Parents ‘gutted’ over Austin school closure approval

A day after Austin school board members approved a plan to shutter four elementary schools and consolidate students at other campuses next year, affected parents are vowing to oppose future district bond elections and the board members who supported the closures.

The nine-member school board late Monday voted 6-3 to close Metz, Sims, Brooke and Pease elementaries, agreeing to the recommendations district staff had submitted and revised since September. The closures disproportionately affect Latino and black students with all but one school located in East Austin; Pease is in downtown Austin. Parents in schools slated for closure have complained of officials being opaque in the closure process and dismissive of parent concerns. Critics also accused the plan of being racist.

“I cannot trust anything they say because the process has been so flawed, so dishonest, so inauthentic and just a pell-mell rush,” said Kristine Garaña, mother of two children enrolled at Pease, told the American-Statesman.

The closures were part of an overall “School Changes” plan that includes providing before- and after-school care for district elementary students, working toward eliminating racial disparities in disciplinary actions, and increasing literacy for students of color and English learners by third grade.

Brooke students will be split among Linder, Govalle, Sanchez and Zavala elementaries. Metz students will move to Sanchez Elementary, Sims students to Norman Elementary and Pease students to Zavala Elementary.

District administrators on Tuesday dispatched counselors to the four schools to help families process the closures.

Reiterating what they have said in the past, district staffers said during the board meeting that closing schools would save money on maintaining and operating aging school buildings, many of which are underenrolled. The freed-up funds could go toward improving academic programs, maintaining teacher raises, supporting modernized school environments and constructing affordable housing.

District officials estimate the closures and consolidations would save the district $3.7 million a year in maintenance and operation costs.

“It's always been about access and opportunity for our students, making sure that we are serving our students in the best ways, making sure we're focused on academic excellence,” Austin school Superintendent Paul Cruz told media outlets early Tuesday.

Trustee Yasmin Wagner, who represents large swaths of Southwest Austin, also threw her support behind the plan.

“I’ve put in thousands of hours researching this stuff,” she said. “Every time, I come back to the same conclusion: Our footprint as a district is simply too large to adequately support the students we have in it.”

Board members Ann Teich, LaTisha Anderson and Arati Singh voted against the school closures Monday. Singh proposed removing Brooke and Pease elementaries from the closure list. Brooke had been tentatively on the closure list up until Friday. At 143 years old, Pease is the oldest continuously operating elementary school in the Texas and the property must be used for educational purposes or it reverts to the state.

“It pushes people into the arms of charter schools, and we lose money that way too,” Singh said.

Losing the district’s trust

Over the last several weeks, community members rallied against school closures, students wrote letters to district officials, parents developed alternatives to closure, and notable figures like presidential daughter Luci Baines Johnson and veteran newsman Dan Rather offered their support.

Parents said those efforts were largely dismissed by the district, so they were not surprised by the board’s decision to shutter schools. It had seemed the district leaders had long made up their minds, said Laura Gupton, whose son goes to Pease.

“It was apparent that they didn’t take our comments and our offers to work with them into consideration,” Gupton said.

Parents said they spent Tuesday morning breaking the news to their children about the board’s vote.

Ruth Tovar’s daughter, a fifth grader at Brooke, was too upset by the news to want to go to school.

Gupton’s son August, a fourth grader who on Monday made a video addressing board members as a last-ditch effort to change their minds, was in tears, Gupton said.

“We’re gutted,” she said.

Tovar said she has lost trust in the school district and won’t be voting for the reelection of trustees who supported closures, including Jayme Mathias, whose district includes Brooke. Some parents want to know if there’s a way to oust board members before their term is completed, Tovar said.

“The plan is racist. There’s no way around it,” said Tovar, who also serves as PTA vice president at Brooke, where an overwhelming majority of students are Hispanic. “This morning walking into Brooke … to see these Mexican mothers looking defeated, it really broke my heart.”

Mathias sent a letter to constituents Tuesday, reinforcing his support for the closures and the possibility of turning the Pease building turning into an alternative learning center that also houses the juvenile alternative education program because of its proximity to the Travis County courthouse.

Rose Guajardo, a Pease parent, said the community is insulted by the suggestion.

“It’s just salt in the wound of all Pease parents and the community,” she said.

Will parents stay?

School district officials expect to take the next six to nine months to design and implement supports needed to transition schools affected by closures and consolidations. A team dedicated to the transition will be created with the goals of minimizing student disruption and “informing immediate and future facility needs,” among other things, according to the district’s plan.

District officials are leaving open the possibility of other school closures in the future. In the first version of the plan released in September, the district suggested closing 12 schools over a five-year period and moving students to other campuses that would be modernized and require a future bond referendum.

Parents said they can’t trust the district to carry out a future bond program with fidelity. As of Aug. 26, the district had used 17% of the money that the 2017 bond program had originally dedicated to Metz, Pease and Brooke.

Tovar said she fears whatever school her child winds up in also would be closed by the district, so she’s strongly considering home schooling after Brooke closes.

Gupton said she’s considering a charter school for the same reason.