Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District

Building Student Agency and Hope Three Years After Tragedy

From Trauma-Informed Frameworks to Agricultural Technology Academies, a Texas Hill Country District Creates Pathways for Students to Thrive Beyond the Unthinkable

In the Texas Hill Country, 80 miles west of San Antonio, Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District is rewriting its story. The district serves approximately 4,036 students across eight campuses spanning 1,093 square miles of rural terrain, where 90% of students are Hispanic and more than half qualify as economically disadvantaged. Three years after the May 24, 2022, tragedy at Robb Elementary School that claimed 21 lives, the district has built a new framework centered on forward momentum while honoring those lost.

“The mission of Uvalde CISD, a progressive rural community with a heritage of inspiring and growing leaders, is to ensure each student has an excellent foundation to reach his or her goals through personalized, rigorous instruction, global experiences, a dedicated staff with high expectations, community pride, and achievement of all students,” says Ashley Chohlis, Superintendent. The district’s approach rests on three pillars: empowering all learners to thrive, building student agency so every child believes they can succeed, and disrupting the trajectory of trauma.

Chohlis emphasizes the deliberate language behind their mission. “We worked really hard on this with our stakeholders. We want to empower all learners to thrive. That means we’re not just talking about academic success. We’re talking about social-emotional growth, career readiness, and helping students discover who they are and what they want to become.” The district’s vision reaches further than traditional metrics, focusing on creating conditions where students develop resilience and self-determination despite the weight of collective grief that continues to shape their community.

Healing Through Partnership

Uvalde CISD partnered with Collegiate EduNation, a technical assistance provider specializing in trauma-informed educational frameworks, to build comprehensive support systems across the district. Dr. Rachael McClain, President of Collegiate EduNation, explains their approach goes beyond traditional trauma-informed practices. “We’re implementing what we call a healing-centered framework. Trauma-informed is reactive, it’s about responding to what happened. Healing-centered is proactive. It’s about building resilience, creating safe spaces, and giving students the tools they need to process their experiences while moving forward.”

The partnership includes grant writing and strategic planning, plus support for the Moving Forward Foundation, a nonprofit that fundraised entirely for the new replacement school opening in fall 2025. Dr. McClain’s team helped secure a $1 million Texas Education Agency grant split between two campuses, indicating how external expertise can unlock resources for districts undertaking complex recovery.

“We’re working to disrupt the trajectory of trauma for our students and community,” says Amy Graeber, Chief Instructional Officer. “Our hope is that our kiddos have the experiences and support that help them lead their own path forward. They were part of this tragedy, but it isn’t their identity or define their future. They deserve every opportunity any other student in Texas has—and even more—because we’re putting the right systems in place and bringing in partners who are ready to support us right now.”

The district maintains six full-time counselors with a student-to-teacher ratio of 14:1, below the state average. Graeber stresses the focus on ensuring students don’t carry “this tremendous backpack on them the rest of their life” regardless of where they were during the tragedy, recognizing that trauma touched every student in the community.

Career Pathways and Agricultural Leadership

Batesville, a small community in Zavala County that merged with Uvalde CISD in 1973, now hosts one of the district’s most ambitious initiatives. The Batesville Agritech Leadership Academy operates as a magnet school serving pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, designed to draw students from across the region with specialized agricultural technology programming. Funded by a $1 million TEA grant allocated at $500,000 over two years in partnership with nonprofit Collegiate EduNation, the academy integrates career readiness from the earliest grades.

“Students in grades one through eight complete career-focused research projects in partnership with organizations like Texas A&M AgriLife and 4-H,” explains Sandra Gonzalez, Principal of the Batesville Agritech Leadership Academy. “We give examples like fifth graders researching moon phases while discovering careers in space science. Starting in sixth grade, students receive counseling on college and career options, and both schools encourage students to apply for internships and other forms of hands-on experiences in agricultural technology careers.”

The academy incorporates virtual reality and AI tools as part of what Dr. McClain calls a “moonshot project” to enhance engagement in a region where agriculture remains central to the economy. The curriculum connects rural students to evolving agricultural technology sectors while honoring the community’s farming heritage. Gonzalez notes the program aims to provide early childhood experiential learning tailored to grade levels, preparing students for multiple post-graduation pathways including college, career certifications, and military readiness.

The district’s broader career readiness framework encompasses all campuses, highlighting Chohlis’s vision of students developing agency and belief in their own potential. “For me, it is all about student agency, that we have built into our kids this belief that they can and that they will, and for them to be persistent,” she says.

The New School and Infrastructure Investments

The Moving Forward Foundation, a freestanding nonprofit established after the tragedy, raised funds to build a state-of-the-art replacement for Robb Elementary without requiring district resources. “The new school is going to be absolutely state-of-the-art and safe. Safety and security were the utmost, the number one factor in designing this school,” Chohlis says. “The entire thing is masonry, set up in a triangle design. The design and development of that school have been so well thought through. It’s such a great representation of this community and honors the victims of May 24th in such a beautiful way.”

The facility will house third, fourth, and fifth grade students when it opens later in fall 2025. Chohlis anticipates the opening will be an important moment given global attention on the district’s recovery. “I cannot wait for it to open and for us to get to show it off to the world because I do feel like the world is watching what we’re doing,” she says.

However, infrastructure challenges persist across the district’s other campuses. “The rest of our students are in buildings that are 75 to 100 years old, with the exception of a few additions built about 25 years ago in the 2000 bond,” Chohlis explains. “We have a lot of deferred maintenance on lots of them. We’re working on our finances because we don’t have a solid fund balance. Our financial situation is not great.”

The district recently passed a $4 million maintenance tax note to replace HVAC controls and complete an LED lighting project. “The cost savings from those two things will pay the maintenance tax notes,” Chohlis notes. With annual spending at $14,297 per student and total revenue of $66.8 million, the district strategically prioritizes self-funding projects while managing extensive needs including roofs, windows, and aging infrastructure.

Excellence Beyond the Classroom

Despite operating in a community still processing collective grief, Uvalde CISD students continue achieving recognition in competitive arenas. Anne Marie Espinoza, Executive Director of Communications and Marketing, details recent accomplishments. “Our mariachi program has been state winners and two-time state qualifiers. We’ve had a tennis player be a state qualifier, track, wrestling. We’ve had a wrestling team be an actual state winner out of our wrestling team. We’ve had our female powerlifting team go to state several years in a row.”

The district’s small size creates opportunities rarely found in larger schools. “The other unique aspect about our students is they don’t just compete in one sport,” Espinoza says. “We can have a cheerleader in a cheerleader outfit run out into the ROTC and present colors, even run out onto the halftime field and be part of the band. We’re such a tight-knit high school that our students excel in multiple extracurricular activities.”

Espinoza attributes student success to staff dedication, noting that teachers genuinely care about their students and the results show. The district maintains an average teacher experience level of 12.5 years, though salaries average $57,484, nearly $5,000 below the state average. The Class of 2023 achieved an 86.2% graduation rate with a 1.9% dropout rate for grades 9-12.

Participation in diverse activities signifies broader district goals around student agency and personal growth. Students representing Uvalde at state competitions carry the district’s “Loyal and True” motto, performing under the Coyotes and Lobos mascots. Success in athletics and arts provides visible evidence that students can thrive despite extraordinary circumstances, inspiring resilience that goes beyond academic metrics into areas where passion and persistence meet opportunity.

Hope as a North Star

Chohlis frames the district’s future around measurable outcomes grounded in recovery. “Hope, for me, means that we create the conditions, experiences, and support to rise above what happened,” she says. “It doesn’t matter where they were that day—every one of them was touched by the trauma. My hope is that we have the right opportunities and systems in place so they don’t carry that weight like a tremendous backpack for the rest of their lives.”

Within a two-year timeframe, Chohlis has specific targets. “I want to achieve solid data that shows we are breaking the trajectory of trauma, disrupting it for our students and community. More kids in college, career, military readiness pathways. More kids upping our graduation rate. More kids reading by third grade,” she says. “My greatest hope is that our data starts to show our kids are being highly successful and that our parents want to reengage with the district, so our enrollment would go up, our attendance would go up, and student achievement is solid.”

Graeber offers a complementary perspective focused on individual student experience. “Hope means to me that we have perspective and opportunities for our kiddos, that they don’t feel it, that they rise above it,” she says. “It doesn’t matter where they were that day, they were part of that trauma. That is the hope for me, that we have the opportunities in place and the systems in place, so they don’t have this tremendous backpack on them the rest of their life.”

The district’s approach combines practical infrastructure investments, innovative educational programming, and sustained partnerships to create conditions where students can define themselves beyond tragedy. With the new school opening, career academies expanding, and support systems deepening, Uvalde CISD builds toward a future where recovery becomes the prevailing narrative.

AT A GLANCE

Who: Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District

What: A public PK-12 school district serving over 4,000 students across eight campuses in Southwest Texas, implementing healing-centered frameworks and career pathways to build student resilience and academic excellence

Where: Uvalde, Texas

Website: www.ucisd.net