SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio ISD is accepting the resignation of two key administrators for their roles in the failures of last month’s cold snap.
During an hours-long meeting Monday night, board members filled one of the roles vacated while tackling another top issue in the district.
The district's board of directors met for the first time since heating failures caused a district wide shut down a few weeks ago.
During an epic cold snap almost one month ago, Superintendent Jaime Aquino took full responsibility for students being left in cold classrooms, with conditions so dire they shut the entire district down for days.
“Obviously we had a significant system wide failure with our heating system...,” said Dr. Jaime Aquino, SAISD superintendent.
The district wants to make sure the mistakes made last month are never repeated. SAISD is forming a special committee to oversee and review last month's response to the cold snap. Board members also finalized the appointment of Jenny Arrendondo to Interim Chief of Operations. She took over in January when several of the campuses heating systems went out.
And with regard to possible disciplinary action for those in leadership positions, there are items that will be discussed in closed session.
They also gave a progress report on the 'rightsizing' effort to close schools and send thousands of students to new campus locations next year.
“It’s not fair for me for you to close the school!” “They want to close our schools because the money goes by them!”
Community meetings were packed last August when the district announced the 'Rightsizing' plan to close schools.
District leaders say enrollment has been falling for more than 20 years and they expect more losses for the next five to ten more years.
They say the math doesn't add up. They have too many buildings with too few students so they discussed how the plan to fix it is moving forward.
They say of the 234 teachers who need to move, 197 already know where they're going.
At the end of January, they say almost 2,000 students have accepted their new school placements. Almost 800 have applied for transfers. Families affected by the 'Rightsizing Plan' have a major deadline this week because by Thursday, students will need to decide which school they will attend next year.
The district says that there are about 900 families they are waiting to hear from regarding their selection.
And they say committee meetings are underway for all the details that still need to be worked out.
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