Beginning this fall, St. Philip’s College will play host to SAISD students in the district’s second early college high school.
St. Philip’s College has 10,000 students, but 100 high school freshmen will call the campus home in August. SAISD has formally approved an agreement with the Alamo Colleges to open a school on campus where, by graduation, students will earn 60 hours of college credit or even an associates degree.
Leslie Price, a spokeswoman for SAISD, said students will take their normal educational curriculum but also take classes for college credit.
“We’re going to have certifications and licensures in some high demand areas like information technology and automotive technology that they can also gain,” Price said.
The 100 freshmen will be the inaugural class of the school, but the district will add 100 more students each year through the 12th grade. They’ll be taught in the first floor of the campus’ Bowden building and right now there are no plans to build dedicated campus in the future.
Adena Willaims Loston, the president of St. Philip’s College, said by welcoming the high schoolers, St. Philip’s will be living up to its mission.
“We started outside of the box," Williams Loston said. "For individuals that were coming to us, young girls, coming to us from out of slavery. St Philip’s Episcopal Church and Bishop James Steptoe Johnston wanted to ensure that the students would have marketable skills and leadership skills and we’re continuing with that.”
The SAISD already has one similar school, its Travis Early College High School on the Campus of San Antonio College, which had its first graduating class in 2012. Last year at least 60 percent of students graduated with an associates degree. There are 240 similar early college high schools across the U.S.
