City leaders are moving quickly on the plan proposed by Mayor Julián Castro that will provide full day pre-K to thousands of the city’s four year olds.
Just one week after the election, the first two model education centers for Pre-K 4 SA have been identified for consideration.
Assistant City Manager Peter Zanoni, who will soon assume new duties as Deputy City Manager, said the city looked at more than 100 properties, including vacant buildings and buildings for sale. The first two model centers targeted for the initiative are in northwest and southeast San Antonio.
The northwest property is the former Southwest Airlines Call Center, located in the 3600 block of Medical Drive in Councilman Reed Williams's District 8.
$5 million in renovation costs could provide 18 classrooms if the full city council approves the building's use for the center. The southeast location, in Councilwoman Leticia Ozuna’s District 3, would be a new building to be built on Brooks City Base West in the 2500 block of Southeast Military Drive. The $9 million project would provide 25 classrooms.
"There's need across the city and the goal is to have them in the center of each of the four quadrants of the city so that there's easy access to that quadrant of the city," said Zanoni.
The one-eighth of a cent sales tax increase will begin next April with the centers to open in August.
Zanoni says next year the city will also be looking at two more centers on the east and west sides of town.