Schwausch elected GISD president; Hendershot, Molina to be VP, secretary

After being sworn in to a new term just minutes earlier, Justin Schwausch was elected president of the Gonzales ISD Board of Trustees by his fellow trustees Monday, May 12. Fellow school board member Gloria Torres was also sworn in to a new term in office.

The two were re-elected by their constituents in District 2 and District 1, respectively, during the Saturday, May 3 election. The school board officially canvassed the election results and accepted them Monday night. Schwausch and Torres also received framed certificates of election from new Superintendent Dr. Dana Arreola, who was on the dais for the first time after beginning her job just four weeks prior.

Schwausch had previously served as the vice president for the GISD board. Former president Ross Hendershot III now will take over as vice president for the board, while Ashley Molina will succeed Josie Smith-Wright as secretary.

“In 2020, we had an LBB (Legislative Budget Board) review that came in and discussed that we needed to regularly change officers,” Hendershot said. “At that point in time, we did change officers but we haven’t in quite a number of years.”

Dr. Rachelle Ysquierdo, the district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, gave an update on the district’s 2023 A-F Accountability Rating, which was released last month. Gonzales ISD and all of its rated campuses received a C. Dr. Ysquierdo said the TEA reconfigured its rating system prior to the 2022-23 academic year, so had the district been rated for 2021-22 on the new system, it would have received a D overall instead of a B.

Among the changes that were made were increasing the indicator percentage for CCMR (college, career and military readiness) from a 60 percent in 2022 to an 88 percent in 2023 in order to earn an A and adding Accelerated Learning and Annual Growth to the accountability matrix under what is known as House Bill 1416.

A chart provided by Dr. Ysquierdo shows that if the district had been rated in 2022 on the new system, there would have been growth in all five key indicators used to assess the district and the weighted score would have risen from an overall score of 66 to an overall score of 75, an improvement of a letter grade and nearly 10 points.

As a result, the district will be providing professional development to all teachers, paraprofessionals and other staffers in the areas of Professional Learning Communities, Data Driven Instruction and District Aligned systems and processes for district and campus administrators, with a goal to increase student achievement for all learners.

TEA is prevented from sharing school ratings from the 2023-24 school year due to an ongoing lawsuit but Dr. Ysquierdo indicated Gonzales ISD will likely receive a C for that rating as well.

End-of-course STAAR test results will be in the district on May 23 and in the family portal on June 10, while 3-8 results will be in the district on May 30 and in the portal on June 17.

A TEA staff development waiver was approved by the board for the school district to substitute out 2,100 minutes of professional staff development for five seven-hour instructional days for the 2024-25 school year. The district had five fewer instructional days that were instead replaced by five staff development days. This brings the operational minutes to more than 75,600 for each campus and puts the district in compliance with TEA, Dr. Arreola said.

Gonzales County Tax Assessor-Collector Crystal Cedillo was again chosen to be the person to to calculate and prepare the 2025 no-new revenue (rate to maintain) and voter-approval tax rates for Gonzales ISD.

GISD Police Chief Gregory Brooks told board members he had applied for and received a $1,000 grant from the National Rifle Association (NRA) that will be used to purchase two used simulation guns that his officers will use during training sessions.

A decision on the ground service contract has been tabled until June so Dr. Arreola can have a chance to review the bids and cost analysis.

Smith-Wright was selected to be the delegate for the school board to the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) Convention with Molina serving as the alternate.