San Antonio Unbiased College District’s high chief abruptly introduced his retirement on Friday, proper earlier than the district’s scheduled spring break.
Superintendent Jaime Aquino stated he’ll retire in January 2027 to spend extra time together with his household, in accordance with a press release launched by the district.
“This was not a simple choice,” Aquino stated. “I stay up for spending extra time with my household, whom I’ve, for a few years, unintentionally positioned second to the calls for of this work.”
Aquino has served as SAISD’s chief since 2022 after his predecessor Pedro Martinez left the district to steer Chicago Public Colleges.
An immigrant from the Dominican Republic, Aquino entered SAISD with 35 years of expertise in among the largest college districts within the nation, together with in New York Metropolis, Los Angeles and Denver. He labored as a marketing consultant for Jefferson County Public Colleges in Colorado and a constitution college community in New York earlier than transferring to San Antonio.
When he was formally employed by the SAISD board throughout a public assembly, Aquino learn a letter to his youthful self, the place he talked about rising up in an “impoverished nation” with loving dad and mom who would change into his inspiration.
Aquino’s departure will come solely a yr after the superintendent of one other massive San Antonio college district, North East ISD, retired from his put up. On this case, the board picked one of many superintendent’s cupboard members to steer as interim.
At SAISD, officers stated the board would introduced “subsequent steps relating to the superintendent search course of” within the subsequent weeks.
Aquino’s tenure kicked off on the tail finish of COVID-19 shutdowns, when college students have been nonetheless masking, and later marked by quite a few college closures in 2023. Underneath his management the district has made huge strikes in “rightsizing” to take care of decreasing enrollment and multi-million greenback finances deficits, two points that aren’t prone to go away anytime quickly — and which most college districts in San Antonio are additionally coping with.
Aquino will even be leaving because the district implements a “new method ahead” to handle rising challenges, which incorporates future bond elections, consolidating faculties, tearing down a few of SAISD’s oldest constructing and constructing state-of-the-art campuses that would function neighborhood hubs in addition to conventional faculties.
He will even be leaving as state and federal leaders put extra political stress on public college methods.
College board president Alicia Sebastian, who’s served on the board since 2019, stated she was “we’re deeply grateful to Superintendent Aquino for his devoted service to public schooling” and for selecting SAISD almost 4 years in the past.
At a “State of the District” occasion in February, Aquino informed a crowd of SAISD college students and educators that although he doesn’t have youngsters of his personal, being superintendent to a district with greater than 40,000 college students fulfilled his lifelong dream of being a father.
He has additionally linked his ardour for schooling to his upbringing within the Dominican Republic and his time serving in a seminary of the Redemptorist Order.
In Friday’s announcement, Aquino provided a message on to college students:
“You’re the cause for every little thing we do. You’re highly effective, sensible, and stuffed with chance. By no means let anybody outline your limits or inform you what you can not change into,” he stated. “Lengthy after I step away, I’ll proceed cheering for you, believing in you, and taking delight in all that you’ll accomplish.
“Your future is vivid — and it’s yours to assert.”
