San Antonio ISD holds community meeting to discuss how 15 closed schools can be repurposed

SAN ANTONIO — You have a chance to give feedback to San Antonio ISD on how it can repurpose its recently closed campuses across the city.

The district decided it would close 15 of its schools last year due to declining enrollment.

A group showed up Monday evening at Douglass elementary school to give feedback on the districts “rightsizing plan.”

The biggest question was who is going to use the vacant buildings and how they will be used.

Douglass Elementary is one of 11 schools that have closed so far to combat declining enrollment.

SAISD said that campus along with 4 other schools and 5 properties will be repurposed.

“We’re trying to make the best decisions for the entire community and they’re not easy. There’s not something that’s going to happen overnight, so we will continue to update,” said Alicia Sebastian, Vice President of the SAISD Board of Trustees.

A talking point in Monday’s meeting was how the district can open the buildings to non-profits in the area.

Some like Patricio Calvo with the non-profit TRL Productions said they’re eager to pursue this option.

“If to say we do have a proposal ready now, should we be presenting it to someone here on the panel, or are we still just in that waiting mode,” said Calvo.

SAISD hasn’t made an official decision at the moment, but says it would still own the buildings so they’re still benefitting children.

“A lot of the proposals and ideas that we’re hearing are from collective organizations. They’re not submitting one offs because there’s a lot of responsibility with access and properties because of the maintenance and the upkeep,” said Sebeastian.

The district’s goal is to break even on the cost of maintaining buildings and keep prices low for potential users.

SAISD said its working to hire a consultant to manage the properties and will soon accept requests from interested organizations.

For more information on this plan and future meetings, click here.