SAN ANTONIO — With only a few weeks left in the school year, South San Antonio ISD is already making plans for next year. District leaders met Thursday to discuss Superintendent Dr. Alexandro Flores’ preliminary budget plan for next year.
Also on the agenda: plans and costs for reopening three new schools.
“There’s a lot of things to fix, folks,” Flores said, speaking to trustees and district leaders.
For a school district that has historically been losing students and finding themselves in a budget deficit, having things to fix seems to be a mounting problem.
“At the end of the day are we still projected to lose kids? Yes,” said Flores.
And with plans to reopen three shuttered schools, the list of things to fix is growing, literally. Dr. Flores’ staff laid out the preliminary budget for the next school year on Thursday.
Flores was quick to point out the budget plan is preliminary, and for the entire district—not just for reopening three schools.
“What are the priorities of the district? What do we care about? That turns into hard decisions,” said Flores.
Architects also presented plans to district leaders for renovations at West Campus High School, currently the Administration Building, Athens Elementary, and Kazen Middle School.
“The quality of services and the quality of environment have to meet expectations. It’s not ‘let’s put some partitions together so kids can have class,’” Flores said.
If approved, the renovations and cleanings at the shuttered campuses won’t start until June, giving the district a little less than three months to have the buildings ready for the first day of school.
District offices will also have to be moved from the West Campus High School building. The district said they plan to move the 1,000 employees to the old Olivares Elementary Building.
And since the school board voted to reopen the schools in April, officials discussed the fact that they haven’t officially notified parents.
“We haven’t even told the public that we’re opening our schools,” said Board President Connie Prado.
“That should be coming from us in a positive manner,” Board Vice President Gilbert Rodriguez said. “We’re opening campuses back up, come back home, we’d love to have you.”