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

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Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us for this edition of on the record.

I'm Randy Beamer and we're back to school right now.

Big part of the news also COVID and the back and forth between the state and local school districts about mask mandates about vaccine mandates for staff and right at the center of it is a San Antonio independent school district with us as the superintendent Pedro Martinez.

Thank you very much for coming in.

First of all, where are you in terms of mask mandates for kids and the vaccine mandate that you have for the staff?

One of the first in the state, if not the first to do that, Speaker 1: We're the first school district grantee to require a vaccine mandate for our staff.

So both are masking and vaccine.

Mens are still both on.

We just sent notice to parents and staff that both mandates will continue, will, you know, we will continue to have, uh, court battles with the attorney general and the governor.

Um, we'll let our attorneys, our attorneys handle that.

But for me, it's, it's never been about politics.

It's never been about picking a fight.

What we're seeing right now, where right now in our fourth week of school, we're seeing cases, uh, that are rising in our community.

They're the rising across the country.

What's more troubling for me is we're seeing more children cases than ever before.

We're right now averaging about 200 cases per week.

And that's just the positive cases.

The challenge for me is that then we have to quarantine.

And so right now we have almost a thousand children, mostly children that are being quarantined right now.

And Randy, I gave you the close contact with because the close context and combination with positive cases and keep in mind because our children have to be quarantined for up to two weeks.

You might have children that are being quarantined in their first week.

They might be in their second week, by the way, this is what I'm seeing across the country.

Uh, I'm seeing it across.

Speaker 2: And you were comparing that to last year in your district where it was a lower percentage of kids with a mass mandate with a social distancing.

So last Speaker 1: Year, you know, what we saw was that we ended the year with almost 70% of our children in person at the elementary 55% in person.

Overall, our positivity rate was on there on the 0.3 of a percent.

The majority of my schools were having zero cases.

By the time we got to the last two months of school, no, Speaker 2: Some people are going to say, well, that was last year.

He did the same thing.

You had masked mandates in place in social distancing.

And yet this year it's up, he's at the Delta variant.

Speaker 1: So what's very different this year in what I'm seeing across the nation and in our state is seen it is this variant is much more contagious.

It's affecting many more children.

Uh, the good news is we're not seeing hospitalizations yet of our students, but I'm seeing more hospitalizations of children, both in our state and in the country.

There have Speaker 2: Been across the country, a lot of angry people, some of them violent at school board meetings in the San Antonio independent school district.

It hasn't been like that.

Or what kind of reaction have you have you gotten on the main?

Speaker 1: We have gotten virtually no pushback on either the masking or on vaccines.

And the reason that is Randy is because we have been working with our families.

Our teachers and parents have never had better relationships.

They've never had stronger communication.

And they know that the reason we kept their children's safe last year, and we were able to bring in more children in person, uh, as the year progressed was because we worked together this year.

I think the challenges that we're still learning about this variant and what we're troubling me and in what we're doing right now is we're actually, I've asked my staff to create a contingency plan in case we have to go fully remote.

I'm hoping we don't have to do that.

But for example, we're making sure that all of our children, every child has a device.

Every child has access to the internet, but we want to make sure that everything is updated.

We have updated contact information for the parents.

So this is a contingency plan, but I think Randy, it's something we have to plan.

What are you doing Speaker 2: For the thousand or so people that are out of school right now because of their quarantines and such for two weeks at a time, Speaker 1: It's a very, a difficult issue because the state will not allow me to have my classroom teachers to, to actually support those children.

So, and so we said, you know, we'll take the financial hit.

I told her teachers do the right thing.

Uh, just like any child who's out out of school, give them work, make sure that they're staying up to, up to date on their assignments, but I'll tell you around the everyday we get phone calls from children that are quarantined saying, when can I come back to school?

I want to come back.

What school Speaker 2: Are you talking with?

Other school districts about this, and what kind of are they asking?

What kind of reaction you've had and some of them are doing it or trying to do Speaker 1: It.

You know, I'm watching, you know, I'm in conversations with my regional colleagues here, but also across the state and across the country, Randy.

And I'm seeing some very troubling patterns, which is more children with more cases, more quarantine.

Uh, we have COVID testing in every one of our schools.

So that's why I know what our positivity rate.

And even as a community rate, as starting to decline, we're still seeing a lot more cases, especially children cases affecting children, because there aren't there aren't vaccinated and they're not eligible for vaccines with Speaker 2: The lawsuits between the state and the district.

Some people might wonder how much you going to spend in legal fees for this?

Speaker 1: You know, it's something that troubles me, Randy, but I don't, you know, for me, I don't have a choice.

Uh, I didn't pick this fight.

Uh, it really, you know, for us, I feel like we're in a war with COVID when we shouldn't be in a war with each other, we should be on the same side.

Masking is an essential safety guideline.

I can't even imagine how many children are be quarantined if we didn't have in place.

And really the solution to this pandemic is vaccines.

And frankly, I, we know we're having conversations.

Uh, I'm the board chair for cheese, for change.

It's a national organization of both reform minded, state and superintendents of districts.

And we're having conversations with staff from Congress, both on the Senate and the house.

And we're having conversations with the secretary of ed about being bolder about that.

What kind Speaker 2: Of reaction have you had from teachers and staff about that vaccine mandate and how do you enforce it?

Speaker 1: So over 90% of our staff, you know, we have anecdotal evidence that they're vaccinated.

The reason I say it's anecdotal, the governor won't even allow me to ask for proof of vaccination from either my staff or our students.

Speaker 2: So the mandate really doesn't have teeth in it right now for you.

Speaker 1: Well, no, we put them, we, we made it clear that everybody has to be fully vaccinated, bio Tobar 15.

Uh, and, and there will be consequences if their staff there nine.

In fact, frankly, uh, we're, we're already having conversations that if somebody doesn't come back to native, we will talk about separation.

Lastly, Speaker 2: I want to ask you about something that was also making headlines this week, and that is a chance that you would be leaving San Antonio to go to Chicago school district much bigger and where you started in education as a chief financial officer.

What's the latest on that?

Speaker 1: So, you know, my wife and I, uh, that's our hometown.

So we said, we're, we're, you know, we're gonna let the process proceed.

And that's what you know right now, they're going through their process.

I will tell you, Randy, I am very excited about the work here in San Antonio.

Uh, I'm very excited about the team that I built our accomplishments in the last two years before COVID hit, we had the largest achievement gains of any district in Texas.

So I'm very excited, but it is my hometown.

So we're going to let the process and just the processes Speaker 2: You're down to one of the four finalists reportedly, uh, would the COVID, uh, battle here in San Antonio make any difference as to if you were offered the job, would you go, Speaker 1: Uh, the battles here in San Antonio will not affect that at all, Randy, because I am committed to safety and stability in our classrooms.

And if I have to go to court and we have to pay those legal fees, we will because it's not about politics.

It's about safety and stability.

All right, well, thank Speaker 2: You very much.

Pedro Martinez, San Antonio, independent school district superintendent.

Thanks very much.

Speaker 1: Just Speaker 2: Last week.

A headline here in San Antonio was about Brackenridge park and how a new report says one of the findings anyway is that it's health is in the Cline.

As they're looking at a holistic view of what should happen.

The Bracken Ridge park joining us now is the executive director of the Brackenridge park Conservancy, Lynn Osborn, Bobbitt.

Thanks for joining us today.

Now that was the headline out of the report year and a half in the making that it's in decline.

A how do you explain what that means to people before you get to what the report may recommend?

Well, we all love Breckinridge park and the landscape.

It is Breckenridge park goes back 12,000 years.

So we have a lot to look at in terms of opportunities, challenges, human occupation.

And so it's much left, it's left to death.

And so things have begun to deteriorate the health of the river and the river banks are eroding.

Um, the historic features need restoration.

Uh, do you know, we have an historic Spanish colonial dam that actually was started on July 4th, 1776.

It's covered up.

Um, there are stories that are hidden like that one that needs To be told six July 4th, July 4th.

I didn't know that there's was a lot of things people don't know about the history.

That's right.

And so we're San Antonians picnic.

We recreate there, we get out in the open, uh, to enjoy the river and to relax and be away from the hustle and bustle, but it behooves the con the Conservancy to share with the community that we need to take action now.

And it isn't that, um, we don't love the park, but if we don't look at it holistically and comprehensively, it will not be sustained into the future.

This report isn't like the controversial one a few years back that recommended getting rid of their roads, Northern park, putting in a tram, that kind of thing.

Yeah.

