Hernandez, Schwausch speak on issues facing Gonzales ISD at forum

Candidates for District 1 and District 2 Gonzales ISD trustee positions answered questions at a forum sponsored by the Gonzales Inquirer and American Legion Post 40 and held at the post hall Thursday, March 27.

Present to answer questions were District 1 challenger Ale Hernandez and District 2 incumbent Justin Schwausch. District 1 incumbent Gloria Torres notified the Inquirer she would be unable to attend and District 2 challenger Rocky Gallegos also was not present.

Hernandez and Schwausch answered the following questions asked by moderator and Inquirer publisher Lew K. Cohn in alternating order:

Do your own children attend Gonzales ISD? If so, what is it about Gonzales ISD that made you want to keep your children enrolled? If not, then why not?

Schwausch: “My son graduated Gonzales ISD already as well as my daughter will be graduating in May. So have we (my wife and me). I believe in public education. I think it's vital for not even our community, but our district and our state and our country. I feel that public education is the way to go. I think that this is what we need to do for our children. We've got many people that have been through  public education to where they've succeeded in it. I think that it's a great idea to keep our kids in there, to continue to fund it, and continue to support it. I love Gonzales ISD or I wouldn't be doing this for this many years and supporting it. I know my kids have been successful in it, and so have we.”

Hernandez: “My child is currently not enrolled in GISD, but will be in the future. I have two little ones that will follow eventually as well, too. Personally, I love GISD. I'm one of those that gets the chills and teary-eyed whenever I hear the fight song, and that sounds a little dramatic, but that's how deep my pride runs with GISD. And I do believe, you know, I was successful, you know, as a GISD graduate, and I feel like anyone else can be successful too, if you apply the time and everything to it as well. I think just specifically for me, like I said, that the pride runs deep with it, and I want my children to be able to experience the fight song. I want my children to be Apaches.”

Do you support or oppose the closing of the federal Department of Education and what can be done to make sure underserved students and specific student groups, including students with disabilities, are not impacted through changes in title funding and the school lunch program?

Hernandez: “I do not agree with that. I do believe, you know, the education department is important and that we need to keep funding in our public schools. It's vital for everyone. Not everyone has a luxury of being able to go to a private school, being able to afford it if their grades are not good, so I do think it's important for that to stay open and for them to continue.”

Schwausch: “I am definitely opposed to closing the DoEd. Even though Trump has signed that (executive order) it still has to go to Congress in order for it to pass, so I hope it doesn't. But as far as Gonzalez ISD, we are a Title I district, which is for, I guess you say, low income students, and yes, it does affect our special education and so on, so I hope it doesn't pass. I think it's kind of early right now for the school board as to how we are going to be affected, as well as every other school district, but it's something that we're looking into to make sure that, if it does pass, we are where we will be funded for those students and those programs. It's been probably since 2019 since the state has increased our allotment of funds, so it's kind of hard for us to continue on the way we're going right now. That's why our public education is hurting right now. We're suffering. If you were making $10 an hour back in 2019, now it's 2025, how are you still going to make a living while everything continues to go up while making $10 an hour? I think it's extremely important that we continue to keep up with what's going on out there in our higher politics and it won’t benefit and it will affect our school education.”

Senate Bill 1 was just adopted by the Senate and will include pay raises for teachers based on experience and student performance but does not increase the basic allotment of $6,160 per student, which has not changed since 2019, despite the costs of education increasing every year. What can the school district do to make sure Gonzales ISD students continue to receive the best education possible?

Schwausch: “Our teachers and trying to keep them here and paying them adequate enough so that we can keep them — we want qualified teachers here, and we want to keep them here. We don't want to go to different districts. Right now, we have our teacher pay starting out at $50,750 for first-year teachers. We try to stay competitive with our surrounding counties or even within the state. We want to keep our our teachers happy. We want to make sure that they're paid and well taken care of. We have something here in Gonzales ISD, which is a TIA, which is Teacher Incentive Allotment. It provides, it provides financial incentives to teachers that work in a high-need school, which that's what we are, and provides a pathway for effective educators to earn higher salaries. Things like that are what we already have in place, and we're going to continue doing that so we can support our teachers and we can keep them here. I mean, who doesn't love raises and money, right? So we're looking into it, you know, with Amanda Smith as our CFO, and he's very great at what she does. Every year we're looking to teacher raises, and if we can fund it, the board definitely is supporting it.”

Hernandez: “Just kind of piggy towing off of what Justin said, you know, we’re obviously wanting to retain highly qualified educators, and I think the biggest part with that is, yes, pay is great, and everyone loves the pay raise, but if you feel supported by your leadership, then I feel like it is easy to stay, to keep teachers and other employees retained.”

Do you support or oppose the state’s plan to set aside $1 billion in funding for 100,000 school vouchers for private or home schooling and what impact do you think it will have on Gonzales ISD?

