AUSTIN, Texas — The Austin Independent School District has plans to transform the old Pease Elementary School site into an early child care and education center for the district's teachers and staff.
"We will offer high quality child care for a new generation of students, offer much needed support for our educators and other families and educate Austin ISD’s future students and a strong workforce of early childhood experts,” AISD trustee Lynn Boswell said.
In 2019, due to a lack of funding and enrollment, AISD voted to shut Pease down, along with three other schools in the district: Sims Elementary, Metz Elementary and Brooks Elementary.
"It was devastating,” said Noelita Lugo, a former Pease parent and AISD board member.
Lugo was not alone in being upset about the school's closure, as students and parents alike held a farewell parade to honor it.
Now, more than three years later, the district hopes this new center will improve teacher retention.
"We have so many gaps in our workforce. Particularly women, who bear most of the burden for child care, can't afford to go to work if it costs as much as they're earning to provide quality child care,” U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett said.
AISD is partnering with the nonprofit United Way Austin to build the center, which will provide care for 120 kids, aged between 6-months-old to 5-years-old.
The district secured $3 million in federal funding to start the project and anticipates it will be completed by fall 2024.
"By investing in high quality, affordable child care for our employees, we are invested in the long term health of our district and our most precious responsibility, our children," AISD Interim Superintendent Matias Segura said.
The district also hopes this transformation will bring life back into the Pease property and education to the halls again.
"It really feels like we're doing right by the history of Austin and public education,” Lugo said. “We're giving families an opportunity to have their kids learn here again."
Pease Elementary was the first public school in Austin and one of the six oldest schools in Texas, opening back in 1876. In the early 1800s, the property was designated to be used only for educational purposes.
"This site has a special place in the history for Austin ISD, the City of Austin and the state of Texas,” Segura said.
The school officially became a registered Texas historic landmark in 2013.