SFDRCISD schools: products of history, culture and vision

August 5, 2006

By Bill Sontag
Feature Writer

Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.

-- Malcolm Forbes

When you, the taxpaying citizen, enter the foyer of the San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District administration building, you’re in for a brisk, “Hello, may I help you?” Even in the summertime, it’s a busy place and there’s little time for chit-chat. While waiting for an appointment, the opening ceremonies of a school board meeting, or to make a compelling pitch for a job, parents, students, applicants, salesmen, reporters and guests can get a feel for the special emphasis programs of the SFDRCISD.

There, across the room, a rack of March, 2004, brochures trumpets the district’s Gifted and Talented Program, Career and Technology Program, Bilingual Education, Athletic Program, Student Guidance Learning Center Program, and Dyslexia Program. Too, there is the Orchestra Program, Choral Music Program, and the Academic University Interscholastic League.

And this is only a partial inventory of what’s available for Del Rio students at all levels of skill, capacity, talent and interest. But it hasn’t always been so, and administrators feel that even more options are needed.

The district is challenged to meet the needs of 10,300 students, 82 percent of whom are Hispanic, 16.5 percent Anglo, 1.5 percent African American, and a teacher ethnic spread of roughly half Hispanic and half Anglo.

Superintendent Roberto “Bobby” Fernandez is the loquacious, charismatic cheerleader of the district he directs. He is also a shameless booster of his alma mater, the University of Texas. In his office, a plaque chides and reminds Texas Aggies and others that Fernandez is “Texan by birth, Longhorn by the grace of God.”

His days are spent on far more serious issues. Moreover, Fernandez is vigorous in both his optimism and his expectations that critics will fall silent, on one issue after another, when they get the facts.

But critics are like garden variety gophers. The harder and more robustly they are assailed, the faster they reproduce. So Fernandez believes the history of his young district is a proper starting point for understanding how Del Rio schools acquired the capabilities, challenges and frailties that – right or wrong – characterize the reputation of SFDRCISD.

“Most school districts, in talking about historical background of a public institution in a community, will date it back to the early 1900s or the late 1800s, but in this community, the birth of our San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District was in September, 1971,” said Fernandez.

“We have a very young district,” Fernandez said, as he launched into the colorful background. “This community had two school districts: San Felipe Independent School District and the Del Rio Independent School District. And we were, I believe, the first federally consolidated in the State of Texas – I don’t know about in the country, but certainly in the State of Texas.

“Ours was the first federally consolidated, partially due to the Laughlin AFB children. Laughlin children resided in the San Felipe Independent School District, but the children attended the Del Rio Independent School District, so the issue of where the children should attend schools gave birth to the federal court order [handed down by Judge William Wayne Justice] in 1971.

“I’m sure there were other reasons and things that went on back then, but we have a fairly new school district. We’ve only been in existence since 1971,” Fernandez said.

School districts across the South were aflame in the 1960s and 1970s with desegregation and consolidation orders, and protests against both. Justice, appointed to the federal bench in 1968 by President Lyndon Baines Johnson, acquired his share of caseload on the school issues.

Fernandez and Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Julio Ramos said Justice never visited Del Rio. Rather, district officials reported to Justice in his Tyler, Texas, courtroom to receive his “verdict” on the schools in Del Rio.

“In 1971, schools in Del Rio started two weeks late, because the judge issued an order – a comprehensive order – on everything pertaining to our school district. Judge Wayne Justice gave us a comprehensive plan to follow ... and within that plan, [was] included an educational plan.

“The educational plan told us what we needed to include in our curriculum. Such things as mandated preschool programs. We had to offer a four-year-old program back in 1971. As part of the comprehensive academic or curriculum plan, we had to offer bilingual classes because that was an issue ... It was a complete comprehensive plan on the academic side, or the curriculum side.

On the administrative side, when we were consolidated, the plan included what campuses would serve what grades. There were designated pre-K/K campuses, then we had first- and second-grade campuses in the community ...

“...Then we had third- to sixth-grade campuses, and then we had one junior high school – seventh and eighth – and a ninth-grade campus and a high school campus,” explained Fernandez. “This was all the result of consolidation.”

Fernandez said the district was obligated to Justice’s mandates for about ten years before being released to begin tailoring the district to changing needs of the community.

All elementary school campuses now include kindergarten through fifth-grade classes, Fernandez pointed out, highlighting that new schools have been built, including a separate, once-new campus for ninth-graders.

“There was some reluctance, some resistance to this issue,” Fernandez commented on community enthusiasm for Justice’s order. “But I think history will prove that it was a very good decision because of the [impact on] funding for education,” said Fernandez.

SFDRCISD has a fairly stable student population, Fernandez said, all but dismissing the idea that funding for another high school should be sought now. “We’ve had 10,000 to 12,000 students in the district for about the last 15 years,” Fernandez said.

“If the community wants a new high school, the community will have to raise taxes.” He explained that economics and the number of students drive decisions such as the size and number of campuses in the district.

“We have about 1,900 students in grades 10 through 12 at Del Rio High School,” said Fernandez, adding that they are taught by roughly 150 teachers there. “Did you know that most high schools in San Antonio have a student population of more than 3,000?”

But the most recent campus addition remains a source of pride for Fernandez and Ramos. In 2000, when voters approved a $29.4 million bond issue to begin the huge Del Rio Middle School project on U.S. Highway 90 East, “We had not had a successful bond issue since 1966,” said Fernandez.

