Edgewood ISD to discuss possible closures
With enrollment continuing to shrink and funds running short, Edgewood Independent School District, one of the poorest school systems in Texas, plans to explain to the public why it might need to shutter schools.
Edgewood ISD will host community meetings on a “redesign” that could include school closures
The West Side district will host three community meetings starting Thursday to discuss a districtwide redesign intended to better position it to face mounting challenges. The district’s website states that Edgewood ISD “will need to make some hard decisions about our facilities, programs and staff” and that the process “may result in a recommendation to combine campuses and programs.”
If that happens, Edgewood will become the fourth school district in central San Antonio to face such a decision. Harlandale and South San ISDS closed schools this year. San Antonio ISD is in the middle of a difficult debate over a staff recommendation to close 19 schools, most of them by next fall.
In August, Edgewood administrators and trustees appointed a task force of educators, parents and residents to come up with solutions to dwindling enrollment to be implemented as early as next year.
The panel will present its recommendation to the school board in November. Community members can weigh in at the meetings, which are open to the public but are intended for families in each high school feeder pattern, the district said in a news release.
They will be held at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Kennedy High School, Friday at Edgewood Fine Arts Academy and Monday at Memorial High School.
Edgewood ISD has more than 20 schools, including 11 “campuses of innovation” that students from across the San Antonio area can apply to. The specialized schools focus on one of five core areas: early childhood; STEAM, or science, technology, engineering, art and math; performing arts; leadership; and public service.
But enrollment across all Edgewood ISD schools — “campus of innovation” or not — has continued to drop over the past decade. During the 2018-19 school year, it had 10,234 students, according to state data. It had 8,177 last school year.
For example, only 23 students attend the Burleson Center for Innovation and Education, a postsecondary special education program for high school graduates.
The Winston Intermediate School of Excellence, Roy Cisneros Leadership School for Boys, Las Palmas Leadership School for Girls, Cardenas Early Childhood Center and Stafford Early Childhood Center each have less than 300 students and are rated a C or below by the state accountability system.
The committee evaluated district programs and campuses based on financial impact, geographical location, physical condition, instructional programming and academic accountability.
The district’s website says that no staff cuts are planned even if schools close, because of a shortage of employees and a turnover rate of between 15 to 20 percent per year.
“We suspect this process of redesigning our programs and resources will in fact support our efforts to fill vacant positions and get us closer to ensuring every child is paired with a permanent teacher,” the website states.
Edgewood ISD has a long history of inadequate funding, poor standardized test scores and school board dysfunction. In 2016, a 3-3 split between school board factions led the Texas Education Agency to replace elected trustees with appointed managers who controlled the district until 2020.