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SAISD Students Are The Big Winners Of A Bond And Tax Rate Increase

The San Antonio Independent School District celebrated a decisive victory last night with more than 70 percent of voters approving two measures on the ballot—a  $450 million bond, and a 13 cent property tax rate increase.  SAISD Superintendent Pedro Martinez says the additional money will pay for renovation projects, technology and for the salaries of teachers of after school and summer programs.

 

“We’re very humbled to have such a decisive victory for both ballot questions, to provide these types of resources for our children,” Martinez says. “We’re just humbled to have the trust of the community and the taxpayers. I know that my trustees and my staff are very excited. We know if we align our support for our children, they’re going to exceed our expectations.”

 

The superintendent says the new money will help SAISD provide academic help for up to 20,000 additional needy students .

Louisa Jonas is an independent public radio producer, environmental writer, and radio production teacher based in Baltimore. She is thrilled to have been a PRX STEM Story Project recipient for which she produced a piece about periodical cicadas. Her work includes documentaries about spawning horseshoe crabs and migratory shorebirds aired on NPR's Weekend All Things Considered. Louisa previously worked as the podcast producer at WYPR 88.1FM in Baltimore. There she created and produced two documentary podcast series: Natural Maryland and Ascending: Baltimore School for the Arts. The Nature Conservancy selected her documentaries for their podcast Nature Stories. She has also produced for the Chemical Heritage Foundation’s Distillations Podcast. Louisa is editor of the book Backyard Carolina: Two Decades of Public Radio Commentary. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from University of North Carolina Wilmington. Her training also includes journalism fellowships from the Science Literacy Project and the Knight Digital Media Center, both in Berkeley, CA. Most recently she received a journalism fellowship through Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution where she traveled to Toolik Field Station in Arctic Alaska to study climate change. In addition to her work as an independent producer, she teaches radio production classes at Howard Community College to a great group of budding journalists. She has worked as an environmental educator and canoe instructor but has yet to convince a great blue heron to squawk for her microphone…she remains undeterred.