San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Edgewood embarks on a bold redesign
And these radical changes might just lead to better student outcomes
Edgewood ISD’s struggle is perpetual, seemingly Sisyphean; the students and their families on San Antonio’s West Side endure the burden of stark education and life disparities. Generational poverty, inadequate state funding for education and failing state standardized test scores persist.
But Edgewood’s 16-squaremile district, which serves less than 9,000 students, is in the midst of an intense redesign. This is a story about how one of the poorest school districts in the country has embraced a new vision of empowering students and teachers, and how the community has embraced this new way forward.
It’s a fight for change — the district is not there yet — but don’t tell the kindergartners in John Leos’ classroom at Las Palmas Leadership School for Girls, one of Edgewood’s schools of innovation.
In their classroom, the love of learning is so palpable the district’s deep struggles are forgotten. On a Thursday morning in April, 17 kindergarten girls wearing bunny ear headbands recite their daily mantra:
“Our Mantra. Nuestro Mantra. I am important. Yo soy importante. I am strong. Yo soy fuerte. I am able. Yo soy capaz. I am intelligent. Yo soy inteligente. I am special. Yo soy especial. I am bicultural. Yo soy bicultural. I am enough. Yo valgo. I am ME! Yo soy YO!”
Superintendent Eduardo Hernández is about four years into Edgewood’s five-year District of Innovation Plan, and this day, in this classroom, is just one part of that broader push for change.
Since 2019, there has been a flurry of major changes at Edgewood. Through its schools of innovation, the district now offers choice. Eleven of its 24 schools are campuses of innovation in five core areas: early childhood; STEAM, or science, technology, engineering, art and math; performing arts; leadership; and public service.
Las Palmas Leadership School for Girls and Cisneros Leadership School for Boys are seeking authorization as International Baccalaureate World Schools, and if they get it, they will be the only gendered IB schools in Texas. The IB program offers global networking and a high quality international curriculum that encourages critical thinking and problem solving.
Teachers, who had to reapply for their jobs, are expected to learn and adapt.
Five operating partners manage most of Edgewood’s 11 schools of innovation. Each partner has autonomy in curriculum and assessments, staffing and training, funding and budget, policies, school calendars and more.
Many public school advocates and teacher organizations resist in-district charters because they take students and funding away from districts.
So far, though, Edgewood’s partnerships seem different; four of the district’s five operating partners are nonprofits.
Lety Barbosa, an Edgewood
teacher and president of the Edgewood Classroom Teachers Association, is cautiously optimistic.
Edgewood was hit hard during the pandemic; several hundred students left the district. District leaders hope that in-district charters will help attract students and drive innovation. It’s already led to more funding.
The schools of innovation reboot has yielded more than $11 million in additional federal and state funding. The district also has received about 95 percent of all innovation grants it’s applied for in the past two years, said Theresa Salinas, the district’s chief innovation officer.
Looking back, Hernández, 46, said a perfect storm led to his hiring. Formerly the chief academic officer at Duncanville ISD, a small district south of Dallas, Hernández had read the news stories about Edgewood and reviewed school board meetings. The district was rated F by the state. He knew there would be massive challenges, but he felt a calling.
“They needed somebody to be fiercely protective — to advocate for opportunity for them,” he said. “Someone who wouldn’t be stopped by the fact that these particular ZIP codes come with a story.”
When Hernández was hired as Edgewood superintendent in 2018, the district was in collapse, having two superintendents and two interim superintendents in just a few years.
Years of school board dysfunction led to an exodus of teachers as enrollment declined and students floundered. In a drastic measure, the Texas Education Agency removed the elected school board and appointed a slate of managers in 2016. The managers stayed almost four years. Now, a stronger board works in the background — as it should.
Hernández recently signed a new contract through 2026.
What Hernández and the Edgewood community are trying to achieve — high-performing teachers and students — demands getting buy-in and collaboration from administrators, teachers and parents. Everyone must believe change is possible.
