SAN ANTONIO – On Monday, San Antonio ISD’s board voted to approve its staff’s “rightsizing” recommendations to allow the district to “more efficiently use its resources.”
The district said it will reallocate more resources to education for students and less for building maintenance.
The board delayed its decision on Rodriguez Montessori Elementary until Dec. 11 to hold a community meeting before a final vote.
Board members directed district staff members to come up with a transition plan to support the needs of those affected. They also asked staff to gather a panel of citizens, with staff support, to help repurpose the vacated buildings.
Staff members were also directed to continue facility usage studies at least every five years.
“These studies of excess campus conditions and capacity will assess all SAISD schools, as well as each school’s staffing levels, programming, and facility conditions,” the district said in a news release.
The board-approved resolution includes two withdrawn proposals, two withdrawn and modified proposals, seven modified proposals, and 14 sustained proposals.
Thirty-three schools are proposed to receive additional students and staff, although students always have the ability to choice-in or transfer to schools of their preference.
“We deeply appreciate everyone who gave input into the initial recommendation to our rightsizing study,” SAISD Superintendent Jaime Aquino said in the letter.
Following are the final recommendations as provided by the district in a news release:
Withdraw
Collins Garden – Remains Open
Collins Garden Elementary remains open and continues to serve as a neighborhood school.
Pershing – Remains Open
Pershing Elementary remains open and continues to serve as a neighborhood school.
Withdraw and Modify
Ogden – Ogden Remains Open
Ogden Elementary remains open. The district is considering the option of co-locating Rodriguez Montessori Elementary at the Ogden campus to ensure an efficient utilization of space. In the next four weeks, the district will actively involve the Rodriguez community in discussions to thoroughly exam the feasibility of this co-location.
Riverside Park/Green/Bonham – Riverside Park Remains Open, Green Closes and Bonham Expands
Riverside Park Elementary remains open. Green Elementary closes, and its location becomes the expansion site for Bonham Academy. Green students attend Riverside Park and are given priority enrollment if they wish to attend Bonham at Green (PK-2) or Bonham (3-8).
Modify
Baskin – Delayed Closure
Baskin Elementary has a delayed closure until the new wing is completed at Maverick Elementary.
Carroll/Miller/Gates/M.L. King – Carroll Delayed Closure, Gates Closes, Miller Closes, M. L. King Moves
Carroll Early Childhood Education Center delays closure until the new M.L. King Academy is completed. Gates Elementary closes in 2024-25, and its location temporarily becomes M.L. King Academy until the new MLK facility is renovated. Miller Elementary closes, and all students within the neighborhood attend Smith. Dual-language students living within the Gates, MLK, and Hirsch attendance areas attend MLK at Gates, which will offer a dual-language program.
Foster/Schenck – Foster Closes and Schenck Moves
Foster Elementary closes at the end of 2023-24, and its location temporarily becomes Schenck Elementary until the new Schenck facility is renovated. Foster Elementary students in the Ball and Highland Hills elementary attendance areas return to their home schools in 2024-25.
Highland Park – Closes and Repurposed
Highland Park Elementary closes at the end of 2023-24, and students attend Japhet and Highland Hills.
Steele Montessori – Moves
Steele Montessori moves to a new location, and this new location is determined at a later time after community input.
Sustained
Early Childhood Centers: Knox, Nelson, Tynan – Close and Repurposed
Close all early childhood centers to return early childhood programs back to their home campuses.
Gonzales/Twain – Gonzales Closes and Twain Expands
Close Gonzales Early Childhood Center to return early childhood programs back to their home campuses. Twain will expand into the vacated Gonzales building to accommodate their extensive waitlist. Gonzales students who want to attend Twain are given priority enrollment.
Beacon Hill/Cotton Academy – Beacon Hill Closes and Merges with Cotton Academy
Merge Beacon Hill and Cotton academies with PK-2 students at Beacon Hill and 3-8 at Cotton Academy.
Douglass – Closes and Repurposed
Close Douglass Elementary, and students attend Herff Elementary.
Forbes – Closes and Repurposed
Close Forbes Elementary, and students attend Ball and Highland Hills elementaries.
Huppertz – Closes and Repurposed
Close Huppertz Elementary, and students will attend Woodlawn Hills Elementary and Fenwick Academy.
Japhet – Redesigned
Redesign Japhet Academy as a PK-5 elementary. Students in grades 6-8 will attend Hot Wells Middle School.
Lowell/Kelly – Lowell Closes and Merges with Kelly
Merge Lowell Middle School with Kelly Elementary and redesign the Lowell facility as a unified PK-8 academy, initially with PK-2 at Kelly and 3-8 at Lowell. Following renovation of Lowell, PK-8 will reside at Kelly Academy at Lowell.
Lamar – Closes and Repurposed
Close Lamar Elementary, and students will attend Hawthorne Academy.
Storm – Closes and Repurposed
Close Storm Elementary, and students will attend Sarah King and Barkley-Ruiz elementaries.
Washington – Redesigned
Redesign Washington Elementary as PK-5, and 6th grade students will attend Davis Middle School.
CAST Med – Co-located
Co-locate a new CAST-affiliated school at CAST Med High School
The district said that the final recommendation is the result of a resolution the SAISD Board of Trustees approved on June 20, which was informed by two long-term trends. The first was declining enrollment due to a combination of decreasing birth rates and a lack of housing affordable to families with school-aged children. The second was a reluctance over the years to reduce the number of schools as student enrollment declined. Today, SAISD operates a higher number of buildings per student compared with similar school districts across the region and the country.
In its resolution, the board expressed concern about the consequences of these two trends, which they believed resulted in a growing and unintended inequitable distribution of resources among students. The resolution called for district staff to conduct a study to re-evaluate and optimize the district’s resources, considering the changing demographics and the evolving needs of students.
In response, district staff drafted the values and criteria it could use as a framework to conduct the study and held 14 meetings to gather community feedback on the framework. Based on public input, the district substantially revised the framework, and then applied it to develop an initial ‘rightsizing’ recommendation. The initial proposal was presented to the board on Sept. 18. The district followed the presentation with a second phase of engagement and held another 23 neighborhood meetings, located mainly at the affected schools.
In addition to these neighborhood meetings, SAISD held numerous meetings with various stakeholders, including neighborhood associations, faith-based groups, the San Antonio Alliance and the Schools our Students Deserve Coalition, state, county and local elected officials, and multiple advisory committees and councils within the district.
In total, SAISD spent 146 days, which amounts to nearly five months, developing, presenting, discussing, and deliberating over the study. The final recommendation includes substantial adjustments to its Sept. 18 proposal, and the modifications align with the criteria and priorities established in the framework.
If approved by the board, the implementation of the proposal will result in a major transformation, allowing the district to reimagine the way it supports all students so both children and educators benefit.
“We are at a pivotal point in the history of SAISD, and these recommendations were not made lightly,” Aquino said in the letter. “These shifts in our educational journey are not just about closing doors but opening new ones. The rightsizing study was driven by our long-term vision of enhancing the educational experience for all students.”
For more information on the history and purpose of the study, visit www.saisd.net/rightsizing.