The time is now oh, I guess we're early.

Well, any sense.

The time is now 9 59 a.m.

uh on May 19th, 2026, and we'll call the Education Opportunity Committee meeting to order.

Um, please call the role.

Councilmember Corps.

Councilmember McKee Rodriguez.

Councilmember Mungia.

President.

Councilmember Castillo.

Here.

Chair Galvan.

Here.

Sir, we have a quorum.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Do we have any amendments to changes to the minutes?

If not, can you get motion approved?

Motion to approve.

Okay.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Any abstentions?

Great.

We'll move into public comment.

Before we get into it, I do want to say we have uh two items today on the kind of external factors that are impacting our public education system here locally in San Antonio.

Um, excited to hear both of them today, as it relates to healthcare and school choice.

Uh I do think I want to just be clear on this one.

I know we all do an opinions on this on this committee, and so I think it's uh paramount that we focus primarily on the local impacts we're already seeing here in our community versus the kind of debate about what should be, what shouldn't be, because a lot of this is of course state related.

However, I did think it was important to have this conversation at this committee to think about as you discuss school closure, we discuss uh the impacts to our local ISDs and the role that we want to play in supporting them, that this is a still an important factor to look at and understand how um our local education landscape is and what's driving some of those costs there.

So, any sense, that's what the role is today, at least with item number two.

I know the three, of course, we know health care is extremely impactful to our residents and to our students and how they're able to attend school, how their families are able to also get the full resources they need.

And so that's why I agendized both of these items today.

Excited to have the conversation today and hear the presentations.

So, first and foremost, uh every person will have three minutes to speak.

Um we'll start off with Angie, and excuse me if I mispronounced the last name, uh, Addis Mendi.

Good morning, council members and members of the San Antonio community.

My name is Angie Addis Mende, Senior Executive Director with Idea Public Schools San Antonio.

For more than a decade, Idea has served the families of San Antonio.

Since opening our doors in 2012, we have grown to serve more than 17,000 scholars across our 30 campuses.

We're honored to employ over 2,000 staff members with hundreds living in the San Antonio area.

Every educator in this city, whether at a charter school or an independent school district, wakes up each day with the very same mission to create opportunity for children through education.

We may operate through different models, but our purpose is shared.

While I don't have enough time today to share all of our incredible results, I want to highlight a few.

In District 2, Idea Carver and Idea Najum College Prep both outperform district averages in math and reading.

We provide special education program services to 36% of our scholars, with 26% of them being English language learners.

82% of our scholars are considered economically disadvantaged, reflecting our commitment to serving families from every corner of this city.

Charter schools are not a replacement for ISDs, nor should they be portrayed in that way.

As this council continues conversations around education in our city, I encourage you to engage directly with charter leaders, visit our campuses, and speak with our families so that you can see firsthand the impact that's being made in the classrooms across San Antonio.

Thanks so much for your time and commitment to the students of San Antonio.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Kizzy Thomas.

Good morning, members of the committee, community leaders, educators, and families.

My name is Kizzy Thomas.

I'm a proud resident of District 2.

I have served students and families, both traditional public schools and public charter schools across District 2 and District 6.

My perspective today is not rooted in politics or ideologies, but in classrooms, children's and children and families.

I came into education because I believe education is one of the greatest equalizers we have, especially for students in historically underserved communities.

For many families, school represents opportunity, stability, and hope.

As we discuss the future of education in San Antonio, I believe it's an important question to ask.

How are we divided defining public education?

Across our city and state, we already see charter organizations and traditional ISDs working alongside one another to serve students.

That reality shows that these systems do not have to exist in opposition.

The conversation should not be about protecting systems.

It should be about serving children.

We should support and hold accountable every school that is creating opportunity and delivering results for students, regardless of the model.

I hope today we leave with a broader view of public education in San Antonio, one that includes every child, every family, and every school working to expand opportunity in our great city of San Antonio.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Megan Garson.

Good morning, Council members.

My name is Megan Garrison.

I'm the district director of communications and marketing for Harmony Public Schools.

Harmony Public Schools is a tuition-free public school system open to all students and families.

Across our South Texas campuses, we proudly serve a diverse student population, including approximately 80% economically disadvantaged students, 45% emergent bilingual students, 13% special education students, and 6% Section 504 students.

Every day our educators work to provide strong academic opportunities, STEM focused learning, college readiness programs, career preparation, and supportive school environments for families throughout San Antonio and South Texas.

Harmony is deeply STEM-oriented, and we are committed to creating opportunities for all student groups, including empowering young women through girls in STEM initiatives, robotics, engineering, coding, and advanced academic programs.

Many of our students are first-generation college-bound students, and our schools focus heavily on helping students become college career and leadership ready for the future.

In fact, 100% of our graduating seniors are considered college ready, and last year, 91% enrolled in a two or four-year college after graduation.

We are proud to be a part of the broader public education community serving our city's children.

Families choose harmony for many different reasons, whether it's STEM programs, college preparation, smaller school environments, or simply finding a setting where their child feels supported and successful.

This conversation does not have to be about one public school system versus another.

San Antonio families are diverse and students have diverse educational needs.

We believe strong communities are built when families have access to multiple high quality public education opportunities that help students grow, succeed, and prepare for their futures.

Thank you for your time, your service, and your continued support of students and families across San Antonio.

We hope you will continue to engage Harmony Public Schools in future discussions and decisions about how this committee can support education in our community, and we are here to partner.

Thank you.

Next to you have Melissa Franklin.

Hi, good morning, and thank you for allowing me to speak today.

My name is Melissa Franklin, and I'm speaking today as a mother, a former educator, and someone who has worked in both traditional public schools and charter schools across Texas.

I'm now a policy advisor for the Columbia Laws Center's Public Research and Leadership Department.

My role is actually to bring solutions to where we can scale across education systems nationwide rather than just locally.

What concerns me most today about today's conversation is that we're continuing to turn education into an us versus them debate instead of asking why families are making difficult education decisions to leave those schools in the first place.

Families aren't leaving randomly.

I definitely know this because it's not marketing.

It affected my family personally.

I wanted my children to have that traditional public school experience.

The football games, school events, and community experiences that a lot of families hope for.

But like a lot of parents in this city, I eventually had to make a decision based on what I believed was best for my students' future and academic possibilities.

That's not betrayal.

That's good parenting, and I shouldn't be shamed for it.

And it becomes disheartening when parents and educators try to have honest conversations with local leadership about what's happening inside these schools, only to have these conversations become politically uncomfortable or ignored altogether.

We cannot say that we care about students while refusing to ask the hard questions about these schools and their outcomes.

And respectfully, if this committee is going to continue spend time discussing school choice and charter schools, then we should ask why are the families leaving certain educational environments in the first place?

That's your responsibility.

Because the reality is that some of these local charter campuses are outperforming nearby districts substantially.

Not all, but some.

And instead of fear mongering families into believing that charter schools are destroying public education, maybe we need to ask what are some schools doing right?

What are some schools doing wrong?

How do we replicate this for more student success across the city instead of fear mongering and doing politics?

I saw a recent Southside campus being recognized for doing incredible work with students.

But instead of focusing on the teachers and campus leaders, a local news media outlet focused much on praising the local district leadership instead.

And unfortunately, this reflects a larger issue many many families and educators are experiencing across the board.

The people closest to the students are often overlooked while the systems avoiding difficult conversations for accountability and performance continue to happen.

This issue is bigger than charter schools versus traditional schools.

Enrollment is declining nationwide.

Birth rights are declining.

Families are changing, and education systems everywhere are being forced to adapt.

So instead of creating division, this committee should be focusing on collaboration, accountability, and true solutions.

Because students need don't need adults protecting the systems already in place.

They need adults brave enough to tell the truth on what's working, what's not, and what finally needs to change.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

Good morning, and thank you for allowing youth voices to be part of this conversation.

My name is Alyssa Freeney, and I wanted to speak from the perspective of a student, and I feel it is my responsibility as someone who has experienced every major educational path from public schools, charter schools, homeschooling, virtual, everything under the sun except private schools.

I began my journey in education through traditional public schools.

And although I was placed in a pre-K program due to economic circumstances, I was already reading at a first and second grade level in a setting where most of my peers were Spanish speakers, and it made me feel out of place, not due to the language, but because there was a system that didn't recognize my readiness for more advanced learning.

As a child, experiences like that stay with you.

I eventually transitioned to the charter schools where I spent most of my educational journey.

Those schools provided leadership opportunities, academic support, mentorship, and environments that helped me grow personally and academically.

When I later moved into San Antonio, I noticed something different.

I saw that in some educational environments, expectations have shifted, and I personally felt that complacency among adults was beginning to impact students more than people wanted to admit.

That was difficult for me because I still have a tremendous amount of respect for many educators, leaders, and adults working in these systems today.

I want to state it clearly that I have a lot of respect for our mayor, our city council members, and the people advocating for education in the city.

I truly believe many people involved have good intentions and genuinely care about students.

But I also believe that there are many people making educational decisions who may not fully understand what students are currently experiencing today.

Eventually, I made the difficult decision that homeschooling would better support my goals and future.

I completed high school through Texas Tech Homeschool Program, and I now attend UTSA as I move into my sophomore year.

I completed high school, and in sharing the story, it was a lot different because I see the students directly living through these systems were not as fortunate as I was.

Students are the ones affected when adults create an us versus them conversation instead of focusing on solutions.

We should not be spending valuable time creating divisions between school systems.

We should be asking how do we improve opportunities for students?

How do we support students academically and emotionally?

And how do we prepare students for college careers and real life?

I hope city leaders remain open to hearing students and families before making decisions that impact the futures of the very people these systems are supposed to serve.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Next we have Lori Alvedez.

Sorry, I'm a little shorter.

Good morning.

My name is Lori Alvarez.

I'm a district two resident and member of the SAISD Special Education Parent Advisory Council.

I'm also a mom to three girls, a third grader and first grader who attend Idea Carver and a kindergartner at Fenwick Academy.

Each of my girls have different learning styles and different needs.

I grew up in this city's public schools, attending Bowden Elementary, Edgar Allen Poe Middle School, and graduating from the Fox Tech Law and Research Magnet program.

I want to be clear, I'm not here because I've given up on our schools.

I'm here because I believe in enough in an education to fight for the right fit for my children.

I started advocating when my oldest daughter was five years old and struggling with mental health concerns that were not being properly addressed.

I continue to advocate now for my five-year-old daughter with autism just to receive basic inclusion alongside her peers in her elementary.

When my oldest was struggling, I felt and heard and needed help immediately, not initially.

That is when I found Idea Carver, and it changed the trajectory of my daughter's life.

Her excitement and light have returned back in her eyes for school.

And that school became a support system for our family.

Children are not one size fits all, and district two families are facing hard realities.

Math proficiency in District 2 is just 26%, meaning nearly three out of every four children are not meeting that grade level.

Meanwhile, Idea Carver College prep serves economically disadvantaged students in the same community while achieving 65% reading proficiency.

This is not a threat to community, it's a lifeline for families like mine on the east side.

And the truth is many charter schools are also within our ISD schools, too.

Some families like mine had to sit on a wait list for over two years, just hoping for a chance, while other children haven't had the access or the opportunity.

That should challenge us to collaborate more, share what works, and expand successful models, not divide families into sides.

Restricting charter access does not protect my children.

It protects systems while families are out here carrying the burden of finding solutions on their own.

Parents are not the problem.

We are doing exactly what we're supposed to do.

We're fighting for our children, making sure they have a better education than we do.

Today I ask, please stop making it harder for families like mine to access educational environments where our children thrive.

Leave today with a broader view of public education in San Antonio, one that includes every child, every family, every public school working to expand their opportunity.

Because this should never be about the systems first, it should always be about the kids first.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next we have Shannon Tullier.

Or sorry, Tolliver.

Good morning.

My name is Shannon Tolliver Blackman, and I am a proud public school leader at KIP San Antonio.

We proudly serve families right here in District 1 and District 5.

And like all public charter schools in Texas, KIP is tuition-free, open enrollment, and completely public.

We are proud of our deep roots in these neighborhoods and value your partnerships.

We do want to shout out our partnership and collaboration with Councilman Terry Castillo and Councilman Coor who have visited our campuses, seen our work firsthand, and engaged with our families.

We are deeply grateful for their leadership, and we invite each one of you guys to share in that spirit of collaboration.

There's a narrative here designed to pit schools against each other, but the challenges we face are not charter versus ISD, they're San Antonio's reality.

National and state trends project sharp decline in K 12 enrollment, and I want to be entirely transparent.

Traditional ISDs are not the only one feeling that pressure.

At KIP San Antonio, we've had to make the difficult decision to close two of our campuses at the end of this school year.

My own campus, Kippamundo Primary on the west side of San Antonio will be one of those closing our doors.

Again, it's not a private party district.

It's a San Antonio reality.

Despite those inequities, our campuses are proving what it's possible when we put student outcomes first.

I am a proud leader at Kipamundo Primary, and I'm just gonna shout us out.

We serve a student population that's 97% economically disadvantaged, 14% special ed, and 39% English language learner.

And in the four years that I've been there, we've taken that campus from a rating below the state level to above from an F to a B.

Through my leadership and strategic changes over the last year, we've seen significant gains in our reading and math scores despite national and statewide trends.

There are 44,729 public charter school students in San Antonio.

65% of them attend an A or a B rated school.

While ISD superintendents and statewide agrees groups have spent months in briefing this committee and public charts schoolers, there have not been enough of us at the table to speak for what we do, and we invite you guys to include us in that conversation.

We ask this committee to broaden its view of public education, do not pass resolutions, structure city programs, or leave out the nearly 45,000 of our city children.

Judges by student outcomes, not by school types.

Please come visit our campuses, include us in city initiatives, and recognize that our families count too.

Thank you.

Good morning, council members.

My name is Erlinda Aguilar and I live in District 1.

I am a Spanish AP bilingua educator at ID at Public Schools in District 6.

And I'm also a parent of children who also attend IBI Public Schools at also in District 6.

I want to begin by sharing what my school community means to me.

As an educator, I have seen firsthand the impact of learning environment where students are held to high expectations and supported with structure, consistency, and care.

As a parent, I also have experienced how meaningful it is to see my own children in school where they are challenged academically and supported emotionally.

That combination has made a real difference in both my professional and personal life.

District 6 has one of the highest charter schools environment rates in the city, serving over 8,000 students, about 26% of all public school students in district in the district IBR campuses and other charter schools have consistently strong academic outcomes, including serving as a high percentage of economically disadvantaged students while still outperforming city averages.

Families are making intentional choices based on what works best for their children.

I want to be clear that I'm not here to criticize traditional public schools.

I'm here to advocate for families having access to multiple high-quality options.

Parents know their children's best, and they deserve the right to choose an environment where the children can drive.

I also hope this committee will engage directly with charter families and educators.

We are part of this community too.

The responsibility responsibility of this council should be to offlift all students across all systems, not to limit options that families relied on.

Please do not allow today's discussion to become a step toward reducing educational opportunities for children in our district.

Our students cannot afford to wait and deserve high quality education.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning, council members.

My name is Lauren Lewis, and I am the superintendent of Prelude Prep Charter School.

Prelude Prep is located in District 5, and like all charter schools, our school is free, public, and open to all students.

Today you will hear that charter schools are harming public education, but I believe the real conversation should be about how we ensure every family has access to a strong public school for their child.

District 5 currently has the lowest star performance in the city, with only 30% of students reading on grade level and only 20% of students meeting grade level standards in math.

At Prelude Prep, where 92% of our students are economically disadvantaged, and nearly 30% receive special education services, 51% of our students are reading on grade level, and 42% are meeting grade level standards in math.

We are proud of our progress and we continue to work every day to improve outcomes for our students and for our families.

Families in District 5 deserve an acts access to a variety of strong public school options that are helping students succeed.

But I also want to share something personal.

My passion for education was shaped by my lack of access I experienced as a student growing up in San Antonio.

When I was preparing to enter high school, I needed a stronger educational opportunity, and the only way for our family to access that was for my parents to give custodial guardianship of me to my grandparents so I could live with them on the other side of town.

I'll never forget the morning that the school district showed up at 6 a.m.

to make sure I was actually living there, just because I was trying to attend a better public school within the same district.

I'm incredibly grateful to my family who made that sacrifice, but no family should have to give up time with their child just to access a strong public education.

Today families in San Antonio have more public school options than they did when I was growing up, and we need to continue that families have access to strong public schools.

I am not here to attack traditional public schools.

We all have our work cut out for us, and we are all trying to do our best to serve students.

As a public charter school superintendent, I ask that you please engage with us.

In the past, superintendents have been invited to participate, but neither I nor my colleagues have been contacted to participate.

Come visit our campus, include us in city initiatives, and recognize that we are your constituents too.

We ask that you represent all public school families and students in our community.

Please don't leave today's conversation with a narrow view of public education in San Antonio.

Leave with a broad one, one that includes every child, every family, and every public school working to expand opportunity in the city.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next yeah, Diana Lambert.

Good morning.

Uh, my name is Zayana Lambridge, and I'm the executive director of Futuro San Antonio.

I'm a mom, I'm an immigrant, a daughter of two generations of public school teachers, and a former SASC educator.

I do not come here today to tear down SASCs.

I grew up in them.

I want all public schools to thrive, and that's exactly why I have to be honest today.

I was surprised to see this committee choose to learn about charter schools from an organization whose mission is to oppose them, without inviting a single charter family, educator, or superintendent to this table.

Futuro San Antonio's polling shows 64% of San Antonians want a full ecosystem of public school options in our city.

Listen to families, not to French groups with a predetermined agenda.

About a hundred thousand students in our city attend an ARB-rated school.

Nearly a third of those seats are charter school seats.

When a family in District five, for example, where only 20% of kids' meet grade levels standards in math, chooses a charter giving 48% math reading proficiency, math proficiency per pupil dollar follows the child.

That is a parent responding to a need of their student.

That is accountability.

There's over 63,000 students in DNA schools in our city in one of the poorest cities in America.

That is the crisis.

Not bidding systems against one another.

These families deserve dignity, not shame.

Schools earn families through results, through relationships.

When they show up, families stay.

When they don't, families leave.

One, whole a balanced briefing that includes charter families and operators serving on San Antonio students.

And one, publish an annual metric of the percentage of students that are meeting gray level across all school types.

We should be demanding excellence across, no matter what.

These families are not asking you to pick a winner.

They are asking you to treat them with dignity and protect their right to choose what words for their child.

Thank you.

Thank you.

My last speaker is Ray Diorina.

Good morning, uh members of the education committee.

Uh, thank you for everything that you do for our city.

Um, my name is Freight Therina.

I was born and raised on the South Side of San Antonio, a South San alum, and currently serve as the board president of South Sand ISD.

I'm here today not just to represent the district, but to speak to something bigger happening across the city.

San Antonio has quietly built one of the most dynamic educational ecosystems in the state.

We have traditional ISDs doing phenomenal work.

Uh we do have public charter schools doing amazing things, private schools, micro schools coming in, learning pods in neighborhoods across the entire city.

Uh, there's remarkable things happening for kids.

But the big problem that we have is a city as nobody communicates, nobody shares information, nobody talks to each other.

Um, Northside ISC is doing amazing things.

Alamo Heights is doing amazing things.

South San is on the up and up.

Idea public schools, like all these different like entities around cross town are doing great things.

We're just not talking to each other and sharing resources, which would be invaluable to our city.

Um the urgency is real.

Education is changing fast, technology and AI are reshaping what school looks like, what teachers do, what students need.

The institutions that figure out figure this out together will start children will serve children far better than those trying to figure it out alone.

Uh, this isn't about institutions, it's about kids.

Um, San Antonio students deserve a city that matches their potential.

I'm asking the city to make to committee to champion a cross-sector table where educators from every corner of the ecosystem can learn from one another, align resources and rise together.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

And thank you to everybody who signed up to speak uh today for this item.

Oh, we have more.

That's okay.

Go ahead.

And guys.

Yeah.

Go ahead, you can start.

Yeah.

