Augustine Ortiz paused before sharing the news with a class of beginner mariachi students on a bright Wednesday afternoon at Poe Middle School.
“I know you all heard of what was going to happen with the program being shut down,” he said as students shuffled in their seats. “But I learned yesterday that is no longer going to happen.”
Students beamed, looking excitedly at each other before returning to practice as Ortiz looked on with pride. Paper mariachi decals on the wall before the entrance of the room set the scene for Los Tigres Mariachi program, which has been around for years and has become a multi-generational class for many in the community.
Ortiz, who himself became a mariachi after learning about it in a San Antonio ISD school, was shocked when he learned at the end of February that the program he poured his life into was set to be shut down starting next year due to an annual reshuffling of employees.
District officials allocate a certain number of employee spots for each campus based on how many students are projected to attend the following year. With declining enrollment, schools are left to decide how best to utilize those limited resources and where to make cuts.
Elizabeth Castro, the principal, told Ortiz that he could take another position somewhere within the district.
Before that, Castro said the campus collected “choice slips” for each student to determine which elective classes were the most popular.
“We come back and we put all of that in our system, and the system tells us … the most popular courses,” she said. “So then we determine what we’re going to offer.”
The mariachi class was toward the bottom of the list, even though hundreds of students selected it. So along with choir, orchestra and technology, the program was slated to be eliminated.
But learning mariachi is a complex process, however, and students need to start early to be successful in the high school program.
So Castro applied for an additional allocation from the district, a special case-by-case process that ultimately saved the program.
As of Wednesday night, six other teachers at the campus are still being displaced, part of 87 total displacements across the district. Their positions will no longer be available at the same campuses at the start of next year.
No layoffs
Superintendent Jaime Aquino stressed during an interview Wednesday that the cuts are not layoffs. A high number of vacancies, and an expected attrition of about 500 employees, means that every affected staffer will have some sort of job in the district.
“While Houston is cutting and other districts are cutting given the loss of enrollment, we are able to do this, which is incredible,” he said. “I can only do this because of the level of vacancies and the teacher shortage. If I didn’t have that, people would have been laid off.”
While that guarantee is a start, Alejandra Lopez, the president of the San Antonio Alliance, a teacher’s union, said all displaced teachers should be given extra support — such as that given to teachers affected by school closures.
A total of 15 SAISD schools are set to close as part of a district restructuring next year.
Those teachers are being given priority for jobs in their positions and a guarantee of pay at last year’s rate in the event they don’t get a job at the same level.
“[Displaced staff members] should receive the same high level of support that our staff who are being impacted by right-sizing have gotten,” she said. “While we recognize that Jaime is saying, ‘You will have a position, it may not be the exact same,’ we’re here to support our members and to hold the district leadership accountable to make sure that we do everything possible to find displaced staff a good fit for them for next year.”
Lopez also said she has not gotten concrete numbers of affected campuses or individuals.
“What we’ve experienced is just a level of frustration about the lack of clarity, the lack of understanding as to why this is happening, like why are so many positions being cut? Who is making these decisions, who is responsible for these decisions?”
That has led to stress and confusion, even as the district works to accommodate allocation requests as they come in.
When Ortiz was notified in February that he was being displaced, he said it was difficult to fathom what would come next, with the program he built having to be left behind.
“I was just looking at the walls, looking at everything I put into the program,” he said.
“It was daunting to come back to work sometimes. You feel uncertain, you feel anxiety and depression.”
Ortiz said he was preparing to donate all the instruments he had purchased for any future programs down the road and planning to help students succeed through the end of the program when he learned that he would get to stay after all.
“I was happy that the district had put their best foot forward and did their best, despite the state not putting their best foot forward,” he said.
Aquino also referred to the lack of any increases in state funding as a significant reason the district is in its current financial situation.
The displacements and program cuts are also occurring concurrently with rapidly declining enrollment.
According to a presentation at a board meeting Tuesday night, losses this school year and into the following account for a decline of about 1,400 students, including 10% of students impacted by sweeping school closures, which are set to take effect next fall.
With funding in the state tied to attendance and enrollment, the loss represents millions in state funding for the district, compounding the loss felt by the end of federal COVID-19 relief funding.
While the emotional process is taxing on campus communities and employees, Castro said the focus has been on getting students into school and learning.
“We know kids come to school for the arts,” she added. “They stay for the core content.”
Ortiz said the program goes beyond a music class.
“Students look forward to it, they see themselves represented in the class and the culture and in the music, so they buy into it,” he said.
Before counting off one last time before leaving the class Wednesday, Ortiz told students they would keep working, whether a program was there or not.
“We’re still gonna keep working and we’re not gonna stop, OK?” he said. “I’m as happy as y’all are.”
