Edgewood ISD ends partnerships at three schools after continued academic decline

Edgewood ISD trustees voted Monday, June 16, to end outside management partnerships at three campuses after years of weak academic results, moving the schools back under direct district control in the fall.

The decision affects Las Palmas Leadership School for Girls, Roy Cisneros Leadership Elementary School and Gus Garcia University School. District leaders said teachers and other staff at the campuses are expected to stay in place when operations return to Edgewood.

Superintendent Eduardo Hernández said the move is aimed at the long-term sustainability of the schools. He said attendance and finances have been ongoing problems and that bringing the campuses back under local control is important as the district tries to stabilize its turnaround strategy.

Why Edgewood is changing course

The three campuses were operating under partnerships created through Texas Senate Bill 1882, a state law that gives districts extra funding and more time to improve struggling schools through outside operators such as nonprofits, universities or charter organizations.

Edgewood has used that model as part of a broader effort to avoid faster state consequences for underperforming campuses while trying to raise academic results. The district’s latest move shows that it is now stepping back from those arrangements at three schools after repeated low ratings.

The academic record at the campuses helps explain the reversal. Las Palmas received a B in 2022, then fell to F ratings in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Roy Cisneros Leadership Elementary School received a C in 2022 and F ratings in each of the next three years.

Gus Garcia University School also showed extended weakness, with a C in 2022, D ratings in 2023 and 2024, and an F in 2025. Those results placed added pressure on the district to rethink who should be responsible for the schools’ next phase.

What stays the same for families

Edgewood said the personnel and teachers at the three campuses will remain the same when district operations resume. For families, the immediate day-to-day experience is expected to change less than the governance structure behind the schools.

That matters because the district is not describing a wholesale reset of the campuses. Instead, it is shifting responsibility back to Edgewood after concluding that the outside-management model has not delivered enough progress.

The change also means the district will again be responsible for more of the direct academic, staffing and operational decisions at the three schools. How quickly it names leadership or revises turnaround plans has not yet been announced.

The broader Edgewood context

Edgewood is not abandoning partnership-based turnaround efforts altogether. The district recently entered a new 1882 partnership with Third Future Schools for Brentwood Middle School.

It is also keeping its Texas A&M University-San Antonio partnership at Burleson School for Innovation and Education, which serves students with special needs and is not rated by the Texas Education Agency.

That mix suggests Edgewood is narrowing its use of outside operators rather than ending the strategy across the board. The district is keeping some partnerships in place while pulling back from others where the academic case for change has become harder to defend.

The decision comes as Edgewood continues to balance academic turnaround with attendance and budget pressure. Those issues were part of Hernández’s explanation for why the district wants more direct control over the three campuses.

What happens next

The schools are expected to return to district operations in the fall of 2026. Until then, the transition period will likely focus on how Edgewood manages leadership, staffing and the next academic plan for the campuses.

Open questions remain about whether the district will name new principals or other campus leaders before the school year begins and whether it will publish more detailed financial or attendance data behind the decision.

The next accountability test will come after the schools are back under direct district management. Edgewood will be watching whether ratings improve, whether attendance stabilizes and whether the district’s remaining partnership model continues to evolve.