You have three minutes.

Okay.

Good morning, council.

Whoops.

Can you start my three minutes in one second?

Apologies.

Okay.

Good morning, council.

My name is Gabby Patton, and I am a resident of district four.

I'm a Democrat.

I am a progressed alumna.

I am your constituent.

I'm your colleague, and I am also a 14-year veteran educator who has spent every single day of my career serving in South and East Side communities in Title I schools exclusively across San Antonio.

And even today, as I stand before you, I am the principal of a Southside campus in District 5, but I am not there today.

I'm here.

And I'm here because I need y'all to understand what it is like for educators like me inside the building, living out decisions that are made in rooms like this without voices like ours.

Last June, we were blindsided by federal funding cuts that strip three critical programs from our campus overnight with no warning.

Since August, I have watched ICE terrorize this community, forcing me to spend my own time and my own resources learning how to counsel families through legal crises that I have no training to navigate.

Escorting families to immigration court, and so much more just to try to keep them enrolled in my school.

But council, I am a principal, and I cannot convince a family that their school is safe when their city has not made them feel safe in their home.

In September, every single book in my entire building was ordered to be scanned, cataloged, and reported under the library transparency legislation, costing me time with my staff and my family's weeks.

In January, OCR complaints, Office of the Civil Rights complaints that have been closed for years by TEA, were unceremoniously reopened unilaterally by the Federal Department of Education in coordination with Mike Morath, triggering months of investigation and documentation that have pulled me off campus repeatedly and away from my students.

And before all of this, I had to absorb mandate after mandate with no funding attached.

Armed security, no budget, teacher raises with no additional dollars, and these compliance cuts that I have had to make to sustain my campus and our accreditation have cost us our children.

I am losing students.

Friday, I had to stand in front of my staff and inform them that due to a 200 student deficit, we would be cutting half of their roles even before the next school year.

And it's not just my campus.

In District 5, we have seen just the South Side in totality.

We have seen Athens Elementary closed, Kindred Elementary closed, Kaysen Middle School, West Campus High School, Rhodes Middle School all closed.

San Antonio ISD has shattered 15 schools.

Edgewood ISD has been under conservatorship.

Essence Prep, a charter school on the east side of San Antonio, closed.

South San ISD under TEA control.

One by one, the institutions serving this region and the southern and eastern regions of San Antonio have fallen.

And it is not because they have stopped fighting.

It is because no one in this room has come to fight alongside of them.

But we did.

My school stepped up.

My open enrollment public charter school, Royal Public Schools, stepped up.

We caught over 200 students from these failing schools.

They have no district, they have no options, and we absorbed the deficit.

We did the turnaround work.

We took the hit on our academics.

And now 200 kids on the south side of San Antonio who never had to leave their community, never had to exit the south side, are reading at grade level or within one year of it.

Council, is this not precisely what we are trying to establish in this committee?

To fix a literacy crisis, an education crisis in our city.

Because if it is, this has this has to change.

The conversation needs to change.

This is a call for partnership.

We're not a scapegoat.

If it wasn't for my campus, 200 more students would not be reading.

But they are now.

I appreciate the comments.

I know we're at three minutes.

Thank you.

Thank you for speaking today.

Do we have next books?

Good morning.

My name is Inga Cotton, and I'm the founder and executive director of School Discovery Network, and we're an information source for families who are researching the best school options for their kids.

And I'm also a proud charter school parent.

My daughter attends the School of Science and Technology.

And I want to circle back to something that Councilman Galvan said, which is that we need to look at the current situation and how the growth of choice schools is impacting independent school districts.

But I think it's important to be truly current in what we're looking at and not look back to years in the past when there was more of a perception of a maybe a zero-sum game that if like one type of school model was growing, that meant that another type of school model was failing or struggling.

And the reality now is that, like as we interact with families at our events and in our Facebook group and at our meetings, that families are moving back and forth between different types of schools, and that uh what we're seeing is the independent school districts are innovating and they're embracing change.

So we have more districts that are now open enrollment, right?

Like None of Northside and Northeast have recently become open enrollment.

And uh, we had a discussion in our Facebook group recently.

A family got offers at uh a charter school and also at a choice school within their district, but not their zoned neighborhood school, right?

So families are moving back and forth among these different options, and as other speakers have said, the goal is to get the child into the setting where they're gonna succeed the most.

And parents are the ones who know their students the best.

So we're seeing so SAISD has really been an innovator in this, and they even though they've had about 11,000 students who've exited the district for other options, they've had 6,000 students from outside SEISD choose to enroll in SEISD choice schools, and so that's the current situation that I want you guys to focus on is that we have a broad landscape of choice schools in San Antonio, some of which are actually operated and fostered by independent school districts who are embracing a choice model, and that's that's what we try to inform families about so that they, as the people who know their kids the best and care the most about their children succeeding, uh will be well informed and make those choices.

So thanks everybody.

Thank you.

My name is Itzman Morales.

I'm a junior at Cape University Prep High School, and I live in District 3.

I'll be honest, before I transferred to CAPE for eighth grade, I thought school was a wasted time.

I was more focused on hanging out with friends more than anything else.

What I didn't know was that I've been struggling with undiagnosed ADHD my whole life.

It was my eighth grade science teacher at Cape Poled Mesicarsa who first saw what was really going on.

She didn't write me off.

She recognized that I wasn't a bad student.

I just needed the right support.

She's the one who started the conversation with me and my family about getting tested, and after I got my diagnosis, she helped us begin the 504 process.

When I got when I transitioned to CAP University Prep for High School, Miss Minis, a special education teacher who recently made the news as a nationally board certified teacher, picked up right where the process left off.

She got my 504 fully in place and worked directly with my teachers to make sure my accommodations were actually happening in the classroom.

Breaking assignments into smaller steps, extra time on test, breaks when I needed them.

For the first time, I could actually show what I knew.

CIP didn't just help me survive school, it gave me a future.

Now I'm taking AP English, APUS history, AP PCOC, earning college credit while I'm still in high school.

Through KIPP forward, I'm building my resume, researching colleges, and applying for scholarships.

This was unimaginable to me four years ago.

Public charter schools like KIP are not taking something away from our community, they're giving students like me something we didn't have, a school that sees us, supports us, and believes we can go to college.

Every student deserves that chance, and every family should be able to choose a school that works for their child, especially when the one they're in isn't working.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Move into item number two: the impact of charter school expansion in San Antonio by our school's auto democracy presentation.

It's pretty cool.

Good morning.

My name is Carrie Griffith.

I'm the co-founder and executive director of our schools, our democracy.

I was a classroom, I've been in education for 25 years.

I was a classroom teacher in Austin ISD for about 10 years.

I've been serving as this, I have prior to this role, I was serving as the senior policy analyst for the Texas State Teachers Association, which is the state affiliate of the National Education Association.

And have always been passionate about public schools.

Patty Everett is with me today.

She's co-founder.

She's an education consultant and policy specialist, specifically in the um in the world of charter schools, and then Maggie Stern is our director of community engagement, and we'll be here together.

It's important not just for the for the obvious health of our workforce that our public schools create, but as we are seeing and feeling communities real in pain across our state and in San Antonio from school closures, it's really critical that we begin to be honest with the facts of why this is happening.

And you know, just fundamentally you can't saturate a system with any thing and expect any there to be survivors at the end.

So I really appreciate just your leadership in taking this first step.

OSOD was established in 2024 as an independent, nonpartisan 501c3 nonprofit to protect equal access to opportunity for all Texans through the fundamental right to a free public education.

We're committed to raising awareness about the impact of privatization, which includes private school vouchers, which, as you know, are recently law in our state.

It includes the state takeover of public school districts, and what we're here to talk about today, it includes the unlimited expansion of charter schools.

In February, we launched the Texas Center for Voucher Transparency, which is the nation's only public watchdog for vouchers.

And then also something really central to the mission of our work is to uplift the success stories of our independent school districts.

ISDs aren't um, you know, they don't have massive marketing budgets and they don't have the time or the fiscal capacity to market and and brag about themselves, and so that's something that we're committed to helping with.

Given the importance of K-12 education to San Antonio and its overall economic health and future workforce, it's critical to base your support of public schools on a factual perspective of the challenges, opportunities, performance, and successes of the education landscape.

OSOD has a tool, it's the school locator map, which is the only map that shows the saturation of all of our school systems.

So the stars are the ISDs, the circles are the charters, and then the diamonds are the voucher accepting private schools, and the the cover of the presentation is the layer of all three of these systems.

But when we heard a lot about pitting systems against each other, and I just respectfully want to say that we are not, we are not folks, parents, community members, here to pit against another.

It's the state of Texas, it's our legislature that by design created three parallel systems of schools that do not have the same rules.

Independent school districts are public school districts because of the three systems, they are the only system that follows the entire Texas education code.

Charter schools only follow elements of the Texas Education Code that they opt into or that our legislators opt them into.

When every single law of the thousands and thousands of pages of the Texas Education Code pass, unless it explicitly includes charter schools, they are not included.

Of the three parallel systems in the state of Texas, two can selectively admit and artificially cap enrollment.

Independent school districts cannot.

And there are many other examples of why the state has put these systems together.

You know, one is publicly governed and all three are publicly funded now, but only one is publicly governed.

So one can requires voter approval to build facilities and pass bonds, the others do not.

So I just think that that's an example of the facts that we need to lead lead the conversation with.

Is Maggie doing the reader?

No, I was.

I think you're just well, thank you guys.

It's good to be for city council, and this is your anomaly, so thank you for both the interest in the I'm sorry, maybe needs to go down a bit.

Carrie's two jobs.

So down.

It's fine.

I got it.

You can hear me now, thank you.

Anyway, I think this is the first council I live in Austin, but I work statewide.

Um, I've been doing work on in public education policy since 2012, and I do a little bit of history here only because I want you to know that I my experience was with an ISD learning a little bit about charter schools, and I visited many, some of the ones who are here today.

And that was before we really knew no one knew anything about charter schools, and one of the reasons I got involved and have started doing this policy work is I wanted to know why a charter school in Austin was allowed to open about half a mile from a public school that was not low performing in Austin.

This is back in 2012.

No one knew the answer.

I mean, no one.

President of the school board, no one knew the answer.

I called TEA, couldn't find anyone, and I started to find out just how things work.

So that's important to the presentation because really our real themes today are that the public really needs to be well informed, and I think everybody would agree with that.

But I can tell you from personal experience, it's very hard sometimes to get the facts.

And so I think it's important also for elected officials to be really well informed as you're making decisions.

So that's why I think what you're doing today is very important.

There's lots of information to be had, but having factual, neutral, etc., and also what I call below-the-fold information.

If you want examples, we can give them to you, but I can tell you charter schools that are some of the highest performing in the whole country in San Antonio in a high school.

When you look what I call below the fold, which is you look for what's their percentage of special ed, do they provide transportation, and you see a totally different story.

And ironically, there are some charter schools, and you heard one today, that when they serve all students, and I can give you an example in Austin, they often are lower performing because those are more challenging students, and that's the irony of the system that we live in.

So I can show you a charter school that does really well.

They serve basically zero special education students, etc.

I can show you a charter school that suddenly had 35% immigrant children and went from a C to an F.

So it's all kind of who you serve, and that's those are the facts that you really need to know as you're looking at decisions.

But let me just go through some really basic information.

Um it's important to know, first of all, just kind of how many um how many students and what the growth has been.

It's almost a 300% growth of charter school students.

And one of the things I want to stress is that most of the, well, we'll talk about that in a second.

Also, you can begin to see the number as someone else mentioned.

You see campuses closing in San Antonio, uh, public school campuses, public ISD campuses, but you also see the growth of charter campuses.

So when you look at those numbers, you kind of have to wonder how those things impact each other.

We don't have time to go into that in great detail today, but you can see it when you really look at the data, and when you look at the maps you just saw, you can begin to understand uh how saturation happens.

Also, wanted you to basically see what the revenue loss is, another important factor.

When we started calculating this, working with some of the best school finance experts in the state to just really understand what the impact of charter schools was on our public school districts that are already, as you know, underfunded, as are charter schools by the state.

You may remember we needed about $1,300, an increase of $1,300 in the per student allotment just to get back to our 2019 levels to meet just to meet the rise in inflation costs, and we got about $55 per student increase from the legislature.

So you're seeing that impact not just in ISDs but also in charter schools.

But you look at the revenue loss here, and you can begin to see that's $500 million in one year is revenue transferring from a district school to a charter school.

And why that matters is that often districts eventually have to deal with that loss of revenue.

And in a business term, a business, we call it stranded costs, but you're basically districts can't cut cost dollar for dollar to the loss of revenue.

Why is that?

Because their fixed costs stay largely the same.

The way charter schools operate is they may take a small group of kids from a lot of different campuses.

So a district can't just cut a first grade class or second grade class, they've got class size limits, which charter schools don't have.

So they have to begin to look, and they still have to keep that school open because they got to show up.

If kids show up, they have to serve them.

Not true at charter schools.

So a lot of their fixed costs maintenance, utilities, bus transportation, all insurance, all stay the same.

So you end up then with often with campus closures, the loss of really valued programs that parents love, and you begin this kind of downward spiral.

So what I'm I'm not gonna go go through all of this really, but um we also look at if there's a we have a report that was issued in about a year ago.

We have a couple of copies here, but it gives you just kind of an overview.

You begin to understand that charter schools, again, as Carrie mentioned, are not required to have certified teachers, and so you see this really big gap in terms of TEA saying certified teachers are the most important thing in the classroom in terms of student performance, and yet we see this real gap with charter schools.

We also know that we have some variances in terms of, for example, special ed just for example, special education students.

I mentioned an example earlier, but across the state, charter schools serve about about a third fewer special education students, and why is that important?

On a lot of different levels, there's some exclusion going on, but also public school districts have a uh it's we think it's it's at least a $2 billion gap between the money they receive from the state for special ed versus the actual dollars they spend.

And so that money that districts spend are coming out of their general revenue.

So when you have more special ed students, more of your money is going there.

And again, that contributes to loss of other programs, et cetera.

Um I'm skipping over a few things.

The last couple of things I wanted to talk about before we just mention some suggestions to you is that um, and this is extremely important to understand.

So there is a cap, and this has to do with the unlimited expansion of charters and how they get approved.

And that really is the focus of just some suggestions we have that you might want to look at.

So there is a cap on the number of charter operators, and that's statutory, so 305.

But last year there were 100, or actually this year, there were 172 open enrollment charter schools.

So you could look at that and say there's plenty of room for expansion.

Those get approved, they get approved by the state board of education.

Right now there are five that will be went through interviews, and they'll some of them, some percentage of those will be up before the state board to be approved in June.

But only, you know, of the five, some will get approved, so maximum of five will get approved.

But here's the important thing, and this is a this is what I found out back in 2012 or 2013, which was kind of astounding that no one knew.

There is no limit on charter school enrollment.

So that is a really important point, and no limit on the number of campuses, and that's where you begin to run into these problems with market forces, which is that once a charter school, and this this may be the most important thing that you that we talk about today, that's just important to look at the context.

Why are campuses closing at all these on all these public school districts and even some charter schools?

I think the real key is in we have unlimited expansion, no statutory limit.

The way that works is once a charter is approved by the state board, and that is those are elected officials, you have your own board members here, and they meet certain TA requirements.

That charter is approved, let's say for Dallas, and the whole need and rationale is based on problems in Dallas.

They can then submit a simple administrative form called an amendment and request to open an unlimited number of new campuses anywhere in the state of Texas, and that form is not available to the public unless you submit a public information request, and I do that a lot.

So sometimes you'll see the need is the need or the rationale is we want to locate in San Antonio, and I read a lot of these.

I track those, I've tracked them since uh the beginning of time, and about 70% of those are approved.

Few are denied, fewer withdrawn.

Most of them get approved.

Well, that should that matters because there is very little of interest or consideration given to what the impact of that new campus is going to be on existing charter schools or existing public school districts.

And we've seen examples where a charter comes in and locates half a mile from a new district school that has just opened based on a bond that was approved by voters.

So you have to think about a grocery store just begin operates, they're not going to usually open up, you know, half a mile from existing grocery store because the market won't bear that kind of that kind of competition.

But you see that with charters and district schools, and that is a big issue.

There's no public meeting based on amendments, there's no general public notice, districts do get notified, as do legislators, but there's no public meeting, there's no general notice to the public, and there's no vote by any elected body.

That's the kind of crunch that I think we begin to see that's impacting some of the oversaturation, etc.

And it's even hurting charter schools, and I've heard charter schools really complain about that for their enrollment.

So at a time when our education dollars are so scarce, we're closing campuses, we continue to approve the commissioner continues to approve new charter amendments.

And this year alone, I don't have my numbers, but I think there are over a hundred that have been a hundred that have been applied for, and about eighty have been approved around the state.

And if you look at Idea, just as an example, idea was approved for one campus by the state board back in 2000, I think.

They now have over 130 campuses all around the state, as you know, many in San Antonio.

The issue there is not good or bad or whatever, we can that's another that's another conversation.

The point is that those are approved by an appointed official with no public vote, no public meeting, etc.

And the thing we want to talk about, I'll talk about in one second, is people don't know about it.

So um, well, there you go.

Um I think I've already said all that.

So that gets us into just well, I'll just, if it's okay, I'll do the recommendations real fast.

So these are just suggestions because all this sets a context and a landscape, and basically we're here, and this is the kind of work we do, which is I get phone calls every day.

In fact, I was driving up from Austin, I was on the phone with districts who did not even know the amendments that were submitted that would create two or three new campuses in their in their school district.

So the first thing is I think it's really important.

Uh our recommendations are just based about having a well-informed public that has access to information, they know what's going on, it's easily available to them, and also that you have information for elected officials because when you make decisions about things, it's important to have factual information that also has context.

So again, you may hear about the school I mentioned earlier that is one of the top performing high schools in the country, unless you understand the demographics of those students, you really have no way of evaluating what they're doing.

They're not necessarily better.

I can I can create a school for Carrie's kids who are all, you know, A plus students or whoever, and it'll do great.

But when you have challenging students and you serve all children, that is a different story.

So context is important.

The second thing is to get really accurate information, and I I would agree with the recommendation that San Antonio is so different than a lot of cities because you have so many districts, and so having some place that the city itself can help districts identify problems and uh takeover is going to be a huge, you all don't have, or do you know you don't have right now you don't I don't think you have a takeover district, not a big one anyway, but that's coming down the pike.

I work with people in Fort Worth, we could work with people in Houston, etc.

And that is a whole another ball game.

So it's important to have that kind of coming together.

So we're recommending that there be a report where you not only get just facts, but you also get the context.

And second, that you develop formal communication with your superintendents so that you can know what they're facing, know what the impact might be in terms of closing campuses, whether it's on a neighborhood or on the economy.

And then the second one is that um there's a new report out, and I would encourage you to have the people who actually uh did it come talk to you.

But it's about the economic impact of public school districts around the state, and it's the number they have really looked at uh all the big districts, and they will tell you the number of the staff, and it's one of the biggest interest industries in Texas in the sense of staff, what the turnover is on dollars, and it's billions and billions of dollars.

So when you close campuses or when districts begin to struggle or the state doesn't fund you, it has an economic impact.

And I'm sure you have some workforce uh priorities in your economic development agenda.

But looking at how to enhance CTE, etc.

are all really important things.

Um so that's kind of the kind of the landscape there, and I if you have any questions, happy to answer them.

And I I'm glad of I'm glad I'm glad to have this discussion.

I think it's really great that you guys are taking it on, but I think there's a way to look at it that is increasing transparency, accountability, public information.

And I will leave with one story.

We got a call just last week from some board members who had just discovered that a new charter school was opening in their district, and the only way they found out was they saw a construction sign.

So all I'm saying is that doesn't make sense that board members that are working hard to really improve their district find out that way.

So I think there are ways to to work around, you know, city statutes and state law, to really bring some of this stuff together so you can really begin to sort out what works for kids, what works for the city, and make San Antonio really strong supportive place for education.

So thank you guys.

