South San Antonio ISD's trustees voted 4-3 Wednesday to move ahead with reopening Athens Elementary, Kazen Middle and West Campus High schools, after two-dozen students and community members asked them to reconsider and allocate resources to other needs.

Board president Connie Prado and trustees Gilbert Rodriguez, Shirley Ibarra Pena and Homer Flores voted to adopt the report of the district's budget committee, which includes the formal rejection of a proposal to convert Kazen Middle into a community center proposed by Councilman Rey Saldaña.

Elda Flores, Louis Ybarra and Mandy Martinez opposed the motion, citing a need to move more slowly and take other proposals under consideration.

Superintendent Alexandro Flores, who was hired in September, recommended the board table the discussion until it engages further with the community, but a motion to follow his recommendation was voted down.

Trustees, however, appeared unclear on what exactly the budget committee’s report included, as it was not presented during the meeting. The committee is made up of three board members: Prado, Rodriguez and Martinez.

Prado said after the meeting that the adopted report did not include any recommendations by consulting firm Moak, Casey and Associates, while Martinez said she believed it did. Committee chairman Rodriguez declined to comment.

At a committee meeting last week, Prado and Rodriguez voted to adopt an “action plan” provided by the consulting firm, which lays out the steps to be completed to reopen the schools, including appointing principals, hiring contractors and marketing the campuses to families. Martinez voted against that resolution.

“It’s shady,” trustee Elda Flores said of the lack of clarity over the vote. She accused the board majority of failing to be transparent and said she was “heartbroken” by the meeting’s outcome.

Saldaña proposed partnering with the city to repurpose Kazen as a community center, housing nonprofits and mental health resources. Members of the board majority have said that conflicts with their directive to reopen the school as a traditional campus.

The trustees voted 4-3 against a motion proposed by trustee Ybarra to “entertain” that possible partnership.

Preparing the three campuses' facilities are estimated to cost more than $800,000, in addition to costs for hiring teachers and staff for the schools.

Enrollment has declined in the district for years. Prado has said reopening the schools could draw families back to the area.

All but two of the 26 speakers who addressed the board during the meeting, including 16 South San Antonio High School students, opposed reopening the schools or called for resources to be allocated elsewhere, including facilities and mental health resources.

Damian Martinez, a sophomore at the high school, said the district is “nowhere in need of three more schools right now.” Instead of stretching resources further, Kazen should be used “in a way that benefits the community, rather than taking away from us,” he said.

“New programs, teachers and ideas are needed, not old schools, not old desks and definitely not the old ideals that have ran this community for 20 years,” student Jordan Almanza said.

He questioned why no alternate options for the buildings have been presented, and why the entire community hasn’t been polled.

Many of the students told stories of their own struggles with anxiety, depression and other mental illness, which they said have forced them to seek help far outside the district, something they said the proposed community center would help address.

Others pointed to resources lacking in their own academic and extracurricular programs, and presented letters from anonymous teachers conveying their concerns about reopening the schools.

LTeitz@Express-News.net