This was the next step to really delve into the history of the park, going back the 12,000 years, as I said, and the consultants have determined that our Breckenridge park is like no other it's unequaled in terms of a municipally owned public park.

So I like to say it's not just one of the 250 plus parks in the city.

It is our urban park.

And, uh, all of us, the community need to create a mechanism, which we feel the cultural landscape report is putting forward to, to sustain it into The future and also to make it more accessible.

And I think they talked about the borders and the signage and the entrances that, that need to be explained to people that they aren't obvious where the Brackenridge park goes to.

The witty goes to the golf course, all that kind of thing.

And that's one of the things you're looking at.

Yes, yes.

And now also the parks department of San Antonio is responsible for maintaining it, but it's tough for them to do all the things that you're using.

That's right.

And the Conservancy was formed in 2008 and the goal was to supplement what the city can put in to the park.

And so we like to say, we're putting the icing on the cake.

Uh, the city, uh, is doing infrastructure, and then we're coming in to make recommendations about improvements to them.

What Are some of the things that you're looking at or that the consultants came up with that San Antonian should consider in these meetings, public meetings you're going to have, Uh, we are looking at the, as you said, the entrance is the archeology.

How do we explain it?

The, um, repair of the river walls, their stonewalls, and then their natural walls.

Uh, all of that needs to be looked at the repair of the 1770, oh, excuse me, the 1878 pump house, which was really the precursor to sauce, which pumped water from the Northern each of the Centennial up to what now, the Canticle Barton, where the reservoir was, um, their opportunities to interpret these features and to share this with the nation.

Uh, we do feel that the park is not only important locally, but nationally.

And we're all looking for funds to make things happen.

One of the recommendations for a long-term project is to create a national heritage area, which would include the park and important stops along the, the 13, 15 mile, uh, river corridor out to the world heritage site.

There is not, uh, an national heritage area in Texas.

And there are very few in the United States that include a world heritage sites, such as the mission We're running out of time.

But the interpreted urban Greenways that they talk about through the park to connect parts of the park together better, what are, what are those, The interpretive Greenway?

Well, people don't realize that 2.2 miles of the river run through the park and the park was actually developed around the course of the river.

So we are just below the headwaters.

We are the Northern reach and the last part of the, uh, the river corridor that needs to be looked at and made healthy.

Well, this is a fascinating report.

I was reading it last night.

It's a little lengthy, but, but very extensive.

And you can read it at the Brackenridge park Conservancy website.

Thanks for me.

Is that right?

That's correct.

Okay.

Thanks very much for coming in Lynn Bobbitt, executive director of the bar Brackenridge park Conservancy.

Thank you.

San Antonio housing market has been on a tear for the last year or so, but what's going to happen in the next few months next year.

Well, joining us with all of the answers to that I am told is Cher machaca, who is chairman of the San Antonio board of realtors.

Thank you very much for coming in for having me now, the first of all, what it's been like for the past few months and past year or so, just the market here and across the country and across the state.

One of the numbers that you're seeing in terms of housing prices in San Antonio, Speaker 1: Well, our median definitely went up and our average definitely went up.

I have a few statistics that I can share with you.

We went from being an average of, let's say two 70, not that long ago to 3 53, as far as price point.

So that made a pretty big difference.

Speaker 2: And now coming into the market are a lot of, uh, big buyers with big cash.

And so that's driving the prices up.

What else is driving the price Speaker 1: We were seeing, I would say starting March and April of this last year, a lot of either cash or conventional, very few type of financing.

That was what we would call government loans, you know, VA FHA.

And the reason for that is a little bit more leniency, obviously for appraisals.

And they had the money to buy.

They wanted to buy, uh, we've seen an influx of folks come in from other states.

Yes, California is one of them and also from Mexico.

And yes, and we've already seen that a little bit, especially in certain areas of town, you know, just, uh, summer homes and that sort of thing.

But I do have good news.

Okay.

The market is softening a little bit for Mr.

Buyer in the respect that we have a little bit more inventory.

Um, in may and June, we were 50% down in inventory from this time last year.

And my last statistic showed that we were only 25% down in inventory.

And the other thing that has slowed a little as, you know, schools started and people wanted to get settled.

So we have a little bit, if you want to call it a little better than it was, but I still say depending on the price point that you're looking for, be ready to move and be sure you have your ducks in a row, whatever your financing might be, if you're Speaker 2: Doing so it's not contingent on say, well, I'll buy your house.

