SAN ANTONIO – The South San Antonio Independent School District has scheduled a series of community meetings to address how to more efficiently run the district.
The district's superintendent confirmed a recommendation will likely be made to shutter some schools as part of a plan to be formally announced later this spring.
"I honestly can't think of a better solution other that that," Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra said Monday. "We basically have too big of a footprint for the enrollment that we have."
Saavedra said the district will present identical information on enrollment trends and under-enrollment at some schools during a meeting Monday night at Dwight Middle School, Feb. 27 at Kazen Middle School and Feb. 28 at Shepard Middle School.
A second series of meetings is scheduled at the schools in late March before a recommendation is made on how to best move forward during a meeting at district headquarters in April.
Saavedra said South San Antonio is currently using only 60 percent of its classrooms for actual instruction.
He said if the district does nothing to address its efficiency, only half of its classrooms will still be in use within five years.
"It's a very inefficient way to run a school system," Saavedra said.
He said the meetings will help inform the community of the district's current quandary while giving district stakeholders a chance to give input on how best to move forward.
"You got to have the whole community, otherwise it ain't gonna work," said Eusebio Rayos, a graduate of South San Antonio ISD schools who lives just a few feet from Athens Elementary School.
Although Saavedra said it is too early say which schools could be recommended for closure, district sources say Athens Elementary School is a logical choice.
Enrollment at Athens dropped 7 percent last year, according to Texas Education Agency figures. The campus is among the oldest still in use by the district.
Rayos said his recommendation is to renovate some of the district's campuses instead of shuttering them altogether.
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