Dr. G shares more behind his decision to leave the district
(Seguin) – Seguin ISD Superintendent Matthew Guiterrez is sharing his gratitude and heartfelt thanks to all those in the Matador Family. After six plus years, Gutierrez will be leaving the Seguin ISD at the end of this month to accept a position as the chief of schools in the Leander ISD. Gutierrez made the announcement to families and staff Thursday evening.
By late that evening and early Friday morning, the reality of it all, he says, was beginning to be clear as he begins this journey of goodbye.
“In the way that I’ve described it today after I had the opportunity to see the Matador Family, it’s been excruciatingly painful because I’ve grown to love the people who surround me every single day and I’ve just been amazed over the past six plus years at how the faculty and staff and the community and parents have embraced me in my leadership and welcomed me with welcome arms. It’s been truly remarkable and that’s what makes this decision really hard,” said Gutierrez.
Gutierrez says although it’s more bitter than sweet at this time, he is thankful for the timing of it all and believes the district is poised to continue to do even greater things.
“I feel like I’ve poured everything into the last six years – my heart and my soul and it’s been worth it because I truly believe that the Seguin ISD has made significant progress from where we were when I first came but I had to take a step back and really think about what was important for this moment in time for me personally, for my family while also thinking about where Seguin was in the current leadership that we have and the current board that we have so I feel very confident in the direction that Seguin will continue to go. We’ve worked so hard to get to where we are and we’ve worked so hard on Strategic Plan 2.0 that is really the guide towards excellence, so I feel like I’m leaving on a very high note,” said Gutierrez.
Over the course of these six years, he admits there have been other opportunities to move on. Gutierrez says those opportunities, however, were never personal nor against the school district and its families. And while he agrees that the position and promotions of professional superintendents over the years have changed and are, in fact, a more revolving profession, he prides himself that he was able to commit to the Seguin ISD for as long as he did.
“The average tenure right now I think is under three years for a superintendent. In fact, I was part of the first year’s superintendent cohort from 2017-2018. Every single one of those members is on their second or even third school district. I’m proud that I had the opportunity to lead here for over six years and yes there were some other opportunities – it’s part of it. People recruit you when you are doing good work. You get noticed and Seguin ISD is on the map and when I was having conversations with some fellow superintendents several of which have been Superintendent of the Year for the State, they’ve said Seguin has name recognition now. We didn’t know about Seguin before. So, you are going to get recruited. The unfortunate part was that some of these opportunities were public. When I talk to superintendents, they are constantly exploring opportunities. It’s part of it when you are doing great work,” said Gutierrez.
However, opportunities beyond the Seguin ISD are not in the end what has helped him make this latest decision to leave the Seguin ISD. That’s because more pressing developments have occurred over the last few years. The main one is becoming a father to two elementary-age sons.
He says the success that one of his sons has recently garnered in being selected as a cast member in the world-touring Broadway International Musical “Sound of Music” has opened his eyes even more.
He says if there was ever a life lesson, it’s that family always comes first just as all Seguin ISD families have illustrated.
“There were just a few moments with my two boys over the last couple of weeks that really sealed the deal for me and reminded me that your family is your absolute priority and that I needed to make some changes because I missed out on a lot of things with these two boys but I feel like I loved the job and it really never bothered me but I truly believe it has had an impact on these two boys and its certainly going to be different moving forward. With Luke my oldest one, he was on tour and people would ask well tell me about your dad who is a superintendent and tell me about him and he’d said, ‘oh, he’s always working. If he’s not at work or at an event, then he’s at home on the computer in the kitchen all day and all night and I thought I don’t want him to just remember me that way,” said Gutierrez.
In making this move to Leander, Gutierrez will help oversee the district’s administrative leadership, which has nearly 42,000 students. That’s compared to Seguin’s 7,200 student enrollment.
The district’s demographics vary from Seguin. Its students are 50 percent white, 26 percent Hispanic, 4.5 percent African-American, and 6.1 percent identified as two or more races. The fast-growing district was last rated as a “B” by the Texas Education Agency.
He says while he hopes to one day return as a superintendent of schools, he is looking forward to this new change in responsibilities.
“I’ll have four area superintendents that I will work closely with who will report to me as well as the student services, safety team as well and 50 campuses so I am excited about providing that support and developing and building leadership capacity. That’s an area I am passionate about, but I think on the other side, I’m looking forward to stepping out of the spotlight for a period,” said Gutierrez.
During his Seguin tenure, Gutierrez earned the Region 20 Superintendent of the Year award in 2023, while the school board was named Region 20 School Board of the Year in 2022. He has also worked to change the overall culture in the Seguin ISD.
In the coming weeks, Seguin ISD trustees will discuss the process and timeline to hire a permanent superintendent.
