SFDR-CISD Board of Trustees Approves Middle School Reconfiguration and Citizens Committee

The SFDR-CISD Board of Trustees voted to approve the Middle School Reconfiguration during the Tuesday, October 8, 2024 School Board Meeting. The reconfiguration involves creating three separate middle school campuses, (the current DRMS, SFMMS, and Garfield), in an effort to alleviate safety and overcrowding issues at the middle school level and improve academic achievement and student participation. 

After postponing the vote at last month’s meeting and conducting a number of meetings and community forums with affected staff and parents, Superintendent, Dr. Carlos Rios presented his recommended proposal to the board again, with a slight change in regards to the possible rezoning of Garfield Elementary students. “We continue to discuss the project proposal for middle school grade level reconfiguration, we had two community forums and met with the staff at Garfield, SFMMS, and DRMS, we want to modify the recommendation a little bit,” he began. “We want to continue with recommending three middle schools, 6-8th grade, however it was originally recommended that 50% of the Garfield students would be assigned to the Blended Academy as a small neighborhood school and the remaining 300 would be rezoned to nearby campuses.” “That is still part of the plan except I would inform the board that we currently have 1,100 extra seats in the district for elementary, so there is a possibility that all 600 students at Garfield could be rezoned to nearby schools and not cause the population at any one school to increase more than 625-640 students.” “However, before we decide that, I would like more time to engage the parents in the Garfield community to decide if they want a neighborhood school or if they want to be rezoned.” “It was mentioned at the Garfield staff meeting that moving to Blended as an elementary school may not be the most equitable move because they may not have a gym or a sizable library, and I think that would be better decided by the parents.” “So today, I am recommending that we continue with the Middle School Redesign Proposal but that the location of the neighborhood students at Garfield be decided through the rezoning process and that I have some time to confer with the community.” 

The middle school reconfiguration would involve the creation of three separate 6-8th grade campuses at DRMS, SFMMS, and the Garfield Campus.

The floor was then opened to the board to raise any remaining questions or concerns to the Superintendent before a vote was taken. Board member Joshua Overfelt raised concerns about financing and the district’s current deficit, asking if the necessary updates and changes at the Garfield and SFMMS campuses are already in budget and set to be completed in time for the upcoming school year. Dr. Rios replied that the funding and materials are already on hand for the security fencing at SFMMS pending conversation with the newly appointed City Manager for permits and street closure. 

In response to the concerns about the renovations and updates that would need to be made at Garfield, Blended and the former East Side/Cardwell campus to accommodate the redesign, Dr. Rios informed the board that those changes could be made by Operations and Facilities staff as early as January and be completed by August of 2025. He also assured that the district may need additional staff for three campuses but does not believe that an additional deficit will be created due to the reconfiguration. 

Board member Diego Almaraz asked when Dr. Rios planned to begin holding meetings with the Garfield neighborhood parents to which Dr. Rios replied, “The demographer won’t have a completed report for maybe 30 days, I’d like to have something to show the parents but I would begin scheduling meetings now, but would not have those until the first week of November, maybe last week of October.” 

Almaraz also made sure to seek clarity on Garfield and whether the elementary school would at some point in the future be rebuilt and the students would have a neighborhood school to return to even after possibly being rezoned to other schools. Dr. Rios stated, “Absolutely.” “I do want people to know that we’re not completely looking at closing a school down, and just shutting the doors,” Almaraz stated. “It’s not going away.”

Board Member Amy Haynes expressed that although she agrees that something needs to be done about the middle school, she has some apprehension about rezoning or moving Garfield Elementary students to Blended Academy. “Let me just be clear, something has to be done with the middle school, it’s a safety issue, and I totally agree with that but I have some other thoughts about the dispersion of students at Garfield,” Haynes stated.

Before the proposal was taken to a vote, Board President Raymond Meza restated his concerns regarding equity of resources and facilities for Garfield students. “My biggest concern is making sure that it’s equitable in regards to computer labs, libraries, materials, and the like because we have a lot of variables, it’s the largest campus, low socioeconomic, majority bilingual students and I just want to make sure they have the needed resources in regards to materials and programs that are available at every other elementary campus.” 

The recommendation to approve the middle school reconfiguration, with the stipulation that the Garfield and Blended rezoning would be decided at a later date after meeting with parents, was brought to the board for a vote and ultimately passed in a 5-7 vote. The motion to approve was raised by board member Linda Guanajuato-Webb and seconded by board member Rebekah Chavez, with members Almaraz, Meza, and Galindo voting to approve as well. Board member Amy Haynes opposed and Joshua Overfelt abstained from the vote. 

The establishment of the 2024-2025 District Facilities and Operations Citizens Committee was also brought to the board for approval. “The initial idea was to form a citizens committee to evaluate the facilities, in the process we talked about having the same committee assist with the reconfiguration plan for the middle school project, so therefore the committee that would be approved today, their first task would be to work with the middle school reconfiguration, looking at the facilities and the work that would be done, evaluating the demographer’s work and guiding those recommendations that would be made to the board or the administration,” Dr. Rios presented. 

It was decided that the committee would consist of two parents and one staff member appointed by every board member or trustee, and three of the principals of the three middle schools as well as alternates that would participate in discussions but would not vote unless they were taking the place of an appointed committee member.  The board voted unanimously to approve the establishment of the Facilities and Operations Citizens Committee.