The San Antonio Independent School District board voted 5-2 on Monday to hire Adrian Bustillos as superintendent.
First named as the sole finalist for the job in June, Bustillos will replace Jaime Aquino, who joined the district in 2022. Aquino is taking on an emeritus role and plans to fully part ways with SAISD in January.
Bustillos joins SAISD with 20 years of experience in public education. His most recent role was chief transformation officer in Aldine ISD, located in north Houston. There, he oversaw innovative school models and the district’s school choice program.
Board President Alicia Sebastian previously said Bustillos is a leader “for this moment” and understands the issues facing urban school districts.
SAISD is the third-largest school district in San Antonio, serving around 44,000 students in the city’s urban core. After cutting its budget for the fifth consecutive year, resulting in fewer positions and slashed programs, board members recently passed a budget with a $23.2 million deficit for the upcoming school year.
Like most urban school districts, the budget issues are driven by enrollment decline. SAISD steadily loses students every year, resulting in less funding from the state, and expects 2,000 fewer students for the upcoming 2026-27 cycle.
Meanwhile, the district has several near-century old buildings, which officials say are costly and inefficient to maintain, and several vacant campuses.
Trying to address the enrollment and old infrastructure issue, SAISD launched a “new way forward” a few months ago, a plan to modernize and consolidate in the next few years. The board is also weighing calling for a bond election, to fund infrastructure projects, and a voter-approval tax rate election, to address the general fund shortfall and afford things like pay raises.
The district also has a high number of academically failing schools, including 18 schools which have gotten failing ratings from the state three years in a row.
Fearing state intervention, which is required after a school gets an “unacceptable” rating for five consecutive years, SAISD implemented huge turnaround plans at priority campuses, closed two schools, and partnered with outside group Third Future Schools by handing over control of three priority campuses through an 1882 contract.
SAISD is also considered a leader in school innovation, offering the highest number of 1882 partnerships in the state, magnet programs and in-district charter schools.
Who is Adrian Bustillos?
Before Aldine, Bustillos started his career as a science teacher in El Paso ISD in 2006, quickly moving up through campus leadership as a science facilitator, assistant principal, high school facilitator and later launching the district’s Office of Transformation as executive director.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in biological science from the University of Texas-El Paso and a master’s in school leadership and received his doctorate in curriculum and instruction from New Mexico State University.
He later worked as a liaison between El Paso ISD and the Texas Education Agency, overseeing hiring and curriculum in struggling schools as part of turnaround efforts.
In 2017, Bustillos was implicated in a cheating scandal after the state found the district was artificially boosting test scores, and his educator certificate was suspended for a year. In 2018, El Paso Times reported Bustillos gave students credit without understanding content during his time as an assistant principal from 2009 to 2011.
“This is not a minor issue,” said Trustee Jacob Ramos, who voted against hiring Bustillos. “Would we allow a student caught cheating to become valedictorian?”
Ramos said he is willing to work with Bustillos, but he’s concerned about a “lack of experience” fully leading school districts and the cheating issue.
Similarly, Trustee Stephanie Torres said she couldn’t support the hiring, pointing out that he’s missing a state-required superintendent certification.
Sebastian said Bustillos would be working toward his certification, and the board is applying for a 30-day waiver of certification through TEA. Once he has his certification, SAISD will announce Bustillo’s first day on the job.
The rest of the board were supportive of Bustillos, calling him energetic and ready to “hit the ground running” given his experience with districts demographically similar to SAISD.
Aldine ISD and SAISD both have economically disadvantaged student populations of over 86%, and both are majority Hispanic. Both are also located in urban cores of large Texas cities and have closed schools to deal with budget deficits and student enrollment.
“We didn’t get in this situation from one person’s mistake,” said Sebastian about the struggles SAISD faces. “And we’re not going to get out of the situation about one person’s performance… We knew we needed somebody who can get this work done.”
Board members said about 40 candidates from across the country applied and interviewed a quarter of them. The starting superintendent salary at SAISD is $315,000, not including bonuses or benefits.
After the vote, Bustillos addressed the board, thanking his family in El Paso and Dallas and his old coworkers in Aldine ISD.
“We are at a critical time here in this district today,” he said. “I am committed to working alongside this team with the community to improve the student outcomes of this district to prevent a state takeover.”
“Together, as new superintendent of San Antonio ISD and the board, we will make history,” he said. “And next year, you’ll be reading the headlines: How San Antonio ISD transformed the entire system. So I look forward to this. The time is now.”
This story first appeared in the San Antonio Report.