Hernandez:  “I do not agree with it. I do think it would affect GISD greatly. I think this opens up, which we already struggle with, a bunch of families leaving our school district and going to nearby towns. And I just don't think that that's something that we're going to want, because we're going to want to keep those funds for our public schools, to keep those students here and keep families here versus giving them te freedom of going to somewhere else.”

Schwausch: “Vouchers have been a thorn in the side of public education for many years, so let me start off by saying, ‘Vote no. Vote no. Vote no for vouchers.’ It's not a good thing for public education. They're going to talk about we're going to give you money for school choice. We're going to give you $10,000 to go to any school that you want to, but it doesn't cover the extra expense of what their tuition is. It might be $15,000 or $20,000 that they're going to charge you. They're only giving you $10,000. They're not telling you, ‘Hey, we're going to give you ten and you gotta come up with the rest.’ So it's not a good thing. I think it's made for the wealthy, not the unwealthy. For me, when I start hearing about vouchers and stuff like that, I'm thinking about separation. It's not good enough for my kids, but it's good enough for your kids, and that's not what we're about when you talk about unity and so on like that. We want to keep our students together. We want to keep our community together, our districts, and it's taking funds away from public education, which we're limited now, when we go back to what I was talking about earlier, for 2019 we haven’t changed since then, and now they're still trying to take more money away from us, and they wonder why public education is failing. We're trying our best to stay afloat, and I just think it's wrong. And I'll go again back down to ‘Vote no. Vote no. Vote no for vouchers.’”

In the past 10 years, student enrollment has decreased by more than 300 students from 2,853 to 2,513 and average daily attendance has dropped from 2,601.41 to 2,279. Funding from the state is based on ADA and this has caused the district to use up $9.48 million in fund balance since September 2023. What has caused ADA to fall and what can be done so the district doesn’t use up all its fund balance to make up for budget shortfalls?

Schwausch: “Right now, I believe, and I think, and I know our finances are awesome. We talked about fund balance so we'll start with that. We have $17 million in our fund balance, which is roughly six and a half months of operating expenditures, and it's recommended that you have at least three months in there. We're okay where we're at right now, but it doesn't mean that we don't continue thriving and trying to continue to improve and to continue to save. I think we're doing okay with that. Our score is an A rating, which is a superior achievement, rated for our finances and financial and bond ratings. We scored a 98 out of a possible 100. I feel that's one of our strong points with Amanda and her team, that they have done their due diligence to keep it where we need to be, just in case, if something happens. We're running off a $35 million budget, which is around 80 percent of that is on our payroll. Even then, we're still funding them. We're working with little to nothing, but we're still at that point to where we're doing great. Our M&O is at a 0.7308, our I&S is at a 0.1326, which is a total tax rate of 0.8706, right now, uh, talking about pay tax rates. Since 2018 to last year, we haven’t raised taxes. We saved 35.53 pennies. We're doing our best to keep it where it needs to be.”

Hernandez: “So I know the school district as well has the A rating on their financials, so I know that they are in good standing and then I've also heard the fund balance is also in good standing as well. In my opinion, the students being absent, I mean, that's I feel like, the parents and the students, you know, not wanting to go to school or taking them to school, but I feel like that's not over the control of anyone on the board or administration.”

Employee turnover has been unusually high during the past few years. Nearly 30 percent of teachers in the district are inexperienced and nearly 22 percent of staff are teaching in fields or areas for which they are not certified or licensed. What do you think has caused teachers to leave and what can be done to make sure the district retains the best possible cohort of educators?

Hernandez: “I think the biggest thing is feeling supported. If you're not feeling supported in whatever job you're at, you're not gonna commit your time to it. And even if you have committed your time, if you continue to feel like you're not supported, eventually you're gonna leave. And I think as long as they start feeling supported by our leadership, then we are going to be able to start retaining teachers. But until then, I don't think that's going to be something that happens.”
Schwausch: “It's not just Gonzales ISD, if you look into it, it's across the state, across the nation, where teachers are being tasked to do more than just teach students. Nowadays, mental health is a huge thing that's coming into play. It's not just for students. Our teachers are having issues with that as well. So I will agree with Ale, it's the support. We want them to feel supported. I think that'll be a huge part. Let them know that we have your back. We're here for y'all so come talk to us. Let us know what y'all need. We'll do what we can, whether it's programs that y'all need to help out to teach our students. But we've seen throughout  the state that teachers have quit doing their teaching. They just stop. They don't want to do it any more because of what the state is asking them to do — nothing illegal, but it's just they're asking them more than just to teach, and some of them just can't handle it, so they're getting out of their profession. So yes, some of our teachers right now, we are trying to find those to get certified. We have grow your own within Gonzales ISD. As teachers are going through this program, we will invest into them and they're going to invest back into us. Once they graduate, just roughly, depending on how long, within two or three years, they'll get back into the system, and we will have certified teachers.”