By Louis Zylka
The 830 Times
The fall school semester starts Monday, and the biggest change for the local public school
district is the launch of three middle school campuses.
The middle schools will be Del Rio Middle School (DRMS), 720 E. De La Rosa St.; San Felipe
Memorial Middle School, 1207 W. Garza St., and Garfield Middle School, 300 W. Martin St.
San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District (SFDR-CISD) representatives
discussed the process and goals behind the 2025-2026 middle school reconfiguration project.
Sandra Hernandez, chief administrative officer for SFDR-CISD, and Jorge A. Jurado, principal
of Garfield Middle School, spoke with The 830 Times about the final weeks before the new
middle schools opened their doors.
The reconfiguration project began in September 2024 when the concept of creating three middle
school campuses was brought forth to the SRDR CISD’s board of trustees for the first time.
One of the biggest motives behind establishing three middle schools was to diminish the
management issues stemming from the overpopulation at the existing DRMS campus.
Hernandez said the campus had anywhere between 1,300 to 1,500 students. She said the
primary focus of the reconfiguration project is to help staff manage groups of students.
“Because of the size of the (DRMS) campus, (the population of students) required a lot of
management. It was very difficult,” Hernandez said. “Having a smaller configuration of
classrooms and a smaller configuration of the population of students works because (teachers
and staff) are able to manage the classes and are able to focus on the important things, which
are the instructions and the learning,”
The principals of the three middle schools include Cheryl Pond at San Felipe Memorial Middle
School, Maytte Soliz at DRMS and Jurado at Garfield Middle School. Jurado was hired as the
third principal, and Hernandez said the three of them worked together to discuss how to make
the pieces of the middle school puzzle fit.
Jurado said he, Pond and Soliz worked well together to ensure each decision made was for the
best interest of their students. He said staff was divided appropriately, attended leadership
training and designed Positive Behavioral Supports (PBS) for helping students.
“(The staff) worked a lot on how we were going to build a shared understanding and to build
collaborations and commitments among all the staff,” Jurado said.
Jurado mentioned his experience working with students, which included teaching in San Antonio
and working in Del Rio as the principal at Buena Vista Elementary School and DRMS. Jurado
said he got excited when he was brought in to be the principal for Garfield, adding the goal of a
middle school is preparing students for high school.
“We are hoping for high parent engagement, more opportunities for our students in athletics,
more student organizations and better student outcomes,” Jurado said. “We want to make sure that we meet their needs.”
Hernandez mentioned each campus will have three counselors, and through rotations, each
counselor will stay with a class of students within their campus as they transition from one grade
level to the next. Rotations will allow the counselors to get to know their students and help them
as they progress through their grade levels and adapt to their campus. Hernandez also said all
the three middle schools will have the same number of programs, including athletic teams,
bands and choir groups.
“We wanted to make sure all the three middle school campuses have the same type of
programming. It doesn’t matter if they are at Garfield or San Felipe Middle School or DRMS,
they will have athletics and all the same types of programming available to them. One does not
have more or less than the other,” Hernandez said.
Garfield was originally used as an elementary school campus, and through the reconfiguration
process, the campus was reworked to accommodate middle school students. Garfield now has
boys’ and girls’ locker rooms, an athletic training room, a weight room and restrooms designed
for older students. Cody Wardlaw Gym will also be available for Garfield classes to use, and Jurado said everyone will have full access and space for the classes they have. He also said
law enforcement will have a big presence on all three campuses.
Hernandez described how the middle school campuses will help families by creating a small-
neighborhood community through the new configuration. Part of the process was assigning
students to the campus closest to their residency. Letters were also sent out in June to inform
parents on which campus their children would be attending.
Hernandez said that the letters
created a “big relief” for parents who were waiting for information.
A new safety feature the district will be using is an online program called Bus View. The
program is a multifunctional system for monitoring bus routes and notifying when students step
in and out of a bus. All students who ride buses will be given a tag for scanning themselves
when loading the vehicle. Parents who have the Bus View app can check when and where their
children are going when using the bus.
For their final comments, Jurado and Hernandez said they recommend parents to use the
Skyward website to complete and finish their online verifications and personal information.
Hernandez also strongly suggests that parents visit the campuses and meet the teachers and
staff who will be teaching and helping their children.
“(The district) wants parents to visit the schools and get to know them. The more we have an
open relationship with them, it will create a great outcome for their child, because they’ll get to
know who to see, who’s the teachers and who’s the principal, and they will feel better getting to
know them. We want them to come see us and see what the schools look like,” Hernandez said.
