The Edgewood Independent School District is the latest in San Antonio to rethink its future, citing expiring grant funds and declining enrollment projections over the next 10 years.
Board members voted 6-1 Tuesday night to convene a 40- to 50-person task force of community members, board members, principals and teachers to meet over the next two months to learn about district challenges, explore solutions and ultimately provide recommendations to the board.
Those recommendations will focus on five “innovation zones,” which include specialized schooling choices for students who want to focus on fine arts, leadership STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Arts and Math) and public service.
While school closures were not explicitly mentioned, Superintendent Eduardo Hernández cited the discussions that occurred at South San Antonio and Harlandale Independent School Districts, both of which voted last school year to shutter campuses before the 2023-24 school year.
“We want to make sure that we have board members that can bring history to this conversation, as well as board members that can help facilitate a very difficult conversation that we’re going to have to have with our community, learning from some of our districts that have gone before us,” he said. “After having discussed this at length myself with those superintendents, we’ve learned from their journey.”
District officials noted the rise of charter schools and the land-locked nature of the district when discussing enrollment statistics.
According to data presented Tuesday, the district lost a net 212 students since last year, with 239 fewer middle school students and 108 fewer high school students.
While 101 more elementary school students were projected for the upcoming school year, the district expects to lose students at that level on and off until the 2027-28 school year.
By the 2032-33 school year, Edgewood officials expect just 7,301 students, down from 8,389 last year. With a capacity of 13,050, the district is already under-enrolled. With less students spread out across the same number of buildings, the district could face negative impacts on programming and educational services at some or all of their campuses, according to district personnel.
The board is also facing the expiration of COVID-19 relief funds in the next year that were provided by the federal government to address learning loss and other impacts. There also have been no increases to school funding at the state level in years, something Hernández said the district would not be counting on anytime soon.
After Tuesday’s vote, with Trustee Michael Valdez dissenting, principals met Wednesday to explain the committee selection process to their employees. The deadline to submit names for the committee is Friday.
According to a district presentation, the committee will meet on Aug. 16, Aug. 25, Sept. 13 and Sept. 22.
Valdez shared concerns Tuesday about the expedited timeline, which could be extended depending on the needs of the task force.
“I think we need to say that now, as we start, this will ultimately lead to making a decision, that will be a difficult one,” Hernández said. “But … what’s best for that community is that the task force speak in unison, because when it speaks in unison, then the community can get behind it.”
