The school almost didn't open this semester, after the Texas Education Agency rated Pearce "academically unacceptable" for the fifth consecutive year.

Outcry from the community and a campaign by the Austin Independent School District convinced the TEA to keep Pearce open under the new repurposing plan.

Texanna Turner, the transition leader at Pearce, said repurposing involves many changes.

"Looking at how we're going to schedule, how we're going to look at what children actually need based on scheduling on some of the weak points that we saw, some of the challenges … so looking at double blocking some math and some science classes – those kinds of things.

"And some of those things are still in the works, waiting until the new principal actually comes on board so that we can look at getting different staff hired and some of the same staff is coming back, so we're working on that pretty hard, too."

School starts Monday, Aug. 24.