On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho.

San Antonio is a fast growing, fast moving city with something new happening every day.

That's why each week we go on the record with Randy Beemer and the newsmakers who are driving this change.

Then we gather at the reporters roundtable to talk about the latest news stories with the journalist behind those stories.

Join us now as we go on the record with Randy Beemer.

And thank you for joining us for on the record, I'm Randy Beemer, and this week we are starting with the newest superintendent in San Antonio of the Northeast Independent School District, Anthony Jarrett.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Thank you for having me.

You were interim superintendent since the beginning of the year, just named acting superintendent or new full time superintendent last month.

First of all, there are so many challenges to public schools these days.

A number of superintendents in the area have have left moving on from education completely.

What are some of the goals that you come in with for northeast?

I think my goals are real simple.

I'm really focused on four key areas our students, our staff, our stakeholders, and stewardship.

And I want to kind of unpack all four of those because I think they all have to work in collaboration with each other.

So first of all, obviously making sure all of our students receive the highest quality education that we can provide for them.

We don't want our kids just to graduate with a high school diploma, but really to put them in a position to go into high pay, high paying jobs that are viable for the future.

The second one, of course, is our staff is, you know, schools don't operate unless you have great people in front of kids every single day.

And so hiring and retaining great staff members, supporting them in their efforts to educate our kids, and then, of course, our stakeholders, our community, our parents are trusting them, trusting us with their most important, precious individuals in their lives.

And so how do we partner with them?

And making sure they feel like they're part is educational journey.

And then the last thing, and I think this is something that is a challenge that we're being confronted with as well, is stewardship and the stewardship in the lens, how to make our current budget fit, the demands and the needs of our students and our community.

And so those are my four priorities of what I will focus on as we go forward.

The last sort of we can start with that the budget and the stewardship with the challenges.

Public school funding didn't get as much as public school educators and hoped with the latest bill and the school vouchers giving a lot of money to private schools, that has led to a drain of some public school students.

How big a challenge is that right now when you went through the budget process?

All right.

Yeah, it's a big challenge because the challenge is when you add a new variable to your finances, you're having to adjust how you act and what you do without knowing how it's going to impact you.

First of all, birth rates are lower than they've ever been.

So your enrollment starts to decline.

And yet you have these buildings that were built based on a certain enrollment count for many years to come, and that's not there anymore.

The second thing that happens is, of course, you you have the legislation comes in and they say, well, we're going to actually create vouchers, a voucher system.

When they did that, I think the first part, I agree that parents should have the right to choose what is best for them and their family, but creating a new educational system to create competition actually removes kids from our schools that we're already losing due to low birth rates.

When that happens, we are actually having to still run a district the same size as we are with less money because each student that enters our school creates Ada or average daily attendance.

And so what we've been challenged with is how do you set a budget for the fiscal year?

You don't know how many kids are going to lose.

We have to hire teachers based on our projections, and they sign a contract.

And when those teachers sign a contract, we've already committed to them that they're going to have a job for a year.

But if those students don't show up, then we have the challenge about saying, how is this going to impact our budget, but also serve our kids at the same time.

So it creates a very challenging situation because we're operating in a very blind space.

It is summertime.

People are enrolling their kids or will be soon.

I'm not sure of the timeline.

And also with the school vouchers that people have applied for, they're getting word whether they got them or not.

How how uncertain is it?

I mean, what is the range of estimates you have of the school population in the district this year?

Well, what the comptroller has put out is that we could lose up to 1700, but we don't know if that's 1700 students that were already with us, or 1700 students that could be currently sitting in charters or private.

And so again, it's just the unknown.

And so and we weren't in a place where we were held harmless this year and didn't give us the grace to say, you know what?

If you guys lose this many kiddos due to vouchers, we're going to float you for a year.

So that way you can reset your projection numbers.

And so by not having that opportunity to be able to make sure that our our budget is set based on our enrollment, we really are going with a very conservative approach.

We we really scaled back on our staffing and then we'll and if we get more kids, then of course we'll have to start hiring again.

So it created a lot of unknown for us, but we did the best we could with what we did.

