On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho.

San Antonio is a fast growing, fast moving city with something new happening every day.

That's why each week we go on the record with Randy Beamer and the newsmakers who are driving this change.

Then we gather at the reporters roundtable to talk about the latest news stories with the journalist behind those stories.

Join us now as we go on the record with Randy Beamer.

Hi, everybody.

Thank you for joining us for On the Record.

I'm Randy Beamer, and this week we are talking film and San Antonio with a new incentive program on top of the state's new incentive program, hoping to get a bigger film industry here, maybe rivaling the likes of, Fort Worth and Land Man and Yellowstone and Austin with the Robert Rodriguez films joining us to tell us all about how that is going to happen.

Is Crystal Jones, director of the city's Department of Arts and Culture, overseeing, the film industry, San Antonio Film Commission.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Tell us about the new rebates that, film producers can get in San Antonio and what it will really mean for them in terms of money, in terms of getting them here.

Yeah.

So City Council passed a 10% film incentive, a base film incentive with what we call 2% uplifts.

What that means it's a rebate program.

So if a filmmaker comes in and they have or if they're homegrown and they're spending $100,000 or more on a project, they're hiring, 10% of San Antonio's as a part of their cast and crew.

They're featuring a majority of San Antonio on film.

Some of those basic requirements.

That's when it unlocks our rebate program.

So whatever money they're spending in San Antonio above $100,000, that's what qualifies for the rebate.

So as soon as they button up the project, we qualify all the expenses, and then they could get a check for 10%.

Before they shoot.

No, it'd be after they shoot.

So it's after the complete projects done to make sure that they're fully meeting the requirements that we.

And this is important because other states, other cities have much more competitive, rebates and have for years.

Yeah.

So we've always been the leader in Texas in terms of a municipality that has a rebate program.

And now with this update, we are currently still the most competitive, city to come to.

And some of the things in San Antonio.

Well, you change the name of the program.

Yes.

It's just San Antonio film incentive.

It was the supplemental San Antonio Film Incentive just for the food program.

Yeah, just for the the ease of marketing.

It's the San Antonio film incentive, and it can be used independently of the state's program.

Or a project could qualify for the state's rebate program and hours, depending on if they meet all requirements.

And also commercials.

Now commercials are eligible.

We want commercials made here.

We've had a number of car commercials that showcase San Antonio, and it's again, money that's really going into the pockets of locals.

That's what this means.

So a project has to spend money locally to get this rebate money, and they have to hire locally.

And in the spring, well, the whole first session of the legislature, there was talk about the Texas Film program.

What is that going to mean for filmmakers to get away from New Mexico, from Georgia?

The Carolinas?

Oh, Texas is very competitive now and then on the international landscape.

So Senate Bill 22 passed a historic 300 million for a two year period every biennial.

It'll have a 300 million for a ten year, life cycle.

So what that means is we had projects that were coming to San Antonio and Texas saying, I would love to film my TV series here.

But the incentive program you have isn't guaranteed.

It's every two years the state legislature meets and you could have it or you could not.

This ten year commitment now starts to really speak to the bottom line and the bottom dollar.

For a lot of those TV series that want to come here, as well as larger film projects, but you don't want to move, you know, have two seasons of a project and then the film is said to have would end or maybe decrease and start to look for another location.

This really solidifies Texas as someone who's invested in film.

And invested already in Texas films, people that want to stay here.

I talked with Elizabeth Harvey on, Robert Rodriguez ex-wife.

They built a whole film industry in Austin over the years.

They could have gone to LA, decided they didn't.

But it wasn't because of the money or because of rebates.

But now that just adds to it.

Yes.

And it's really thinking about people who, the cast and crew, the folks that are behind the camera.

It's the caterers that help support.

It's the set designer set builders.

We want people to be able to live in the city that their family is in, and do the work that they do in our.

City, but it's also a chicken and egg thing.

Do you have enough people trained in San Antonio to do the work that they say in Austin, or that kind of union people, or just skilled workers?

Do we have that here yet?

We do.

We have a small, cast and crew base, especially with the union.

But the.

That's the great thing about our incentive.

Another thing that productions need to do as a part of our incentive is to provide a professional development component.

So they have to work, with one of our higher education institutions here in San Antonio to put on a workshop, a panel discussion with some of their key folks that are open to students but open to the public.

They have to provide that professional development component so that we can start to build up our cast and crew.

Even if they take interns on the project, that would count.

So again, it's building that cast and crew starting at that 10% higher for San Antonio cast and crew.

And our idea would be to elevate that as we move on.

And that's exactly what the state is doing as well.

The state has a tiered, hiring system.

So for the next two years, if you hire 35% of your cast and crew are from Texas, you then qualify for the rebate.

Every two years, that percentage will increase with the idea that we're building our crew base while we're building the incentive.

You talked about key figures, and, you know, Fort Worth has gotten a lot of publicity recently, $1 billion.

They claim in films in the past ten years.

A big part Taylor Sheridan and land man in Yellowstone.

And again, Robert Rodriguez in Austin.

We don't have that yet here.

You're looking out there going, hey, is there somebody that has a great streaming idea, a great director producer that is also a key to turning a switch, you think in San Antonio?

Yeah, I think it can be.

And that's why the city's really invested in local filmmakers.

We have an artist grant program that provides $7,500 or, $10,000 or, I'm sorry, $15,000 to to professional artists, including filmmakers for their projects.

We've had a number of filmmakers who have received that money, and now their projects are we had a project, American Sons, that had their premiere at South by Southwest.

So we're working to build that homegrown talent, those directors producers with our artist grant program.

And once they start to level up, they start to qualify for that rebate program again, keeping everybody here in the film industry.

And people don't realize, hey, the American Sons, they've been working on that.

Producers from here for four years, that could be their breakout.

And then the next one is really or the next 2 or 3 or whatever really get the attention.

Yes.

I mean, that's really how it starts.

And I mean, our filmmakers and our artists are the greatest advocates for our city, and they're traveling around the entire country, especially with that film.

It has been been shown at, many different film festivals, many different cities and screenings.

And that's just all it takes to get people to think about San Antonio.

And that's a documentary film which, as we know, takes many years.

And you're trying to get the word out now because that's also a competition.

You really have to sell it to people in the film industry across the country.

Yes.

I mean, we are in a competitive state right now.

We're competitive with other cities in Texas, but also other states.

And that's what's exciting about this incentive program, because it is a marketing tool as well.

When you say with San Antonio, you can get up to 45% of a rebate program.

If you combine the state and local incentive, just that number starts to turn heads, gets them to come to San Antonio, see how beautiful our city is.

And we've had projects that are interested in the incentive before.

But, you know, maybe the requirements or the eligibility didn't quite work out.

And they filmed here anyway because they fell in love with our city.

Are we competitive then with Austin or Fort Worth?

Can we even lure away some?

Is it enough yet to do that?

Yes, we have the strongest as it stands right now, the strongest incentive program.

We have a free film permit system so that if you film at a city, city owned property, you're saving up to $250 a day on locations.

So we are very competitive when it comes to our other cities.

And what's next?

Is there anything shooting here like it was in 1923, last year or anything like that?

Yeah, 1923 was last year.

We have a lot of vertical videos that are being shot here, which you may know if you're on social media, scrolling through Facebook or Instagram, you know, breaks your attention.

And, oh, here's a video that's more of a subscription based.

We've had a lot of those, filming here.

We also have, some children's educational programs that are going to be filming here as well.

That will eventually be on PBS.

My well, American Sons will be on PBS.

Yes.

American Sons as well.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

And good luck with all that.

You're a filmmaker too.

We'll get into that next time.

Crystal Jones, director.

I've just outed you.

Director of the city's Department of Arts and Culture.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Thank you for having me.

School district ratings, rankings and grades for individual schools are always in the news.

And the San Antonio Independent School District is working on a turnaround plan with the state on a number of schools right now.

We wanted to get into that, how it works, what it means for our kids with Doctor Sean Byrd, who is a deputy superintendent of the San Antonio Independent School District.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Thanks for having me.

First of all, this is, a turnaround plan to deal with what you called D and F schools, and this has been in the works for a while.

Tell us about this plan and why you have to.

Sure.

So the state always is monitoring academic performance.

And if you have, DNF rated schools, you have to do some things to intervene, because our goal is to have, as many A and B rated schools as we can, but no lower than a C, so we have, reduced, recently our number of DNF schools and by about 35%.

But we still have several schools that are underperforming.

