SAN ANTONIO \u2014 Crystal Mata says San Antonio Independent School District closing Rhodes Middle School and the neighboring campus, Carvajal Elementary School, will hurt her community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWith it gone, it takes away that security from the neighborhood. It takes away security from the people. From us working parents who can\u2019t just drop off and pick up,\u201d Mata said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They\u2019re not the only parents facing change this summer. Many families across Texas are seeing their local schools close.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Austin ISD is closing 10 schools, Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District is closing two schools and Judson ISD is closing four campuses, all before the fall semester.<\/p>\n
Several other school districts, like Pflugerville ISD, are planning to merge campuses in the 2027-28 school year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also know that these schools have been struggling for a variety of reasons,\u201d said Shawn Bird,\u00a0San Antonio ISD (SAISD) deputy superintendent.<\/p>\n
Bird cited low enrollment, declining birthrates, budget deficits and poor Texas Education Agency (TEA) ratings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
SAISD was ahead of the trend when the board members voted to close 15 schools in 2023. Like many districts across the Lone Star State, SAISD is trying to avoid a TEA takeover.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to note that these schools have made improvements,\u201d Bird said. \u201cThey just not have made improvements fast enough to get out of the accountability trouble that they\u2019ve been in.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The speed of the improvements was a driving factor for a second round of closures.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Carvajal families got one last tour of the campus, viewing yearbooks and old memorabilia the same way families at 15 closing schools did in 2024.<\/p>\n
Rhodes\u2019 parents, like Mata, will get their farewell, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the last time we get to be in the hallways and sit in the auditorium and watch these kids and be a part of something we\u2019ve been a part of for so long,\u201d Mata said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of the name Shawn Bird. (June 16, 2026)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2014 Crystal Mata says San Antonio Independent School District closing Rhodes Middle School and the neighboring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[836,1570,163,6294,223,82,84,83,27,1569,835],"class_list":["post-339637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-app-education","tag-ctv","tag-education","tag-jose-arredondo","tag-news","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-texas","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}