SAN ANTONIO — Families, teachers and community members filed out after the school board made it official: their neighborhood elementary school will close.
Carvajal Elementary is the 16th campus to close in two years for the San Antonio Independent School Distrct (SAISD). The conversations leading up to the decision left some families wiping tears and searching for answers.
“I’m so scared, I don’t know where to send them,” a woman said during the meeting.
Other parents demanded answers.
“All you are doing is repeating questions that y’all need to give us answers too,” a Carvajal father said to district officials.
There was a perspective that caught most of the those attending this meeting by surprise. Teachers who work at Carvajal Elementary agreed it’s time to close.
“Three-fourths of the staff are already making up their minds that we are not coming back to Carvajal next year,” Danielle Salgado said.
Those words echoed in Carvajal’s cafeteria.
“We can’t stay here another year when we know the budget is going to get even smaller, the campus is going to have even less students,” Cynthia Bever said. “It’s going to continue on like this and next year is not going to be a good year.”
Carvajal has gone through three principals in three years. The school consistently receives an “F” rating from the Texas Education Agency (TEA). District officials predict the campus will receive another failing grade, leaving SAISD vulnerable for state intervention. Takeovers happen after a campus receives five consecutive failing ratings.
“The thought of the state taking over…there has never been a positive experience of that happening,” Bever said.
Bever and Salgado believe there have been positive strides at Carvajal, but feel their target keeps moving. They say it’s harder to improve their grade with the accountably ratings system changing two years ago.
“They also then raise the bar, and then they just keep doing it each year. It is impossible to meet that with the criteria they have set up” Bever said.
Salgado, who has been recognized by the TEA as a designated teacher, says teachers have reached a breaking point.
“It’s difficult to continue having this passion when the goal post keeps moving,” Salgado said.
As the campus prepares to shutter this summer, teachers are helping families pivot.
“We want to keep working with these families, with these kids,” Bever said to a crying mother.
Closing the school, these teachers reluctantly admit, is the only choice.
“It’s not working for families the way it should and what they deserve,” Salgado said.