Jazz band, lunch intervals and passing math assessments. These are issues San Antonio Impartial Faculty District college students stated they like about going to highschool throughout a “State of the District” occasion on Tuesday.
Held each different yr by the SAISD Basis and native chambers of commerce, the room was filled with district leaders, metropolis council members, state representatives and present college students, all gathered to be taught and share what’s happening at SAISD: the wins, the challenges and plans for the longer term.
At occasions celebratory, at occasions pessimistic, the occasion was a type of enchantment for native leaders to get extra concerned in public training. It additionally unveiled SAISD’s plan for coping with outdated and under-enrolled campuses.
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, who ran on supporting conventional public college in San Antonio, stated SAISD was a “very particular district” which deserved extra consideration from the group.
SAISD is San Antonio’s oldest and most central college district, based 125 years in the past and serving a number of the metropolis’s most underserved communities. Jones tied the district’s outcomes to town’s outcomes when it comes to workforce improvement, reasonably priced housing and enterprise improvement.
“There isn’t any way forward for our metropolis with no robust SAISD,” Jones stated. “It’s not inconceivable that SAISD could possibly be gone inside a era… It’s not inconceivable that SAISD would stop to exist if we don’t step in.”
SAISD by the numbers
SAISD is the third largest district in San Antonio, working greater than 80 campuses and serving about 44,000 college students throughout 79 sq. miles.
For the 2024-25 college yr, the district obtained a C-rating from the state, a small enchancment from the earlier yr.
Throughout Tuesday’s occasion, Superintendent Jaime Aquino celebrated that almost two-thirds of SAISD campuses have a passing tutorial score from the state; 30 campuses have an A or B and 19 obtained C rankings.
Final yr, 18 campuses obtained failing rankings for the third consecutive yr, making them “precedence” campuses requiring turnaround plans. Getting a failing rating for a fourth yr might open the district as much as state intervention.
In January, SAISD determined to shut a kind of campuses as a result of it was beneath enrolled and projected to obtain one other failing score from the state, a primary of the district’s rightsizing efforts.
Nonetheless, Aquino is optimistic regardless of the excessive variety of failing campuses — 20 campuses are just one level away from getting a better letter grade, he stated. And college students are adapting to more and more rigorous state requirements and nonetheless recovering from the COVID-19 shutdown.
“For the primary time this yr for the reason that pandemic, we’ve got extra college students studying on grade stage than we had previous to the pandemic,” Aquino stated. “That is in a way more rigorous state evaluation.”
Aquino additionally pointed to SAISD’s 7,000 out-of-district college students as indication that the district is headed in the appropriate course.
“We’re affected by declining enrollment, nevertheless we lead the area within the variety of college students who come exterior SAISD’s boundaries,” he stated.
Declining enrollment and rising prices in recent times has led to a price range deficit of roughly $46 million for SAISD, in addition to different districts within the metropolis.
Challenges and brilliant spots
SAISD faces a number of challenges due to its century-old age and measurement.
Just like most college districts in San Antonio, pupil enrollment at SAISD has steadily decreased in recent times as beginning charges decline, extra constitution faculties pop up and populations shift outward.
These elements led to mass college closures in 2023 and under-enrolled campuses too costly to take care of, since funding is predicated on enrollment.
Public faculties in Texas are additionally bracing for the state’s new training financial savings accounts, which might draw college students away from public college districts and into non-public faculties.
The district additionally spends lots on upkeep and renovation. Deputy Superintendent Patti Salzmann stated the typical age of SAISD buildings is 63 years.
Whereas SAISD has been sluggish to complete on 2020 bond initiatives, the district has accomplished greater than 100 initiatives up to now and is contemplating going for an additional bond this yr.
Final yr, the district invested $95 million into heating and cooling renovations to maintain up with intensifying excessive climate occasions. Throughout the previous few chilly snaps, SAISD has skilled heating outages, chilly school rooms and faculty cancellations.
“We simply had a freeze, and we had been enterprise as common,” Salzmann stated, getting a loud spherical of applause from the room.
On the scholar consequence facet, attendance has steadily improved since COVID. SAISD’s newest metrics present the district’s common attendance sits at 91.7%, almost a three-point improve from 2024-25, translating into a further $10 million from the state.
Aquino additionally spoke about SAISD’s faculty enrollment metrics. About 58% of 2025 seniors enrolled in faculty inside their first yr of graduating.
SAISD additionally provides a number of profession and technical training pathways college students can take, probably incomes a certification and touchdown a job proper out of highschool.
However industries are altering shortly, particularly with the introduction of synthetic intelligence, stated college board Trustee Ed Garza. He inspired enterprise leaders within the room to get extra concerned by collaborating in internship and mentorship applications to strengthen the native workforce pipeline.
The district has additionally made true on its guarantees to pad psychological well being assist, putting in “peace rooms” in almost each secondary campus and including extra psychological well being professionals in faculties.
‘A brand new manner ahead’
Going through mounting inner and exterior pressures of funding, doable state oversight, declining enrollment and growing older infrastructure, SAISD officers unveiled their “new manner ahead” at Tuesday’s occasion at The Purple Berry Property.
The technique is twofold: construct new and consolidate, stated Salzmann. This implies getting campuses to wholesome enrollment by consolidating and tearing down a few of SAISD’s extra outdated buildings to construct state-of-the-art campuses.
These new buildings could be group “beacons,” mixing indoor and outside studying, incorporating telehealth and community-based counseling in faculties and homing in on the newest know-how.
When requested how these initiatives could be funded, Salzmann stated there are nonetheless unused bond {dollars} from 2020. SAISD might additionally ask taxpayers to assist a brand new bond this November.
Whereas that is the district’s first time publicly discussing “the brand new manner ahead,” SAISD officers have been hinting at this new technique for months, particularly when discussing the current closure of Carvajal Elementary Faculty.
Throughout a number of conferences with the Carvajal group, district officers instructed the thought of tearing down Carvajal and the neighboring Rhodes Center Faculty campus to make room for a model new constructing higher outfitted to assist pupil applications and a pre-Okay-8 academy mannequin.
When requested why SAISD doesn’t merely renovate its historic, oftentimes beloved, buildings, Salzmann stated it could be costlier to renovate than to construct new, including that these buildings had been made earlier than the state created sure guidelines and tips for pupil applications.
Faculty buildings should not designed to final previous 50 years with out main renovation. Even when the district closed extra faculties, the campuses that remained open wouldn’t have the ability to accommodate all the kids transferring in.
“We’ve got very restricted capacity to shut faculties the way in which we’ve got prior to now by simply transferring college students right into a constructing as a result of the footprint is so small,” Salzmann stated.
“The brand new manner ahead shifts our funding from sustaining empty hallways to constructing fewer, bigger, state-of-the-art buildings, and shutting older, inefficient buildings on the conclusion.”
