Gerald Lopez, who has served as a trustee on the Northside Independent School District representing District 2 since 2015, plans to take his community-focused style of service to the Alamo Colleges District board, where he filed to run unopposed for the seat vacated by long-serving trustee Roberto Zarate.
“It is really kind of funny, because I am coming from K-12 and I am seeing these kids in another phase of their life,” Lopez said. “Right now it is me taking them from K-12 and getting them ready for a college or career and now I am going to be helping them try to get a career and trying to find opportunities for them to be successful in life [and] to be a productive citizen in the community.”
“I am excited to see the student journey from a different perspective,” he added.
Speaking from a table at the Alamo College headquarters on a recent sunny morning, Lopez said he looks back fondly on his time on the Northside ISD board and has few regrets.
Lopez was already involved in the community, including volunteer work and serving on the parent-teacher association, when he was appointed to the board in 2015 to fill the vacancy left by district legend and the namesake of Cole Elementary School, Benny Cole.
He ran for the seat in three subsequent terms, focusing on student success while still leveraging his community connections on the board. He is vacating the seat he won in May 2023 to take the ACD position. The board will appoint a replacement in the coming weeks.
Bobby Blount, the current board president, said Lopez’s focus on the community stood out as a strength during his tenure.
“He was very good at making sure not only that we put kids first, but that we really looked at the impact of what we’re trying to achieve,” Blount said.
One initiative he spearheaded was establishing a partnership with Texas Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, an organization that supports grandparents who have become primary caregivers.
“We found out that a lot of our grandparents are raising grandkids and our students, and that was a challenge,” Lopez said, adding that he hopes to continue spreading awareness of these relationships on the new board.
Blount said that and other perspectives helped frame the Northside board’s mission and decisions.
“Sometimes we may be talking about parents and he would say, ‘Wait a minute, … grandparents have a different perspective, they’re also taking care of our children,'” Blount said.
With additional perspectives from a K-12 board, Blount said he hopes Lopez will bring a collaborative voice to ACD that benefits students and school districts across San Antonio.
A legacy and a new chapter
While coming into the role with an open mind, Lopez said he is keen to learn more about what can be done for students educated during the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and help prepare them for an ever-shifting workforce.
“It’s going to be more about economic development,” he said. “How can we make sure that our kids… are prepared for their next stage in life? That’s going to be the challenge.”
Navigating the pandemic was one of the chief accomplishments and challenges of Lopez’s tenure on the board, he said. During that time, he balanced the educational need for in-person instruction with the safety and well-being of students and staff in the initial months of the pandemic when little was known.
“The pandemic brought some things up to the surface that we knew were there but didn’t see,” he said. There were some gaps where our families were missing some things, but I think we were able to handle that.”
Those resources included devices, food and other types of support to ensure students were able to attend to their lessons.
One of the last official proceedings Lopez participated in as a trustee was a grievance hearing regarding pay for auxiliary workers. The Northside American Federation for Teachers chapter brought a complaint after only select employees received a raise in the last year.
After hearing arguments from the district and the union, the board ultimately voted to deny the grievance. Still, Lopez said that not being able to advocate for greater pay is one of the few regrets he has from his time on the board, blaming the state government for a lack of resources.
“Could we pay our teachers and employees more across the state? Yes,” he said. “I couldn’t advocate hard enough for what we really needed.”
Lopez pointed to the excess funds the legislature had to spend during the last regular and special sessions, saying at least some of that should have gone to K-12 education.
“That’s your money. That’s my money. That should have gone in there to fill the budget to help pay for some services that our kids needed,” he said.
When Zarate announced that he would be stepping down from the board, Lopez said he reached out to him as a friend, whom he had helped campaign for in the past, and asked him about the role.
“He explained where Alamo Colleges is, where we’re going and the experiences, understanding finances,” he said. “He goes, ‘you would do an excellent job.'”
Lopez said that while he has big shoes to fill, he is confident since he is moving from “one high-functioning board” to another.
The NISD Board is seeking candidates to fill Lopez’s role and will appoint someone before the end of May.
The appointed trustee will serve until the next trustee election in May 2025.
Application materials and requirements are available on NISD’s website.
The application window closes on April 17 at 5 p.m.