If I can sell mine, that kind of thing is not happening anymore.

Speaker 1: It could, it could, depending on the property, depending on the location, depending on the buyer, but various, but Speaker 2: Now you're seeing how much is still, we hear reports of above asking price that people are bidding up.

Basically Speaker 1: Our, uh, price per square foot increases, uh, only went 1% this last month, but there for a while, we were like 15 to 18% price increase from what we were used to this time.

Speaker 2: No, that's great for the seller or was, but if you're sitting in your house and your appraisal's going up, and we're talking about appraisals before, where are we in terms of appraisals compared to what they used to be.

And then is everybody going to protests?

The Speaker 1: Appraisers are still going by their guidelines.

So again, that's why you saw a lot of the cash market taking over because people didn't literally have to get an appraisal.

Your realtor would do a market analysis for you.

So they were buying based on the market.

And that was what was driving things up.

We still have to be aware of what's happening in the particular neighborhood that the buyer is looking at and make sure we're not only protecting what the buyer's investment is, but what the seller's return on investment is.

Speaker 2: And now this is being compared to the, you know, the big, uh, housing bubble.

Basically it was in 2006 and it wasn't too long after that, that it really went bust.

What are you seeing in the next year, two, three, that Speaker 1: Was a different situation.

That was more mortgage and finance situated this, uh, what we're what's happening right now.

Like I said, the good news is it's about supply and demand.

If our supply picks up, then our demand won't be so strenuous for being able to get it's.

Speaker 2: A lot of housing starts, speaking of supply more housing starts, and we've seen it in some time since 2006 Speaker 1: W and there for awhile, uh, seriously, you couldn't even get a new home construction because the builders were so busy.

They didn't have time to build new.

And the other issue was lumber and sheet rock and all those costs factors, but that's kind of going along with everything for lack of a better descriptor.

I would say we're settling down a little bit, and I think that helps it's still somewhat of a sellers market because the value is still Speaker 2: There.

Well, thank you very much.

The outgoing chair, that means she's happy.

And also as leaving as the chair of the San Antonio board of realtors share Metallica, thank you very much.

Timber, still outgoing, still outgoing.

Yes.

Speaker 1: this week, Speaker 2: The state legislature passed that voting limitations bill, and also some of the new laws they passed in the regular session are taking effect and joining us now, the Metro columnist of the San Antonio express news, Gilbert Garcia, thank you very much for coming in.

First of all, the voting limitations bill passed, basically the same as what the Democrats left trying to prevent.

Yep.

I mean, it's what it's going to do.

And a lot of it was targeted toward Harris county, which tried some different things this past election cycle, because of COVID and, and some of the things that the bill will ban or drive through voting, um, 24 hour voting, you know, voting into, into late night hours.

I mean, one of the things that I think was very controversial and I think has been kind of hard to justify is the idea that a county elections office can not send unsolicited mail ballot applications.

This isn't sending ballots, just an application to anyone, unless they request it first, even if they are eligible to vote by mail.

And it's considered a felony now to, to do that.

And also It empowers the, uh, people who are from one party or another in our poll Watchers, the partisan poll Watchers, they have more power.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

And that, that's a really the concern about that is that it's going to be intimidating to voters.

Um, I mean, poll Watchers have been a part of the process for a long time, and I think they play an important role, but I think there's some concern about what the effect is And now wildest past it wasn't the wrong strict party line votes.

In fact, one of the people here in San Antonio, well-known state representative ly Larson, uh, voted against this and some of the other bills and has been very critical of the governor again and, uh, the legislature and some of the priorities this time.

And this is going to affect you say the, uh, the race for that district 1 22 next Year, right?

This is a district that covers north San Antonio, north, north Bayer county, and Lyle Larson has represented it now for six terms.

Um, and, but he's always been kind of a Maverick figure.

He's been willing to criticize his party when he, when he disagrees.

And this year, I think he's really reached the point of just complete exasperating, more moderate But the thing that's interesting is that Nicola hood used to be the da here also used to be a Democrat is going to run against him in the Republican primary looks like he is.

Yeah.

And he seems much farther to the right that Leia Larson.

Yeah.

Well, the things that Lee Larson has complained about what he calls contrived culture, war issues, um, the election bill, the, uh, uh, the bill to ban the teaching of critical race theory.

