Turning school closures into powerful opportunity at Donna ISD

Donna ISD Superintendent Dr. Angela Dominguez grew up sharing a one-bedroom house with six siblings on the West Side of San Antonio. She grabbed onto education like a lifeline, pulling her way up and becoming the first in her family to go to college.

“That is the lens I operate with as a superintendent,” Dominguez said. Leading a district where 95 percent of students are low-income, “we have to look at things differently and provide access and opportunity early on.”

The ability to extend an educational lifeline to students like her was the reason she became a superintendent in 2021.

But purpose alone wasn’t enough to prepare her for the challenges she faced: declining enrollment, shrinking resources, and the difficult truth that the district needed to close two schools.

“I was sinking a little bit in the role,” Dominguez admitted. The leadership training and coaching she received through Holdsworth’s Superintendent Leadership Program helped her approach the moment with clarity and a steadier heart.

“If I hadn’t had the training at Holdsworth, I think I might’ve fumbled (the school closures), and it would’ve been difficult on our community.”

A painful choice turns into new opportunities

Instead, something unexpected happened: “It went so smoothly that at times I looked around and thought, I expected more pushback,” Dominguez said. “What happened was actually pretty positive for our community.”

Closing schools saved the district money, allowing them to invest in richer, deeper learning experiences for students.

One of the clearest examples of that expanded opportunity sits inside the halls of Donna North High School: an in-house veterinary science program with its own spay and neuter clinic—one of the only clinics of its kind in the country.

“This is a hands-on opportunity where students gain real-world experiences working alongside veterinarians and technicians,” said teacher Amanda Cedillo. “Our students do induction, surgery prep and recovery. It’s unique.”

For students like Eliana Rodriguez, the opportunity has been life changing.

“It fills me up with joy knowing that I can help animals,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve done blood draws, medications, prep for surgery… it’s really hands-on, and it shows you what it’s really about.”

The kind of opportunity that once felt out of reach—especially in a community where many families struggle financially—is now within students’ grasp.

A leader shifts

Behind these expanded opportunities is a superintendent who grew in the exact ways her district needed her to.

Stepping into the role requires a profound change in mindset. As Dominguez put it, leaders have to stop trying to “do everything” and start thinking about the bigger picture – anticipating challenges and opportunities five and 10 years down the road and orienting people and systems to achieve ambitious goals.

That change is hard to make alone. That’s where Holdsworth comes in. It’s programs for aspiring and sitting superintendents help them make the key shifts necessary to succeed in a demanding and high-stakes role.

Read more about the shifts in “Beyond Impossible: Thriving in the Superintendency.” 

Dominguez’s Holdsworth coach, retired superintendent Dr. Art Cavazos, pushed her to lift her gaze from the daily fires to the longterm vision and build systems that would outlive any single leader.

“The big ‘aha’ is the shift in terms of how I spend my time as a leader; knowing and understanding it’s okay to spend time thinking, processing and planning for the future as opposed to doing some of the day-to-day things I was so consumed with as a deputy superintendent,” Dominguez said.

Stephanie Powelson-Garza, Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction, said she has seen the growth in her boss’s leadership.

“She is able to see the entire system as a whole but also make sure that everything we do is aligned to what’s happening every day at the teacher-student level – that’s a wonderful and rare thing,” Powelson-Garza said.

Board member Fernando Castillo agreed: “Since Dr. Dominguez has attended the Holdsworth training, I strongly feel that it’s made her a better superintendent.”

Leadership matters for student learning

Dominguez’s growth has allowed her to turn her heart for students into real opportunities and better outcomes.

Under her leadership, Donna ISD has seen dramatic gains:

• Early childhood reading up by more than 60 percentage points
• Early childhood math up more than 40 percentage points
• Overall system performance rising from the 19th percentile to the 76th percentile statewide

Perhaps the most profound transformation wasn’t in the data or even in the new programs—it was in Dominguez herself.

“Before Holdsworth, I was ready to leave the superintendency,” she said. “And after Holdsworth, I feel like I could do this for quite some time.”