San Antonio Independent School District’s board named its pick for the district’s new leader on Wednesday night.
The board named Adrian Bustillos, who currently works as chief transformation officer at Aldine ISD in Houston.
“We believe Adrian Bustillos is the leader for this moment,” said Board President Alicia Sebastian.
Bustillos has 20 years of experience in education, starting off as a science teacher in El Paso ISD in 2006, quickly moving up through campus leadership and later launching the district’s Office of Transformation as executive director.
He would later oversee turnaround efforts at struggling schools in El Paso by overseeing hiring and curriculum development, working as a liaison between EPISD and the Texas Education Agency,
As chief transformation officer for Aldine, Bustillos currently oversees innovative school models and the district’s school choice program.
SAISD is regarded as leading in school innovation. The district dropped its boundaries nearly a decade before neighboring districts did, offering several in-district charters, magnets and 1882 partnerships, where outside groups can implement their own school models on a district campus.
Despite falling enrollment, SAISD has more out-of-district students than other area districts.
But SAISD also has many failing campuses that have received “unacceptable” ratings from the state’s A-F accountability system two to three years in a row. More failed ratings could open SAISD up to state intervention.
Like most districts in the area, SAISD is also facing declining enrollment, and a shrinking but still present budget deficit. The district made budget cuts for the fifth year in a row during the latest budget planning cycle.
In 2023, the district closed 15 campuses because of the deficit, and closed two schools this year because they were failing academically.
Pivoting from mass closures like the one from 2023, district officials recently pivoted to a “new way forward” — modernizing SAISD’s many aging buildings, by closing campuses, tearing old schools down and building new state-of-the-art facilities.
SAISD would likely have to call for a new bond election to fund such a project, and the board is expected to call for an election for this November.
Bustillos will follow Jaime Aquino, who first joined the district in 2022 and will be staying on as superintendent emeritus to consult the new leader through the transition before officially leaving in January.
State law requires school districts to wait 21 days after naming a finalist to officially sign them on.
The district’s chief of staff Toni Thompson will serve as interim superintendent starting July 1 until Bustillos is confirmed.
