Anxious.
That’s how Ariadna Martinez, a mom of two students at Carvajal Elementary School, feels about the possibility that her children’s school might close.
San Antonio Independent School District is recommending closure of the small, academically struggling school located on the West Side, citing plunging enrollment in recent years and three consecutive F-ratings from the state.
If the school closes, families would have to enroll at one of the two nearest elementary campuses or apply to SAISD’s school choice program.
“It’s really overwhelming,” Martinez said. “I trust the teachers [my kids] have right now, and I don’t know what I’m gonna do with a brand new school and a brand new teacher. I feel like it’s — it’s too much.”
She spoke with the Report Thursday following a community meeting at Carvajal, where top SAISD leaders explained why they’re recommending closing the campus. Its small dual language enrollment plays a big role.
Martinez says she enrolled her two children at Carvajal for the dual language program, not wanting them to lose her native Spanish tongue.
Overstaffed and under enrolled
SAISD staff first recommended closing Carvajal during a December board meeting. Unlike past rightsizing efforts, the school was singled out in part because of its consecutive failing ratings.
Carvajal has such a small dual language enrollment — 79 students — that students sit in split classrooms, where teachers do double-duty teaching general education students and bilingual students at the same time.
To be considered “healthy,” the district said dual language programs should have over 150 students.
There are also students from different grades in one classroom, since there aren’t enough students to financially support hiring more teachers. Public school funding in Texas, including funding for staff, is based on average student daily attendance.
Carvajal currently has 319 students, which is nearly 200 less than it did in 2020, and at least 151 children who live inside the school’s zone have opted to enroll elsewhere. Officials also point to the area’s declining birth rate, which had decreased by 43% since 1999, outpacing the city’s 37% reduction.
“We have put more staff than the school earns based on its enrollment,” said Shawn Bird, deputy superintendent of school leadership and partnership services at SAISD, during the tense meeting in Carvajal’s cafeteria.
Students aren’t getting the best services they could compared to larger campuses with healthier budgets, Bird added.
ZIP code 78207
Carvajal is located in one of the poorest ZIP codes in San Antonio, according to census data reports. The area has a median income of $30,655 and more than 40% of the population lives below the federal poverty level.
Community members largely against the potential closure see it as a disinvestment from an already underserved neighborhood.
News of the potential closure drew attention from local advocacy and civic groups. Members from the COPS Metro Alliance, one of the city’s largest and oldest advocacy groups, were at the meeting, along with Graciela Sanchez, the director of the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center on the West Side.
Councilwoman Teri Castillo, whose district includes Carvajal, was also at the meeting but didn’t speak.
Esmeralda Rodriguez with COPS Metro said she was there to listen to the community’s input and decide how the organization could support Carvajal families.
Sanchez, an SAISD alumnus and supporter of public schools, spoke against the closure.
“It’s been a whole right-wing agenda to shut down public schools,” Sanchez said during the meeting. “We don’t want to see that happen here. We also don’t want to tear down historic buildings.”
Carvajal first opened its doors in 1949 — its aging facilities also play a factor in the district’s recommendation to close the campus.
A trend of state takeovers
If Carvajal remains open and gets another failing rating — which the district predicts it will based on recent testing — SAISD could be taken over by the state, meaning the superintendent and elected school board would be replaced with a state-appointed board of managers and a new superintendent. Carvajal would be forced to close, undergo a redesign or become an in-district charter.
In December, the state announced it was taking over districts in Beaumont, Lake Worth and Connally. A few months before that, the state took over Forth Worth Independent School District over a failing school the district had already closed on its own.
Officials at SAISD, which has several failing campuses, worry their district could be next.
Several community members pointedly asked why SAISD was intervening now, even though it knew Carvajal was struggling academically for years.
District staff pointed to updated accountability systems, saying it becomes harder each year to keep up with state guidelines dictating which schools are successful and which schools are “unacceptable.” Following Texas education code, the state’s accountability system gets a refresh every few years — a big point of contention for school districts who feel like the goal post is constantly moving.
Superintendent Jaime Aquino said it was also difficult to measure student progress when state ratings heavily rely on STAAR results.
“Just because of one test, given at one moment in time — the state decides to take over a district. That doesn’t make sense, but I don’t control that,” Aquino said. “That’s the reality that we live. I believe in accountability, but I believe in an intelligent accountability system.”
Cynthia Bever is a second grade teacher and reading specialist at Carvajal. While she doesn’t want to see the school close, she said she prefers transferring with her students to another campus to a potential state takeover.
Bever also said morale was low, and several teachers and staff are already looking for other jobs, regardless of whether Carvajal closes or not.
“We want to go with the kids,” Bever said. “But the only way to do that is if they close the school, because then they can move us together.
A brand new school?
Closing Carvajal could also open up the path for a new state-of-the-art campus, officials said, since the school has millions in unspent bond dollars that would have to stay in the neighborhood even if the school shutters.
Carvajal is located right next to Rhodes Middle School, another underenrolled and aging campus with available bond money. If Carvajal closes, SAISD would likely explore the possibility of tearing down both campuses to build a bigger elementary school or preK-8 academy that would sustain enrollment or attract more students.
The school board will vote on the closure at its next board meeting, scheduled for Jan 12. Aquino, who is not a voting member, said he would advocate for the closure.
“I have to do it,” he told the Carvajal community. “The implications are significant, not only for Carvajal, but for the entire district.”
After hearing from community members for two hours on Thursday night, trustee Stephanie Torres, who represents Carvajal and has children enrolled at SAISD, said she wasn’t sure how she would vote.
“I am hearing the teachers… I’m also a parent,” she said. “Honestly, I am on the fence.”
