As Bexar County grows, its school districts are experiencing corresponding changes in school enrollment.
To the south and the northwest, many school districts are growing quickly, while inner-city districts are facing population and enrollment declines and proposed school closures.
In a CityFest panel moderated by San Antonio Report education reporter Isaac Windes, local education leaders explained how these changes are affecting Bexar County’s school districts.
Historically compared to other Texas cities, “San Antonio has been a little bit slower in terms of its growth, but that has changed,” said Texas State Demographer Lloyd B. Potter. “San Antonio between 2020 and 2021 was the fastest-growing city in the country. … And the last year we have data for … it was the second-fastest growing city in the country.”
Much of that growth is made up of people moving to San Antonio from other places across the nation, or domestic migration, Potter said.
“Birth rates have been declining, and in particular we’ve seen with the recession pretty dramatic declines in birth rates among the Hispanic population. And of course that affects San Antonio much more than it does pretty much any place else in Texas,” he said. “There are fewer kids that are entering primary and secondary education.”
Ed Garza, a San Antonio Independent School District trustee who was mayor of San Antonio in the early 2000s, said that “probably the biggest change in terms of the physical growth of our city in the last 10 years has been the investment in the central core, the downtown area,” but those districts have been attracting young people and singles more than families.
At the same time, the rise of charter schools is having an impact on competition for students. As a result of those changes, SAISD is currently considering closing 19 schools, with a decision expected soon.
“There’s more competition in San Antonio, as we’ve seen elsewhere, and so more institutions are competing for fewer and fewer students that are spread out in a very large geographic urban and suburban living area,” he said. “Our density is very low compared to cities of the Northeast or on the West Coast, and that has a price … in terms of how we serve students that are in families that are spread out.”
Meanwhile, Roland Toscano, superintendent of East Central Independent School District on the Southeast Side of San Antonio, manages a district that’s exploding in growth as developers add affordable housing stock.
“The development that we’re seeing out here is massive, such that we’ll be doubling in size within the decade,” Toscano said. “We’re 1,000 students up from last year … and we’re projected to be between 19,000 and 20,000 by 2030. And again, that’s a reflection of a lot of things that we can’t control. It’s not so much indicative of folks choosing our schools or that they’re good or bad compared to others, it’s just the nature of the population movements.”
As a result of that growth, East Central ISD is adding schools to keep up.
“We’re at or near 100% or exceeding 100% in all of our facilities,” Toscano said. “We are currently building two elementary schools and a junior high to be able to expand enrollment at those grade levels and in those areas of the community where those schools have exceeded capacity approaching 120%.”
Bobby Blount, president of the Northside Independent School District board of trustees and president of the Bexar County School Boards Coalition, said the rapid growth that his district has been experiencing is starting to even out.
And despite enrollment fluctuations, Blount encouraged his fellow panelists to meet the moment and focus on improving educational outcomes for as many San Antonio students as possible.
“The education system here really has a lot of opportunities,” Blount said. “There are some cities across the U.S., East Coast and some other places that have some very real challenges that we don’t face here within San Antonio. It’s one reason why I serve on a school board and will continue to do so — yeah we’ve got some challenges but we’ve got to realize that we have a lot of opportunities here.”
