The Edgewood Independent School District board of trustees could see a major shakeup this November, with challengers looking to defeat incumbents, including one who has been on the board since it returned to local control following a state takeover in 2016.
In the years since, the board has been mostly unified, with a strict adherence to governance practices recommended by the state. The exception has been the last year, after Mike Valdez, a recent high school graduate, ran unopposed, bringing a dynamic to the board rife with criticism of the administration and status quo on the board.
Another recent graduate, Jubilee Pena, 19, is running this year with hopes to join Valdez on the board. She is running for the Place 5 seat vacated by Joseph M. Guerra, who opted not to run for reelection.
Valdez, who has had a rocky tenure on the board so far and is still serving his term, said in an interview that he is excited about the possibility of new faces on the board.
At the same time, Richard Santoyo, who was first appointed to the board of managers by the state in 2016 and later elected as a trustee in 2020, shared concerns about the board shifting back to the behaviors that first prompted the state takeover. Santoyo unsuccessfully ran for the same seat in 2018.
The district is already on the Texas Education Agency’s radar again, after a reporting mishap drew the state agency’s attention this year.
Here are the seats up for election:
Place 4
Running for reelection is Martha Castilla, the board president. She did not respond to requests for interviews for this story.
Castilla was one of two elected trustees to return to the board in 2018 as part of a phased return to local control. The elected board had been replaced by a board of managers in 2016 after deadlocking on key issues and factionalism.
Dorothy Borjas, 35, a homemaker, is challenging Castilla.
“What pushed me to run for school board was mainly seeing that they weren’t challenging and pushing the students to the best of their ability,” she said. “We weren’t challenging them and giving them the quality education that each child deserves.”
Borjas also said there is a lack of meaningful engagement with the community and a lack of transparency.
“I feel as a board member that it is our duty to our community to hear them out,” she said, pointing to time limits during public comment that cut off some speakers.
With declining enrollment, Edgewood joined a handful of other districts in closing campuses to better allocate resources as part of its “rethink, redesign process.”
The school board voted to close two schools at the end of 2023.
Borjas said she is not in favor of closing schools, adding that doing so limits the choices parents have in comparison to choices they have in other districts.
Place 5
Guerra, the board secretary and longtime board member who served as board president from 2010-2014, decided not to run for reelection this year.
Vying for his spot are a college student Jubilee Pena, 19, and Rudy Lopez, 54, who retired from a career in law enforcement.
Having recently been in the classroom, Pena said she is concerned with mental health resources. “I know the struggles the kids are going through without the proper tools mentally and emotionally,” she said.
Pena is also concerned about the number of uncertified teachers in special education classrooms and overall academics.
Lopez, who worked for years at the San Antonio Police Department and later at Bexar County, said he is excited about the race and wishes Pena “all the luck in the world.”
“I’ve always believed that younger people should be involved in decision-making when it comes to school boards or city council, or any type of office,” he said. “They are the future, but we need them to come on, and we need them to be a part of a solution and part of an answer and to hear their side of the story.”
Lopez says the race “is going to boil down on who the public trusts the most, with the most experience and who they want in that position.”
Lopez said he wants to help find ways to tackle the district’s $17 million budget deficit.
Both candidates said they would use their position to speak out against school vouchers in the next legislative session. Proposed voucher programs by the state would allow some parents to use public education funds to help pay for private or alternative schooling.
With declining enrollment continuing to impact Edgewood and other regional districts, Lopez said the district should find ways to better compete for students leaving for charter schools.
“Hopefully we don’t close any more schools,” he said. “Hopefully the enrollment does go up.”
Pena said she wants more transparency from the board when it comes to issues like school closures.
“I’m not for school closures because I feel like certain schools are more convenient to the parents to take their students,” she said.
Place 7
Richard Santoyo, 70, the incumbent running for reelection in Place 7, was first appointed as a manager by the state and later reelected to the board as a trustee. Santoyo is retired from a career with the Fire Department.
Challenging Santoyo is Sergio Delgado, 37, a transit security officer for VIA Metropolitan Transit.
Santoyo said he is worried about the dynamics he has seen on the board since Mike Valdez was elected, adding that they appear to be reminiscent of past problematic board behaviors.
“We had hoped early on that this trustee would carry on this partnership with our superintendent,” Santoyo said. “Rather, he and the people he associates with have different agendas of bringing back what I feel is a return to the old ways.”
While Valdez was in elementary school when the state took over the board, he said in response that there was more community involvement before the board of managers took over.
“Before the board takeover from the state, there was a lot of involvement within our community, within our families, within our students,” he said.
For his part, Santoyo said he is focusing his campaign on continuing academic gains made since the pandemic.
“It’s a slow process,” he said. “We knew it wasn’t going to be overnight, but we are seeing progress in these areas, and so that’s one of the reasons why I continue to run as a trustee, because I want to continue working with the superintendent and bringing about even better change.”
He would like to see more engagement from parents, including help with increasing attendance, which has been a chronic issue at Edgewood and other districts in Texas.
Regarding school closures, Santoyo said the board should be focused on doing whatever it takes to ensure a quality education.
“It’s unfortunate, but it’s necessary,” he said, “We … are responsible for making sure that we provide them the best opportunity to get the best education that they can, and that involves tightening the belt every now and then and being good stewards of their money.
“We’re going to do whatever it takes to continue that, giving them the optimal opportunity to learn, to become better citizens for our city in the process,” he added.
His challenger, Delgado, declined an interview for the story but provided lengthy answers to questions via email.
Delgado said he was running due to what he saw as unfair budget allocations and corruption on the board, as well as poor nutritional options for students.
“Our community deserves honest board members who are accountable, ethical and honest people,” he said. “People who will hold the district accountable to make sure everything is done in the best interest of our students’ education.”
He said he decided to run when he realized that cheerleading, which his daughter is a participant in, is not considered part of athletics like football.
“Just as the football team if not more the cheerleading organization is loved by the community and provides great opportunities for our children to get scholarships, job opportunities and even given the chance to come back and support the future generations of cheerleading,” he said. “The families of these cheerleaders have to pay for everything uniforms, bows, etc… even paying for the bus, the buses gas, the bus drivers hotel and food last year came out of the parents pockets.”
The San Antonio Report reached out to the Edgewood ISD officials for a response to those claims but did not hear back by the end of Friday.
Other priorities include reopening closed schools and finding ways to bring families back to Edgewood, Delgado said.
