Citing low tutorial efficiency, the Texas Training Company ordered three-year-old Essence Preparatory Constitution College on San Antonio’s East Aspect to shut on the finish of the varsity yr.
College officers had been notified of TEA’s choice in a Dec. 18 letter from schooling commissioner Mike Morath, during which he stated Essence Prep was “decided to have academically unacceptable efficiency rankings.”
When it opened in August 2022, Essence Prep was created to shut schooling gaps for Black and brown college students in traditionally underserved communities.
The varsity presently serves round 400 college students in pre-Okay by eighth grade.
Essence Prep acquired an F ranking in 2022-23, a D in 2023-24 and an F in 2024-25. Following state schooling code, the TEA can revoke a constitution’s license if a campus has gotten three failing rankings inside 5 years.
This August marked the varsity’s fourth yr in operation. Now, households must enroll elsewhere for the 2026-27 college yr.
Essence Prep is not going to attraction TEA’s choice, college founder and superintendent Akeem Brown stated on Monday. As a substitute, its leaders plan to complete out the varsity yr by specializing in the scholars they nonetheless have.
“The method could be very pricey. It’s assets that we might slightly use this yr to deal with youngsters and strengthen their teachers,” Brown stated, including that appeals by colleges of their scenario virtually by no means work.
Mother and father of Essence Prep college students described the TEA’s choice as “unhappy” and “disappointing.”
“It is a humongous loss for our group,” one father stated in a string of feedback from a college messaging board that Essence Prep shared with the Report.
Had Essence Prep appealed, Brown stated he would have requested TEA to think about the varsity’s rising enrollment and the tutorial development the campus noticed from its first to second yr of operation, when it went from a 59 to a 67, going from an F to a D ranking. Each rankings are thought-about failing, however it’s uncommon for colleges to maneuver a full letter grade in a single yr.
Later, the varsity added extra college students and grades, which brought on it to slip again to a 59 for 2024-25.
“What that meant for us was that we needed to begin over, as a result of these youngsters that joined us had been two to 3 grades behind, and we needed to check them instantly,” he stated. “Due to that improve of scholars, their tutorial good points weren’t there just like the group that we’ve got been working with the earlier yr.”
However early benchmark testing confirmed quick progress this yr, Brown added. Whereas solely 4 of 360 college students mastered math state checks final yr, 27 college students had been projected to grasp the topic this yr.
Brown additionally estimated Essence Prep would have had almost 1,000 college students by 2028.
Serving the underserved
At Essence Prep, 99% of scholars are thought-about economically deprived and greater than 70% are Black. The varsity, which grew in enrollment annually by including grade ranges and transferring right into a brand-new 70,000-square-foot constructing in 2023, wanted greater than three years to restore a few of the schooling gaps on the East Aspect, Essence Prep’s leaders argued in response to the TEA’s choice to shutter the varsity.
For Brian Dillard, a third-generation East Sider who’s chaired Essence Prep’s college board for the reason that constitution college’s inception, the TEA’s notification was disappointing however not stunning.
“You could have a campus that’s already struggling to service a group that’s traditionally been struggling, and you place these burdens on them, as a substitute of getting ranges of assist there,” he stated Monday.
Dillard, presently an govt at VIA Metropolitan Transit, was additionally instrumental in opening Essence Prep. Throughout an interview with TEA workers years in the past, he stated the varsity would take a “holistic and student-centered strategy” centered on a scholar’s journey of self-discovery.
Regardless of that, “we’ve struggled for the reason that day we began,” Brown stated.
The truth is, the choice to shut the varsity will not be the primary time Essence Prep has gotten unhealthy information from the company. In 2022, after the state board of schooling accepted the constitution 11-3, TEA ordered the Essence Prep to take away “anti-racist” quotes and languages from its web site earlier than opening its doorways.
Outdoors common education, Essence Prep provided free uniforms, free meals and after-school programming. Making an attempt to draw extra college students, the varsity additionally launched new profession technical schooling programming and a gifted and proficient program.
In hindsight, Brown and Dillard admitted they’d have executed some issues otherwise within the college’s three — now 4 — years of operation, however they don’t consider it might’ve modified the TEA’s choice to shut the varsity.
“We’re caught on this scenario of we’re making an attempt to right a disservice that has been executed to a group for many years,” Dillard stated. “That doesn’t occur in three years.”
What occurs now?
Earlier this yr, Essence Prep, like every other college district with failing colleges, was required to submit a turnaround plan to the state.
Brown labored on the plan for months, gathering workers and group enter and submitting the plan in September, however stated he by no means acquired a response from the TEA till the closure discover landed.
TEA will appoint a conservator to supervise Essence Prep’s closure after the vacation break, a value the constitution is on the hook for paying at $250 an hour.
Working first out of group facilities and church buildings, the varsity ultimately moved to a brand new constructing off South East Loop 410 constructed particularly for Essence Prep by a $17.7 million bond awarded to the varsity for its “story and mission.”
Public Finance for D.A. Davidson & Co., the finance agency that underwrote the bond, will now must determine what to do with the constructing, a facility a number of group organizations and nonprofits even have entry to, Brown stated.
Essence Prep is partnering with the College Discovery Community, a neighborhood school-choice group that helps pair households with colleges within the space, and internet hosting an open home for households Jan. 15 to assist college students discover slots elsewhere. College officers will share extra particulars with Essence Prep households.
The constitution’s board additionally needs to have a “transition plan” in place for each scholar forward of its final day of lessons June 3.
