Academic improvements and campus building challenges were the focus Wednesday of the annual San Antonio Independent School District’s state of the district by Superintendent Pedro Martinez.
Martinez said the district’s most-recent report card from the state was a B rating, which was a huge improvement from the F rating the Texas Education Agency issued SAISD in 2016.
Martinez said with those academic improvements bring other needs.
“I want the classrooms to match the academics,” he said. “I’m seeing the instruction. I’m seeing the results. I’m seeing the aspirations being met. It doesn’t match up to the buildings.”
SAISD moves forward with plans to push bond to help with $2 billion needed for school improvements
Martinez is proposing a plan that would ask voters to approve a 2020 bond in November that will cost roughly $1.25 billion for the $2 billion needed in improvements.
He believes that the bond will not require a tax increase because of the development boom downtown.
“That development, whether its apartment buildings, new housing that is coming up,” Martinez said. “That development is what is going to fund this future bond.”
San Antonio Chamber President and CEO Richard Perez said he is hopeful that the bond can be done without a tax increase.
“I do believe that it can happen,” Perez said. “Generally when an entity says that they are not going to raise taxes, we held their feet to the fire and they don’t raise taxes.”
Students at SAISD receive free devices to help bridge digital divide
Perez said students are the ones who come back and work in our city and believes as a community, we need to give them the tools to succeed.
“When it sounds like a lot, it’s what we need,” Perez said. “Half of the schools have not been touched in 20 years, so they are old, they are decrepit. In order for our kids to succeed we need to invest in them.”