Now and staffing, retaining teachers.

You mentioned earlier that has been a problem for the last few years as the state has gotten more into curriculum.

I understand there's even more turnover with teachers getting out of education as well.

How tough is it to retain those good teachers and find new ones?

Well, I think it's tough to retain teachers, but I think retention first starts with a good culture.

I think we fail sometimes to know that you take care of people and treat people as good employees.

That's the first thing to try to retain them.

But the second piece that makes it challenging is you have different budgets and which means there's different compensation.

So depends on what district you go and work in.

If you're a fast growth district, you may be able to pay a little more to your teachers, where if you're in a district that's losing enrollment, you may not be able to or so that creates a challenge because you're in a competitive market to try to make sure that you're still having competitive salaries to to retain staff.

And so that has created a challenge for, for us.

But I also want to say it's not just about retaining staff, it's about retaining high quality staff.

And I think we don't need more people.

We need the right people.

And so that's what we really have been focused on, is trying to take care of the people that are doing great job.

There were some incentives from the state for teachers added.

Has that helped and how much are you getting that?

Did it put some extra dollars in our teachers pockets?

What the challenge that created though the school system doesn't just run with teachers.

So when the state created the funding source, they gave teachers a pay raise, which rightfully so, they deserve every penny of that and some.

But what they didn't do is take care of people like the cafeteria workers or the custodians or the administrators or the counselors or the librarians.

And so they put a little bit of money in the ABC allotment to try to offset some of that, but it wasn't necessarily enough to get people to market value where they want to stay in.

School closures in your district.

We've had a number of districts that were booming, like northeast, like North Side, and used to work in North Side that have had to close schools.

Anger parents.

Obviously when you do that.

What's the situation there and are you looking at even more?

Well, I don't want to say that prematurely.

Last year we had to close three schools and that is a challenge because that is that is a beacon in those communities.

And so as we look forward to this year, one of the questions that was asked or pushed to us was, are you going to close schools?

And we and we have a committee that recommends it.

So we didn't want to do that prematurely.

So first thing we tried to do is say, well, let's increase our enrollment.

And so we made some steps where we open our boundaries for students to come in.

We've also increased our CTE programing and early college.

Programs, CTE.

Career technical education programs.

And so our first thing is to increase enrollment.

And if that's not there then we are going to have to revisit that conversation.

And the way we're going to do that is we're only we're not looking at every school, but we are going to have to look at the schools that are basically 450 or below in student enrollment.

They are operating in less than 60% of the building usage, and then obviously higher than 5% cost to educate each kid.

One last question that's been in the news recently about the new curriculum that's going to be coming in the state curriculum over the next few years, and the state will give districts more money if they use those materials in northeast.

Are you going to use that?

And what about the input of parents who are maybe more militant in some ways than in the past?

It just depends on which which curriculum.

There's a lot of curriculum resources that's out there right now.

We did go through a recent adoption where we adopted a high quality instructional material in mathematics.

Basically, what that means is that it's been vetted thoroughly and different things like that.

And they did give additional dollars for us to get those, but we didn't adopt necessarily to state curriculum.

I think as Bluebonnet, our committee and our teachers and our community have voted for a different product.

So we still give the voice to our community.

We just put all the products in front of them, and they choose the one that is best for our kids and your families.

Well, thank you very much for coming in.

I know it is an incredibly tough job and congratulations on the promotion and good luck with that.

In Northeast School District, the new superintendent of ISD, Anthony Jarrett.

Thanks.

Thank you I appreciate it.

Ice has been in the news again because of shootings by officers of people that they have pulled over recently.

One of those in Houston.

Here to talk about that is Trey Martinez.

Fisher district 116.

Thank you very much for coming in.

First of all, your reaction to these shootings and what you know about them.

Yeah.

Well, look, I mean, anytime there's a loss of life, right?

I mean, it is a moment to reflect, especially when it comes at the hands of law enforcement under questionable circumstances.

I mean, you know, you don't have to look very far.

Whenever there's a shooting in Texas, there is a tremendous outpouring of thoughts and prayers.

