Families at Blackshear Elementary were stunned last week to learn their historic East Austin school will close by 2028, a major shift in the Austin school district’s plans to save money.

“It was a bait and switch for us,” Lara O’Toole said as she waited for her children Wednesday at Blackshear’s dismissal. “It feels like there were a bunch of public meetings and it was just lip service.”

The decision to close Blackshear, announced last week by Austin ISD Superintendent Matias Segura, is the latest move in a monthslong saga that will amount to one of the most sweeping sets of school closure plans in the district’s history.

Austin ISD is closing schools across the city as it faces a mounting budget deficit.

The move to ultimately close Blackshear, the city’s oldest elementary school, came as a shock to many who were still coming to terms with the original plan, approved by Austin ISD board members in November, which included keeping Blackshear open and closing nearby Oak Springs Elementary despite millions of bond dollars committed to an in-progress campus modernization.

Austin ISD staff told Austin Current in February the district was working to exit over $70 million in bond-related contracts at schools now set to close. Most recently available bond finance records show the district already spent nearly $10 million and committed more than $39 million in bond dollars on rebuilding Oak Springs Elementary as part of a $2.4 billion voter-approved 2022 bond. Community members questioned the fiscal wisdom of the subsequent vote to close the school while that project was underway. Parents of Oak Spring Elementary students waiting for a new, modern school decried the decision as a broken promise.

Last week’s decision changes that course, moving to complete the budgeted $58 million modernization at Oak Springs and eventually sending the consolidated Blackshear and Oak Springs students to the new building.

Heartbroken and disheartened

The sudden switch has left Blackshear parents feeling unheard and concerned about the future of the school’s fine arts program — the first of its kind for an Austin ISD elementary school. Some families said the news has given them the push to pursue options outside Austin ISD.

Mother of two students at Blackshear, O’Toole said she was heartbroken to lose the Blackshear school and community and was disheartened by how the process was handled. With one community promised a new school and another promised their campus would not close, she said two under-resourced communities were left pitted against one another.

O’Toole said she was excited to welcome a new community to Blackshear. But she is wary of how much disruption the new plan will cause and wonders whether Blackshear’s fine arts programs can be preserved. After picking her kids up from school, she was headed to tour a school outside of Austin ISD to keep her family’s options open.

“They are only in elementary school for so many years, and I don’t want those years to be hectic and in transition,” O’Toole said.

Blackshear Elementary dates back to 1891, when it opened as a public school for Black students from the Gregory Town freedom colony in segregated East Austin at a building just blocks from the current campus. At the entrance of the building today, a plaque marks the school’s Texas Historical Site recognition amid colorful murals celebrating the school’s rich history and diversity.

Students at Oak Springs Elementary are still set to be relocated to Blackshear next year, when the current Oak Springs campus closes. Then, according to Segura’s letter, the consolidated study body will move into the newly-constructed building located just behind the current Oak Springs school upon its completion in January 2028.

Segura said in an email to parents the district is committed to honoring and preserving the historic nature of the Blackshear site by pursuing further historic preservation, reimagining how the building can serve the community and incorporating historic aspects of Blackshear into Oak Springs’ new design. The letter also said the district would get input from both communities to define the new school’s identity, through things like the mascot and school colors.

In the emailed announcement, Segura also said the district had “thoughtfully reviewed” feedback from the two school communities before moving forward with the construction of the modernized Oak Springs building as the permanent site for the consolidated schools. The new school will honor the original, community-informed vision while including space to continue Blackshear fine arts programming, the email said.

Rachel Bowden, whose children attend second and fourth grade at Blackshear, said she understands the need for the district’s consolidation efforts. She supported the plan until the district removed three schools from the proposed closure list and delayed a vote on district-wide boundary changes citing integrity concerns. Living in East Austin, an area home to many schools considered for closure or placed under state-mandated improvement plans, she said pending decisions have left her uncertain the school she chooses for her kids will be there until they graduate fifth grade.

Bowden said she is not planning to remove her children from Austin ISD but is concerned the transition could negatively impact students academically at the campus, which currently boasts a passing score under the state’s academic accountability rating system.

Bowden said she wished district leaders would have waited to close Blackshear until after district-wide boundary changes are completed and district leaders can better evaluate whether more school closures are needed. She believes a new building was prioritized at all costs over Blackshear’s vibrant community located down the street from their assigned middle school.

“When the bond plan was made to rebuild Oak Springs, the cost was $47 million,” Bowen said. ”It wasn’t $47 million and closing Blackshear.”