And, we need to get those, students and having a high quality education.

So we do this plan in collaboration with the state.

And it's really just a set of strategies to make sure that we are turning, around the performance of the school so that every student in this district is performing at a high level.

What people parents might not understand, okay, what constitutes a D and F, and how do they grade you and how do you move up?

Tony.

Yeah.

So it's based on performance on the start test which our students take every year.

It's an all star test.

It's yeah, it's all star test.

But, you get your rating from a combination of all the star tests.

Some of them weigh more heavily than others.

Math and reading our, count more, but, it's, you know, that's a snapshot.

That's one day in time.

So lots of other things happen in a school year, but it is a very important part of what we do.

And so, if a school doesn't if students do not perform well on that test and a certain percentage of them pass, then you get a letter grade A through F, and, we have a number of schools that are in the DNF.

And it doesn't matter classroom instruction.

And nobody looks at how the teachers are doing what the the student population is or, their fluency in English saying, that's right.

It's, yeah, it's it is a grade that you get based solely on the performance of star and also something called Top Pass, which is for our English learners.

They there's a component of the test for how well they're progressing each year.

In learning English.

People have seen headlines here also about districts and conservatorship.

Is this a possibility?

Yeah.

If we don't improve, that is a possibility.

The state could, come in and, put a conservator in place which would limit the ability for our board of trustees to make decisions.

So our goal is not to have that happen.

And that's why we are working diligently to turn these schools around.

And and we have made progress already, and, will continue to make progress.

What are some of the strategies that you're using?

So definitely, this year we implemented, common curriculum across our district because one of the reasons that schools get into this problem is because we do have a mobility, issue where kids move from one school to another and, before having common curriculum, a kid could go from one school just two blocks away and have a completely different math curriculum.

So we have, less than some of the autonomy that our schools have, particularly schools that are not performing at high levels, so that we ensure that there's a consistent experience as kids move from one school to the next.

Common curriculum.

Teachers have complained for years and parents and kids about teaching to the test, right.

And that that's all they do.

Is that more now because it's so important?

Yeah.

So it's not, you really actually can't teach to the test.

One of the great things about the new start test is that it makes it it is intended to mirror what happens in a classroom.

So, you know, there have been tests in the past where you could teach kids, kind of tricks to master the test.

You really have to teach kids to master the content and master the standards now.

So it's not so much about teaching to the test, but a common curriculum just gives us, it gives us a common experience for kids no matter what school.

They go to.

And that's so important.

Back to the, mobility issues got in some districts, including ISD people in other parts of town might not realize how often kids families move straight to be with family, to be with friends, how big an issue is that?

I mean, it is, common.

We have kids moving all throughout the year, sometimes multiple times throughout the year.

Sometimes it's related to what you said.

Moving with family sometimes is economic issues.

And as the economy, you know, is worsens or gets better, you know, you have, less or more of mobility, but it is a it is a real issue in the school district.

And so we have to account for that.

And one of the ways we do that is by making sure we have common curriculum.

How about budgets, legislature making increases in education spending along with a voucher program, but not nearly as much as educators wanted?

No, I mean, we certainly did get more money for particularly for special education students this year.

But the basic allotment only increased by $55 per student.

So we are still not funded anywhere near to the level that we need to be to serve the students that we have.

And, you know, in districts that serve students from, higher poverty backgrounds, it does cost more to educate those students.

And, that is something that, we continue to advocate for at the state, increase in funding.

And also, with the voucher program, you have to figure out how many fewer students you were going to have when the voucher programs implemented.

What do you how do you budget and what do you foresee the numbers being?

Yeah, we are hopeful.

You know, one of the important things is we need to improve our schools, that our kids stay.

And that's that's part of the reason about, that's important about this turnaround plan.

We don't have any prediction about what's going to happen with vouchers, but, we the closest thing we have to that is what happens when we have a new charter school open in the area.

We predict a certain number of students may go to that.

So we're going to project using those numbers that we have.

But we actually think that, you know, in terms of losing students to private schools, we don't think we're going to have that much of an impact.

And again, we're trying to improve the quality.

You think you've already had as many people move.

I mean, it's been hard on a lot of districts, including yours.

Yeah, we certainly every urban district in this country, it seems, has had declining enrollment problems.

And that's for lots of reasons.

It's expensive to live in, in cities.

It's, the lower birth rate is definitely a factor.

But we're really working to increase the quality of our programs so that kids want to come.

And actually, an interesting thing about San Antonio, we have our choice schools.

We actually attract about 8000 students from outside our district boundaries that come into our district.

So while we lose students every year who live in our district, we actually gain.

Kids from outside.

What is a choice school?

It's not a magnet school, per se that focuses on different, specific topics, but it's, it's a charter school with the district.

Yes.

We have some in district charter schools, and we have actually, our district is a district of choice.

So kids that live in our boundaries or kids from outside our boundaries can actually go to any school.

They can choose what school they go to.

So but some of them are application, processes.

It doesn't mean that you have to have certain meet certain criteria to get into the school, but you do have to go through a lottery process.

So there's a that's that's why it's a choice school because there is a if there are more seats, if there are fewer students, fewer seats and more students that request it, a lottery has to happen to allow entry into those schools.

And that is also, used to grade schools and campuses and not.

No, no, that doesn't have anything to do with our accountability rating.

But we do see, those schools that are our choice schools in the district do tend to perform, better.

And they do have.

So, you know, they're through 1880 through partnerships, which is a law in the state that allows you to create these in district charters.

You get more autonomy and more flexibility, from the state, you actually get more funding for those schools.

So there's, per student, there's more funding.

So they tend to perform better and they're resourced better.

So that goes back to the argument of we need more funding for our students, because we see when the students get more funding, they actually do perform.

And how to get the word out that you are are improving.

And, when that word isn't out there and real estate agents say, oh, you don't want to move to this district or that.

Yeah.

Is that something you're having to fight?

Kind of a PR battle.

Yeah, sure.

It's definitely, we have a great marketing team.

And, again, our goal is to have zero DNF schools and a high percentage of a and B schools, because we want every student that comes to our schools to have a great experience.

And, while again, accountability is just one piece of the puzzle, it is the most public facing piece.

So we're, working very hard to eliminate the DNF schools completely from our.

System.

All right.

Well, thank you very much for coming in and explaining all of that.

And good luck with it.

Doctor Sean Burns, Deputy superintendent of Cisd, thanks very much.

Thank you.

On reporters roundtable this week, we'll look at a couple of stories, including the DA's race.

Who's going to be jumping into that for a soon to be open seat?

And also what's going to happen next to the Spurs arena project now that that vote passed Project Marvel, what's next here to tell us everything to know about that is Michael is staff writer for the San Antonio Current.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Great to be here.

All right.

First of all, the Spurs arena vote passed.

And next.

And some people had talked about this.

Some people hadn't really emphasized it.

But in the spring we expect there will be a bond issue vote to approve some money for traffic changes and parking because you couldn't have an arena without some big changes there.

Tell us about this.

Right.

So last week, of course, the voters, Bexar County approved the financing for the basketball arena.

But now we have to look at all the other stuff that's going to be built around the arena.

And the big issue is this infrastructure bond package.

Now, this was discussed earlier this year and there was discussion about putting it on the November ballot.

However, City Council opted to kind of kick the can down the road.

So this package should be about somewhere between 200 million to 250 million.

And it's an infrastructure improvement bond for items around HemisFair.

So as you said, traffic sewer, utilities, I know on ramps and off ramps.

So it's going to be a pretty significant project.

But this this stuff is necessary for the broader project Marvel idea.

There's another layer to this infrastructure piece, and that is this SaaS chiller plant that's located right across the street from the convention center.

Okay.

And a sauce chiller plant.

A lot of people don't know what is that sanitary water system chills water.

That goes out to a lot of businesses in the downtown area.

People don't know that.

Why would they have to do that?

But that's very important, especially in the downtown area, right?

It cools water and it's also used for air conditioning.

And in San Antonio, that's very important.

I believe it chills the water for the convention center, the Alamodome, the two new hotels on the other side of HemisFair.

So it's pretty much at it's at its max.

So the issue is that either this solid chiller plant can be expanded because it's going to have to be expanded to, you know, to.

Just for what's around.

There to meet the demand of the new arena, the economic development, new hotels, whatever.

Or it could also have to be moved because as part of the Project Marvel plan, there's supposed to be a new hotel there.

This is one of the plans down the road, a project marble.