What concerns me about this one is, you know, we have a man who was killed in Houston.

We still don't know all the facts, but we've had crickets from a lot of people that I work with in terms of just reaction, reacting and just showing some humanity.

I mean, there was a loss of life and it was done at the hands of law enforcement.

And many people have questions and we're not getting any answers.

And when you talk about crickets, the people you work with, are you talking at the state level that you would have expected to have those questions?

What strikes me is we've had mass shootings and calamities happen in this state, and you'll see Republicans and Democrats, all, you know, come online and express, you know, thoughts and prayers and and, you know, showing unity as a state.

We have a Houston father who was driving a work van, going to work was shot inside his vehicle, pulled out of his car and handcuffed while he was bleeding out.

And we have not heard a single word from my Republican counterparts, even those in Houston, as to we need to figure out what went on here.

Now, on the other side, ISIS said.

And I'm not sure they haven't said a lot, but that they're trying.

There were fearing for life and safety of an officer in that case, and the one in main life and safety of the people in the area.

How do you respond to that?

Well, I would say, look, we saw this in Minneapolis with US citizens, and we saw video footage from that episode that really called them to question whether someone's life was really in jeopardy when they were killed.

But we know this.

We know the secretary of Homeland Security then said, you know what?

Body cams are my top priority so that we can record these moments.

We haven't had it.

And now we have an agency reacting in hindsight saying, you know, maybe we're not going to do traffic detentions anymore.

Until we can have a better process.

Look, at the end of the day, you know, this sends a bad message to all of law enforcement.

So whether you're an ordinary citizen or you happen to be a member of the local police department, you do not want to see instances like this where people in this state feel like their lives are in jeopardy every time they get pulled.

Over, as polarized as we are.

Republicans have pulled back on this wanting to support Ice.

Generally, Democrats have been, and some of the people calling for change have been criticized as leftists and radicals and supporting illegals.

But one reaction I wanted to point out was from the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce actually questioning the the shooting over in Houston.

And, you know, something about that and the, the, the man who's behind that chamber, right.

Well, you know, so I mean, the US Senate Chamber of Commerce is not not this, you know, left wing liberal, you know, advocacy group.

There are business group and their business men and women across this country, led by a man from San Antonio.

And for them to speak out really out of their lane right there kind of business in commerce.

But they're saying, hey, from a humanity perspective here, this is wrong.

Like we need we deserve answers.

At the end of the day, you get pulled over for a traffic ticket in the city of San Antonio.

That officer is audio recording every word that's exchanged.

There are video cameras on the vehicle.

There are video cameras on the uniform.

Everybody knows what happened at that.

Stop.

You don't lose your life for a traffic ticket.

Something like this to happen and not have any recollection or any independent verification as to what really occurred.

That really begs the question, and it's wrong.

And we need a stop it be.

Investigate what happened and see.

Put the protocols in place that if you're going to be a law enforcement agency, will act like a law enforcement agency and do what everybody else is doing to preserve that evidence.

Now, the House and Senate in Washington have had, you know, they've talked about oversight and they've talked about the budget for Ice.

As a state representative, one would assume you don't really have any pull or oversight in that.

But working with your colleagues in Congress, what kind of reaction are you expecting?

And are they going to keep that push up to keep the funding from Ice?

It's a great question.

So look, I don't think I don't think Homeland Security woke up this morning, looked in the mirror and said, you know, today we're going to stop traffic, detentions.

They're making that policy move because of the pressure coming from the local level, coming from the federal level.

And so, number one, I think working together and making sure that we're going for needed reforms, that's how these agencies will make change, especially in an administration that seems to be obstinate and it can be stubborn at times.

On the other hand, looking at what we can do at the state, well, we get to write the law.

And so if we say you cannot police in this state and we're a mask, well, that's a state law.

If we say when you come to to come into Texas and do your immigration background, well, you have to have a Texas peace officer with you.

You know, they have to provide backup at the scene.

We need an independent set of witnesses for the state to get involved.

I mean, what we saw here in Houston is a state.

