The South San Antonio Independent School District board of trustees came together during one of the most unified meetings in years Wednesday night, just in time to hear what it will take to slash an estimated $4.4 million projected deficit and adopt a balanced budget by a September deadline set by the Texas Education Agency.
High tensions gave way to conciliation as factions dissolved, and board members agreed that they must take drastic actions to retain students and turn around a deficit years in the making. The shift comes six months from a deadline set by the TEA to meet several goals or be taken over by an appointed board.
Board members also set goals for student achievement and other priorities, the first time the current board has done so and potentially a sign that future board actions will focus more on student outcomes.
The most prominent South San ISD critics on the board, who have sparred with the majority for much of the last year, turned their attention toward finding a sustainable solution to the district’s enrollment and finance problems.
“Moving forward, I think bygones need to be bygones,” Abel “Chili Dog” Martinez said. “[Students] come out here, they’re dropping out. We need to very aggressively get these kids and educate them as best as we can and catch them.”
Martinez has been a divisive figure in the past, openly criticizing the administration and even being arrested on allegations of disrupting a meeting.
Homer Flores Jr., who returned with well wishes after months of absence due to a medical condition, also apologized for an outburst in June when he verbally accosted Abe Saavedra, the TEA-appointed monitor at the time.
“I think it’s appropriate that I publicly apologize for being verbally abusive, using words I shouldn’t have used,” he said. “It was unbecoming of a trustee.”
Saavedra, who later was named conservator for South San, thanked Flores for apologizing while presenting a needs assessment charting the district’s path toward a return to local control.
“Financial expenditures cannot continue to exceed revenue,” he said. “So that behavior and those decisions need to change.”
In addition to adopting a balanced budget, the district and board must devise a plan to attract and retain students, increase board member attendance, invest in capital expenses and sustain functional governance.
“Your students and your community demand and deserve sustained governance, not just improvement but sustained,” he said.
Balancing the budget will be no small feat.
Tony Kingman, the district’s chief financial officer, presented a draft budget projection for next year that would slash the current $9.9 million deficit to $2.1 million, with savings from the closure of West Campus High School, changes to employee medical insurance and the use of all maintenance and tax notes.
Programs, including Communities in Schools, are also slated to be eliminated.
However, declining enrollment and the expiration of federal COVID relief funds will push the deficit back up to $4.4 million.
So Kingman provided options the board could consider to achieve a balanced budget, including laying off staff, reducing pay, not filling vacancies and closing more schools.
Similar discussions have divided the board in the past, leading to the appointment of a conservator after years of bickering.
But this time, all board members agreed on the need to find a path forward.
Kingman provided potential pros and cons for each option.
Closing campuses, for example, would reduce the deficit but could negatively impact the community. The results of savings from past closures have also yet to be fully realized.
Trustee Martinez pointed out that partial fixes have not been enough so far.
“I’m devastated to hear that we are again looking at consolidating schools,” he said. “From the get-go, I knew closing those four places was not going to stop the whole thing.”
So, Martinez said, the next fix has to be complete.
“If this happens we need to come in and do exactly what we need to do,” he said. “Otherwise we’re going to continue tearing this community apart.”
“We’re eventually going to get to a place where we’re not going to have schools to close,” he added.
Regarding potential layoffs or salary cuts, either could lead to the loss of high-quality staff, Kingman said, potentially impacting teachers’ workloads and academics.
Further savings could come from the sale or demolition of already closed campuses, which currently cost tens of thousands of dollars due to electricity and other costs.
The district provided the board details on the cost of demolition, although board members made no decisions Wednesday.
Superintendent Henry Yzaguirre reiterated that the options presented were yet to be recommendations and were for information only.
“This is a presentation of potential options and that’s all it is,” he said. “It could be one, it can be none. … I could say that I don’t want to sacrifice academic performance based on the outcomes of the [State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness] next month.”
“At some point, we need to make more tough decisions,” he added.