Well, thank you so much for the presentation today.

Um, you know, I think really quickly, I know we also have another presentation later today, so I don't want to take too much on too much time, but I do want to focus on the next steps in particular, right?

The slide we have up here.

I think the vast majority of them folks are in agreement about.

We talk about we've talked pretty frequently at this committee about how we can make sure that our legislative agenda, how we can make sure that is uh encompassing a public education, even our own budget, how we can make sure that they're aligned there, uh, that our investors are aligned there, as well as looking at ways that we can better communicate with our local school districts and such to better inform our policies and our programs here.

Um, and so I'm grateful to see that those are some things you're seeing or recommending here, but also that you see across the state, um, as quality.

That's good.

Um, and I guess on the first one, this may help inform the full committee really quickly.

Can you talk a bit more about what that looks like in other cities if they're adopted something similar to this?

So the number the first recommendation on make the public more aware.

Um, particularly related to construction and those things.

I will be honest, I don't think there is a big effort in other cities.

Um I will say this that um the uh Dallas City Council is much more aware of um and are very much in touch with their planning and zoning commission.

And I think they and that is not necessarily, you know, there's a difference between institutionalizing these kind of connections, which is some of what we're suggesting that you have this formal communication with etc.

in a report and those kinds of things, and those are important because then they be kind of become part of the DNA.

Um, I think in Dallas it is really more driven by certain council members where they know what's going on, but I don't think it is institutionalized within the city council.

Um, they do have, for example, um charter schools sometimes fall under the special use permit, and that's that creates then more city, it then becomes it's on the city council agenda.

So then there's an opportunity for discussion and testimony and things like that.

What happens in most cities is, and it's true in San Antonio is that just general permits for construction don't come, and again, the construction is not it's not the construction itself, it's that they are going to locate in my neighborhood, and should the neighbors know about it.

You know, that's the parents in the neighborhoods, and if they're gonna locate if they bought land half a mile, which I can give you examples of that from a public school, people care about that, and that should just be public information for council parents, whoever.

So permitting doesn't come for council.

Um, if it's a zoning change, it does, so there's an opportunity, but that those are some limits that I think would be good for you to have discussions about, which is um, you know, whether your DSD could just provide council members on a monthly basis with new permits that have been filed for with for any any school, and this would be true for public schools too.

The difference in public schools is that of course they go through, as you know, because you probably have to go to their presentations, but to construct a building, you have to pass a bond, but the catch is the public has to vote in favor of it, and that's hard because sometimes the public doesn't.

But they have oh my gosh, you know, dozens and does usually most districts have dozens of meetings to inform people, it's a year process.

They had they bring in people to identify what every school needs, etc.

etc.

And then people have to vote for so they have to sell it to the public, so it's got to make sense.

So it's it's a democratic process.

What happens with the charter school again is that um they get approved by the commissioner and that's it.

Um so they they have a board.

I can tell you a charter school in the North Texas area.

They um they had a board at the time of five people, they approved a 400 million dollar bond.

Um, it was the largest, according to the bond buyer, which is a national magazine, it was the largest charter bond in the history of the United States.

That charter school was going through, they they were in they were in financial exigency at the time, so they couldn't get an A rating or a state guarantee.

So they had it was a junk bond, so it was like at the time it was like six or seven percent interest rate when the interest rate was usually around two or three percent.

So, so they got it with five people voting for it, and they and there was there's no one to approve it.

I mean, it basically the AG's office does a did they meet all the checks, but the important thing is taxpayers repay that because it's paid out of the money from the state.

So you're paying for it, but you don't have any voice.

So that is the situation that I think would be great minimally to just let people know.

That's it.

That's all we're saying.

Let people know.

Thank you for that.

For my community, would anyone like to start the conversation today on questions or comments?

Okay, Councilman.

Thank you, Karen.

Thank you for the presentation.

I really wanted to hone in on uh to include public education and economic development agendas and priorities.

A couple of weeks ago, I had an opportunity to tour Somerset IST's welding campus as well as meet with the superintendent to talk about what some of the certifications that they're providing to their students, and what they demonstrated is a strong relationship with the industry and the growth that's occurring in the South Side, particularly with Toyota as well as JCB, and essentially what they're doing is teeing up their students.

Well, one right with earning an associate's degree while they're earning their high school uh diploma, but also with a welding uh certification, and that's only one of the many that they offer.

For example, they do offer uh an EMT certification, and the scores and metrics that they shared in comparison to folks in uh in junior college were much higher than those in junior college.

So again, uh just highlighting one the role and responsibility and ensuring that whether it's with greater SATX or whatever the case may be, that we're connecting those relationships with uh some of the trades within our ISDs to set them up for success.

So what they shared is um that because they're partnering with joint JCB, they're going to have a paint and auto body shop, right?

That the industry is going to help cover the cost of, but the goal is the students are receiving the training and then are prepared to enter the workforce if that's what they choose to do.

Um, so there's just a lot of value in terms of if we have a role and responsibility of connecting our ISGs with industry, especially if they're receiving a city incentive.

In addition to that, um, I know at some Houston High School, there's also a partnership with Mayuna, where they're working with their students to get OSHA certifications and essentially earn a trade while they're also getting their high school diploma and potentially an associate's degree as well.

And as we have the conversations around Project Marvel redevelopment, I think there's a lot of value and opportunity for us to include our ISDs in those conversations about what's to come and how can we train or connect rather our students and ICs that may have those programs with opportunity.

Again, emphasizing, especially if they're receiving a tax incentive from the taxpayers.

I do believe there is value in terms of developing the communication with superintendents of public schools, and I'm grateful that this committee is new and there's opportunity for us to convene and talk about where's their opportunity for coordination if it's infrastructure, public safety, et cetera.

But in addition to that, um I just wanted to thank the folks that gave public comment today.

I think there's a lot of opportunity for us to continue to convene and have conversations about our shared goal.

I was thinking in terms of some of the conversations that folks gave in public comment, and I navigate this conversation from a very unique uh perspective in that, and I really wanted to thank the young student who gave the one of the last comments because that resonated with me.

Uh, in that while I'm a proud uh ISD product, uh, in high school, I attended George I.

Sanchez Charter School, which was a charter school for at-risk Latino youth, so typically individuals coming out of the juvenile justice academy, or we were pushed out of alternative school.

Uh, so a very unique demographic, but provided us with tools in terms of public speaking, um, the soft skills on how to communicate uh in a respectful manner with each other in the classroom and out in the community, right?

And I did return uh to Burbank High School and ISD, but I just really value uh the point in terms of how can we uh ensure that we're having conversations with our families and educators too about what are the needs of our constituents and our our kids and of course our teacher teachers and support personnel as well.

Um another takeaway, and I want to encourage everyone if you have the opportunity to go to a Somerset ISD with Dr.

Moreno because what he highlighted within their school's philosophy, uh, and it's a team building exercise they did with the board.

Um he read the mission to me and he's like, what stands out to you, right?

The focus and the emphasis is teachers, family support personnel.

He's like typically you see students because it sounds and feels nice, but if the parents don't have uh the income, the support, the teachers don't have the resources and support, how are they going to show up to for the kids to produce the best outcome?

Um, so just wanted to emphasize and encourage folks to meet with Dr.

Moreno at Somerset, because I do believe he's doing a great job.

Again, he's one of the few A-rated schools in Bear County.

Uh, and again, if you look at the demographics in comparison to, for example, Alamo Heights, um, he's um his students are performing well above.

Um, and I think again that goes to um how can we tie our economic development conversations that are publicly subsidized to uh connect and better partner with our ISTs.

I think we can have a greater impact for our kids and our overall uh economic health of the city.

Um, but again, I'm just really grateful that we're continuing to have this conversation, and again, it's the first of many in terms of the formal communication opportunities.

Thank you, Chair.

So now you're on council, so it worked.

Um, I'm putting on a different hat just briefly, so excuse me, but um uh in my other work.

I worked for about 10 years uh working with the National International Foundation on youth employment and summer jobs, and I I just wanted to get that on the record because it does it is part of CTE, and one of the in some cities, and you all may be doing this because I did a pretty deep dive in this.

We try I tried to get San Antonio funded, but they funded Houston instead, I'm sorry.

But um, the a lot of cities are really connecting their CTE programs to summer jobs and all those connections, but in a very, very big level, and like Philadelphia and Louisville and LA are just really, and um, so I know you have a really good program, but I think the paying attention to that, because it does then create those great ties between the high school and the CTE programs and the industry as they're already doing, but the summer piece can really be great.

So I just wanted to get that on the record.

But thank you for saying all those things because again to Carrie's point, a lot of times people do not know, particularly the great CTE programs that are available and how they're really meeting a need in the community.

So thank you.

And Patty, if you uh would like to share those resources with us as well.

I know Councilman Castillo is also pushing forward a CCR uh council consideration request for uh looking at ways to do summer employment and do more job employment for opportunity youth uh students at risk, frankly, uh, that will become these communities sooner than later.

Uh so happy to get any more information we can to also evaluate that.

I will do that.

I'm still in con I'm still can I had to give it up because I was doing education stuff, but I will absolutely connect you.

Uh at least those people, yeah.

Appreciate that.

Anyone else want to have any comments or questions?

I'll go next.

Thank you.

And first, I I didn't know you could be pushed off alternative schools, so that's good to know about our education system.

Um, yeah, so uh thank you all for being here, and thank you for everyone who came for public comment.

Uh, I've gotten to meet some of the folks that were here today, and any time a school asks me to come out, I do that.

Whether um, you know, it's an ISD or a charter school.

Because I think if the kids are from our community, it's important to show them who their councilperson is and all that.

And I recently went to a career day, and I don't think the kids still know what a council person does, but they were very excited that we were able to put funding at their park right next door, right?

And I was trying to teach them about the levels of government and how all that kind of works.

So I think that's very important.

Um, and I would say, you know, the annual report on education is a really good idea.

That's something that uh I think we should do.

I I know um one of the groups here in town does sort of a compiles all of the school, the TEA data from all the schools and puts them by district and kind of tells us where our students are.

And I think uh it could go into a greater detail on that.