State police are saying we can't investigate this unless the feds ask us to.

Well, if we had state police on site, you darn right we can investigate that and use our state powers to do that.

And now, whether or not those those state laws would conflict with federal law or be interpreted that way, we would expect that to go to the courts.

Moving on to other Ice issue, another Ice issue here in San Antonio, the detention or processing center or planned for the east side.

What are you looking at there?

Well, that's still a work in progress.

I mean, I think it was reported, you know, several weeks ago that Ice and Homeland have now sort of reevaluated their strategy and they're beginning to liquidate a number of those properties they bought around the country.

It's my understanding that the San Antonio facility still remains a priority facility for Ice and homeland as a sort of detention center.

I don't believe they've gone in any construction or permitting phases.

You know, I think we'll still hear more about it.

But at the end of the day, we're beginning to learn from other places in the country that, hey, environmental issues are still important.

You know, you have to have sometimes proper permitting.

We know the city council recently has enacted new ordinances that said, before you can issue a license for a permit like this, they have to meet certain requirements.

And then let's remember, most importantly, it's not the federal government that's running these detention centers.

They may own the property.

It may be their mission, but they're going to contract with third parties.

And I think that's where state and local governments also have an opportunity to weigh in and put pressure on those companies.

I've heard some people who are fighting this saying, basically the goal is to slow walk the process until at least November, when there is an election.

And there may be some changes both in Washington and the state.

Is that really the strategy?

Is that basically the only thing you can do, and do you expect there be to change in November?

I think naturally these things are going to take time, you know, but adding, you know, having the pressure, you know, every day that this facility is not open is a day that our community feels vindicated for having this just sort of pop up, pop up in his backyard with zero notice.

But at the end of the day, maybe, yeah, having some balancing government and some checks and balances so that we just don't have one party and one system, just make the rules for everybody else to go back to the old fashioned way of of actually being pragmatic and negotiating and having true policy making where both parties are at the table making decisions and not one party.

Speaking of that, in Austin right now, there is something that seems to be bringing Republicans and Democrats together, and that's a concern over data centers and the changes in that.

We had a report yesterday that there are close to 70 data centers operating or planned for San Antonio.

What do you see happening next session in terms of data centers?

Sure.

I mean, I think what we see around the state, I mean, there are there are a couple hundred, if not more plans to build data centers across the state and big cities and small towns.

And I think what's uniting both parties is that we recognize as a state that we have some resource challenges.

Right?

We don't have enough water for our, you know, for the people who live here, our electricity demand.

Just today's front line headline story in the newspaper talked about we're not even meeting demand for people who just live here, residents.

So I think we need to be smart about how we plan these things.

We need to be smart to make sure that they're doing a few things that they said they would do bring high paying jobs to the community, you know, bring their own plan to develop their resources and use those resources and not let ordinary Texans foot the bill.

I think that that's where I believe there's a lot of common ground.

I do expect that there'll be some reform.

But make no mistake, I mean, in the in the wake of AI and cyber security and national defense, I mean, these tools are important tools for us to have as a country, but we need to do it in a smart way and a responsible.

Finally, to touch on something we talked about with the superintendent earlier, education funding, there's again, going to be a push from public education for more money.

What is the likelihood of that happening after the school voucher bill as we head into the real first year of that?

Sure.

Look, I make no mistake, the fact that our schools aren't funded in this state has nothing to do with money.

We have plenty of money.

What we lack is the political will from both parties to fully fund our education system.

What we see here in San Antonio is horrific.

We have we fund schools, then they don't perform as expected.

And then the T takes them over and cleans house.

Well, look, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Schools need resources.

Bottom line, educating 5 million children in this state is expensive, and the state needs to own up to that responsibility and fund it adequately.

And so my hat's off to the superintendent.

The challenges are real, but it's not because we lack resources.

We lack the will.

So you're going to have a whole lot on your plate for the next session.

And we appreciate all your time and your input.

Again, Trey Martinez Fisher district 116.

Thanks for coming in.

Thank you.

On reporter's roundtable this week A few years ago, the City Council passed an ordinance for a scorecard for city contractors.

You haven't really heard much about how that's going, but James McCandless, a reporter, especially with commercial real estate for the San Antonio Business Journal, has been looking into this fascinating article recently.

Thank you very much for coming in.

First of all.

Thanks for having me back.

And tell us about how you got into this story recently.

Scorecard system was supposed to keep contractors accountable on municipal work, roads, street construction, all that.

We got a tip recently that someone who is in the industry was concerned that they were being asked to come in to finish jobs that a low scoring company was getting, and that they were doing shoddy work.

They didn't want to go on record as to who they were.

That reminded me that this ordinance was passed a couple of years ago in 2023, and when I asked the city about it, they say that those scorecards are internal for the capital delivery department only.

And when I put in a public records request for them, I got 300 of them about for the past three years.

While a majority of the companies are performing well by the city's standards.

There are some that have score below the 70% threshold but still get work.

And what are they scored on and how does.

That work?

Keeping within budget, responsiveness and quality of the work itself.

There are some contractors that have scored below that for doing things like being behind on schedule and not telling the city that they were going to be behind, and creating nuisances for citizens that are in and around wherever they're working.

People might assume, okay, if they fall below that standard, they're failing and they won't be hired again.

Right.

That's what the ordinance lays out.

It only says that if you score below this threshold, there are you can be deemed a non responsible bidder and be banned from bidding for three years on city work.

In practice, that's not what the city does.

They told me that they would prefer to fix the relationship with the contractor and keep them working before firing them.

And get them up to standard.

Yeah, get them up to standard.

So they have decided that it would be in their best interest to maintain that relationship and keep them working and bring them up to par.

I should say that for most of these scorecards, contractors are scoring above 70%.

A lot of them are scoring 100%.

These low scores do raise some questions.

City Council has talked about moving projects along the city manager.

They're created a new position to kind of oversee that.

Is there a push on city council maybe to change what's going on?

These scorecards are kept within the capital delivery department.

They are not seen by city council when they go to vote on these contracts.

And when I asked all of City Council and the mayor about it, most of them didn't get back to me.

But Phyllis is one that said the ordinance should be amended.

Saqr said that we need to have good relationships with contractors, but not at the expense of good work.

There is a little bit of a of a push for this, but I haven't heard from the majority of the council.

On it and the reaction otherwise from the business community, say the tip that you got about how this is hurting them, that they're having to come in and clean up work.

Most people I've talked to, mostly unaffiliated with this, say that, that, that they don't understand why the city would do this, rather than just cut the contractor loose and bring someone else in.

There's already mechanisms for that in contracts.

But but the city, you know, they have their position.

And speaking of construction and downtown, we were talking before about some of the other things that you've been working on, downtown San Antonio in a holding pattern, more or less, for the past couple of years.

What do you mean by that?

I think, you know, everyone's waiting for the missions ballpark to come.

Everyone's waiting for the Spurs arena.

I think there is still a problem with tourism and how it hasn't returned to pre-COVID numbers.

Not a lot of people outside of city and county are working down there.

Everyone's sort of waiting for these big, giant projects to sort of connect everything together.

There's also the Alamo that's going to be done in a year or so.

And the Monarch Hotel opened recently.

What do you make of that?

That is the higher end hotel.

The people opening those hotels generally say that they think there is a market for luxury travel that hasn't been tapped into in San Antonio, and that they're not worried about the the middle market travel that that has sustained San Antonio for so long.

They think that there's more to capture of that market than there is at the at the middle.

But the international tourist is especially I don't say gone, but down across the country as well as in San Antonio.

You or I don't have any expertise in that.

So we'll see.

So it's longer term bets and we'll just have to watch.

I think so.

All right.

Well thank you very much.

And fascinating stuff again.

James McCandless knows everything there is to know about business at the San Antonio Business Journal.

Thanks for coming in.

Thank you.

And thank you for joining us for this edition of On the Record.

You can see this show again.

You can watch any previous shows.

You can also download it as a podcast.

Just go to KLRN.org R&D Beemer and we'll see you next time.

On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho.