Welcome Back Seguin ISD students! I hope you had a restful summer and are excited about coming back to school and ready to learn. We have a lot to celebrate at Seguin ISD and it is all because of you, your teachers and all who are a part of the Matador Family!

The new school year is one short day away and I would be remiss not to share how proud I am of the new programs at several of our elementary schools this year.

Vogel Elementary will be home to a pilot AVID program. While AVID is commonly found at the high school level to help prepare students for college, creating an opportunity to teach and reinforce academic behaviors and higher-level thinking at a young age will help our elementary students academically through their middle and high school years. AVID, which stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination, instills organization, study skills, communication and self-advocacy.

At Koennecke Elementary, Principal Cynthia Moreno is ready to roll out a new Two-Way Dual Language program on her campus. Not only will Two-Way Dual Language allow students to develop academic proficiency in English and Spanish, it will also serve as an enrichment opportunity for primarily English speaking students.

Seguin ISD offers outstanding fine arts programming that benefits hundreds of our students at the middle and high school levels. These programs will strengthen by expanding fine arts at the elementary level with new course offerings at Weinert Elementary. Our elementary students have enjoyed resources and support provided by TLU over the years and increasing the focus on fine arts at Weinert will increase opportunities for them.

Jefferson and McQueeney elementaries have initiated the LiiNK program which is designed to increase academic success through four 15 minute periods of unstructured recess each day. Research shows that active students learn, retain and perform better than their peers with minimal recess time. Pete Silvius is spearheading this effort to increase brain power through exercise.

Also of note, over the summer we increased security measures at Barnes and Briesemeister middle schools. New vestibules at the front entrances and perimeter fencing at these campuses will help restrict access to the interior of both schools to create a safer learning environment.

The Early College High School program at Seguin High School will continue to shine and offer our students the opportunity to earn many transferable college credits and even an associate degree during their four years as a Matador. And a big congratulations goes to the Matador Band as the students and directors celebrate 100 years of providing outstanding sights and sounds for the community of Seguin. Students, I can assure you that your teachers are energized and prepared for a great 2018-19 school year. Over the last few weeks they have collaborated and trained to create an enriched classroom experience for each of you. With that, I am confident that our teachers are committed to providing you their best, day in and day out.

I invite you to be a part of our successes and celebrations throughout the school year on Twitter at @DrMattGutierrez and Facebook @seguinisdsupt.

I, along with the Board of Trustees, appreciate your support of Seguin ISD and look forward to another great year for our Matador Family.

In closing, I invite you to read this poem which sums up what the honor and privilege of teaching is all about.

Harvest Home

In the ideal

it is harvesting the work we do–

a reaping of crops grown

from ancestral seeds,

a gathering of first fruit,

from vines that traces their sources

beyond geography,

beyond gender,

beyond the bleach

and blush

and black of skin

and root themselves in watery grace,

in knowledge that nurtures us all.

In the ideal

our classrooms fill, like cornucopia,

overflowing with the bounty of our grange.

Life stories, heaped among the texts,

spill into hallways of our schools,

crowd the sidewalks or the subways

or ride yellow buses home,

altering the form of knowing,

changing heads,

changing hearts,

changing history,

bringing harvest

home.

--Bettye T. Spinner

The Fire of Teaching

Dr. Matthew Gutierrez

Seguin ISD Superintendent