This story has been updated.
UP Partnership, an influential nonprofit that advocates for the city and county to get more involved in education and youth development, has a brand new CEO hailing from Austin.
Cathy Jones officially stepped into the role on July 14, succeeding Emily Calderón Galdeano, who served as interim CEO since October 2024.
Raised in the Texas panhandle and the first in her family to go to college, Jones knows first-hand the power of education. During a sit-down interview with the Report, Jones said she’s also well-versed in the obstacles many San Antonio students face: poverty, little access to higher education and the challenges attached to being “first-gen.”
A lifelong educator, Jones served as the executive director of nonprofit Austin Partners in Education where she led student-focused tutoring and mentoring programs to improve college and career readiness. Before that, Jones began her career as a kindergarten teacher, eventually working her way up to assistant superintendent of Manor Independent School District on the eastern outskirts of Austin.
Jones’ mantra while working in public schools was to ensure equitable policies to improve systems for all children. It was that mission which led her to the nonprofit world, and one she says will guide her work in the Alamo City.
Jones hopes to keep plugging away at UP Partnership’s Future Ready Bexar County plan: increasing college enrollment of local high school graduates to 70% by 2030. Launched in 2022, the nonprofit has already seen some strides, as college enrollment went from 52% that year to 56% in 2023 and college readiness rates jumped from 48% to 54% during the same period.
“School districts are the foundation, the cake,” Jones told the Report. “We can be the icing on the cake, or we can be the cherry on top, whichever you want. But we are here to add value.”
The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Q: What drew you to San Antonio in the first place? Why was this a place where you wanted to take this job?
A: My daughter is going to graduate school here at the University of Incarnate Word, and we’ve just fallen in love with San Antonio. I was in Austin for 36 years and so it’s just a fresh start. I’m just loving all the nuances and the different cultural things and Fiesta. I wasn’t looking to make a move, but this was so similar to what I was doing in Austin and on a larger scale. I love that UP has a regional approach to this work. I love that there are so many school districts in this area that can buy into this collective impact work. UP partners with seven school districts so far, and the goal is to get them all.
Q: As a newcomer to the area, where do you see the biggest opportunity to positively impact the San Antonio education landscape?
A: We’re really looking at plugging in with the newly elected city council members and the new mayor. A big part of our work needs to be influencing policy and helping develop policies that are going to help all youth in Bexar County. Developing those relationships with our newly elected officials is going to be a big priority for me. We do that through providing data for them and information about their specific communities. Us bringing that information to the table for them, and just offering our support to them as they start their assignments as elected officials … We can start looking forward to future ballots.
Q: Among some city council incumbents and newly elected officials, perspectives tend to vary on how much the city should be involved in education. How would you get them to see through your lens on education and youth?
A: Well, I’m a lifelong educator. To me, education is the great equalizer, and it is everyone’s business to get involved in this journey. Education changes the trajectory of lives, and I’ve seen it firsthand in all my years of experience. My passion — my belief in education — is hopefully going to help others see how important this work is, that we have to collaborate. It cannot be separate. We have to be intertwined.
Q: San Antonio’s newly-elected mayor Gina Ortiz Jones campaigned on a lot of youth issues, saying the city has to invest more in youth and education programs. Is there anything specific about her platform you’re excited about?
A: I wasn’t here during the election cycle, but it does excite me to know she’s someone who sees the pay off of investing in our youth. So I’m excited to know that that’s important to her, that’s certainly important to us.
Jeannette Garcia, director of communications for UP Partnership: There are still a lot of conversations that we have to have and work that we have to do with the mayor’s office, but I think just her showing up at that forum that was between us Early Matters and United Way was definitely the first stepping stone in building that relationship further.
Q: Earlier you mentioned wanting to continue working on influencing policy and legislation and perhaps putting something on a future ballot. UP Partnership tried to defer more public dollars toward youth initiatives during the city’s last charter review and came up short. How would you do things differently?
A: We’re all in learning mode here, as we scale up our policy efforts and our work with these elected officials. What do we learn from the last election cycle and initiatives that maybe didn’t get all the way there, right? And how do we circle back and regroup and make sure we’re all aligning? It’s all about aligning and making sure we’re all on the same page speaking the same language. We just need to double down on our efforts and strengthen our relationships with folks.
Q: What do you see as the biggest obstacle in getting more school districts and even maybe the city to buy in to UP Partnership’s mission?
A: Lack of resources. We’re seeing a lot of changes at the federal level. Budgets are tight, and I think that’s the biggest challenge. But there are funders who are willing to fund this work, and funders want innovation. What we were doing 10 years ago isn’t working. We learned that from COVID just five years ago. What we’re doing isn’t working for our students. So how do we adapt and adjust and innovate to better meet their needs? It takes resources, and I know there’s cuts everywhere, including city council. Over half the school districts in the state of Texas have a deficit budget because of decisions that were made by our legislature, and so when people are in a deficit model of thinking that’s harmful to children.
Q: Do you see any unique challenges like in San Antonio’s education and youth landscape versus Austin?
A: I feel for Austin since they’re so close to the state legislature. Schools there are kind of a moving target. I don’t know if the distance helps protect San Antonio from that. The Austin Independent School District pays over a billion dollars into recapture, so their financial situation is a very difficult one. They are really struggling financially to support students in a way that they deserve to be funded. I’m not sure there’s the exact same issues here, so I’ll need to learn more about that.
Clarification: A quote in this story has been updated to better reflect Cathy Jones’ intention to improve educational systems for students from marginalized communities.
