Maplewood Elementary School is nestled in a leafy, quiet neighborhood just east of I-35. Its sidewalks, trees, and proximity to Patterson Neighborhood Park make it an ideal place to raise a family, in the eyes of many residents.
The school and neighborhood originally were established in the 1950s to accommodate an influx of World War II vets and their families.
But Maplewood is now sandwiched between the more densely developed Mueller District to the east, the University of Texas at Austin across the interstate to the west, and rapidly gentrifying, commercializing parts of Central East Austin to the south.
The land on which it sits, just next to Cherrywood Coffeehouse – home to a young, progressive, and mostly childless clientele – could be worth millions to a commercial developer.
Under a plan released Thursday by the Austin Independent School District (AISD), the elementary school will be closed and repurposed for use as “affordable housing, an arts studio, a childcare facility, or an art space for students,” according to a scenario summary document released by the district.
It’s unclear at this stage whether AISD would sell or rent the property. The school is an “aging facility,” and should be “repurposed into a new, beneficial space for the community,” AISD said in its working document on the planned closure.
Also not clear at this stage is when the school closure would take effect. While AISD documents themselves say the timing “will be determined upon a comprehensive assessment of complete school changes project phasing,” some local media are reporting a timetable of 2023.
The closure plan is not final, but it is the product of months of work by AISD planners, who are determined to close and consolidate schools, despite AISD recently receiving a substantial boost in funding from the Texas Legislature.
Maplewood is one of 10 elementary schools and two middle schools that the district says it wants to close, while Northeast High School, formerly Reagan High, will expand from a high school to include grades 6-8, and Gus Garcia Young Men’s Leadership Academy will expand from a middle school to become a grade 6-12 school.
Students at Maplewood itself will be offered places at Campbell Elementary, a newer school to the south. By foot, Campbell is about 15 minutes from Maplewood, but the walk involves crossing several busy roads, including 38 ½ St. and Manor Rd. Parents will also have the option of sending their child to Blackshear Elementary, which is a 45-minute walk or 9-minute drive from the current school, according to Google Maps.
Tobias Carson, a parent of two boys who attend Maplewood, says he moved his family into the neighborhood six years ago in part because of the proximity of the school. “We liked the neighborhood and we liked how engaged everybody was with the school. All of the teachers have been great.”
The announcement of Maplewood’s prospective closure “was very abrupt and I haven’t really processed exactly what’s going to happen,” says the father of three boys. “Most likely” he’ll stick with AISD, he expects, but he hasn’t decided yet what he’ll do.
“I really like the fact that we can walk – I think it’s good for the kids, and driving in the car is a very different experience than being able to walk,” Carson said in an interview.
Another parent in the neighborhood, Andy Bush, said that he and his family moved in a few years ago. “The appeal of this neighborhood is its walkability. And why would a city ever shut down a school that’s in a walkable neighborhood?” he said.
“Part of our decision to live here was for my child to go to school here – so it will affect us,” Bush commented. “It’s difficult for working parents to drop their kids off in the car. The roads get really congested around here in the afternoon.”
Kevin, a man who plays basketball on the school grounds and put a child through school elsewhere in East Austin, said he was surprised to hear news of the closure plans. “When a school has temporary buildings, it’s having to expand on its own area, you’d think that there’s a big call for that school,” he said, pointing to the overflow buildings erected around Maplewood’s main building.
He speculated that changing demographics played a role in AISD’s decision: “You could make the case probably that this neighborhood has changed from a family neighborhood to more of a young-professional neighborhood. These are still pretty affordable houses but the core of this city is not affordable for young families – at least not as much as it used to be.”
Still, it’s not clear that Maplewood is under enrolled. The school had 481 students as of October 29, 2018. And overall, the school’s operating expenses are nearly $3,000 lower on a per student basis than the districtwide average, according to Texas Education Agency data covering the period 2016-17.
About half of the students at Maplewood are white, a quarter are Hispanic, and 14% are African American. The diversity of the school was a draw, said Carson.
By closing Maplewood, the district will save $500,000 per year in operations and maintenance costs. In its plan, AISD says also that the closure will result in $8.1 million in deferred maintenance savings – though it doesn’t detail when or why such funds would have to be committed if the school were to stay open.
The cost savings will help Blackshear Elementary add a digital media program and expand a fine arts program, which will be open to students relocating from Maplewood.
Maplewood scored fairly well in the Texas Education Agency’s recently released 2018 accountability scorecards, with a passing grade of 77 overall, including marks of 82 for student achievement. The school had a lower score of 62 in the category of “closing the gaps” – a metric for the differentials in the achievement levels among different racial/ethnic groups and socioeconomic backgrounds.
AISD Superintendent Paul Cruz wrote a letter to parents the day the proposed school closures were announced. “The changes we make will be worth the effort,” said Cruz. “We are now at the… step of the school changes process where we ask you: Are we being bold enough?”
Cruz and other district leaders have argued that declining enrollment and budget issues have left them with little choice but to close schools. They have also blamed demographic changes and rising enrollment at charter schools in Austin for a loss of students, which ultimately means less revenue for the district in the long term.