And I was actually on South Cent ISD board for a very, very short period of time, seven months, which felt like seven years.

And that if Ray's still here, that's not his problem that he has to work with, but they're doing good stuff.

Um, but one of my dreams back then was how great would it be for you know, region 20 to host an annual event where all the teachers, all the schools are getting together, basically all the leadership, and they're sharing what's working in their schools and what's not uh because they are not talking to each other enough, even if they're sharing the border, right?

And I think uh it does us no good to hold that information even with the ISD school populations, right?

All those different school districts we have, each of them are working in silos with their own leadership.

I'll give you a great example, right?

Uh many years ago, you know, the state had given schools to say, okay, charter schools don't have certified teachers or not required to, and I think there was some sort of process by which ISDs were able to then opt into that model and hire uncertified teachers.

Well, you look at what's happening at South San ISD, they're now reversing course and they're saying we need to have certified teachers in classrooms because that wasn't really working for their uh education outcomes.

And so again, when schools are focused on their education outcomes, those things that change I think are really important to monitor because if that's what's working at South Cent ISD for their population, having certified teachers in classrooms, then we need to know that right as a community that just so you know, right?

I mean, you're your child could still be performing very well at a charter school that doesn't have that, but if you talk about a turnaround district that's increasing their um you know school average, that's important to note, I think for people.

Um so that's really good to add to that.

And I would say, you know, I think the transparency issue is really important to work with the state on across the board too.

I mean, yes, there's there's things that charter schools need to work on as far as letting folks know what's happening.

Obviously, they don't require certain votes.

They don't have elected school board representation.

Um, but also, you know, we have a situation where one of the largest school districts in San Antonio is pausing bond-approved projects on the south side and west side of their district, and they're not having any community uh conversations about that.

And they want to probably go for another bond without even addressing the gap that they have on these buildings.

So that to me is not accountable, right?

And again, they have an elected school board, you know, body, uh, but members of the public aren't even aware of that.

You know, and when Councilman Galvan and I submitted a letter and we shared that a lot of people, of course, you know, stay in your lane.

What do you what do you do when talking about school districts?

You're a councilman focus on the parks and streets, let these folks do that.

That type of mentality um doesn't do us any good, also.

Right.

When people say stay in your lane uh when it's convenient for them to do that, right?

And then when it's a funding gap, oh the city should do and help us with this.

So I think we have to have a better conversation about that and make sure that everybody is going to the public and hosting public meetings in their districts to talk about what's going on.

Because that is not mandated, it's not required.

And then same thing, right?

People say, well, go to the board meeting if you want to talk about that.

You know, it'd be like if I told you all, come to city council meeting and and hear us debate about it.

We have to be in all those communities also.

And I think that's vastly important to do so.

I think a lot of the issues are state related, of course, uh, not necessarily localized.

Um the other thing I think too is instead of focused on, yes, you should have a per pupil allotment, right, per student allotment of funding, but why are we basing school funding on attendance versus putting it on student outcomes, right?

If your school, if your child are doing if the students are doing great at your school, there should be some sort of funding allotment on that.

If it's not performing well, there should be some better intervention than simply stating we're gonna just replace your board and and y'all figure it out after that.

That doesn't really work for folks either.

So I think that uh the way we fund students whether we fund schools in Texas is is backwards, and I think a lot of other states are ahead of us, right?

We we weren't always the lowest or on the bottom tier.

But you do see other states who have typically been um on the bottom tier of education start performing better, uh, probably I would say because of how they decide to fund their students.

So I think there's a lot of work we have to do at the state level to change some things.

I don't think the state is ever in the near future gonna say no more charter schools, especially even if they did that, the ones currently existing where we continue to operate here, but I think we do have to put some real transparency efforts and lay those things out there for charter schools and also for traditionalized e-schools, they're not performing well.

I mean, there is a reason why so many uh districts have had some sort of intervention at the board level, even being replaced by the board, because again, their focus is not on student outcomes and it's on silly things, marquees and uniform colors and trying to shut people down in conversations versus um, you know, talking about the students and and students first.

I think that's something really great South Santa is starting to do now.

They've been doing it with the new board.

That's their main focus, right?

Everything else is the superintendent, but you can start to see the turnaround happening there.

Um, and I think you know, with charter schools and ISDs, it it's a mixed bag of school performance.

So I think, you know, some years there's gonna be a charter school that's performing well, they could slip down, which I think you starting to you have seen some of that too, right?

It's it's a mixed bag of who's performing well and who's not, uh, but I I think we have to focus on what ingredients make that best.

And then also the schools, whoever they are that are serving um, you know, children with learning uh issues, or have some sort of other um, you know, disability concerns, they need to also have the proper funding no matter who it is, it should be attached to the student because those students are getting left behind at a greater pace than some of our traditional students are, of course.

So I think there's a lot of work that needs to be done in the state.

They're not doing enough.

The rainy day fund is bloated, and they haven't even tried to help kids in our school systems.

I would also say the constant opening and closing of schools, that activity, I don't think is productive for students or for families.

So we have to get a better grasp on why that's happening and how it's happening, and so I think we need to have a better solution to that.

So, not sure if you have any comments related to that.

Yeah, I I do.

I just I really appreciate all of your comments, and I want to again go back to one of my initial comments is just to applaud the existence of this committee because it's these it's it's formalizing this conversation that will empower you with the facts so that you can advocate for your community at the state level and you can support your community locally because you're you have a f you know you have an architecture now around the conversations.

Um so you know, it and and transparency is so important, and just like I spoke to the the fact that the Texas education code exists for ISDs but but um but not the other systems, um, independent school districts, for instance, are required by law to notify their communities if they have a DRF rating, charter schools are not.

Independent school districts are required by law to notify their communities if they don't have certified teachers, whether or not they've been forced to opt into this, but charter schools are not.

But if you have um a community like this that's have that's asking the questions and arming yourself with the data, then you can ask the question, well, well, why?

And you know, then you can advocate both at the state level and they're funding, you know, the school, the school funding formulas are very, very complicated, and they don't they're not the same for both systems or all three systems now that we speak about.

And so just having um having a forum to be able to understand the facts helps everyone.

And one thing you said, again, just to put on your kind of broader agenda, and this is not your problem to solve, but but it is your problem, and I mean it's the community, it's a community problem, and it it is about certified teachers.

So we were looking at data.

The number of uh teachers coming out, and Carrie can speak to this better than me, but coming out of teacher preparation programs is so far down right now.

So hiring certified teachers gonna is gonna get harder and harder and harder, and for other reasons too, which is state funding, etc.

But again, that's also community problem because we know the performance is better when kids have certified teachers because that's in the data.

But so that's another issue.

So I I think I think just talking about it uh is really important.

And um, absolutely, I'm gonna say one other anecdote.

Um, oh, important to know charters do get an average of a thousand dollars more per student in public school districts in your maintenance and operate your regular general revenue funding.

That's important to know, that's another big thing.

So I I'll pick on idea and I'm I know you're here today, but uh it's it's an interesting idea has um 80,000, they get the average, it's the way it's a crazy school finance system, they get the average of the small to mid-size, no matter what their size.

So um, idea has about 80,000 students now, so they get 80 million dollars, but a district that has 80,000 students gets nothing.

So anyway, that's just another it just is an I another where it's important to understand context.

Absolutely, and I think the only thing I would also add is I welcome further conversations by you all and everybody in this room actually, on what the potential of school consolidation looks like in Bear County, is that is that a net positive, is that a net negative?

Is that something we should be looking towards because I think the way these schools are fragmented is is really can be detrimental to folks, especially when you have such small school districts, right?

And then elementary schools that are feeding into one neighborhood or one neighborhood feeding to elementary school, like you did with um South Sand, for example, right, can be really devastating to one district and can cause a lot of weaknesses and their ability to teach kids.

They really have no other option but to go to the school that they are you know are near, uh, and so I think we really have to be serious about that conversation, and I know it's not an easy one for sure.

Um, but with this context about schools opening and closing, performance, uh, poverty rates in San Antonio, the poverty rates within these specific ISDs, I think we would be doing a disservice to ourselves if we weren't also talking about that.

Yeah, I I'll just speak to that.

I think that that's an important thing to consider, especially in these conversations about um efficiency and making efficient decisions.

But um, just you know, definitely communicate with your communities about what consolidation look because so just from my perspective, we've the way that um in the district where my children go and where I taught, the schools were being defined sort of as being at capacity in a way that didn't really make sense to educators or students because they had they were making that definition.

They were determining that definition based on um the revenue that they were receiving from the state, and so at capacity was actually um, or under capacity, I'm sorry, an under-enrolled st school was still serving lunch to children at 10 30 in the morning, right?

That's not what teachers consider under enrolled, that's not what students or families consider underenrolled, but because of the dollars attached to that definition, because of the the situation that the district's been put into, that school is is under enrolled and then could be considered, you know, needing to be consolidated with another school or another campus.

But so again, the context, it's very it's a very complicated issue, and the context really matters, and for efficiency reasons sometimes efficiency is not what's best for um for communities, but it all comes back, it all comes back to the state and the funding that our schools get.

And I do not normally uh limit debate or conversation here, but I do know for the sake of time, Counselor UK, Councillor McKeez goes next.

Thank you.

Councilman, you guys.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, I didn't know what to expect out of this discussion today.

Um, but I do want to, I guess there's a few takeaways, right?

Of course, there's these next steps that are possible.

Um could you go to that slide, please for me?

It's the last one, 13.

Mm-hmm.

You'll know, and I I heard this said more than a few times from uh some of the speakers today.

Nowhere on this list is a concerted effort to close down the charter schools or to antagonize parents or any anything of that sort.

And so I wanna I guess start at that point.

I think the conversation that we need to be having and that we're going to be having as a follow-up will likely be, you know, what role are we gonna play in advocating for public schools in our legislative agendas, both uh largely at the state level this upcoming year, and what is that what is that effort gonna look like?

What are the ways that public schools need to be supported the most right now, and how do we make that happen?

Especially with education being one of the you know top priority education abroad as a subject uh being a priority of the governor and uh his folk.

Uh what I will convey to all those who came out to speak today, and I've met several I've met several of y'all, seen some of y'all speak at uh different meetings.