Hernández’s vision to offer low-income students an educational experience equal to what students receive in wealthy districts is bold.
“My goal has always been about creating opportunities or spaces where children, families and staff have the best opportunity in their journey,” Hernández said. “We say, ‘Pick the school that best supports your purpose,’ as opposed to picking the school that’s down the street from you.”
In 2017-2018, Edgewood’s school accountability grades for its elementary through high school campuses were one B, two C’s, six D’s and six F’s. For 2018-2019: one B, three C’s, three D’s, and nine F’s. The overall rating increased from a DtoaC.
Progress, but Hernández’s new state accountability goal is a B or better for all schools by 2027.
Fueling this ambition is Edgewood’s participation in the Texas System of Great Schools, a four-year program that provides district leaders with support. The program supports district leaders in expanding what works, replacing what doesn’t and pursuing all options to create high-quality, best-fit schools.
In principle, Edgewood and other struggling districts should receive adequate funding without creating in-district charter schools. But in Texas, that’s not possible.
So, following the lead of San Antonio ISD, the neighboring inner-city district that has undergone its own transformation, Edgewood is taking full advantage of state programs, including SB 1882 Texas Partnerships, which provide districts incentives to contract with outside entities such as nonprofits, charter networks and universities.
Former SAISD Superintendent Pedro Martinez, who began its district of innovation effort, said he encouraged Hernández in his innovation journey.
“It’s so easy to overlook these neighborhoods in SAISD and Edgewood,” said Martinez, who now helms Chicago Public Schools. “In San Antonio, you can live on the North Side and never go to the West Side, never see the poverty ... so there is a lack of empathy. I have a lot of respect for Dr. Hernández. He prioritizes building trust in the community.”
Back at John Leos’ classroom at Las Palmas, a redesigned Edgewood school is taking shape.
Six-year-old Luzila “Luz” Fonseca, who previously attended a Catholic school, is busy working on her assignment. At school and at home, she asks questions and uses critical thinking skills to answer her own questions. She enjoys school.
Her mother, Gaby LaraFonseca, a community relations representative, and father, Jason Fonseca, a car dealership manager, are high school sweethearts who graduated from Edgewood’s Kennedy High School in 2001. They could live on the North Side, but they chose to make their home on the West Side, renovating Jason’s mother’s childhood home, just two blocks from Las Palmas.
The Fonsecas are keenly aware of Edgewood’s story.
“It’s always, ‘Oh, you came from Edgewood?’ and it’s not a positive question. Edgewood has always had a bad reputation,” Fonseca said. “But
Dr. Hernández is trying to change how everyone sees it. He explains what he’s doing, but he asks for work from parents and students. He asks, ‘What are you going to do?’ ”
Lara-Fonseca said they want a different life for Luz and her younger sister.
“Not that how we grew up was bad, but we want to expose our kids to a different life. Both my parents migrated from Mexico, and my parents’ resources were very limited,” she said. “I didn’t get to go to Girl Scouts every day or go to Ballet Folklorico at Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center once a week or play soccer. And my school was different.”
Luz’s parents are excited about the changes at Las Palmas and Edgewood.
The Fonsecas remember some of their Edgewood teachers as set in their ways, lacking innovation or commitment.
But that’s not the kind of teacher Luz has in Leos.
Leos has taught at Las Palmas Elementary since it opened 16 years ago. A twotime teacher of the year, he said he wouldn’t want to teach anywhere else. He’s inspired by the superintendent and dedicated to the principal, Monica Muñoz.
Leos is intentional about caring for the girls, buying them trinkets, sending postcards, and texting and calling parents with feedback. He’s all in for the district’s redesign.
“It’s the relationships. You gotta form a relationship with the student and the parents,” he said.
He teaches and empowers. “When they say their mantra, I tell them, ‘Say it loud and proud. This is how you feel.’ ”
He smiles as he recalls a recent Earth Day luncheon. A parent asked him about a song their daughter was singing every morning in the shower. “I am strong.