Austin ISD is closing 10 campuses at the end of this school year. That’s a grim outcome of a real crisis: the district is staring down a projected $181 million deficit for the 2026–27 school year. To close that gap, AISD has already cut staff, consolidated schools, and is now weighing teacher layoffs, reduced planning time, and cuts to nurses and librarians.
One of the main tools AISD is counting on to soften those blows is its real estate. The district is depending on revenue from the sale of closed school sites to close over a quarter of its projected deficit, but that only works if the city allows dense enough development to make those sites worth what AISD needs. Letting AISD build housing on closed school sites is one of the most direct things Austin can do to support its public schools.
A significant test of Austin’s resolve to support our schools’ staff, teachers, and students is coming before City Council on Thursday, May 21: the rezoning of the former Rosedale School site to allow 435 mid-rise apartments. AISD anticipates receiving about $26 million from the sale—more than half of the district’s $49 million current-year deficit. AURA supports this rezoning, and we’re asking City Council to approve it.
Some opponents have argued the city should delay the rezoning until AISD’s lawsuit over a deed restriction is resolved. We disagree. The 1938 deed restriction in question, the one opponents want the city to treat as a reason for pause, also prohibited any person of African descent from owning property in the subdivision. It is not a document the city should treat as a reason to delay housing in 2026. Whether apartments comply with its residential use clause is a question for the courts.
The question before the city is whether this is the right use of this land. We strongly believe it is. Approving the Rosedale rezoning would cover more than half of AISD’s current-year deficit in a single transaction and add 435 homes in a transit-served location—improving affordability for working Austinites, including the teachers our schools depend on.
The closure of ten AISD campuses is a painful loss for the students, families, and neighborhoods they served. The least we can do is use these sites to stem the bleeding, and that means letting AISD build housing on them. Each rezoning is a chance to either support our schools or make their crisis worse. Our schools, teachers, and students can’t afford for us to get this wrong.