This article has been updated.
Even with temperatures warming in the coming days, the San Antonio Independent School District will close all schools Thursday and Friday after a “significant systemwide failure” caused extensive damage to buildings during uncharacteristically cold weather in recent days.
The move comes after an announcement late Tuesday night that 20 schools would close Wednesday to assess damage and an early morning announcement that another eight would be closed. Now, district leaders are saying the extent of the damage is still not known, leading them to the decision to close down all schools.
After apologizing for the second time in recent days, Aquino said the district would be taking a “hard look” at its systems and infrastructure, while also saying that individuals’ roles would be scrutinized.
“There is going to be accountability,” Aquino said during a press conference. “People will be held accountable.”
SAISD board President Christina Martinez also said trustees would form a special committee to investigate the situation, led by Leticia Ozuna, an engineer and former City Council member.
“I just want to assure all of our families and our students that we take this very seriously, and we want to thank them for being with us for being open about how they feel,” she said. “We will get to the bottom of this, but we do appreciate Dr. Aquino and his accountability that he has taken in this crisis.”
Teachers will be using the days for planning and parent outreach, and students might have to make up the lost instructional time during the remainder of the year, according to Aquino.
“It is not days but it is instructional minutes that count for the Texas Education Agency,” Aquino said. “We will collaborate with the alliance and with our District Parent Advisory Committee … so we will make a collaborative decision.”
Since schools are on different schedules, the district will have to count missed minutes and then make a determination.
The school district had shared plans with campus leaders last week, before an arctic blast sent temperatures plummeting below freezing for multiple days, including directives for heaters to run 24 hours a day at all district facilities.
But Aquino said Wednesday that some campus staff did not comply with those directives, leading to a cascade of systemic HVAC and other failures. However, it was his call not to close campuses in the first place, he said.
“I take full responsibility for making the wrong call,” said Aquino, who took over leadership of the district in May 2022.
In a letter sent to parent late Tuesday, the superintendent said he had made the call not to close the district in conjunction with other area school district leaders, primarily due to the lack of precipitation.
When Tuesday morning began with temperatures in the teens, many parents decided not to send their children to campus. Those who did arrived to little or no heat, chaotic classroom environments and some buildings with broken pipes and no running water.
Aquino said students were kept in the warmest parts of buildings and bottled water was distributed because fountains weren’t working.
SAISD is in the process of closing and consolidating more than a dozen campuses, including some with aging buildings.
The extent of the damage is still becoming clear as a comprehensive assessment of the district’s buildings is completed. Aquino said the dollar amount associated with the damage is unimportant.
“This is not about money in dollars,” he said. “Really, in terms of the damage, the damage is to our community, our staff and our students. We did not deliver.”
Some of the closed buildings, including Burbank High School, were part of recent bond projects that included HVAC replacements and upgrades.
On Wednesday, students and teachers found out about the closures from media reports before hearing from the district, according to interviews with parents and comments on social media.
Attendance was 70% as 28 schools closed as a result of damages, with eight closures announced in the early morning hours.
This article has been updated to include an explanation from SAISD’s superintendent on the instructional time students could have to make up because of classroom time lost during this week’s closures.
