Less than a year after voting to close 15 schools — and with plans underway to discuss closing more schools in the near future — the San Antonio Independent School District is in the beginning stages of plans to open a new school in partnership with the CAST Schools Network.
On Monday evening, a meeting was held at the recently closed Frederick Douglass Elementary School to update the community on plans for repurposing the buildings left empty by the school closures.
San Antonio ISD board Vice President Alicia Sebastian, who represents SAISD’s District 2 on the East Side, said the plan for the new school would bring another “high-quality” option to the East Side.
“When I first got to the board five years ago, out of my schools, I want to say maybe 25% of them were F rated [under the state’s academic accountability rating], and that's just the reality,” Sebastian said. “One thing that we committed to was ensuring that we had high-quality seat offerings across the district, meaning wherever you went, wherever you decided to register your kids, knowing that we have open enrollment across the district, that they will be able to access the same quality education offerings as other students across the district.”
Sebastian pointed to Martin Luther King Jr. Academy, Davis Middle School, and Sam Houston High School as examples of schools on the East Side where efforts are underway to support that goal.
“However, we still have a lot of work to be done,” Sebastian said. “And CAST has proven that their work is kid centered, and we are seeing the results of that commitment. When I say we are looking for quality seats on the East Side and across the district, what I mean is we are looking for partners and our own schools, not just partners, but we're looking to make sure that our kids have access to a school where they have A and B ratings.”
CAST currently runs SAISD’s CAST Tech, CAST Med, and the Advanced Learning Academy as well as schools in several other districts.
“We are super excited to be here, but this is really the very beginning,” CAST Network Executive Director Jeanne Russell told community members sitting in the wooden auditorium seats of Douglass on Monday.
“We work to co-create with the community,” Russell said before inviting them to sign up to be part of the school design process. “This would be a year-long process of designing the school, engaging with community members, and really trying to understand how we can best leverage the assets here on the East Side as we build this school together.”
A flyer advertising the school design described building off of “successful components” of Advanced Learning Academy, with a focus on the elementary grades. It also suggested building a school that uses place-based learning reflective of SAISD’s District 2, and the culture of the area, which is the center of San Antonio’s Black history and culture.
“[ALA] has an 800-student waiting list, and many of those students are from the East Side,” Russell said. “So, rather than ask students to go to the downtown campus, we're hoping to bring that type of learning here to the East Side, starting with elementary grades, where there is a high demand.”
Correction: A previous version of this story included the incorrect spelling of the first name of CAST Network Executive Director Jeanne Russell.
