SAN ANTONIO – No more than 24 hours after another local school district voted to shut down more than a dozen schools, Edgewood Independent School District is the latest San Antonio-area public district to close schools amid low enrollment and lack of funding.
All except for one board member present voted to shut down the schools. One board member was not in attendance.
The district’s finance and facilities committee proposed closing Winston Intermediate School of Excellence (WISE) and Wrenn Middle School next school year as part of EISD’s Rethink & Redesign process launched earlier this year.
On Tuesday night, the committee also recommended looking into two other schools for the future — Roy Cisneros Elementary and Leadership School for Boys and Gardendale Early Learning Program — for potential repurposing.
The process was launched as an effort to rethink how the district provides a quality education to students and redesign the district so that it maximizes resources to ensure student, parent, teacher and community success in the future.
Edgewood ISD had 11,935 students during the 2012-2013 school year, according to the Texas Education Agency. That number is around 8,200 students this year. It follows the similar pattern from other inner city school districts. San Antonio ISD, Harlandale and South San ISDs have all voted to close campuses.
When WISE closes, Edgewood ISD would no longer have an elementary school located south of Highway 90. That means that parents, students and teachers would likely go to Perales Elementary north of the highway.
Edgewood ISD superintendent Dr. Eduardo Hernandez said last week many parents have opted to drive or walk their kids to school after COVID, but he assured there would be options for students who need transportation.
“If a student needs transportation, we’re going to get them there. We won’t be allowing students to cross any busy streets or any what are called hazardous roads,” Hernandez said last week. “We have been providing service across the district because we have an innovation platform where if you want to attend a school that is not in your neighborhood, we will get you there.”
ALSO ON KSAT.COM
Edgewood ISD task force recommends campus closures
San Antonio ISD proposes closing 19 schools as part of ‘rightsizing’ plan