Some of these, these issues, these are the kinds of things that Lee Larson really he's.

I think he would probably consider himself a fiscal conservative, uh, believing in small government, low taxes, but he he's really upset about a lot of these, these issues.

As a matter of fact, he's come out for Medicaid expansion because he thinks it's a good financial deal for the state of Texas Nicola hood is very much, it has become increasingly a culture warrior.

He's been, anti-vaccination a big way.

He's he said some extremely, uh, inflammatory things about Islam, uh, that Islam is basically synonymous with terrorism.

Um, and, uh, recently he has a kind of a video podcast that he, that he posted on Facebook.

And he has talked about, uh, the fact that he, no one in his family has been vaccinated against COVID.

He thinks it's a, it's a bad idea to get vaccinated.

And he has been very critical of mask mandates in schools.

Something that Lee Larson actually has supported.

He's been and disagrees with governor rabbit.

And now what we've seen from, uh, Niccola hood also is the talk on two of his, he has two podcasts, basically one video, a one, what is it, the R rated religion or R rated Christianity.

And the other one that's sponsored by his law firm talking about law and life and Liberty and things like that.

Um, and both of them he's talked about going on rants about what he's angry about and that he wants to affect bigger issues than just in bear county.

He's going to run.

You Think he sounds like he's, he's going to run.

He said that, you know, people wondered if he would run for district attorney again, after being voted out in 2018 when he was a Democrat.

Um, and he said that he had people talking to him about that, but he thinks he wants to deal with bigger issues.

I think one of the things that's going to be fascinating is as you pointed out, we've heard from him about some of these things like vaccinations and so on, but a lot of the issues that the state deals with, uh, you know, public education, a lot of just, you know, uh, transportation, these kinds of things.

We've never really heard of weigh in on that.

You know, he, he as district attorney, uh, he, you know, he was dealing with criminal justice issues and there are, there are a lot of issues where he's kind of a little bit of an unknown, I think, is this going to be a referendum on the state of the Republican party, usually in the primaries, it's, whoever's farther to the right, at least recently, um, except for Lyle Larson, except for a few Maverick moderates like that, is it going to show where the party is right now?

I think so.

I think there's a feeling that, you know, Larson has A long history in San Antonio and his, his dad ran for Congress as a Republican in the late seventies.

So he's a really well-known.

And I think that connection will, I think, offset some of the, uh, you know, maybe the, the disagreement that some Republicans have with them on some issues.

Um, but he was a Councilman Councilman kind of commissioner.

So, uh, that's going to be the big question.

And I think the, the other thing that we're really not sure about is what he's going to do.

Cause he, uh, the, we have the assumption is that he will run for another term, but he is also kind of hinted that he, you know, he's, he's shown a lot of solidarity with independent third-party movements and there's been some question of will, will he just decided not to run again?

Will he run for Lieutenant governor as an independent because, uh, he is, he's actually referred to Lieutenant governor Dan, Patrick as soulless at a jury.

So we know where he stands on that.

No.

So if the same Republican primary voters that turn out to support Dan Patrick or Don Huffines or Alan West, or the governor, those aren't going to like the lion Larson.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's he's, I mean, he's really kind of separated himself from his party.

And the question is, is he even going to attempt another term, uh, running in a primary, given the fact that he has held nothing back in concurrence.

Now, you also mentioned a possibility of an independent run for Lieutenant governor.

Now that that would be an incredible long shot, you think?

Yeah.

I mean, I think, uh, you know, Dan Patrick is a divisive figure in the state, but I think that, um, you know, that he's, he, the challenger that he's probably looking at on the democratic side is might fall year who, uh, uh, he's uh, an auditor accountant who gave him a pretty close race, got within 5% in 2018.

Um, and we'll be better known this time.

If you like Larson in the mix there as an independent, does he take votes away from Kali or does he take votes away from, uh, his fellow Republican Dan Patrick?

Well, it's interesting.

We're more than a year away from the election.

You're going to have a lot of work that's right over the next year or two Gilbert Garcia, Metro columnist, San Antonio express news, pundit par exsalonce.

Thanks for coming in and thank you for joining us for this edition of on the record.

You can watch this show again or watch it on Sundays at one o'clock Saturdays at 5:30 PM, also on the podcast@krn.org.

We'll see you next time.

on the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele duke.

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