IDEA Public Schools to announce San Antonio campus

IDEA Public Schools will officially unveil plans Wednesday to take over a private Christian academy in San Antonio founded by former Spurs player and NBA Hall of Famer David Robinson.

The announcement cements the young charter school operator’s ambitious plan to increase its reach across Texas by 2017 and comes just two months after IDEA inked a controversial deal with Austin school officials to create an in-district charter there.

But in a conference call with The Monitor on Tuesday, the Weslaco-based charter’s CEO and co-founder, Tom Torkelson, remained confident that his district’s rapid expansion would not harm its operations along the U.S.-Mexican border.

“Every single year of our existence, our student achievement has gone up,” despite continued growth, Torkelson said. “As we go to new communities and face new challenges, it will make us a stronger system.

“We have seen a huge influx in the talent that’s interested in joining the organization” from talent pools in Austin and now San Antonio, he said. “That’s great for IDEA Public Schools and the children of the Rio Grande Valley. Any way you look at it, this is just a positive.”

If the state approves an amendment to IDEA’s charter, it will save millions of dollars in construction costs by taking the reins of the Carver Academy, which Robinson and his wife founded in San Antonio’s eastside in 2001.

Though Robinson anticipated some parents would bristle at the loss of his private school’s religious influence, he said the deal — which will shed the academy’s $10,000 annual tuition — would continue his original vision to transform the community in which he used to play basketball.

“One of the things I was very impressed with in the IDEA schools was the atmosphere,” said Robinson, who has visited IDEA campuses in the past several months. “It was still a very safe environment (and) conducive to learning.

“The responsibility still lies with (parents). It’s their decision” to stay, he added. But “this is our public school system. Either we give up on the public school system … or take the opportunity to make change.”

A VALLEY IDEA

Even with the lofty agenda of educating 14,000 students with 20 new schools in the San Antonio area by 2017, IDEA officials insist they have not lost sight of their commitment to Deep South Texas.

The charter will open four new schools in McAllen and Brownsville this fall after launching 20 schools in 10 Valley communities in just 11 years. And IDEA should make its first appearance in Starr County by 2013.

“Over time, we’ve really perfected the way that we launch new schools,” said Irma Muñoz, chief operating officer. “What’s different is it’s not (only) in our neighborhood any longer.”

She said IDEA has been adding additional staff to guide implementation in Central Texas, with plans to eventually create a second operational center as large as the charter’s main headquarters in Weslaco.

Already, the charter’s momentum has helped it draw $11 million in philanthropic commitments from the San Antonio-based George W. Brackenridge and Ewing Halsell Foundations.

However, IDEA’s brisk growth has inspired some criticism, with several Valley school superintendents and trustees publicly expressing frustration with what they view as an aggressive competitor for students and the public funds behind them.

And opponents to the Austin school district’s partnership with IDEA have yet to give up their fight, even though officials forge ahead with plans to open the in-district charter campus this fall.

Despite the controversies that sometimes surround her district, Muñoz said IDEA’s expansion outside of the Valley represents an important moment for its home region.

“We’re exporting talent and work product that is grown in the (Valley) to the rest of Texas,” she said. “Usually it’s the other way around, or at least that’s the perception.

“IDEA’s a program that was born and grew up in the Valley (and) is now spreading throughout the state in a way that no other organization is.”

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Neal Morton covers education and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at nmorton@themonitor.com or (956) 683-4472.

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