Facing a budget deficit of nearly $20 million, Austin ISD leaders are turning to the sale of former school campuses for fast cash, a strategy that has triggered community backlash and reopened long-standing tensions over who benefits when public land is sold.
After the embattled sale of the former Rosedale Elementary site, Austin ISD board members voted in January to negotiate the sale of Brooke Elementary, which closed in 2019. Board members and Austin ISD leaders said selling both properties is key to preventing the nearly $20 million deficit from growing. Still, multiple trustees cited community concerns about the Brooke site’s future, the intentions of the developers and the fate of current tenants of Brooke, which has become a community hub since students left.
The East Austin campus houses the Native American Cultural Center and Vela, an organization dedicated to supporting families of children with disabilities.
Why the district says it needs the money
Trustee Fernando de Urioste, who voted against authorizing negotiations, said community members are willing to make difficult sacrifices when they feel included in decisions. But the feedback he said he heard showed a gap between district leaders and the community. Without the sale, he said, the district would need to make cuts elsewhere before the end of the budget cycle, a consequence he believes many residents do not fully understand.
“In a different part of the city they are not going to be worried about this land in the same way that the Eastside is,” De Urioste said.
De Urioste said real estate transactions were identified during budget planning as essential to stabilizing district finances. However, he said community members questioned why the Brooke site was chosen and whether selling another East Austin property to a high-end developer was justified.
Kaylee Greenlee for Austin Current
Paint peels from the school sign at the former Brooke Elementary School.
The short answer: The district needs the money, Urioste said. The Brooke site is a desirable lot that would be expensive for the district to renovate relative to what it could use it for.
He said future revenue could come from additional land development, including sales that generate short-term cash and projects that provide longer-term returns. But, he said, those decisions must be made with community input to build support.
Sales tied to wider budget strategy
Brooke isn’t the only school targeted to help fix budget woes. Austin ISD board members voted in November to close 10 schools as a cost-saving measure. A potential sale of the former Rosedale Elementary has been so contentious that the district is suing more than 100 residents to move the deal forward.
The district is negotiating a contract for the Brooke site with Trammell Crow Corporation/High Street. Superintendent Matias Segura said during a January board meeting they were not looking at going with the highest bidder, but rather a buyer who can balance the value of the land with being responsive to the community.
Segura told board members the developer proposed family-oriented units, which he said better align with district and community priorities while still allowing the district to benefit financially.
Negotiations over the sale price for the Brooke site could take months, Segura said.
Trammell Crow Corporation’s website shows the company owns nearby 700 River, a 43-story high rise which lists studio apartments for $2,000 per month and two-bedroom, two-bath units for at least $5,500.
In search of a new home
The Native American Cultural Center, now looking for a new home, hosts the city’s largest powwow and has expanded to offer crafting, Sew Indigenous workshops, Indigenous games and a local fashion show.
Kaylee Greenlee for Austin Current
Native American Cultural Center Creative Director Nan Blassingame stands for a portrait at the organization’s current location in the former Brooke Elementary School.
Weekly attendance ranges from a few dozen to about 50 people depending on the time of year, said Nan Blassingame, the organization’s creative director. The group uses two classrooms and an outdoor space where members planned to garden.
“I grew up with my grandparents teaching me everything,” Blassingame, who is a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, said. “I know how to bead, I know how to sew, but some did not get that opportunity growing up in an urban setting to learn their tribal ways and I feel like I can gift that to them.”
Plans for an heirloom garden tied to that mission have been scrapped because of the pending sale.
Doug Martin of the Central Texas Cherokee Township said the sale has delayed the program another year since the gardens must be planted by mid-March, harvested in the summer and later processed through nixtamalization.
“A lot of folks here know how important corn is,” Martin said, “so it is kind of unfortunate that the one garden we totally miss out on is the Native American Cultural Center this year.”