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Seven weeks after San Antonio ISD proposed closing 19 schools, district administrators have released their revised recommendation for the board.
The final proposal, which will be presented for a board vote on Monday, reduces the number of schools recommended for closure down to 15.
Four elementary schools originally on the closure list — Pershing, Collings Garden, Riverside Park, and Ogden — will now remain open.
However, 16 fewer school buildings will be occupied if the SAISD board approves the recommendation.
The building Rodriguez Montessori currently uses will be closed, and Rodriguez will be co-located at Ogden.
Some of the closures will be delayed a few years while renovations are completed.
Administrators are also recommending repurposing three schools as second campuses for popular choice schools.
SAISD leaders held evening community meetings at all of the affected schools after the initial recommendation was released in September, often hearing an outpouring of concern and frustration.
“We deeply appreciate everyone who gave input into the initial recommendation to our rightsizing study,” Superintendent Jaime Aquino said in a letter sent to parents and staff Friday to let them know of the final recommendations before they are presented to the board on Monday. “We recognize the range of emotions that surround this work, and we want to respect your contributions by sharing the final recommendation, with changes, that we intend to give to the board.”
San Antonio ISD’s single-member district 2, on the historically Black East Side, continues to have more schools slated for closure than any other part of the district.
However, in his video message explaining the final recommendations, Superintendent Jaime Aquino said district leaders decided to keep Pershing Elementary to help reduce the disinvestment on the East Side.
Pershing is in single-member district 1, just north of I-35, but it feeds into Sam Houston High School in district 2.
"Because the Sam Houston High School feeder pattern has experienced the highest rates of enrollment decline, the Initial Recommendation proposed a proportionally larger number of closures in that region,” Aquino said. “Upon further consideration, we decided to keep Pershing open to minimize further disinvestment in a neighborhood already grappling with challenges and to allow space for a growing immigrant population in that community."
The recommendations will be presented to the board as a package. That means the board will vote on them as a whole, without making changes to individual school outcome.
