Seguin ISD employees begin the celebration early
(Seguin) – It’s back to school today for the Seguin ISD. Students and staff will tackle day one of the 2023-2024 school year.
The anticipation and excitement for today began brewing on Friday afternoon as the school district’s 1,100 employees gathered for this year’s convocation at Seguin High School. Complete with Matador band music, confetti and spirit stick competitions, the event helped to officially welcome the start and return to the classroom for Seguin ISD employees.
Pleased with the energy that teachers, bus drivers and all other employees absorbed was Superintendent Matthew Gutierrez.
Gutierrez says being witness to those high levels of energy and optimism makes him excited for the upcoming school year.
“I have chills right now because I feel like every year, we have the best convocation and there is so much spirit and positive energy, but this year is not like any other and if you had the opportunity to come to a convocation, I don’t think you’ve seen the amount of spirit that you saw today. Every campus just came energized, enthusiastic – they came in costumes, with themes and they are excited to see our kids,” said Gutierrez.
Included in that energy were lots of laughs and plenty of things to think about thanks to this year’s guest speaker Dr. Adolph Brown best known nationally as “Doc Brown.”
Described “as good medicine” for those in the school, Doc. Brown shared his experiences as an at-risk student and how because of empathy shown by each one of those positions posted at a campus, was able to muster up confidence leading to graduation and now of course his success as a motivational speaker, psychologist, businessman and as an “edu-tainer.”
Gutierrez says not only was he inspired by Doc Brown, but he felt that everyone in the district needed to hear or be reminded of his words.
“For us to just take a moment to reflect on ourselves and just all the weight that we carry so that we can be at our best for our students but to also think about others and the weight that they carry whether it’s our colleague or students, everybody is carrying an invisible backpack. We’ve got to think about that as our students are returning back to us. Many of our students are dealing with a lot of issues whether it’s at home, whether it’s social media, social pressures — we have to just remember to take a minute to reflect on what everyone else is going through,” said Gutierrez.
Not only did Doc. Brown encourage educators but he also reminded them of compassion fatigue, their role as a servant leader and more importantly, the need to have self-awareness when it comes to taking care of themselves and their homes as the school year progresses.
As this new school year takes off, Gutierrez also reminds Seguin ISD families of their role to help each student do their best and be their best.
“This is not just the role of educators and our staff to educate our students. It takes a village. So, we are looking forward to continuing to strengthen the partnership that we have with our parents this upcoming school year,” said Gutierrez.
Meanwhile the youngest of students enrolled in the Seguin ISD will have to wait a couple of more days to begin school. Pre-k students at Ball Early Childhood Center will begin their new school year on Wednesday.
Local students also headed back today include Southwest Preparatory School and St. James Catholic School.
Marion ISD students will head back on Tuesday followed by Navarro ISD on Wednesday.
