The San Marcos CISD intends to continue participating in a waiver from the state that allows the district to receive pregnancy-related services from a certified teacher on campus instead of at home.
At its meeting Monday night, the board heard a presentation from Nichole Dray, director of elementary curriculum and instruction, and Jennifer Vogel, director of the child development center, on the waiver. Dray said the Texas Education Agency grants the Compensatory Education Home Instruction (CEHI) waiver for three years at a time. The district’s current waiver expires at the end of this school year.
“We are asking for you tonight to approve us to resubmit the CEHI waiver for the 2019-2020, 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years,” Dray said.
The board’s agenda states that the reason for the waiver is that some students’ homes are not conducive to learning and lack basics such as electricity, whereas on-campus instruction puts the students in an environment that is “comfortable and well-equipped.” Transportation to and from campus is provided by the district on a bus equipped with baby car seats.
“Experience indicates this on-campus instruction allows SMCISD to provide services to a larger number of female students than would otherwise be possible with one staff member serving the students individually at home,” the agenda item states.
“This makes so much sense,” trustee Kathy Hansen said. “I move that we approve the waiver.”
Trustee John McGlothlin had concerns about the students’ living conditions.
“I’m supportive of this, but the sentence, ‘Some of our students’ homes lack air conditioning, heating, running water, or have other living environments not conducive to learning,’ is alarming,” he said. “And I hate just saying ‘We’re going to load them up in a bus and do some education,’ and I want to do that, but that alone doesn’t seem to solve the underlying problem. Running water and electricity is kind of a big deal.”
McGlothlin asked if the district refers these students to any social service agencies or other organizations who could assist them. Vogel said that the district often refers them to Community Action, but there are church-related agencies that step in as well as programs from Hays and Guadalupe counties.
Trustee Miguel Arredondo asked Vogel if she could describe generally where these houses are.
“Are they within the city limits? Are they outside the city limits?” he asked.
Vogel said that most are outside the San Marcos city limits, in the Redwood and Rancho Vista areas.
Arredondo said that although they are outside the city limits, the district should speak to the city about helping these students, because they attend school in the San Marcos district.
Trustee Margie Villalpando asked if anyone had contacted Guadalupe County to let them know about the need, since Redwood and Rancho Vista lie at least partly within that county.
“I personally have called Guadalupe County on a couple of issues,” Superintendent Michael Cardona said. “... They tend to not be very responsive.”
“Everybody needs to put in there,” trustee Lupe Costilla said about helping students living in such environments. “Not just the city, not just Guadalupe County.”
The motion to approve the waiver application passed 7-0.
In other business Monday night, the board approved the district’s academic calendar for the upcoming school year. Members of the public were asked to vote on one of two options for the calendar through the district’s website. Option 1, which has a longer holiday break and no day off for Indigenous People’s Day in October, received 1,285 votes. Option 2, which has a shorter holiday break but a day off for Indigenous People’s Day, garnered 1,132 votes. The board approved Option 1. Both calendars have teachers reporting on Aug. 13 and school starting on Aug. 26, with the last day of school on May 29, 2020 and three bad weather make-up days. The holiday break under the Option 1 calendar is from Dec. 20 through Jan. 6 for staff and Jan. 7 for students.