I attended eight public schools growing up, and I've taught at four public schools or worked at four public schools, and what I experienced, especially my first year, um I did I did kind of a strange way of um going about becoming a teacher.

I graduated, took a gap year, and I served as a city year member uh at Davis Middle School while I finished my certification, and then I joined TFA Teach for America for one year.

So I don't think I technically count as an alum, because I did not uh I don't think it I don't think it counts.

Um, but I joined specifically because of the partnership that they had with the SAISD, and I wanted to be at Sam Houston, and so I was gonna take any steps necessary to do that.

So I went back.

We did the whole five-week Houston training and whatnot, so I had feel like I was triple certified at a certain point.

And my first year teaching at Sam Houston was extremely frustrating for a number of reasons, and it wasn't because of parents, it wasn't because of students, it wasn't because of uh any of the people who care and want to uh better their community, it was all about uh how political education has become and the actions that the stake take the state takes um that make it harder to be an educator that make it harder to be a parent that make it harder to be a student.

And so I wouldn't and I experienced I think a few times uh there was a really there was a really strong day.

It was like October 15th, October 16th, whatever snapshot day is October 31st, sometime in October, it's uh the day where all the students who are at your campus count, you are accountable for those students.

Y'all y'all are familiar.

And I remember it was it, I remember the day that the snapshot came, there were at least 15 to 20 students who were kicked out of charter schools that ended up in my classroom, and there were more in so many other classrooms.

It was a it was an exodus, and it wasn't because the students didn't want to be at their charter school, it was because the charter school no longer felt that they were a fit for them, and they did not want to be accountable to uh for their success ultimately, and so there's choices that charter schools have the ability to make that a public school would never, could never make.

And so, how do we um how do we do two things?

One is, you know, acknowledge that parents and families have to do whatever they can for their children.

I would never fault a parent for making the decision not to send their student to their neighborhood school if they felt like their student was not going to succeed there.

If they didn't feel like their student was going to learn, become the best version of themselves, the parent has to ultimately make a difficult decision.

And I think we saw there's a I got to hear the Chicago Public Schools teacher union, Stacy Davis, Stacy Davis Gates speak, and she'd discussed how she sent her how her son wanted to participate in a higher level soccer program.

And so she sent her her son to a uh a private school because that's what he wanted.

And so even those of us who are in spaces of advocating for public schools have to make decisions for our for our kids, and we have to and we also have to think about the future of other students and other families in our community.

And so, how do we simultaneously meet the moment where it is now where schools are struggling?

The state of education in Texas is rough.

It is hard for a student for a family to feel confident in their public school, not because there's teachers or admin or anyone there working in that campus that doesn't take their job seriously and doesn't care for their students, but because it is being made so hard to succeed as a public school because of actions at the state level that make it difficult to exist at a public school level, and then how do we also try to get as many folks to realize what it takes on our collect on a collective front for public schools to succeed?

And sometimes that means if we're going to provide support, maybe we're not giving public dollars to to charter schools for academic programming because the need exists at a greater scale at public campuses, and so that's a diff that's a decision to be had, and I heard that concept uh mentioned by a few of the speakers today.

So that's the sort of lens that we're viewing problem solving on this end from.

To the other end, it's not the school, it's not the teachers who are here, it's not us, it's not the student.

None of us are each other's enemy.

And the discussion is largely framed as it's you know, the parents versus the schools versus the policymakers.

It is the state.

The state is the antagonist here.

The state is the one who has every interest possible in privatizing any public good they possibly can.

They want to privatize public education, and they that's why they're diverting excess amount of funds to the private to private schools specifically, but they also are invested heavily in the success and in the operation of charter schools.

And so we have to acknowledge that as well, is that in order for our public schools to thrive, that the state is either gonna have to reverse course on one of those things, or they're going to have to make a much more substantial investment and rethink the way that they're funding our public schools.

All three could succeed in a perfect world if public schools were funded adequately and treated, and every every other entity was required to meet the same standards and regulations that public schools are, but that's not the reality.

And so, how do we get the state to that point?

And so I think the conversation that we're having, and the conversation that we will continue to have as we go about our legislative agenda is going to be how do we take these complex, very complex ideas, take them to an antagonistic body, as of right now, things could change in November, but how do we take the needs of our community to this antagonistic body and bring about change?

And it's going to mean that it can't just be the city of San Antonio and our lot lobbying teams alone, it can't be the public schools alone, charter school parents, families have to be a part of that as well, because in order for any of our schools to succeed, charter schools, private schools included, our public schools need to succeed because that is where the majority of our students will be.

That's where the majority of our community will be educated, that's where our workforce is going to be educated primarily, and so if we want our community to succeed, we all need to be on board for the success of our public schools, and so I think that's the discussion that you know we're having, and it's complicated and it's emotional, obviously, emotionally charged when you're talking about the well-being of your kids and of your families and of your students, and so uh I understand the emotion here, uh I think we have to keep our eyes laser focused on what our real target is and who our real enemies are, or friends we haven't made yet.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman.

Any other comments or questions for the committee?

All right.

Can I very quickly just very quickly respond to that?

I I am I appreciate that your thoughts very much.

And something that I just would like to leave with, and something that I share a lot is that I don't fault parents making their choices.

I'm a parent, I make my choices as well.

But my job professionally and my passion is to think about our system, our system of public schools.

And when you have created um different rules for different schools, and you have some that can kick out, choose not to enroll.

What happens at scale, and that's what I invite everyone to think about, is third world, y'all.

It's it's the only people who will be in our independent public school districts are the ones with incarcerated family, the foster kids, the homeless youth, the extreme special education needs, the extreme behavior needs, because they won't be accepted anywhere else.

And we're creating a we, the state is creating a system where there are escape routes for families that can get there.

I'm one of those families.

I can escape my kids, but I want my kids in my neighborhood public school.

And when we talk about parent choice, you're taking that choice from me because you're defunding my not you, because the state is defunding my school, because you're creating schools that are taking all of the easy kids away.

And so what's left over are these high concentrations of very expensive and very hard to educate students that parents don't want their kids to be a part of, and we're making that happen.

Thank you for that.

And thank you again for the presentation and agree for the conversation today.

I think overall with all these, again, a lot of them I think are part of the conversation we've been having as well.

Here's so interested in seeing how we can reevaluate some of these uh next steps as we look at the legislative agenda, of course, that we'll have as a city, but also within our our conversation around what our next steps are for this committee and what our recommendations are to our full council.

So thank you again.

All right.

I know we have limited time here, but we'll jump into item number three.

Uh school-based health centers managed by University Health.

All right, um, let me make sure.

I think I'm good.

Can everybody hear me?

Okay, perfect.

Good morning.

Um, thank you, council members, for the invitation to come and speak with you today.

We really appreciate your time.

We are going to talk about our school-based health centers and really more about our program as a whole.

My name is Valerie Maldonado.

I'm the director of our school-based health centers, our mobile buses, and our community health piece of our department, and I work alongside my colleague, Dr.

Michelle Rodriguez, our medical director.

So moving along into the history of our school-based program, we established our first clinic in 2013, over a decade ago.

Um, our initial uh partner was Harland L ISD.

Um, we took over a building where uh the school district provided to us, and we came in and provided the services.

Um it is on the campus of Collier Elementary, and we are still very much seeing patients out of that building today.

Initially, we saw a pediatric uh majority population.

That was our focus, of course, being school-based.

Um, and our services included vaccines, sports physicals, well child checks, immunizations, um, acute care, those visits.

Uh, we quickly noticed that the need was greater, and so we expanded our locations, we expanded our services, um our mobile buses became a part of our arm, the extension that we have into the community.

So, as I mentioned before, there are three components to our program as a whole.

We have our health centers, we have our primary care bus and our mobile mammography bus, and we have a health education component where we bring services into the community via our health centers or our buses, and then we also help to educate our partners in providing care to children and even the future of our health care workforce.

We have seven school-based centers in totality.

You can see on the right, there's the map in the purplish teardrop markers are our school-based locations.

And they very much follow the highway 90 corridor or south of that.

We have seven in partnership with six school districts Harland L ISD, Southwest ISD, SAISD, Northside ISD, Judson ISD, and South Side ISD.

We have two clinics that are over a decade old, as I mentioned before.

And I mentioned previously that we noticed very quickly that the need was much greater than just the pediatric population.

So we expanded our services to see adults, students, staff, and the community at large.

And in 2025, we've seen nearly 18,000 visits in our clinics.

Thank you.

So the map you see on the left is a concentration map.

It shows the addresses of the family or the patients we see with the highest concentration on the west side and the southwest side.

That's where our more established clinics are.

Our NISD, our HISD, and our Southwest ISD clinics tend to be on the west and south side there.

And then on the right side, the east and south, southeast side of the city, that's where we have more of our newer clinics.

And those are lighter, but we're seeing increase in patient visits in those areas as well.

And I do believe that overlaps with communities that are served by the districts represented here today.

The map that's on the right side was provided by our institute of public health.

It's an arm of university health dedicated to eliminating health disparities.

And this is a map that shows both chronic absenteeism rate and economically disadvantaged students.

Interestingly enough, there is a perfect overlap in those two.

You see that lower half of the San Antonio map completely gray.

That means overlap in those two areas, which I think is very telling about the population that we serve.

These charts, I'm not going to go over them in terrible detail, except to identify the significance of the distributions of the percentage.

The bar chart on the left talks about the primary pairs.

Who is paying for the visits that these patients are having in our clinics?

And the highest payer is Medicaid, and again, that's not surprising, giving the population, the community that we serve.

The next highest is commercial, and just as significant is self-pay.

These are patients that are coming in and paying out of pocket or usually allowing university to bill them later.

This is not our system does not capture the income of the patients that come in, but I can tell you anecdotally, having been a physician in this area for 10 years and in the south side of San Antonio for the past five, these are not patients that have income that can actually truly pay and afford for their medical care.

These are people that fall below the threshold, or I rather should say above the threshold income for Medicaid, cannot afford private insurance, they do not have options to their employers, that we try to get into our Carelink system, which is a county system that helps them with pay, but aren't always able to do so.

