6420 Cotton Ridge
San Antonio, TX 78252

If you are a family of color or have a student of color (African American) I would steer clear of this district. This school is not inclusive or diverse. Your child will be one of a handful of black kids whom they all just lump together. Not to mention Castroville gives sun down town to me. I’ve never felt welcomed in this town. I wouldn’t be caught dead in Castroville after dark. The administration and the parents are incredibly rude. We moved here after a transfer for my job. Yes, the new homes are beautiful and affordable and I was blinded by all of it. I wish I would’ve just rented in a NISD district. My child has begged me every week to get him out of this school! I have tried tirelessly to transfer him out to no avail. Buying a home in this school district is one of the biggest mistakes I have ever made in my life! It keeps me up at night about how terrible a High School experience my child is having at Medina Valley. I’ve considered renting out my home and moving into an apartment is so bad.

Horrible. The busses are always constantly late, the teachers are disrespectful or try too hard, and the principals and rules are nonsense. I’m not saying this just to be salty, but it’s genuinely true. I cannot stand going to this school. It’s almost everyday black people (including myself) are met with some sort of unnecessary racism from white and even mexican/hispanic peers. This is unbelievable. It’s not the schools fault, but at the same time it very much is. They claim to have a “No racial slur/no racism” policy, but when there’s actual racism going on they go completely silent—I genuinely find it so crazy how ANYONE can just stand and watch a literal kid be racist to another. Not to mention, there are some teachers who literally allow nonblack students to say the N-word (or any other racial discrimination) in class. Absolutely disgusting. My friends and myself are always having to deal with racism but we simply sit in silence. There is horrible mental health tolerance here, and racism can highly hit that topic. Speaking of mental health, the councilors tell parents everything, so kids who actually need help not only have to deal with their mental problems alone but they also have the risk of literal grown women telling their parents their business. Not to mention this school completely ignores red flags such as students that may have ADHD or autism. Instead those students are yelled at and discriminated. I have so much more to say, and this is just the tip of the iceburg of my experience at this school. I HATE it here.

This school, like any other has its share of great teachers and not so great teachers. The one thing I can say for the district as a whole is that children are more than a number or a test score. Children are what drives this district. Personally, after removing my children from a Northside school because of bullying and lack of learning, one of my daughters went from failing in Northside to an honors student in one year because she had teachers who cared. My other went from a kinder reading level in second grade to a third grade level in one year, again because her teacher cared.