‘A lot at stake:’ To compete, San Antonio neighborhood schools focus on careers, culture and college

From the start of their school day these pre-K through fifth-grade students learn and interact in both English and Spanish, part of a deliberate effort to reengage with the school’s neighborhood and reflect what it sounds like. Cultural enrichment was built into the community school model that De Leon and her staff helped create.

When asked how they are competing with private or charter schools, traditional public school districts point to this kind of innovation — and other kinds, too.

The competition has been happening for years. Legislation that would steer public funding to private schools in Texas might amplify it, but families already know they can choose schools and move their kids around, education leaders say.

School districts have been adapting, offering more choices of programs and campus culture and inviting students from outside their boundaries.

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Starting with the 2023-2024 school year, Graebner Elementary - a nearly century-old campus in the San Antonio Independent School District - will become Graebner Community School, an in-district charter school under a partnership with the University of Texas at San Antonio.

“We want to do right, we want to make sure that we are going to create the school that is going to serve this community for the next 100 years well,” De Leon said. “And during that process I thought, ‘How unfortunate that we would renovate an entire building but not change how we build.’”

SAISD was an early adopter of such partnerships under Senate Bill 1882, which allows school districts to get extra state funding if they share or yield campus operations to an outside organization with the goal of improving achievement.

That has bulked up a long list of SAISD “choice schools,” whose 39 in-district charter schools overlap with 10 partnerships with outside entities like the Centers for Applied Science and Technology (CAST), the Alamo Colleges District and UTSA.

Other school districts have chosen similar partnerships or have expanded magnet programs tailored to current and future workforce needs.

“It’s not that all schools need to be that way,” said John Norman, the chief strategy officer with the SAISD Office of Innovation. “We have neighborhood schools that are just as strong and just as attractive options as our charter schools.

“And it’s not that one is better than the other. But with a large school district, with the challenges that we have, we’re willing to explore innovative options that we think would add value to our families.”

New choices

Something similar is brewing at SAISD’s Harry H. Rogers Middle School on the Southeast Side, which is preparing to launch a college preparatory model next school year.

Starting next fall, incoming sixth graders will be met with a more rigorous curriculum that seeks to better prepare them for high school and, eventually, college. Just over 6 percent of adults in the area have a college degree, which makes college exposure and preparedness one of the school’s greatest challenges, Principal Julie May said.

“We know that with college degrees come better sources of income and a better way to make a living and be successful. And that doesn’t exist in many of the communities surrounding Rogers,” May said. “We are not preparing students … Many kids get into college but then they are dropping out, because they didn’t have the basic skills.”

At a distance, Rogers and Graebner are adopting completely different models, but there are some important similarities. The two principals and their teams set the groundwork by identifying needs and opportunities in their immediate surroundings.

“Part of that is, how do we learn to teach our students better?” De Leon said. “So, we will begin training next year on culturally-relevant pedagogy, which is really about learning who our students are and making sure that they can connect to what they are learning, or what we call ‘Windows and Mirrors.’ They need to see windows of different ways of living… but they also need to see mirrors in the texts that they read.”

On ExpressNews.com: Shortages worsening, San Antonio schools look for ways to repair broken teacher pipeline

De Leon landed at Graebner during the pandemic two years ago, moving from her role in the district’s central office as a leadership consultant in the bilingual department.

She had worked with campus personnel to develop their bilingual programs and knew of the opportunities available through partnerships. She also arrived as the campus was preparing for a makeover as part of a 2020 bond program.

Some asked her if this wouldn’t be too much change, especially amid a global pandemic. De Leon’s urgency was clear.

“My kids can’t wait another year. My kids need the best right now,” she said. “Wait another year, and my kids miss kinder. Wait another year and my kids graduate fifth grade and leave.”

With UTSA’s help, De Leon is building a culturally relevant dual language curriculum, getting professional support for teachers and staff, bringing in student-teachers to work and train, and will be able to refine the model using research being conducted in her campus.

Rogers Middle was the first campus to undergo Bond 2020-related upgrades and remains under construction. The colorful and modernized three-story main building houses sixth and seventh graders in one floor, eighth graders on another, and has a full floor for electives, open study space and eventually an open-concept library.

May, the principal, also shares that sense of urgency. She devoted 20 hours per week to research, coming up with a new model and additional funding through state grants.

“Other schools have gone through this process across the nation. Why can’t we?” she asked.

For sixth graders entering this fall, the main difference is that they’ll be the first to study under a new math and reading curriculum, and all of them will be on an honors track, moving away from the traditional system that identifies “gifted and talented” students to be placed on this path.

