Neatly clad in navy blue, students buzz through the hallways of Unity Prep at Stewart in San Antonio Independent School District.
It’s picture day, a common practice to mark the start of a school year. But this year things are a little different at the pre-K through eighth grade campus.
In May, students ended the 2025-26 school year at Democracy Prep at Stewart. In August, they returned to Unity Prep at Stewart.
But why the change?
“Behind the scenes is what’s the most different right now,” said Virginia Boyce, Unity Prep’s founding superintendent.
Between 2019 and this summer, the Eastside campus was run by Democracy Prep, a New York-based charter network that took over the school after it received five consecutive years of academically-failing ratings from the state.
But following a “comprehensive strategic review,” Democracy Prep decided to end operations at Stewart and a separate school the network ran in Las Vegas.
“The transition was a positive management change to ensure that 100% of local resources and decisions are in the hands of local community leaders,” said Ayanna Thomas, Democracy Prep’s lead counsel. “With the continued leadership of Virginia Boyce, we believe this change will strengthen opportunities for students and families now and for years to come.”
Boyce was Democracy Prep’s principal at Stewart when the network first took over the campus. Now, she’ll lead Unity Prep, a new independent education nonprofit that took over the school effective July 1.
“It’s the natural transition of an organization that has grown local roots over time,” Boyce said. “We are actually the same nonprofit that we have been since 2018 in terms of operating in Texas, but we do have a new name.”
Stewart under 1882
Many of the current Unity Prep staff members have been at Stewart since it was first a Democracy Prep campus.
Boyce said the school’s teacher retention rate is “well above” SAISD’s overall overage — it’s a problem Democracy Prep tackled when they first arrived at the campus in 2018.
“One of the core reasons that Stewart had been gaining unacceptable rating after unacceptable rating was staff turnover,” said Boyce. “It took us a bit to get there, but now that we have established that baseline, it also allows us to really set core expectations that we follow through.”
In 2018, what was then Stewart Elementary, had gotten five consecutive years of failing ratings from the state which would’ve resulted in steep penalties for SAISD — either closing the campus or state intervention.
To avoid that, SAISD took advantage of Senate Bill 1882, which was passed in 2017 to formalize and incentivize partnerships between school districts and outside groups like charter networks, education nonprofits or universities.
With approval from the Texas Education Agency, 1882 contracts give outside groups control of a public school, pause academic ratings for two years and give the campus extra funding per student.
For the 2025-26 school year, for example, Stewart got an extra $514,090 on top of its regular campus budget from SAISD.
Before the 2017-18 cycle ended, SAISD’s board unanimously approved a 10-year contract with Democracy Prep to take over the Stewart campus. Aside from being one of the first partnerships to take place under SB 1882, it was also one of the first times TEA approved a partnership specifically for academic “turnaround” work, which carries higher stakes.
Under Democracy Prep, Stewart Elementary became an in-district charter school, implemented Democracy Prep’s signature navy blue uniforms and turned into an academy that enrolls students from pre-K through eighth grade.
Within a couple of years under Democracy Prep, the Stewart campus went from being academically unacceptable to a B-rated school in 2022, but the rating has fluctuated since.
During the latest round of state ratings, the Stewart campus went from a C rating to a D rating. While students showed growth on state testing, the total number of students scoring on grade level didn’t move.
“A couple of buckets of things we need to be working on: one is achievement, two is emergent bilingual support for students,” Boyce said.
Nearly half of Stewart students are emergent bilingual, meaning English is likely not their first language. At the district level, 24.4% of students have the same label.
To improve academics, Boyce said Stewart staff are conducting weekly walk throughs and frequent data meetings to measure growth, but there were external factors that affected the campus last year.
Attendance dipped. The school lost students to ramped up immigration enforcement efforts under the Trump administration. Families were being priced out of the neighborhood. This all affected learning and meant decreased funding from the state, Boyce said.
“There’s also the social emotional ripple effect for kids and parents who are trying to navigate what they’re going to do,” Principal Ashley Crandall added.
SAISD’s contract with Unity Prep expires in 2028, which reflects the original timeline under Democracy Prep. At that point, SAISD — which has the largest number of 1882 campuses in Texas at 26 —reevaluates whether to renew the agreement or not.
To renew, SAISD requires 1882 campuses to have at least a B rating from the state and be organizationally and financially healthy. The district typically reviews 1882 partnerships every October.
One of the biggest concerns for Boyce in the transition from Democracy to Unity was making sure the school was able to keep its partnership with SAISD, but TEA confirmed the partnership could continue earlier this summer.
Part of Unity Prep’s contract with SAISD gives the nonprofit almost exclusive hiring power of teachers, a common practice with 1882 partners. This is important for partners to pick staff they believe are suited for whatever unique model they offer.
Unity Prep’s teachers are also at-will employees, whereas traditional public school teachers are typically just-cause employees.
That also means that labor groups, such as SAISD’s San Antonio Alliance which represents the district’s teachers and school personnel, don’t typically have reach in 1882 campuses.
“I’ve worked as a leader on a campus that was Alliance oriented. I’ve also worked here. I think it all comes down to transparency and leadership,” said Boyce.
Crandall, who got her first teaching position at Stewart when it was under Democracy Prep, said part of the model weaves in teacher mentorship and leadership development for all staff. It’s how she moved up to the principal’s office.
Starting off as a first-grade teacher, Crandall became a “content lead,” then grade-level chair, then she got a master’s degree and became an assistant principal through a leadership program Democracy Prep offered.
“There were people who were here who saw leadership qualities in me that I did not see in myself at the time,” Crandall recalled.
Unity Prep at Stewart is also one of SAISD’s biggest Teacher Incentive Allotment recipients, a state funding lever that awards “effective” teachers thousands more in pay every year.
What actually changed?
To become an independent nonprofit, Unity Prep established its own local human resources and finance teams. The nonprofit kept its Texas-based school board, which is currently undergoing training and workshops to smoothen the transition.
One of the most obvious changes, however, was the name change from Democracy Prep to Unity Prep.
Staff chose “unity” to represent the welcoming culture cultivated at Stewart.
“When we talked to families, the thing that they were most excited about and wanted to make sure we did not lose was being inclusive,” Boyce said.
Similar to Democracy Prep, the Unity Prep model focuses on college and career preparation while including cultural relevance and civic engagement.
Every classroom in the Stewart campus is named after a university, like an Algebra I class, which all eighth graders are required to take, that features a poster from Yale University on the door. Inspirational quotes hang on nearly every wall.
The Stewart campus also kept Democracy Prep’s signature colors, yellow and blue, an owl mascot and a shield-shaped logo. Students still wear uniforms, and flashes of blue and yellow decorate the hallways.
An old carpet in the front office still bears the Democracy Prep label, as does a mural by the school’s basketball courtyard.
For Boyce and Crandall, leading the Stewart campus through the brand change has been about maintaining connections with families and students even as things change behind the scenes.
“We know that relationships are what drive students to feel like they can take risks in the classroom and that they can feel safe making mistakes,” said Crandall.
