Judson Independent School District board members voted against closing three schools late Wednesday night.
In the past few months, the district’s board has explored several cost-saving measures to slash a projected $48 million deficit for the next school year, including not having a librarian on every campus, putting a property tax raise up for voter approval that would unlock $12 million for the district and reducing calendar days for certain staff.
Judson ISD’s financial woes are not unique, as nearly every school district in San Antonio faces multi-million budget deficits while being uncertain that the state would pass a public school finance bill before the legislative session ends on June 2.
Earlier this year, North East ISD voted to close three schools to offset a $39 million deficit and address low enrollment and San Antonio ISD closed 15 schools last year for similar reasons.
Texas lawmakers are poised to increase base student funding, the minimum amount a school district receives from the state per student by $55. Known as the basic student allotment, it has not increased since 2019, remaining stagnant at $6,160.
The increase is modest compared to the more than $1,000 in additional funding public school advocates say schools actually need to keep up with inflation. Details between the House and Senate versions of the bill have not been finalized.
Judson ISD board president Monica Ryan, requested the board hire a financial consultant during the meeting, but board members voted to table that item in a 5-2 vote after most trustees expressed support for Superintendent Milton Fields’ administration.
“I think it’s a bad look for us to suddenly spend money on the board in view of everything else,” trustee Laura Stanford said.
“It’s almost like [Ryan’s] hoping and dreaming that another consultant is going to come up with all the magic answers there. There’s no magic answer. We are underfunded by Austin, and it’s a revenue expense thing,” trustee Jose Macias Jr. said.
Parents, teachers protest school closures
During a regular board meeting last week, trustees discussed the possible closure of Judson Middle School and one “unnamed” elementary school but took no action. But when the special meeting agenda for May 21 was posted online, as is required by law, community members discovered the board was considering closing three schools: Franz Leadership Academy, Candlewood Elementary School and Judson Middle School.
Parents, grandparents, teachers, students and even community members who live in the district packed into a swelling boardroom, spilling into the hallway, waiting hours to share public comments with Judson’s ISD’s trustees, three of which were newly elected in May.
Despite requests from trustee Macias Jr., reelected in May for a fifth term on the board, to move public comments on the school closures up, Ryan ordered the board into two closed sessions at the start of the meeting and decided to hear public comments on each proposed school separately before voting on them separately.
One person in the crowded hallway fainted and received medical attention. Overall, the board heard from nearly 80 people asking them to vote against school closures.
Darrell Harris, a basketball and track coach at Judson MS, said closing schools would require the district to spend more on transportation, citing times he’s been asked to drive a “short bus due to the shortages of buses at the bus barn.”
Harris also pointed out that Judson MS, the district’s flagship middle school and the main feeder to Judson High School, has a majority Black and Hispanic student population.
“Shutting down Judson Middle School feels like a targeted attack that is racially motivated and segregates us from y’all,” Harris told the board.
Candlewood’s school librarian Loren Orzechowski said she was there to fight for her job, and asked trustees not to close Candlewood because of the recent upgrades the school’s received through 2016 and 2022 bonds.
“Here’s our taxpayers’ own money that has gone into several things, the work of which has just this year been completed,” Orzechowski said. Bond projects at Candlewood included new plumbing, three playscapes, a new AC system for the gym, a remodeled front office and a new nurse’s office.
Candlewood was also a 2024 recipient of a $1.3 million Learning Acceleration Support Opportunities grant from the Texas Education Agency, allowing the school to build a STEM academy for kindergarten through first grade, a point which was brought up several times by other teachers and parents.
Supporters of Franz Leadership Academy, pointed to the school’s recognized status as a “model campus” by the TEA and its inclusion of special education students, which make up more than 15% of its student population.
Parents and teachers were also concerned closing schools would lead to overcrowding, poor academic outcomes and could cut access to community services provided by the schools like afterschool programming, clothing and free food for children in need.
One point of contention was the fact that the school district is nearing the completion of a new elementary and middle school, results of a 2022 bond, while considering closing older and fully enrolled schools.
Revisiting the conversation
Macias Jr., who said he was against any school closures, said the conversation would have to be revisited if Judson ISD’s budget deficit didn’t grow smaller and voters didn’t approve the proposed tax increase.
“The first school that we would have to close.. would have to be our newest one, the one in Selma, because I want folks to know that’s the one that has the least impact,” Macias Jr. said.
At many times, onlookers cheered for public commentators, booed the board and clapped when trustees unanimously voted against school closures three separate times.
Closing the schools would have saved Judson ISD $3.4 million, district staff said, though the district did not recommend it.
After taking the last vote against closing Franz Leadership Academy, trustee Suzanne Kenoyer told members of the crowd who were protesting the closures to contact their state representatives.
“A direct result of what they’re trying to do to public education is what you’re seeing happening tonight. They need to fully fund public schools,” Kenoyer said. “Please, please take the same time.”
