Monday Musings #17: School Board Races Matter

A sure sign that a weak incumbent faces the prospect of being unseated by a serious challenger is when the mudslinging starts and falsehoods are spread in the campaign’s closing days.

Such is the case with Sara Sorenson, who holds the District 1 seat on the San Antonio Independent School District’s board of trustees. Sorenson’s campaign is almost entirely funded by the San Antonio Alliance, the hidebound teachers union that has resisted almost all changes, innovation and reforms over the last two decades. You wouldn’t know that Sorenson is the front for the union, save for her mention of the union’s endorsement. That sort of deception alone is one very good reason for giving her the boot.

Another good reason is her decision, perhaps out of desperation, to engage in a smear campaign aimed at her opponent, Mike Villarreal. As a District 1 resident, I’ve politely wished union representatives a good day when they came door knocking, and as I write this newsletter, I have in hand Sorenson’s most recent mailer, which falsely claims “Mike Villarrreal’s conflicts are bad for kids.”

It’s false in two ways. One, Villarreal, a former state legislator recognized for his advocacy work to improve funding for public schools and teachers, is one of the most upstanding public servants I’ve known over my four decades here as a journalist. He is a model citizen without the slightest whiff of trouble on his resume over the course of his long career in the Texas House, as a data scientist at UTSA, and now as a school board candidate.

Two, there is no conflict. Sorenson’s lies are remarkable for someone purporting to be an educator, setting an example for the district’s students. In her most recent mailer, she attacks Villarreal’s wife, Jeanne Russell, the executive director of the CAST Schools, the Centers for Applied Science and Technology. For nearly a decade, CAST Schools have connected inner-city students with rigorous STEM curricula in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics disciplines. 

There would be zero conflict with Russell leading CAST Schools and Villarreal serving as a board trustee. Russell, by the way, has an advanced degree in education, is a former teacher, and for many years served as a reporter and lead editor directing education coverage at the San Antonio Express-News when I served as executive editor. 

Education coverage in the local media today is terribly superficial and focused on conflict, with very few reporters assigned to the education beat exclusively. That information vacuum is one reason why I am devoting this week’s edition to this school board race. It’s really important.

CAST Schools are giving San Antonio youth the opportunity to pursue advanced degrees at Tier One universities, and eventually, rewarding careers in a range of professions that require skills and learning only available through STEM learning. Because such specialized instruction was largely non-existent in inner city districts before the advent of CAST Schools, San Antonio has long been hobbled by its lack of highly skilled workers.

CAST Schools is helping change that. It’s grown to seven schools in four districts (San Antonio, East Central, Southwest, and Northside ISDs). Sorenson misleads people reading her mailer by misidentifying CAST Schools as a “local charter school network.” Talk about hypocrisy: Sorenson voted in favor of the opening of CAST Tech, the first CAST school, on the former Fox Tech campus.

Sorensen knows the schools operate within independent school districts, as opposed to charter school networks, such as Great Hearts Texas, IDEA, or BASIS, which operate as publicly-funded schools outside the districts and are not required to offer the full range of transportation, academic, sports, or extracurricular services and programs.

CAST Schools set the gold standard in Texas for the way they came about, the collective work of nationally recognized educators, local superintendents, business and civic leaders, and workforce development specialists. Charles Butt and Graham Weston gave millions of dollars in seed funding to jump start CAST, yet these two outstanding philanthropic supporters have been vilified by the teachers union.

One other important vote by Sorenson demonstrated her loyalty to the union rather than the district. She was the sole vote on the board opposing school campus closures and their conversion to community centers. It wasn’t that many years ago when SAISD had half the students enrolled in the Northside ISD, yet had more school campuses. 

No district can afford empty schools on the books. Better they be sold. Saving money that would otherwise be wasted ought to be a priority for anyone who claims teacher pay should be raised. Legislators are giving teachers a raise this coming biennium, but another way to increase pay is to modernize district budgets and reallocate the savings elsewhere, such as teacher pay.

The district will be stronger with both Russell and Villarreal directly engaged in elevating its education outcomes. Sorenson, if unseated, will not be missed.

Remember: Today and tomorrow are the last early voting days. Election Day is Saturday, May 3, in the heart of Fiesta. Please do not let the party cause you to forget or neglect to vote.