When voters within the San Antonio Unbiased College District authorized a $1.3 billion bond in 2020, they greenlit a number of building and renovation tasks at Edison Excessive College, together with the development of recent baseball and softball fields together with renovated school rooms and a brand new HVAC system.
Superintendent Jaime Aquino stated the renovations at Edison, a faculty which has been standing for almost 70 years, are because of the district’s taxpayers.
District 1 Councilwoman Sukh Kaur, whose district contains Edison, attended a ribbon reducing ceremony final weekend for the college’s new sports activities fields and careworn the necessity to reinvest in public training.
Many faculty districts are going through giant price range deficits — SAISD has a $51 million structural deficit and has just lately made selections to put off central workplace workers, shut low-enrollment colleges and minimize programming as cost-saving measures.
Although the district’s bond proposals handed with overwhelming voter assist in 2020 — 68.5% assist for $1.2 billion in renovations at 36 campuses and 70% assist for $90 million in know-how upgrades throughout the district — voters throughout the state in current elections have rejected a lot of faculty district bond proposals, together with at East Central Unbiased College District, which hoped to make use of bonds to replace its growing older amenities and provides workers raises.
Going through a price range deficit of roughly $9 million, East Central ISD is returning with a smaller ask for the Might 3 municipal elections. Its bond proposal of $308 million would lead to an 8-cent property tax enhance for owners within the district, however would additionally pay for the development of three new colleges.
Alamo Schools District and Floresville Unbiased College District will even have bond proposals within the upcoming Might elections.
For extra info on training races on the Might 3 poll, try our 2025 Voter Information.
“[Investing in public education] is the one approach we’re going to really make a San Antonio the place everybody, no matter what ZIP code you reside in, has entry to a terrific job and a terrific way of life,” Kaur stated.
Liberty Swift is an alumnus of Edison and attended the ribbon-cutting. Graduating from the college in 1996, she’s now the senior director of company communications for the San Antonio Spurs and stated she hopes the group continues to assist the town’s public colleges.
“We will’t overlook metropolis colleges simply because we’re a brand new metropolis,” Swift stated, referring to San Antonio’s current enterprise developments and inhabitants progress. “I can’t consider what these lecturers and the advisors right here did for me to set me up for achievement, and so they’re nonetheless doing that at present with minimal assets.”
From the 2020 bond, $32.2 million went towards tasks at Edison, a faculty which is a part of the primary of three phases of renovation throughout the district.
District officers stated taxpayers in SAISD didn’t see a property tax enhance on account of the 2020 bond. Officers stated it is because enchancment and growth of property had been meant to extend the district’s taxable worth, the district issued the bond at a time when rates of interest had been low, and the districts’s debt funds had been already declining.
Yvonne Little, senior government director of capital growth and building at SAISD, stated building hit delays due to COVID and rising prices because of inflation.
Edison is one in every of 17 completely different main renovation tasks related to the 2020 bond, some which have accomplished however most stay below building.
“Due to the market escalation that occurred, we needed to section our tasks in order that we wouldn’t flood the market,” Little stated.
Edison’s enhancements embrace a brand new library with pupil media labs and up to date safety measures at Edison.
The school rooms and library have model new furnishings, flooring and glass partitions with security curtains; a part of the development included a handful of recent small group rooms for college students to review in or work on tasks.
Though the sports activities fields appeared to be the principle attraction of the renovations tour at Edison, district architects and contractors had been particularly pleased with the brand new central HVAC plant on the college’s grounds.
Up to now few years, SAISD colleges have struggled to stay cool throughout summer season months and heat throughout freezing temperatures, having to generally ship college students house early because of malfunctioning HVAC techniques.
Presently, the district solely has one boiler-certified technician who can work on HVAC techniques, Aquino stated throughout a tour of Edison’s revamped boiler room. Presently, the district has eight HVAC technician vacancies which can be troublesome to fill as a result of the personal sector presents potential candidates extra money, Aquino stated.
Throughout a current faculty board assembly, a sixth grade trainer from Woodlawn Academy, Miranda Yzaguirre, shared her faculty’s HVAC woes with the board of trustees.
“There are days the place our school rooms are so chilly that our fingers, cheeks and noses flip pink,” Yzaguirre stated. “There are days so sizzling that our clothes sticks to us, and by the tip of the day, all of us have complications and sweat stains.”
Edison was no exception to the district’s HVAC struggles. As a part of the college’s renovations, Edison bought 4 new coolers. Earlier than that, the college solely had two coolers that Little stated had been being overworked and struggled to take care of temperatures.
“This bond is producing and delivering actual outcomes,” Aquino stated. “Initiatives like Edison present what is feasible once we state assist and put college students first.”
