Texas Border Business
EDINBURG – Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District Superintendent Dr. René Gutiérrez recently announced that the theme for this school year will be “Building and Transforming Our Community.”
Gutiérrez unveiled the theme to more than 200 principals, directors, and administrators during the 2018 Leadership Academy at the Edinburg Conference Center at Renaissance.
“Our goal is to educate our community, to educate our students, and to transform our community for the better,” Gutiérrez said. “We are focusing on making sure that our students are college, career, and military ready. We want our students to continue to postsecondary education by either getting certified in some trade or career or by obtaining a bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degrees.”
During the four-day leadership academy, those in attendance heard from some of the district’s former students who have become successful in their careers.
“We are bringing the former students to talk to the administrators about their experiences of how Edinburg CISD prepared them from elementary, middle school and high school to be productive citizens of our community,” Gutiérrez said.
The former students included Omar Ochoa, an attorney and Edinburg North High School graduate; Robert Vackar, Bert Ogden Auto Group CEO and Edinburg High School graduate; Dr. Delissa Guadarrama, a board-certified child psychiatrist and Edinburg North High School graduate; and Dr. Michael Martinez, a bariatric surgeon and Edinburg High School graduate.
“Edinburg CISD is transforming our city of Edinburg to become a better community with better neighborhoods, better families, and of course with better students out there in the job market,” Gutiérrez said.
ECISD administrators also learned more about the new state accountability rating system. Lead4Ward consultant Jesse Cline examined the ratings, which measure the academic performance of the district and its campuses.
“In late August, we are going to receive some ratings. Edinburg CISD will receive a letter grade and that letter grade will explain how are we doing as a district,” Cline said. “What we are working on with administrators is breaking down what the system now has, including the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR), college, career and military readiness, and graduation.”
Cline said that each campus will also receive a rating to help educators measure how their students are doing, progressing and where improvements can be made.