Still, Fernandez knows and has responses for the “hot button” questions on the minds – if not the lips – of parents, students, politicians, Air Force personnel, and business owners thinking of settling in Del Rio.

Yes, the district’s official dropout rate is 2.7 percent, against a state average of .9 percent, but Ramos and Fernandez stress that the number is an anomaly skewed by poor record keeping. If students leave and fail to report to another school or district, they are considered “drop outs.”

Fernandez said that military dependents, children of transferred workers and other similar circumstances were classified as dropouts because too few records existed last year to show they had resumed school anywhere. Thanks to more diligent tracking, Fernandez said, the most recent calculated rate hovers at one percent. “Now we try to emphasize the importance of record keeping,” Fernandez shrugged.

And, yes, he knows there are concerns about student discipline at the seventh- and eighth-grade middle school and at the high school. At Del Rio Middle School, Fernandez lauds the arrival of a new principal, Carlos Rios. A former Del Rioan and captain in the U.S. Navy, Rios is bringing Fernandez’s emphasis on discipline to the campus.

Fernandez also praised new approaches to discipline gradually being implemented by Principal Jorge Garza at Del Rio High School. “There will be improvements at the high school,” Fernandez assured. “We’re upgrading our personnel to address these issues.”

The average daily attendance rate at Del Rio High School last year was 95.49 percent, more than four percentage points higher than the district’s rate taken as a whole. The numbers are important.

A measure of classroom occupancy, calculated with a tediously difficult formula, yields the district’s “weighted average daily attendance” (WADA), which, when coupled with even more detailed data about the community’s tax base, determines SFDRCISD’s eligibility for financial assistance from the so-called “Robin Hood fund.”

It’s a term Fernandez dislikes, preferring the more official description as the state’s “school equalization fund.”

Though Ramos cautioned Monday that the amount can fluctuate wildly, last year, SFDRCISD received $1,865,750 from the fund that secures tax money from “property wealthy districts” and redistributes that wealth to “property poor” districts, including SFDRCISD.

Academics, too, are a continuing weight in Fernandez’s balancing act of budget and scholarship demands. Beyond the mind-boggling details of TAKS tests and scores, and worries by both parents and some teachers that kids are being “taught to the test,” instead of receiving a well-rounded education, Fernandez touts new programs that aim to provide just such opportunities. He stresses his conviction that the city’s economic future lies in forging an educated workforce.

Fernandez said that, in 1990, he and Dan Bus founded the highly-regarded “Grow Your Own Program” (GYOP) in conjunction with Dan Rein, director of the Civil Service aircraft maintenance directorate at Laughlin Air Force Base. The program introduces mechanically-inclined students to the intricacies of aircraft maintenance and the careers that go with them.

He is also proud of the medical careers introductions available through Health Occupations Students of America chapter, under the tutelage of “Nurse Judy” Alexaitis. “We are now graduating about 30 students per year in this program,” Fernandez said, “with a minimum of a nurse’s aid certification."

In 2004, the district began the “Career and Technology Education Program” (CATE), including a pre-engineering curriculum geared heavily towards math and science. No graduates yet, but Fernandez anticipates that they will be bright students with good preparation for college in technical fields.

“Our emphasis this year will be on our dual credit program,” said Fernandez. He used enrollment in history classes at Southwest Texas Junior College as an example, with students receiving credit at high school and college levels simultaneously. Fernandez said the dual credit opportunity is available to all students in good standing, but he intends to target those who “may be the first in their family to attend college at all.”

Fernandez said that in families where college is not an established tradition, home-based encouragement for a student to go on to higher education may be scant. His premise is that, if students get a boost in that direction while still in high school, two motivating things may happen: Costs of attending college may be dramatically reduced because costly credits are already expunged, and students get a taste of accomplishment in a college setting.

To frost the educational cake even further, Fernandez wants more and better collaborations here with the medical, Air Force, government and business communities, admitting that he’s perplexed about why the public schools were not invited to be represented on the mayor’s new “Economic Development Advisory Board.”

Del Rio Mayor Efrain Valdez responded, “I know he’s disappointed, but we really didn’t want any of our committees and advisory boards becoming too large, and Mr. Fernandez is already participating on the city’s comprehensive master plan committee. That plan addresses many of these issues, too, and we really need his input there."

Through the leadership of both Fernandez and Ramos, SFDRCISD has engaged partnerships with several other educational services in the region, and they hope to continue those and nourish others that support classroom instruction.

Ramos has been instrumental in cementing a fruitful relationship with the leadership of Shumla School, a non-profit, experiential campus just north of the Pecos River High Bridge on private ranch land. “We will continue to participate with them, in particular with their K.E.Y. [Knowledge Enriching Youth] program,” said Ramos.

Fernandez added that past and current programs and events at Casa De La Cultura, Del Rio Council for the Arts and the Whitehead Memorial Museum retain his esteem as important educational opportunities for Del Rio youth.

The challenges facing Del Rio schools are legion, and Ramos warned they’re not likely to diminish. “But they are statewide, too,” he asserted. “For example, the state is about to require even more from teachers and students. Students will probably soon have to receive four full years of math and four years of science to graduate."

Fernandez said the very diversity that enriches the SFDRCISD classrooms is another challenge. “We cannot teach just to the students in the middle of abilities. As the state requires higher standards, we will work with students to achieve them, but we have to remember to work with all students, not just those at the top or the bottom, scholastically.

"We must work to serve the special education students just as hard as we do for honor students,” Fernandez said.