Austin leaders gathered Wednesday at the shuttered Pease Elementary to celebrate the historic school's 150th anniversary and to detail plans for its next chapter: a childcare center and family resource hub serving the city's youngest residents. The campus, which opened in 1876 and closed after the 2019-20 school year, has sat empty for years while Austin ISD and United Way for Greater Austin worked out how to bring it back to life.
The school opened under the name Austin Graded School House in 1876, according to Austin ISD, and it earned Recorded Texas Historic Landmark status in 2013. As reported by the Austin American-Statesman, Pease was Texas's longest continuously operating school when it closed in 2020, the same year Austin ISD shuttered three other East Austin campuses. The district has since renamed the property the Pease Community Campus as part of a broader push to repurpose several shuttered schools.
Austin ISD Superintendent Matias Segura told the Statesman the reimagined campus is “unlike anything else in Central Texas” and reflects families' current and future needs. The plan calls for Pease to become both a childcare center and a community hub, part of a wider effort to expand affordable childcare for Travis County parents and prepare young children for kindergarten.
A 50-Year Lease and a Renovation Still to Come
Austin ISD's Board of Trustees voted in January 2025 to authorize lease negotiations with United Way for Greater Austin, according to Austin ISD. Per the Statesman's reporting, the board approved a 50-year lease that same year, and the district says it will retain ownership of the land and building while United Way takes charge of day-to-day operations. Austin ISD's own site describes the arrangement somewhat differently, citing an initial 10-year lease term with an option to renew for 40 more years — terms also reported by Texas Standard, which additionally reported that United Way is leasing the site for $1 per year.
United Way for Greater Austin plans to renovate, manage and operate the facility, with the project expected to break ground next year on an $18.8 million renovation, per Anne Koncki as cited by the Statesman. The district is contributing $3 million toward the renovation, which it obtained through a congressional appropriation organized by U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, while the Moody Foundation has donated $1.8 million. United Way also plans to spend $2.3 million on fundraising, staffing and opening the campus, according to Koncki's figures reported by the Statesman.
When Will the Doors Reopen?
Timelines for the project have shifted over time. An earlier plan reported by the Austin Chronicle in 2023 called for the childcare facility to open in fall 2024. By March 2025, Texas Standard reported United Way was aiming for a 2027 opening with capacity for about 130 children ages 6 weeks to 5 years old. The Statesman's latest reporting now points to a 2028 opening for the early childhood education center.
Once open, the 2.2-acre campus is expected to serve 120 students from infancy through age 6, according to figures from Koncki cited by the Statesman, with priority given to children from families who qualify for income-based scholarships and to Austin ISD employees. Austin ISD separately describes the planned program as designed to serve infants as young as 6 weeks through 5-year-olds, meeting Texas Rising Star four-star quality standards, NAEYC accreditation and Outdoor Learning Environment Texas standards. The center is expected to accept public childcare subsidies and operate on a sliding tuition scale, per Texas Standard. United Way is partnering with Goodwill Central Texas to lead the on-site childcare operation, and the campus will also house a family resource center connecting parents with housing assistance, healthcare and food support.
A Personal Return for Some Austin Families
United Way for Greater Austin CEO Ingrid Taylor told the Statesman that families need affordable, high-quality care before kindergarten, pathways to financial stability for parents, and support for caregivers. For some, the project is personal. Leah Treadwell, who attended Pease until 1981 and whose father, sister, nieces and nephews also went to the school, told the Statesman the campus's reopening “makes a ton of sense.”
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said the Pease initiative is another city effort to improve children's quality of life, according to the Statesman. The project fits into a pattern of Austin ISD repurposing shuttered campuses — contractors began building a 675-unit housing project at the Anita Ferrales Coy Facility, formerly Allan Elementary, in East Austin this past March, and that site is also slated to include an Alternative Learning Center, a plan the Austin Chronicle has tracked since 2023. The Austin ISD school board was also set to vote Thursday on selling Sunset Valley and Dawson elementary schools, which closed this past summer, per the Statesman.
A Countywide Push for Childcare Access
The Pease project arrives alongside a broader county-level expansion of childcare funding. Travis County commissioners approved more than $17 million in contracts with local nonprofits in May to operate childcare centers, according to the Statesman, funded through the Raising Travis County initiative, which was created after voters approved a 2.5-cent increase in the county property tax rate in 2024. Those contracts aim to create 5,200 new childcare spots for families who may struggle to afford care.
Separate reporting from KXAN put the Raising Travis County investment at $17.65 million across 13 community partners, expected to serve more than 5,200 children and support 180 childcare providers; United Way for Greater Austin is among the organizations receiving that funding, with a subcontract to the Andy Roddick Foundation. Travis County commissioners also approved an additional $21 million in childcare scholarships last year for roughly 1,000 children, largely under age 3, and funded out-of-school care for students in Austin, Manor and Del Valle ISDs.