And then the other three university health plan, a lot of our own employees come to see us, and then CARELINK, that's the county funding system that helps our patients that don't have insurance and don't qualify for Medicaid.

And then that sixth largest category is Medicare.

On the right side, you'll see a distribution of the ages of the patients that we serve in our school-based clinics.

And this is really telling because we are there primarily to serve the students of the campuses on which our clinics are located, as well as you know the staff and the members of the community, but students are still our priority.

And if you look at the age distribution, our highest percentage falls within that school age, school age range, the five to eighteen years, and then we see a good percentage of children under five.

We also do see adults, but again, that percentage is smaller and certainly smaller than the combination of everyone 18 and under.

This is a bar chart showing the type of visit.

So when patients make, if patients who are parents of children make an appointment, their visit is given a label.

What the main types of visits that I want to point out are new patient visits.

Those are students, children, adults, community members who have never been seen in university or have not been seen within the previous three years for primary care services.

And then along that line, if we've seen them before for primary care services within the previous three years and they come back to us for a chronic care condition, that's what we consider a follow-up visit.

That third bar there, new patients, it's a little further down, but I do want to point out immunizations.

18% of the visits we see in our clinics are immunizations.

And I don't have it broken down by age, but I can certainly tell you the great majority of that number is childhood immunizations.

We do get a lot of the students that come to us for their immunizations when they realize they're nearing that time of the year where they have to have proof of immunization to enroll for the following year.

Well child checks, those are the equivalent of annual physicals for our pediatric patients, and that refers to our children under 13 that come to see those, come to see us.

We follow the requirements for Medicare well child visits.

That means we screen for all sorts of problems that can arise that aren't necessarily caught immediately by school or family members, such as developmental delays and other medical conditions that it can impact them.

And then we have our teen well-child that specifically refers to our pediatric patients that are 13 and older.

We also do sports physicals, and those are to qualify students to participate in sports either at school or out in the community.

They often, the organizations will often require them to be cleared by a physician, and then there's smaller categories there that include infant well child checks.

Most of our providers do not see patients under two, but we do have a couple that do, and so we do see infants for their little physicals.

And they're really truly different species entirely because the things that they look for in these age range is very different from what we look for in our other pediatric populations.

And then you'll also see kind of buried there the third from the right is the annual wellness visit that refers to our adult physicals.

I'm gonna turn it back to Valerie to discuss this, our mobile units.

I'm gonna go back really quickly because what I didn't mention before when I told you about our locations is who is there?

We have providers, APPs mostly, either a physician assistant or nurse practitioner who's supported by a medical assistant, and we also have an LVN, a nurse on site at our clinic, and we have our registration access specialist or a front desk person to greet our patients and who take the majority of our phone calls.

So we are truly like any other family medicine primary care clinic, and that ultimately is our goal.

We were first very episodic in nature, and again, we quickly noticed that the need was much greater than what we were providing over a decade ago, and so we have now really transitioned to being a patient-centered medical home for our patients, and that ultimately is our goal to care for our patients, not only through their acute care needs, but also through their chronic diseases and helping to manage manage those, and our providers are led by Dr.

Rodriguez and doing just that.

So moving on to our buses.

Um I stated that this was another arm of our program, and it truly is.

We have a primary care mobile bus that is a clinic on Wills.

We're able to take it out into the community to meet the community exactly where they're at, to provide immunizations.

We have provided some sports physicals, some well child checks, but mostly what we've done are immunizations, and you can see that the need for immunizations is definitely great.

We've also taken out our mobile mammography bus to the community again to provide mammogram screenings with the latest and greatest technology.

While that isn't technically school-based focused, we are very much community focused.

And many of our partners are in fact school districts where we're bringing services to the staff so that way they don't have to leave work.

They can take care of their health care needs right on site and get that piece done.

So we're very happy to provide that service and that convenience and accessibility through our mobile program.

So cumulatively, we've seen over 6,800 people.

And you can see the darker spots are where we where we take both mobile buses, but truly, we go everywhere in the city and even a bit beyond our borders.

I'm gonna talk about our flu shot clinic really quickly.

We hold four large community flu drives.

This is very much spearheaded by our corporate communications department, but we also partner with our pharmacy.

Our pharmacists are the ones that administer the flu vaccines, and we partner with various departments, and our mobile bus is part of that partnership to bring over 2,500 flu shots just in the last year, ensuring that we're doing our part to protect our community against the flu, and then on the mobile immunization side against vaccine preventable diseases, and then finally we have our community health education piece.

So here are four pictures.

I'll talk about the one on the left first.

Um, this is actually me speaking to a group of students.

With my my um Dr.

Rodriguez's predecessor, we created the school-based student public health corps.

Um we gathered students from local school districts to come to our facilities, and we provided education on public health topics like diabetes, COVID, and lifestyle medicine most recently.

This was also an opportunity for them to gain leadership skills.

They did various activities, presented on the topics that they were given, and really shared the knowledge that they learned.

We have not held any meetings this year, however, that is one of Dr.

Rodriguez's in my goal to continue this partnership because this is truly helping to educate the future of our workforce and our health care future leaders as well.

On the the three pictures on the right show in group talking to school nurses.

So this was a partnership with University Health, our diabetes education team members, our nurse educators.

Um that is Dr.

Lopez on the far right, our former medical director, speaking to school nurses about diabetes.

They are our partners in helping to care for our students who have issues beyond our clinic doors and walls.

And so we need to be able to share knowledge, ensure that we're working together to care for our community in the best way possible.

So this is another component of our program that we definitely aim to continue and in fact expand.

And that is our program very quickly and briefly.

So we will take any questions that you have for us now.

Well, thank you so much for the presentation and the work you'll do every single day.

It's really incredible.

Thanks to see that those partnerships are just so deeply rooted and that focus again on serving, and it's a natural public health and health thing here, right?

Not just serving the folks you're targeting, but also the surrounding factors too, right?

The parents, the adults, and the staff is really incredible, too.

Anyone want to start with council conversation or questions?

Yes, thank you for the work that you do.

And I actually attend a neighborhood association meeting at Collier Elementary, so I see that the you know office that you'll have there.

I think that's so vital not only just to support the um students and teachers, but the surrounding community that maybe doesn't have access or uh maybe because it's that much closer, people decide that they want to go and get checked for something.

Um, especially the mobile mammograms, I think that's extremely important, especially as we talk about you know the rise of cancer in our community and a lot of access that the folks don't have.

Uh and sometimes maybe there's other things that people don't why reasons why they don't want to get checked.

Um so I think that's really good.

The only thing I would say is um, you know, how can we help you expand that into other schools?

I think it's very, very important.

Um so look forward to having that conversation with you all uh to see what else we can do.

Thank you.

Any other questions or comments?

Council Rick of Steele.

Thank you, Chair.

Just wanted to thank you all for y'all's work and initiative.

And uh while it's not listed in the presentation, I believe that's Harrison Middle School in the presentation where you already do community engagement, uh, which is the middle school I attended.

So I'm just really grateful that y'all are just really embedded in community.

Uh, of course, the work that y'all do with Harland OISD as well.

Um, but just wanted to again uh hear how we could help expand the work that y'all do.

Um, and again, we know not only does y'all's work improve health outcomes, but as well as academic outcomes, and then it helps uh reduce absenteeism that we see in school.

So uh just wanted to thank y'all for y'all's work and leadership with y'all's initiative.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Great.

Um, no need to answer all these questions right now.

I have a whole bunch of them, but primarily it's around the data of the folks we're serving, right?

A little bit of seeing what the results are and like how do we oh it's the I think we know it, the impact on well-being, the impact on attendance, but seeing any kind of uh tangible data there with any of the schools that you operate with would be helpful to kind of just see that that percentage increase or that uh just that direct correlation.

Um, similarly, anything with the neighborhood outcomes, too, as we're talking about impacting other adults, uh, both the parents, uh grandparents as well as uh staff.

Interested in seeing what the kind of health outcomes are um in the surrounding neighborhood.

I don't know what the best look is there, but just seeing that there's a difference there, right?

We of course know that making uh healthcare accessible increases that so seeing again the same thing, the percentage there.

Um I'm also interested, maybe this is a bit selfishly for uh the city a little bit, but the impact on the health insurance uh costs that the ICs have in terms of the staffing and how many, I don't know if you can get all this data, but how many uh staff utilize uh the on-site clinic and what that impact is to the back end for the district.

Um I know we're having a conversation for our own budgets about health insurance costs and such, and I won't get into that, but I'm interested in seeing what that, again, what that impact is uh on the actual system itself.

Um I think, oh, and the last thing I was gonna uh ask was I'm sorry, two quick things.

Um, how many patients are without children or students?

If there's folks who just don't have a student at all enrolled, are they able to access the clinic?

And then how many of those folks do know about it as well?

Um I think that'd be interesting to just kind of see again about the neighborhood outcomes in the area.

Um the last thing was also the partnerships.

You'll have, I think this community health education, what what did you call it?

The public health core, a student core.

The student public health core.

Incredible, yes, simply incredible.

Uh, interested in seeing you know what those partnerships are with, of course, the other institutions in our communities, um, the health institutions in particular, right?

Both uh university level as well as any other partners such as Methodist, etc.

Um, I don't know, and even just seeing what other campuses are doing this kind of work that you're all working with.

Um, I know that a lot of magnet schools that we have, of course, in our many of our districts that are focused on health, uh, but even other programs on onside different campuses that are interested in those formal partnerships, and we'll be interested in seeing what that looks like and what could look like expanded.

But anyway, those are all my overline questions.

You don't have to answer them all right now.

Um, but thank you all again for the conversation today.

Anything else uh that you want to share with us before we wrap today?

No, just again, thank you so much for the opportunity.

And those are definitely great questions, and we'll take those back and and really see what what data we have currently, and if not, then what data we'll need to gather to ensure that we're answering them because I think that will have to support the impact that our program brings to the community.

Well, thank y'all so much, and thank you for the conversation today and the work you do.

Uh it is 11 57 a.m.

uh May 19th, 2026, and we'll officially adjourn the Education Opportunities Committee meeting.

Thank you all.