SAISD Deputy Superintendent Shawn Bird, left, speaks about Third Future Schools’ planned curriculum during a public forum hosted by COPS/Metro. Credit: Michael Karlis
San Antonio ISD officials during a Tuesday night meeting struggled to answer basic questions from concerned parents about curricula, sports and transportation options for students at three campuses the district recently handed over to an out-of-state charter operator.
Hosted by the watchdog group COPS/Metro, the forum was arranged so SAISD could address parents’ concerns that the district is privatizing public campuses. However, some attending the gathering said they left with more questions than answers.
Faced with rising costs and declining enrollment, SAISD’s board last month voted to transfer the troubled schools to Colorado-based charter operator Third Future Schools.
Shawn Bird, SAISD’s deputy superintendent of school leadership and partnership services, told parents that Third Future had a strong record of correcting problems at former public campuses. However, he couldn’t answer parents’ basic questions about curriculum changes coming to the SAISD campuses Third Future will now be running.
“I don’t know the specifics of this program, but they do have a track record of turning schools around,” Bird said.
That answer didn’t sit well with public-education activist Melody Herrera, who was in attendance.
“How do you not know when y’all are the ones that recommended them?” Herrera fired back. “That’s very concerning to me as a parent that you don’t know.”
“I don’t work for Third Future, so I don’t know the intricacies of their program design,” Bird responded.
“So what did y’all base your decision on?” Herrera asked.
“Their track record of turning around schools,” Bird said, appearing to backtrack to square one.
Indeed, the three schools that the SAISD school board voted 9-2 late last month to hand off toThird Future were among the district’s worst-performing academically. By relinquishing them, SAISD may stave off a takeover by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) — that is, if Third Future can change the course of those campuses’ academic outcomes over the next three years.
Lone Star State public school districts are allowed to outsource some of their failing campuses under Texas Senate Bill 1882, passed in 2017. However, that comes at a cost.
In the case of Third Future’s takeover of Wichita Falls’ Hirschi Middle School, the school day and academic year were extended. Meanwhile, extracurricular activities, such as athletics and band, were barred from taking place during regular school hours.
Students at Hirschi also were forbidden from speaking to one another between classes and were forced to answer multiplication questions while waiting for lunch. A wrong answer sent students to the back line, as WFAA reported earlier this year.
Extracurricular activities were a sore point for the SAISD parents gathered at the COPS/Metro forum.
“They’re gonna take sports out of there too, aren’t they?” concerned parent Priscilla Torres pressed SAISD officials.
“Well, it depends,” said Patti Salzmann, SAISD’s deputy superintendent of operations, human capital management and strategy. “They’re going to have extracurriculars and sports.”
“How can you say that if y’all don’t even have the curriculum?” Torres continued.
If Third Future doesn’t allow sports, students would likely have to participate in those programs after school at different campuses. But in a low-income area where parents may work off-hours jobs, parents wondered whether SAISD would provide transportation.
SAISD personnel said they weren’t prepared to answer that question.
Father Mike DeGerolami, who co- chairs COPS/Metro’s public education action team, said Tuesday’s forum was a “good start.” More are planned in the coming weeks.
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