After South San Antonio Independent School District trustees took months debating the closure of West Campus High School to avoid a financial crisis, its superintendent took the option off the table Wednesday saying it was too late to make it happen next year.
“We had a window of opportunity to make a decision,” South San Antonio Superintendent Henry Yzaguirre said. “And in discussions with administration, students (and) staff … that window has closed.”
Yzaguirre said the district would not be able to afford any major upgrades to facilities as a result of the $12 million deficit that spurred the discussions around the closure, adding that making the choice now would be unfair to students and staff.
“It is very difficult for our staff to be able to consolidate 500-plus kids on the master schedule to another campus this late in the year,” he said. “Normally that practice happens in January … we are now in mid-to-late April.”
Yzaguirre said removing the item Wednesday was not the end of the conversation.
“Removing this item today does not mean that we must put this aside forever,” he said. “We all know that we have a deficit and this issue has to be brought up at some time for the following year.”
Board President Homer Flores and Trustee Abel Martinez Jr. both said the board should never have considered closing the school, with Flores saying the item should not be revisited next year.
“I believe that we should not stop trying to enroll kids in that school,” he said. “We shouldn’t stop any kind of marketing to that school or that area, especially with a charter school there that might not have the high school grade levels.”
Three other schools in the district were approved for closure in March, but West Campus High School was removed from the list before that meeting by Flores. The move was contested by several other board members, who wrote a memo requesting a new meeting to vote on West Campus.
An April 5 meeting in which the closure of West Campus was again on the agenda ended in chaos when Trustee Manuel Lopez was removed by South San Antonio ISD police for being disruptive. Resident Angie Olvera also was removed for approaching the dais and yelling.
Olvera was later banned from the building by the superintendent for 30 days, according to a copy of a letter sent to Olvera and given to the San Antonio Report by Trustee Ernesto Arrellano.
Arrellano, who left the meeting last week after Lopez’s ouster, took the unusual step of stepping off the dais Wednesday night to speak as a citizen and not in his official capacity during public comment.
“It is not ordinary for a sitting trustee to take part in “Citizens to be Heard,” and I would normally not do so, but what occurred at the April 5 board meeting is extraordinary and must be addressed,” he said.
Arrellano said the move banning Olvera “sends a disturbing signal of intimidation of thought and speech.”
“The board should not accept these types of tactics,” he added.
In the meeting Wednesday, board members accepted the resignation of trustee and board Vice President Stacey Alderete, who has been on and off the board for about a decade and is recovering from what she said is a severe case of viral meningitis. The resignation will take effect on June 28.
Alderete said she hopes the board will come together for the children when she departs.
Other board reports included academic progress updates, safety and security updates and a briefing on changes to the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) test, which began across the state this week.
Abe Saavedra, a monitor appointed by the Texas Education Agency, warned that Alderete’s departure sets up an even number of trustees, risking deadlock from a board that rarely comes to a consensus. He asked board members to move quickly to begin the replacement process.
Saavedra said the April meeting was deplorable, adding that after recent progress made by the board, he was planning for the possibility of exiting the district in August, about two years after he was appointed.
“Based on the behavior of April the 5th, and how this meeting has already started with division, I really think that date needs to be amended,” he said.
