The San Antonio ISD is building a second all girls public school, to complement the highly successful Young Women's Leadership Academy which has been open for a decade, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Superintendent Pedro Martinez says the new school will be for girls between kindergarten and 5th grade. The existing YWLA, in the former Mann Middle School in the Jefferson neighborhood, teachers girls from 6th to 12th grades.
The new school will be open to all girls who live within Bexar County. There is no academic entry requirements and admission is based on a lottery system.
The school will focus on STEM programs, along with early college preparation.The new school will be built in the current Page Middle School southeast of downtown, which is being phased out, and will open in August of 2019.
Martinez is tackling declining attendance and low performing campuses in a creative way which is not always popular with employees. An east side school is being turned into a privately run charter school. The current YWLA is currently among the highest performing schools in the state, and has been recognized by US News and World Report in its list of the Best High School and was named a National Blue Ribbon School in 2015.