District officials looking to incentivize working in the Seguin ISD even more

Cindy Aguirre-Herrera

(Seguin) -- Although the school year has kicked off, the work to retain and recruit teachers to the Seguin ISD continues.

The Seguin ISD recently announced that it wants to add affordable housing to its list of employee benefits.

An increase in the cost of living plus a staffing crisis statewide, are forcing the Seguin ISD to begin looking at incentives to not only recruit employees but help them find an affordable place to live as they serve the school district.

The Seguin ISD Board of Trustees during a special Wednesday night meeting got to learn more about the Texas Workforce Housing Foundation which creates a memorandum of understanding with school districts in effort to provide affordable rent prices to employees.

Currently, there are just under 10 school districts that participate, or that plan to participate in the program.

The Austin ISD is among those having several developments in its school system.

In some cases, up to a $1,000 discount is provided to employees based upon that employee's salary scale.

Seguin ISD Superintendent Matthew Gutierrez says whether it's identifying an existing multifamily property or allowing the foundation to work with a developer for a ground up development, the district will have the opportunity to extend the benefit to all district employees and not just teachers.

"We are looking at the possibility of partnering with the Texas Workforce Housing Foundation to be able to begin the process of identifying possible properties within our community to be part of this foundation to begin offering our employees who are living in those housing complexes the incentive to have a discount on their monthly rent and if we are not able to partner with an existing complex in our community, then we can begin to look at other options as far as working with developers to possibly bring in housing for educators," said Gutierrez.

On hand to explain this potential incentive was Adam Harden, an attorney representing the Texas Workforce Housing Foundation. When asked about a district's financial obligation or responsibilities, Harden said there was zero.

He says not only does the district take on no debt, but the district is clear of any responsibility or maintenance of the housing development.

Dr. Gutierrez says there is a real struggle among those in the district as it becomes harder and harder for many employees to keep up with the cost of living in the area.

SISD, pg. 3

Fire destroys garage portion of home, vehicle

(Seguin) – Investigation continues into a weekend house fire. Seguin Fire Officials say the fire was reported at 6:40 a.m. Sunday in the 300 block of Kenwood Circle.

Assistant Fire Chief Garrick Herbert says the fire ripped through the garage portion of the home and also destroyed a vehicle parked outside.

Herbert says thanks to tremendous efforts by fire fighters, the fire was contained in the garage area and did not progress across the house where multiple people were inside.

Officials say one person did suffer minor injuries and has since been treated.

SISD, continued.

"We see rising costs in everything right now including rent, housing. If you look at the price of a home now or to rent a one or two bedroom versus what it was five or six years ago, I think that that could be a reason why some are leaving the field because perhaps an educator who has taught 10 years and they are at $61,000-$62,000 and can perhaps go and find a different job and make $10,000 more, we want to be able to be able incentivize our teachers or any employee to stay and not need to entertain exploring other career opportunities,” said Gutierrez.

Dr. Gutierrez says the program is simply used to help lower rent prices for district staff. He says those additional dollars often determine whether an employee chooses to stay or move on to a higher paying district.

“There would be certain requirement that you would have to meet but you could have a transportation driver qualify, a child nutrition employee qualify, a teacher qualify and we are not just experiencing a shortage of teachers – we still have some math vacancies at the high school – we are seeing it across the board with bus drivers, custodians and it’s not unique to Seguin and so that’s why you are seeing districts start to look at these options to be able to retain and recruit,” said Gutierrez.

It's important to Dr. Gutierrez that the community understand the district's willingness to entertain this idea. He says this is a clear investment for the community.

“I think this is really a big deal for the school district to potentially be able to offer this incentive to our employees and I think it’s just so important to think about who shakes and molds the future of society. It’s our public school educators and when I say educator, I just don’t mean the teacher because as I spoke to our child nutrition team today or transportation staff members, it takes a village to raise a child so this is an investment in the future of our nation, of our society and I think this is a great way to invest in public education and get more people to stay in the field but also recruit more people to join the Seguin ISD,” Gutierrez.

In his experience, Harden adds that the immediate pushback from the community when first learning about this program is believing that it is for low income or is government housing. Instead, he adds that "this would be a place folks can be proud of." He says the projects proposed include high quality homes and would require final authorization and clearance by the superintendent.

Other area districts who participate in the program include Pflugerville and Round Rock.

Although the district took no action on Wednesday, district officials say they do expect to revisit the item during a future meeting.

Armed, continued.

Beck says allowing the program in the Marion ISD will help cover the basis in ensuring students and staff remain safe at all times.

“Part of House Bill 3 was requiring that every campus have an armed individual like a cop of some sort. Looking at that, we currently already have three SROs (School Resource Officer). We would have had to I believe gone to five and so having the Guardian Program in place, we are able to meet the requirements from the state in order to still maintain our three SROs who do a fantastic job for our district but as well as provide that extra layer for quick time response for our kids,” said Beck.

Due to anonymity, Beck, of course, couldn’t provide who or how many armed staff would be present each school day. He did, however, say each campus would provide the necessary messaging and warning for anyone who walks into their buildings.

“We were pretty proactive on getting that stuff taken care of before the school year but the biggest change has been the Guardian Program and that’s when people are going to see those signs and they just need to be aware of that there are staff on campus and it’s not everybody but we do have staff that have been trained to be able to carry,” said Beck.

In addition to the Guardian Program, the Marion ISD has worked steadily over the summer putting up fences and other safety tools to safeguard its campuses.

Another change in the Marion ISD this school year will result in a bonus for the Class of 2024.

The school bell will also run an additional five minutes for Marion ISD secondary students. Beck says the additional minutes will allow for its seniors to not only finish school but graduate one week earlier. He says the last day of class for seniors will be Friday, May 17th followed by graduation on Saturday, the 18th. All other students, pre-k through 11th grade, will continue school until Friday, May 24.