SAN ANTONIO — Parents, teachers and activists crowded into Monday's SAISD Board of Trustees meeting to speak out over a plan that would close a fifth of the district's schools over the next few years.
The proposal would close down 19 of the districts 100 schools and merge three schools with others in the district. The district says the closures are necessary due to declining enrollment, noting that there are 18,326 fewer students enrolled in the district in 2023 than there were in 1998. The board voted to approve the "Rightsizing resolution" in June 2023 in with the stated goal of creating more efficient schools that deliver more resources to students for less cost.
With five months between voting on the resolution and a final vote on the plan. Many at Monday's meeting questioned why the process was so rushed.
Raising their voices inside and out, members of the San Antonio Education Justice Coalition Held a rally outside of Monday's SAISD Board of Trustees, before many of them headed in to give public comments.
"This this closure list is going to have reverberating effects throughout the entire district for years to come," said San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel President Alejandra Lopez.
Monday's meeting was the last time the full board will meet together before next month's final vote on the plan. But SAISD is still holding more Community Engagement events before the final vote on November 13th.
Many of the people attending Monday's meeting had previously attended neighborhood meetings to give feedback on the plan, with assurances that their concerns would impact the final plan.
The words of one Lamar Elementary student reflected the vast majority of speakers at Mondays meeting.
"I just don't know if y'all listened to me the first time," she said.
Without seeing an update to the plan, many in attendance were skeptical that their concerns were being heard.
"I went to about five school closure meetings in the past month or so," said Jake Tucker. "In these meetings I saw probably at least a hundred people speak and only one person that I can remember was even mildly in favor of this idea to close their schools, and that person's school wasn't even closing."
Jacob Ramos has a child in a school that is not on the list of closures, but he still took issue with the plan. He questioned the motivation behind which schools were chosen.
"Why is the most expensive per-pupil school, which is at $14,869 not being considered for closing even though they fit all three requirements?" Ramos asked. "And there are are multiple schools that are close to that range or better are still being automatically closed that are neighborhood schools?"
Public comments at the meeting were limited to one hour. Because of how many people had come to the meeting, that meant each person was limited to 90 seconds to speak. That even included some community leaders like Balcones Heights Mayor Suzanne De Leon and San Antonio District 5 council member Teri Castillo, who said both the rightsizing process and the meeting felt rushed.
"I've heard from Collins Garden families and Ogden teachers that this is not enough time," Castillo said over the beeping sound signaling her time was up.
"And one minute and a half is not enough time for our parents and teachers to express their input," she said, finishing the thought.
Castillo's Communications Director Amador Salazar also spoke, suggesting that the board take the heat off themselves by letting which schools get closed go up for a vote.
"No one showed up to my door and said, 'Hello, I'm Mr. I'm gonna close your school the third, vote for me. Because none of us would vote for that," Salazar said.
Parents are asking for changes to the criteria that's being used to decide which schools will be shuttered.
And they say they want district leaders to be able to prove these proposed changes will lead to improved outcomes for kids.
The board is scheduled to make a final vote on the plan on November 13th. There are still a handful of Community Engagement events before then.