Dear SAISD Familia:

It is with sadness and a full heart of appreciation that I share with you today’s announcement from Trustee Patti Radle that her current term as SAISD Trustee will be her last one. Her term concludes this May, and I hope you will all join me in honoring her for her pure dedication to our SAISD Familia. For more than a decade, she has been a matriarch on our Board of Trustees. We have valued her guidance, respected her decisions, cherished her roots in our community, and loved her beautiful spirit as one of our biggest advocates. 

Dr. Moises Ortiz, principal at Lanier High School and Tafolla Middle School, expresses deep gratitude for how her energies and efforts have been an inspiration for all of us to be better for our kids, to work harder for our schools, and to establish a loyalty to our families. He echoes all of our thoughts when he says she will be sorely missed.

J. T. Brackenridge Elementary School principal Marco Morales also expresses his appreciation for her support and aptly calls her a pillar of the community. He has loved seeing her out and about in the neighborhood, delivering cookies for staff, and walking the campus. Trustee Radle holds a special place in his heart. We all feel the same.

Please join me at the Monday, Jan. 23 Board Meeting to express our undying gratitude to Trustee Radle for her service to SAISD. January is School Board Recognition Month, and we will be recognizing Trustee Radle and each and every one of our Trustees during this meeting. Our Trustees carry the mantle of SAISD’s legacy. And while each term may eventually conclude, their service to and belief in our kids never end.

As Trustee Radle says below, she will remain very active. We can’t picture her any other way.

In service and gratitude,
Jaime

From: Patti Radle, SAISD Board of Trustees, District 5 
What: Announcement--My intention regarding the up-coming SAISD school board election 
 
For Release/Request for Coverage 

When May 2023 rolls around, I will have served on the SAISD School Board of Trustees for twelve (12) years. My intention regarding the May 2023 election for the SAISD Board of Trustees is that I will not seek re-election. SAISD Districts 2, 5, and 6 are up for election. 

I am extremely honored to have been able to serve on the SAISD Board of Trustee representing District 5 for these years, representing the students and citizens in 17 schools and their neighborhoods in the Lanier High School feeder pattern. I am especially honored to have served as the Board President for six (6) years (June 2015 to June 2021). 

During these 12 years, student academic improvement has taken great strides—going from 40% of our schools failing in 2015 to 2019 when the District attained an overall state accountability rating of “B” with 90% of schools earning no less than a “C” and 63% earning “A’s and “B’s.”  In coming out of COVID in 2022, the District has maintained that “B” rating. Also, the citizens of the District passed the two largest Bond Elections in the history of SAISD, allowing us to make great facilities improvements on many of our district campuses. In their most important job as trustees—selecting a superintendent—this school board selected two extremely outstanding superintendents in Pedro Martinez (2015-2021) and now, as of April of 2022, Dr. Jaime Aquino. 

I will continue to be very active in my community. It is time for me to focus more attention to Inner City Development—the non-profit my husband and I have been directing on a volunteer basis for over 50 years. We must help to prepare new leadership for the next generation to take Inner City into the future. Inner City operates from a very strong volunteer base to offer food and clothing to people in need and recreation and education to children and teens in the Lanier neighborhood and others in the San Antonio community, as well. These services are important to maintain in a neighborhood that suffers from much economic poverty, yet blooms richly with great resilience, beauty and culture. 

Thank you for any consideration of coverage for this announcement and for the attention you have given to coverage of issues related to education.  

Patti Radle