SASD Board member Ed Garza speaks during a San Antonio ISD board meeting. Garza said he could not support district proposals related to the 2020 bond.
Robin Jerstad
The San Antonio Independent School District board’s meeting turned tense Monday night as trustees questioned unfinished bond projects and debated the district’s future months before a November election for more bond funding.
SAISD is seeking voter approval for a $600 million bond to continue upgrading aging schools. The region’s oldest school district has more campuses than it needs as enrollment declines. Many of its aging buildings are costly to maintain and too small to absorb students if or when nearby schools shutter.
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The district, like many others in San Antonio, has lost students in recent years. SAISD serves 42,500 students across roughly 80 schools. The district has closed 17 campuses since 2023, including two last school year. Superintendent Adrian Bustillos said Monday that enrollment is projected to fall to about 33,000 by the end of the decade.
In 2020, voters approved a $1.3 billion bond for major renovations, security upgrades, technology improvements and new central air systems at dozens of campuses. At the time, SAISD enrolled nearly 46,000 students.
But hundreds of millions from that bond have gone unspent. For nearly an hour on Monday, SAISD trustees pressed staff on the status of projects voters approved six years ago, questioning where the remaining money is going, and how much is left.
During the discussion, district leaders asked trustees to approve two campus renovations, upgrade three high schools’ football and track facilities, move $4.7 million earmarked for improvements at a K-8 school to other projects and approve a new framework for contractor fees.
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“I just can’t support any of the recommendations tonight,” trustee Ed Garza said.
The board ultimately voted 5-2 to table $65.8 million in proposed campus renovations at Davis Middle School and Martin Luther King Jr. Academy for Arts Integration. Trustee Mike Villarreal joined Garza in voting no. The administration’s other requests were approved.
Garza cited stagnant enrollment at Davis as one reason he opposed the request. He also said he lacked confidence in how the remaining bond money was being allocated. About $420 million from the 2020 bond remains unspent, a district spokesperson said in an email on Tuesday.
“This is a concern,” Board President Alicia Sebastian said. “To make these one-off decisions once again and not understanding the implications of the entire portfolio.”
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Some projects approved under the $1.3 billion bond have stalled as inflation has driven up construction costs since the pandemic.
“This is not us neglecting what we committed to,” Sebastian said. “But this is us making sure that we’re looking at the conditions right now and coming back when we have more information.”
Bustillos said he would provide trustees with a list of completed and ongoing projects before they revisit the Davis and Martin Luther King Jr. Academy proposals.
“I commend the board; these are the right conversations to be having,” he said. “This is a critical way to rethink the future of our schools and the buildings and the resources we have.”
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Trustees also began discussing how the district should respond to a decade of enrollment loss.
In Texas, the number of students attending class each day determines how much money a school district receives. School leaders say state funding has not kept pace with inflation.
The board plans to seek community input in the coming months as it weighs its “New Way Forward,” a plan that could include school closures, curriculum changes and student programming. Trustees also plan to hire an outside organization to help with community engagement. They will discuss their outreach strategy at two upcoming meetings and hope to begin gathering feedback in October.
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“We really want to get their advice on how to roll out these conversations before the end of the calendar year,” Villarreal said. “So that the broader community understands the realities that we are operating under: enrollment trends, financial constraints and how our students are performing across the district.”