Original Research by School Decision on Healy-murphy
Healy-Murphy is a small alternative high school in San Antonio ISD, located on Live Oak Street in the city's urban core, close to downtown San Antonio. It serves students in grades nine through twelve, and its enrollment is quite small relative to a typical high school. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a smaller share of Black students and very few white students; together these groups make up essentially the entire school community. Free-and-reduced-price lunch eligibility rates, English learner counts, and special education data were not available in the data provided, so the full economic and support profile of the student population cannot be characterized here.
As an alternative school, Healy-Murphy sits somewhat outside the standard frame used to evaluate conventional high schools. Alternative schools in Texas typically serve students who have struggled to stay on track in traditional settings, including those who have experienced disruptions, credit deficiencies, or other barriers to completion. That context matters when reading the academic data. State STAAR testing results from the most recent year show a mixed picture. In science and social studies, the large majority of students are reaching the approaches-grade-level threshold, which is the minimum bar Texas sets. In reading and language arts, fewer than half reach that same mark. In math, the approaches rate is quite low. Rates of students meeting or mastering grade level in any subject are thin across the board, with virtually no students reaching the masters level in reading or math. A parent who wants to understand these numbers in relation to the school's specific student population and mission should ask Healy-Murphy directly, because raw proficiency figures at an alternative school reflect the entry points and circumstances of enrolled students in ways that a straight comparison to a traditional campus does not capture.
Graduation rate data was not available in the comparison data set. Chronic absenteeism data was also not available. These are consequential gaps for a family trying to assess outcomes, and the school would be the right source for both figures.
Program and course access details were not provided, so it is not possible to describe what elective, career, or advanced course pathways exist here. That too is worth asking the school about directly.
The school sits within San Antonio ISD, which has been through substantial change in recent years. The district closed a large number of campuses in late 2023 as part of a rightsizing effort driven by long-running enrollment decline, and a meaningful share of students affected by those closures did not return to the district. The district has also moved toward a standardized, district-wide curriculum in math and reading, replacing the campus-by-campus variation that existed before, and is implementing a phonics-centered literacy approach. A large bond passed in 2020 is funding facility renovations across many campuses, and that work has continued into 2025. Whether and how those district-level shifts touch Healy-Murphy's specific programming is not reflected in the available data.
The neighborhood around Live Oak Street is part of San Antonio's inner urban fabric, within reach of downtown's walkable core, the River Walk, and the city's transit network operated by VIA Metropolitan Transit. Housing values in the zip code are well below both the Texas statewide and national medians, and they have moved downward in the past year. Rents have moved in the opposite direction, rising over the same period, though they remain relatively affordable as a share of income compared to many urban markets. San Antonio as a whole is one of the fastest-growing large cities in the country, with significant new residential construction and a broad employer base anchored by healthcare, military, finance, and an expanding technology sector.
For a family with a student who needs an alternative pathway to a diploma, Healy-Murphy may be worth a direct conversation with the school about its support structure, credit recovery options, counseling resources, and what its actual graduation and attendance outcomes look like. Those answers are not in the publicly available data compiled here.
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