The school also will offer a more advanced curriculum in STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

“My ultimate goal is for every student to leave 8th grade on grade level in math and reading. That is the number one priority in this campus,” May said. “We know that when students aren’t at grade level on reading and math, they struggle in high school, they are taking remedial courses in high school, they are not challenged enough, they don’t feel successful.”

Pull of career skills

For families, the idea of opening neighborhood schools to outsiders tends to bring out fears of displacement. But principals and administrators say families from the community are given priority to enroll in choice schools. Some districts are fighting declines in enrollment and are unlikely to run out of space.

“Enrollment is tied to funding, which is a critical piece of operating a campus,” May said. “From 2016 to this year, we went from 590 students to 360 and we are losing them to schools outside of the district, like charter schools.”

One of the things May and her team researched is why students leave and where they are going. The short answer was that parents are seeking innovative and career-focused instructional models.

On ExpressNews.com: Most San Antonio-area school systems still in pandemic’s enrollment undertow

Northside ISD has seen the flip side of this at one of its specialty schools. The Agriculture, Science and Technology Academy housed at O'Connor High School has a waiting list. A magnet high school, it offers seven state certifications in areas such as Texas beef quality assurance, welding and nursery operations.

This year along it received about 250 applications for about 135 spaces, Principal Chad Bohlken said.

“We’re a popular campus. That’s a good problem to have,” Bohlken said. “It’s good because, yes, it shows that people know about us and we are making an impact. … But we can’t accept everybody because we just don’t have the space and the teachers.”

The school began as a program within the school, mostly for higher grades. It became its own magnet school two years ago and students now enter as freshman to gain early exposure to different career paths and graduate with certificates — and possible grants and awards if they sell their animals.

Northside ISD, the area’s largest district with about 103,000 students, has not formed SB 1882 partnerships but has magnet schools and choice programs, some managed with the help of a partner such as CAST.

“The idea of having choice within a school district is not new,” said Deborah Ruel-Schaefer, director of Northside’s Career and Technical Education Department. “It’s something that Northside has always known that is important to families.”

Health Careers High School, for example, opened in 1984 and has always accepted students from outside the district, she said.

What’s newer to the district is the increased number of magnet programs — 11 so far, at the middle and high school level. All are in career and technical fields, developed with workforce needs in mind.

While some have been consistently in demand, some have shrunk over the years, including the district’s cosmetology program. But the overall goal is to align these programs to both the needs of students and changes in the labor market.

“We are very committed that every child in Northside, when they leave us, they’ll have something besides a high school diploma,” Ruel-Schaefer said.

No silver bullet

At SAISD, the programs and partnerships are evaluated every three to five years, depending on their agreement terms, to ensure that they’ve reached their academic, organizational and financial goals.

This year, partnership contracts were reviewed and renewed for 18 schools. But the district also revoked the in-district charter status for six other schools last fall.

Two of them - Carroll and Tynan early childhood education centers - ended their partnership with High Scope, an educational research nonprofit. Effective next school year, they will return to in-district management, with less state funding.

The others, Barkley-Ruiz Elementary, Davis Middle, Hawthorne Academy and Martin Luther King Academy, lost their in-district charter status.

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“These schools don’t stand alone,” Norman said. “What we now have to assess is, what’s working and what do we want to continue? Where are the root causes of the challenges they had? And how can we provide additional support?”

He said partnerships or specialty schools should expand what is already being done with the traditional school model, keeping the needs of the community in mind, but it’s not the only way to attract or retain families.

“Nowadays, because all families have choice - whether it be an external charter school or even another school district - (school districts) are all in that environment in which they have to do whatever they can to retain their students,” Norman said. “Nothing is a silver bullet.”

CAST now partners with SAISD and Southwest, East Central and Northside ISDs. To enhance the region’s economic mobility, it wanted a model that complemented public schools, not one that competed with them, said Jeanne Russell, its executive director.

Public school systems belong to the community and teach the majority of the area’s children, Russell said, and they can have a greater impact. CAST’s idea was to create an exemplary innovation model within them that can be expanded to meet demand for more targeted programs.

“I think there is a lot at stake,” Russell said. “In an environment that offers more and more choices, people, families, are going to become choosier and are going to make more informed choices.”

The concept was not hard to sell to public school leaders who are constantly seeking opportunities to innovate, she said, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

“Some of the most exciting work I’ve seen happening, in terms of new school creation and innovation, is happening inside the public school system,” Russell said. “And I think that we have an ecosystem in San Antonio where our school districts are highly collaborative. So, I think there’s also an opportunity for public schools to step up to this moment.”

danya.perez@express-news.net| @DanyaPH