Allandale · Gullett Elementary · AISD Boundary Proposal

Don't turn a healthy neighborhood school into a relief valve.

Austin ISD is redrawing school boundaries and is weighing two draft maps — “Oak” and “Elm.” Under Oak, the northern half of Allandale is rezoned out of Gullett and into Pillow. Under Elm, Allandale stays whole.

✕ Oppose Oak ✓ Support Elm

Take 2 minutes →

Open house Mon, June 15. Comment card closes July 31 — comment now.

Oak splits Allandale — and still misses its own goal.

It even leaves Pillow — the school those students are sent to — below the district's enrollment target.

AISD says this redraw is meant to balance enrollment with capacity, reduce how often a group of students gets split between schools, and keep communities together. Oak works against all three.

What the district's data shows

Half of Gullett, moved

Under Oak, about 180 children — roughly half of Gullett's students — are reassigned out of our neighborhood school and sent to Pillow Elementary.

Into an emptied school

The plan first sends most of Pillow's students (its northern area) to Padron, then refills the half-empty building with the Gullett kids — so most of “Pillow” would be former Gullett students.

That's a closure risk

Even after the Gullett kids arrive, Pillow sits barely half-full — below the district's target. The school our children are sent to is itself at risk of future closure.

It empties a school, refills it — and still doesn't fix it.

Oak doesn't add students to the system; it just moves three communities around each other. Here's the actual sequence:

1 First

Pillow's north end leaves

Most of Pillow — its area north of US‑183 — is reassigned to Padron, emptying much of the building.

2 Then

Gullett's north end moves in

The ~180 Gullett kids are sent across Anderson Lane into the half-empty Pillow building — which becomes mostly former-Gullett students.

3 And

Highland Park backfills Gullett

~130 students are pulled north from Highland Park (Rosedale) to refill Gullett — a third neighborhood drawn into the shuffle.

The bottom line

Disruption for three school communities. Stability for none.

Oak uproots roughly half of Gullett, reshuffles most of Pillow, and pulls ~130 Highland Park students north — and the children moved bear the cost — yet the receiving school still lands below the enrollment level the district uses to call a school healthy, leaving it a future closure target. The same families could simply stay whole under Elm, and the district's enrollment math works out either way. This is a choice, not a necessity.

Four reasons to oppose Oak

It's avoidable. Splitting Allandale isn't required to make the district's plan work — other configurations leave Gullett's zone whole. This cut is a choice, not a necessity.

It splits a neighborhood with clear edges. Allandale sits between MoPac, Anderson, and Burnet. Oak ignores those natural lines and divides the neighborhood down its interior side streets.

It takes away the walk to school. Families along the rezoned strip can walk or bike to Gullett today. Oak reassigns them across Anderson Lane — a busy arterial — to a school they can't safely walk to.

It churns a third neighborhood, too. The ~180 children sent to Pillow are backfilled by ~130 students pulled north from Highland Park's zone in Rosedale, who then commute farther to Gullett — three communities reshuffled, not one.

On the comment card, it comes down to this

OAK → Oppose it

Splits Allandale and sends about half of Gullett to Pillow — disrupting three communities while still leaving Pillow below target.

ELM → Support it

Keeps Allandale whole and Gullett's feeder pattern intact — the stable, balanced outcome this process is meant to produce.

The two maps, side by side

Oak splits Allandale. Elm keeps it whole.

These are AISD's own proposed boundary maps for the Gullett area. Under Oak, the neighborhood is cut at Greenlawn — the northern half is rezoned to Pillow, and about 130 students are pulled north from Highland Park (Rosedale) to backfill Gullett.

Elm scenario map: Gullett attendance zone whole — Allandale stays whole — one neighborhood in one school, with no split and no reshuffle.

Oak scenario map: Allandale split at Greenlawn, north half rezoned to Pillow — The neighborhood is cut at Greenlawn. The north half goes to Pillow, which still lands at just **53%** — below the district's own floor.

Two minutes. One neighbor.

The comment window is open now, and your feedback genuinely shapes the final map. Do these three things — the first one takes two minutes.

Step 1 — the one that matters most

Comment online: oppose Oak, support Elm.

AISD's comment card for this round is open through July 31. Open it, say you oppose Oak and support Elm for the Allandale / Gullett area, and submit. That's it.

Open the AISD comment card →

On the form, choose Gullett ES and the boundary topic for your area, then add your comment.

▶ Not sure what to write? Tap for wording you can copy.

Keep it about the planning, not about any school being “good” or “bad.” Comments grounded in the district's own goals — balanced enrollment, keeping communities together — carry the most weight. Adding one personal sentence helps even more.

Short version

I support Elm and oppose Oak for the Allandale / Gullett area. Oak splits our neighborhood and still leaves the receiving school below the district's enrollment target — please keep our feeder pattern whole with Elm.

Fuller version

Please adopt Elm rather than Oak for the Allandale / Gullett area. Oak divides our neighborhood and reassigns roughly half of Gullett's students, while still leaving the receiving school below the district's enrollment target — so it disrupts two school communities without achieving the balanced, stable feeder patterns this process is meant to create. It also moves walkable families across Anderson Lane to a school they can't safely walk to. Elm keeps Allandale's neighborhood school whole. Thank you for prioritizing community continuity and a healthy enrollment for every campus.

Step 2 — show up if you can

Come to the open house. Bring a neighbor.

AISD staff will be there to hear from the community in person. Turnout is what district leaders notice.

June

Monday

6:00 – 7:30 p.m.

Austin High School
1715 W. Cesar Chavez St., Austin, TX 78703

＋ Add to calendar ◎ Get directions

Can't make June 15? The online comment card above is open through July 31, and AISD is also holding districtwide virtual sessions on June 22 and June 23.

Step 3 — the multiplier

Send this to three neighbors.

A split only gets reversed if enough people speak up. The single most useful thing you can do after commenting is get three more families to do the same.