Three South San Antonio ISD trustee seats went uncontested this fall, but the winners won't actually run anything. More than a year and a half after the Texas Education Agency stripped the district's elected board of its power, the state still hasn't said when — or if — local control will return, even as the candidates prepare to be sworn in within 30 days of the Nov. 3 election.
The Texas Education Agency took over South San Antonio ISD on Feb. 19, 2025, suspending the elected trustees' duties after multiple investigations into the board, according to San Antonio Report. The agency installed seven appointed managers and named Saul Hinojosa as superintendent, replacing the elected board entirely, as reported by San Antonio Express-News. That takeover followed a 2021 TEA investigation that found the district's board could not properly serve students because of elected officials' inappropriate behavior, the paper reported.
Of the three candidates who filed for this year's races, Karla Gomez Sanchez signed up for District 4 while already serving on South San's state-appointed board of managers, per the San Antonio Report. Manuel R. Lopez and Cynthia A. Ramirez both signed up to run again for their old seats in Districts 1 and 6. Because none of the three races drew a second candidate, the district will not put them on the ballot at all.
A Trustee Seat With No Real Power
Once sworn in, Lopez and Ramirez will remain under suspension — they will not take the dais, and they won't have access to confidential information or personnel files, the same outlet reported. Gomez Sanchez is the exception: because she already sits on the board of managers, she'll simultaneously hold both an elected trustee title and real voting authority as a state appointee.
The arrangement leaves most of the district's democratically elected leadership on the sidelines, a dynamic highlighted by the original reporting on this transition from the San Antonio Express-News. According to that report, TEA appointed former district superintendent Abelardo Saavedra as a conservator empowered to monitor and direct the board, and the elected trustees met with him a few months after the takeover to discuss a possible return timeline. Hinojosa has kept the elected trustees informed only sporadically on district finances and major updates, the Express-News reported.
No Clear Deadline, No Clear Answer
TEA has not given a clear deadline for when local control might return, according to the Express-News. Under state policy, the agency must control a district for at least two years, and the Texas education commissioner is required to provide a transition date to both boards by the second anniversary of the board of managers' appointment — a milestone that would land in early 2027. Board of Managers President Ray Tijerina told the paper the takeover has no clear end in sight.
Homer Flores, another elected trustee whose access to district affairs is currently limited to that of a member of the public, told the Express-News that August 2027 is the earliest he believes elected trustees might return to the board room. That timeline roughly matches what the district's conservator told the San Antonio Report — that the state could potentially reevaluate and begin rolling back to local control by August 2027 if improvement continues at the same pace. Flores, who is pursuing an associate degree in logistics and supply chain management at Palo Alto College and expects to graduate in spring, has watched the district's academic turnaround from outside the room where decisions get made.
To regain elected governance, the Express-News reported South San must hit several marks: an overall state grade of C or higher, compliance with special-education law, financial stability, signs of good governance, and no schools with consecutive failing grades. The district could transition through a rolling phase-out, with elected trustees gradually replacing appointed managers rather than the whole board flipping at once, according to the same report.
Academic and Financial Gains Under State Control
The numbers suggest the district has made real progress since the takeover. South San Antonio ISD raised its state accountability rating ten points in 2026, climbing from a D score of 65 to a C score of 75, the San Antonio Report found. Eight campuses improved their letter grade, the number of failing campuses declined, and students scoring at or above grade level in reading jumped five points. The district also posted a financial surplus while maintaining a balanced budget, per the same outlet, and the Express-News separately reported that district testing data showed growth in every subject area between 2024 and 2025.
Hinojosa replaced campus leadership and several teachers at schools that didn't improve, including Palo Alto Elementary, according to the Express-News's original reporting. The board of managers has reevaluated district policies and operating procedures, while also focusing on academics and finances. Looking ahead, the board plans to focus next on engaging the broader South San Antonio community, and Gomez Sanchez says she wants to lead that outreach effort herself. The board has also said it wants to attract future candidates genuinely focused on children's best interests, the Express-News reported.
South San Antonio ISD enrolls roughly 7,000 students, per the Express-News, and has cycled through nine superintendents over the past 15 years — a turnover rate that helped prompt TEA's scrutiny in the first place, including a 2019 investigation into claims that trustees repeatedly tried to usurp superintendent decision-making and interfere with staff.
How Other Texas Districts Have Handled the Handoff
South San isn't the only Texas district navigating this kind of limbo. Nearby Edgewood ISD was expected to have a full governing board of seven elected trustees by May 2020 as it transitioned away from appointed managers, according to the San Antonio Report. Stella Camacho has served in both appointed-manager and elected-trustee roles there during that process, per the Express-News reporting. In nearby Southside ISD, board president Jesus “Jesse” Hernandez ran unopposed in 2021 after TEA appointed him to its board of managers in 2018.
Elsewhere in Texas, the timelines have varied widely. Shepherd ISD started transitioning back to local control in 2025 after its takeover began in March 2020, with two of seven elected trustees returning so far, according to the Houston Chronicle. The Marlin school district spent seven years under state control before officials began handing authority back to its elected board in February 2024, per the Texas Tribune. And in Fort Worth, an elected trustee seat has sat vacant for more than seven months after a resignation, with the Fort Worth Report noting that nearby Lake Worth ISD missed its own deadline to call a November trustee election and now anticipates a special election in May 2027.
For South San Antonio families like Gomez Sanchez's — she has two children, ages seven and four, enrolled in district schools — the wait continues without a firm end date. The accountability gains are real, but so is the uncertainty facing a board still, in Flores's words, limited to the access of ordinary members of the public.
