SAISD Foundation Adds Mud Kitchens, Water Play to Three San Antonio Schools

Pre-kindergarten through second-grade students at three San Antonio ISD campuses have new places to dig, splash and play outside, after the SAISD Foundation cut the ribbon this week on outdoor learning spaces built with water and nature play areas, mud kitchens and musical equipment. The upgrades landed at Green Elementary at Riverside Park, Beacon Hill Primary and Franklin Elementary.

The project was funded through a grant from the Najim Charitable Foundation, according to WOAI, and adds specialized outdoor play and learning equipment designed to give young students more hands-on learning opportunities through play. The foundation says the new spaces are meant to support gross motor skills, creative play and social-emotional development for its youngest learners.

The Najim Charitable Foundation, established in December 2006 by San Antonio tech entrepreneur Harvey E. Najim after he built Sirius Computer Solutions, has distributed over $180 million in grants and pledges to local children's health, education and welfare organizations since its founding, according to the San Antonio Report. Foundation President Melissa Bauman took over full executive leadership in January 2023 after 15 years as the foundation's executive director and chief operating officer, succeeding Najim when he moved into the role of board chairman.

A Grant Tied to State Play Standards

The mix of water play, acoustic elements and gross motor equipment isn't arbitrary. Texas Education Agency guidelines for early childhood education point to exactly these kinds of outdoor learning environments to meet state prekindergarten developmental standards and to help schools comply with Texas Education Code requirements for 30 daily minutes of physical activity or recess. State guidelines recommend unstructured daily outdoor play specifically to build social and gross motor skills in young children.

One of the three recipient campuses already carries a distinction few Bexar County schools can claim. Green Elementary at Riverside Park was designated a National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education in September 2024, the only school in the county to earn the honor that year, for exemplary performance while serving an economically disadvantaged student population.

Part of a Broader Push to Refresh Campuses

The new play spaces fall under the SAISD Foundation's broader Transforming Spaces program, which has previously funded school gardens across 20 campuses in partnership with H-E-B and launched a mobile STEM Voyager bus with St. Mary's University to bring hands-on 3D printing and robotics to elementary classrooms. The foundation also runs an ongoing Playground Refresh initiative in which community volunteers clean, paint and repair outdoor play surfaces across San Antonio ISD campuses.

The SAISD Foundation, founded in 2006, is marking its 20th anniversary in 2026. Under founding Executive Director Judy Geelhoed, who has led the organization since its 2009 relaunch, the foundation has raised and distributed over $33 million to support San Antonio ISD students and teachers through grants, scholarships and facility upgrades.

Private Dollars Amid District-Wide Belt-Tightening

The unveiling comes as San Antonio ISD navigates a difficult financial stretch. The district confronted a $46 million budget deficit earlier this year, driven by declining enrollment and attendance-based state funding formulas, which pushed administrators to propose eliminating more than 220 central office and campus positions, as Hoodline previously reported.

SAISD has also been carrying out a multi-year rightsizing strategy launched in 2023, aiming to shrink its footprint from more than 80 operating campuses down to roughly 50 modernized facilities, a process that has already led to campus closures and program relocations. Earlier this month, the district's Board of Trustees voted to place a $600 million bond package and a 3.17-cent property tax rate increase on the November ballot to address aging campus systems, a measure that includes $492 million earmarked for core modernization funding.

Against that backdrop, philanthropic grants like the one behind the new playgrounds fill a gap that bond dollars and general fund budgets aren't covering. While the district works through deficits, staffing cuts and campus consolidation, private funding is allowing individual elementary schools to add the kind of hands-on play equipment that state standards encourage but that broader facility budgets don't always prioritize.