Three San Antonio School Districts have decided to partner with the City of San Antonio's Pre-K for SA Program.The San Antonio ISD, Harlandale ISD, and Southwest ISD Board of Trustees all approved to partner with the program Tuesday night.
However, Northeast ISD is still in the review process of the deal, as the Superintendent and his office is still looking over a memorandum of understanding sent out by the city last Friday.
"They're looking at that to determine whether it's something that the District wants to enter into or not," said Aubrey Chancellor, NEISD Spokeswoman. "Then that decision will be passed onto the board."
Chancellor said which way the board will vote is completely unknown at this point, as the district is currently meeting the needs of their Pre-K program and its students on their own.
"We do offer, though, a half day program which is different than what the city is proposing," said Chancellor. "We do have some slots that are full day slots, but the majority of them are half day, and that's simply because we don't have the room."
As of now, the item is not scheduled to be voted on by the NEISD Board of Trustees during their next two meetings, and Chancellor said at this time it's undetermined when that vote will take place.
However, Northside ISD has scheduled a vote on the program for next Tuesday, February 26th.
"It seems like the questions that the board had about transportation, liability, special education, and special services have been answered," said Pascual Gonzalez, Spokesman with Northside ISD.
Gonzalez said how the board will vote is unclear, as they too are currently meeting all of their eligible Pre-K students needs.
"However, if there are avenues that are opened up for additional families to receive services, that's certainly something that we would support," said Gonzalez.
How many Pre-K slots would be made available to each district's students should depend on the number of school district's that approve the partnership.
In the current plan, which accounts for 15 eligible school districts, more than 70 percent of the available spots for four-year-olds at the center's first year model city centers would go to Northside ISD, Northeast ISD, Harlandale ISD, San Antonio ISD, and Edgewood ISD.
Marissa A. Wagner, KTSA News Reporter
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
posted: 2:00 p.m.
