Members of the Joint Base San Antonio military community asked questions of base leaders at a town hall event Thursday primarily focusing on roads and traffic, safety, STEM opportunities and expectations for the upcoming school year.
The meeting, hosted in Lackland ISD’s auditorium, was moderated and organized by the Air Force Public Affairs team and included a panel of JBSA leaders and subject experts, with an open floor for community members to ask questions in person or virtually.
“I know there are a lot of families out there that are really anxious to get their kids back to school, and we want to answer any questions that they may have,” Brig. Gen. Russell Driggers, commander of the 502nd Air Base Wing and JBSA, said to kick off the meeting.
Driggers was joined on a panel by Lackland ISD superintendent Burnie Roper, school liaison Diana Prior, Richard Trevino from the base civil engineering group, a security forces representative, a child services representative, and Col. Travis Mills, the 502nd Force Support Group commander.
Fort Sam Houston, Lackland and Randolph AFB each have their own independent school district, with an estimated 4,000 students overall. One concern from attendees was what the base would be doing to lessen traffic when the school rush begins.
“We know across Joint Base San Antonio, specifically around the schools, we do have challenges with our roads,” Trevino said. “They require work, so we do have projects expecting to be repairing the roads that we have specifically here on Lackland.”
Trevino explained that in fiscal year 2024, the civil engineering group will be working on repairing the road off Kenly Avenue toward base housing, which is about a $1.7 million project, and also Carswell Avenue, which is about a $3.2 million project.
Roper and the security forces representative also addressed concerns parents had over safety as their children head back to school. They assured parents that safety was being taken seriously, saying that all school building and classroom doors will be kept locked at all times, students will be scheduled to do practice safety drills, there will be an assigned officer patrol specific to each school zone, and routine randomized walk-throughs will be conducted in the schools as needed by officers.
One attendees asked how Lackland’s recent STEM grant would be used to update school programs and aid students.
“We will give opportunities to every student, and I work diligently so that happens,” said Dayna Guyton, director of federal and special programs for Lackland ISD.
Guyton explained that the grant was helping students in a variety of ways already this summer, with two summer STEM programs being offered to students. During the school year, elementary students will get time to work in a STEM lab and second- through fifth-graders will be given the opportunity to join the school’s STEM club. High schoolers will also receive the opportunity to enroll in a nursing health science course.
Kyle Jones, the director of technology for Lackland ISD, explained that the grant was about $1.2 million from the Department of Defense Education Activity, and that this will be the district’s first year getting to implement the funds.
This is the second series of hour-long Community Connections meetings, during which base leaders address members of the military community at Fort Sam Houston, Lackland Air Force Base and Randolph Air Force Base. The meetings are meant to address issues affecting the JBSA community in a more standardized and consistent way twice a year, JBSA deputy chief of public affairs Angelina Casarez said.
The meetings are live-streamed on the JBSA Facebook page in order to allow a virtual audience to participate. If any questions are not addressed in the meeting or if they are asked after the meeting, the public affairs team does their best to respond, Casarez said.
This story has been updated to correct Col. Travis Mills’ title and Air Force unit.
