near the old Rosedale campus as defendants.
Many residents are concerned that the proposed multi-story development would add traffic and unwanted congestion to the single-family home neighborhood, said Carl Reynolds, who lives a few blocks from the old Rosedale campus.
“We know something’s going to happen, but this is insane,” Reynolds said, referring to a development on the property.
The district’s grim financial situation has restrained the typical process for working with the public on repurposing old properties, said Kenneth Walker, the district’s legal counsel.
“This is not the way we normally sell property,” Walker said. “We normally engage the community and make sure their input is reflected and in this instance, we’re pretty restrained.”
Brooke campus
District officials recently signaled to community members that the former site of Brooke Elementary, which was closed in 2019, may also be sold soon. In a late November letter, officials wrote that “The sale of the Brooke site is not a preferred outcome, but it is a necessary step to protect the district’s ability to fulfill its mission.”
“This transaction is essential to avoiding deeper disruptions to our teachers, schools and programs,” the letter stated.
The sale of the old Brooke campus will displace at least four non-profits currently working in the building, including one that focuses on support services for parents, one focused on preventing East Austin displacement, and the Native American Cultural Center, an organization that rebranded and expanded when it opened at the former school earlier this year.
Skye Howell, executive director of the Native American Cultural Center, told the Statesman that receiving the news “was a hard hit” for the organization that was growing roots at its new location, establishing new events like a weekly sewing collective and attracting the largest numbers of community engagement it ever had.
It is now looking for a new lease for next year. Howell said that the district told her that it plans to sell the campus as early as March.
“We have a lot of community support, but the future is uncertain,” Howell said. “We’re thriving where we’re at.”
Walker told the Statesman that the district is still seeking a buyer for the Brooke property.
Fiscal issues
If the district doesn’t sell either of these properties this year, the budget deficit will grow, Walker said.
“I don’t think it’d be far-fetched to say we’d be facing some pretty difficult decisions,” he added.
Walker hopes to resolve the declaratory judgement on the Rosedale property’s covenant within six to nine months, but told the Statesman that courts are unpredictable.
District spokeswoman Maritza Villela said the district did not have specific examples of cuts that might be proposed if the sales are unsuccessful.
On Nov. 20, the school Board of Trustees voted to shutter 10 campuses next year in response to plummeting enrollment and in hopes of saving about $21.5 million during the next fiscal year.
Other sites
The district has several other unused school sites from previously closed campuses that could be potential sale opportunities.
The district contracted with the NRP Group to build workforce housing on site of the old Anita Ferrales Coy facility, which was once the district’s Alternative Learning Center and previously Allan Elementary School. Demolition was scheduled to be completed last month.
At the Pease Elementary building, the district partnered with the nonprofit United Way, which will open an early childhood program.
The Metz building is being used to house district administrative departments and the old Sims building is being used as extra space for staff and students while Harris Elementary undergoes extensive renovations.
Emiliano Tahui Gómez covers Latinos in Austin for the Statesman, including immigration, displacement and culture. He has written about Venezuelan softball leagues, Tejano musicians and the impact of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. He contributed to the Statesman's 2024 series on the aftermath of the Hays school bus crash that won the EWA's Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize for Distinguished Education Reporting and the SPJ's Sigma Delta Chi award, which honors the best in newspaper, digital, television and radio journalism.
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