There's a lot of stuff, but as I understand it, that was like a last thing, but you would have to do it now.

The chiller plant you'd have to do.

That's why this is so confusing.

Do you want to move it or do you want to expand it?

And if you choose to expand it and there's not going to be that hotel, so you've already lost the land bridge.

Now you're talking about losing the convention center hotel.

It's starting to sound a lot less like Project Marvel, and a lot more like just a basketball arena.

So these are things are going to work.

Into the convention center as.

Well.

And once you know and and also you've told me this on on a recent phone calls, where's the money coming for that other stuff, the convention center expansion, the Alamodome renovation.

It's confusing, but this sauce chiller plant, this thing needs to be figured out between the city and source before that arena can begin construction.

And that's supposed to begin, at the end of next year, fall 2026.

And before then, what are some of the things that you think could happen?

I mean, we talked about the land bridge.

That's federal money they don't think they're going to get.

So that's kind of off the table.

I had heard before that possibly the hotel was going to be off the table or at least pushed to the very back burner, but even even then, all this stuff with the chiller plant has to happen.

It has to either be expanded or if you want to build the hotel even years down the line, you need to move it to make room for the hotel.

Or I guess you could expand it and then move it later.

But who's going to pay for all this now?

Source has said that if they expanded the new customers will pay for it.

But if they move it, someone's going to have to pay for it.

I have a pretty good idea who's going to pay, but that.

Wouldn't be a bond issue that would be saw as ratepayers maybe through increases, or the bond issue could include that it doesn't usually pay for source projects.

You couldn't do that.

So Salas is very much against, or at least publicly at the moment, against a rate hike for this chiller plant debacle.

So we don't know.

But it needs to be figured out before the arena starts, as well as an infrastructure bond package, which is likely to be voted on in May.

Now, if that source chiller plant was to be packaged into that, that could be a 400 $500 million bond that will have to be paid for in some way by the city or the city and source.

Another story.

You've been covering the DA's race, upcoming, because the current Da is decided he's not going to run again.

Some interesting names being bandied around now.

Yeah, this could be one of the most interesting races in San Antonio in a long time.

So Trey Martinez, Fischer's state rep, has said that he has launched a exploratory committee and to running for the position, at the same time, Shannon walk, local trial attorney who's popular on TikTok, has also launched an exploratory committee.

And I recently heard his hired a campaign manager.

So he's serious.

Another name that's been thrown out is Jason Wolfe, who's the nephew of former Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolfe.

He's also popular on TikTok.

So those three names actually did run for the Democratic primary.

For D.A., you could see a race that's predominantly taking place on social media, which is a very unique concern.

For people my age.

Yeah, but it could it could, you know, lead to really high young voter turnout.

And, you could really get a wild card in there.

But the Trey Martinez Fisher aspect of it has confused a lot of people at the courthouse and prosecutors because although he is a lawyer, I don't believe he's practiced law in a very long time.

And to be an effective Da, you really need to be at the courthouse, know the prosecutors, you know, know the people in the room, and know how although.

Nationally, people and prosecutors in the DOJ, some of them are not, experienced prosecutors, as we've seen in headlines recently, but I and also Trey Martinez Fischer, his name recognition, at least among the older people who aren't into TikTok, seems like it would, out, you know, overshadow the Tik Tok people.

Or is that am I just old?

It could.

I mean, I was telling someone this last night if you picked five people off the street outside the studio, how many of them would know who Trey Martinez Fisher is?

But how many of them I know?

Shannon Locke is like, oh, the guy from TikTok.

So it's going to be a really interesting race and definitely one to keep your eye on.

All right.

Well, thanks very much.

This is fascinating to me because you are popular on tik.

You're not going to run for D.A., are you?

Oh, no, not da da.

Okay.

Something else?

Oh, maybe one day.

Who knows?

Oh.

All right.

Well, Michael Carl is staff writer and potential candidate for something one day and tick tock.

Or check out his stuff in San Antonio.

Current as well as the stories for old people that we can read.

Thank you very much for coming in and for.

Our thanks for having me.

And thank you for joining us for this edition of On the Record.

You can watch the show again or any previous shows.

You can download them as podcast and watch at any time.

Just go to KLRN.ORG I'm Randy Beamer and we'll see you next time.

On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho.