By the 2025-26 school year, San Antonio’s Southeast Side will have 350 new early education spots thanks to a new Pre-K 4 SA learning center under construction.
According to state records, the 53,000-square-foot building has a $30 million price tag.
Most seats will be free to families in the area making less than $80,000 a year, like at all its centers, according to Pre-K 4 SA, the city-funded early childhood education program.
The new facility is being built on eight acres donated to the city through a private-public partnership with local Caterpillar dealer the Holt Group, headquartered next door to the construction site at 3510 S WW White Rd.
“It’s such a critical issue that we can’t just rely on one stakeholder to fix things for us. It’s not just going to be governments, private sector, nonprofits or families. The burden has to be on all of us to improve our education system,” said Holt Group CEO Peter Holt.
Holt founded Early Matters San Antonio in 2019, a statewide collaborative of business leaders boosting economic mobility and prosperity through investments that support children. Holt is financing and leading the construction with contractor G.W. Mitchell and seven design teams.
Tuesday’s ceremonial groundbreaking was the first partnership between Holt and Pre-K 4 SA.
Pre-K 4 SA has another South Education Center located at 7031 S. New Braunfels Ave., which will close in May at the end of the 2024-25 school year. The new center at the Holt property will replace it, opening in August 2025 for the 2025-26 school year.
Talks about building the new center started in July 2022, said Sarah Baray, CEO of Pre-K 4 SA. When it’s completed, it’ll belong to Pre-K 4 SA for as long as it exists, she said, and the city will own the land.
At the site on Tuesday, the land had been cleared and construction was underway. Under the beaming sun, three Pre-K 4 SA students on mini construction equipment dug in next to city and school officials.
“Early childhood education is an essential step to access real opportunities later in life. Our investments are a step in the right direction. From successfully graduating high school to staying healthy, it all starts with the early learners,” San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg told a crowd of about 80 people.
To the side, renderings of outdoor learning spaces that included an amphitheater, an alphabet fence, garden reading nook and chalkboards, show what the site will look like once completed.
The center will include classrooms for infants and toddlers, a first for Pre-K 4 SA, significant because its location between Interstate Highway 37 and Loop 410 is a fast-growing area for families with young children, and also a child care desert, Baray said.
For parents, that means there are fewer than five child care spots for every 100 children.
“It’s an area of great need,” she said. Baray added that Texas A&M- San Antonio will also open a high-quality early childhood center at its campus nearby. “In this area, we’re going to have just between South East and Far South, we’ll have over 650 child care seats.”
Baray added Pre-K 4 SA is collaborating with Joint Base San Antonio to help military families get access to child care, and is working to help other providers to also help military families.
“As we break ground today, we open the door to possibilities: Possibilities to the children and families who will go to school here… and to our community, who will see new possibilities and hope in young children and their families,” Baray said.
Correction: This story has been updated to correct the cost of the center.
The Holt Group is a financial supporter of the San Antonio Report. For a full list of business members, click here.
