(Seguin) — Summer officially comes to a close for Seguin ISD students. Today marks the first day of school for the Seguin ISD.
Excited about the upcoming school year is Seguin ISD Superintendent Dr. Veronica Vijil. Dr. Vijil has spent the last couple of weeks welcoming teachers and staff back to school.
Included in that schedule have been teacher trainings, meet the teachers, student/parent orientations plus school ribbon cuttings.
Although her team in the Seguin ISD is ready to go, Dr. Vijil says it will again take the whole village to help ensure that all students are successful.
“My message for parents is that when that I say we stand united, it’s every part of the school community that needs to come together and we know that their children are the most important person in their life and so we want them to advocate for their child. We want them to show up to school functions and we want them to be present in their child’s life when they go home to talk about what happened during the day and know that they are in good hands. All of the things that we deem important and as priorities such as safety, top education quality, they are still our priorities and I want them to know that we are giving every effort to find the high quality teachers that their children need for high performance. There is so much at stake,” said Dr. Vijil.
Part of the effort to recruit quality teachers is the district’s clear understanding of the many challenges that they are up against.
One example, according to Dr. Vijil is the lingering impact of COVID.
“We can say that COVID is in the rear view mirror but those of us who are in education, those who are parents of children who missed really important years such as kindergarten and first grade, we are going to see the results of that until they graduate from high school. They are catching up. People say ‘oh, COVID is over. We don’t need to worry about that.’ We absolutely in the education business acknowledge to parents, ‘we see it parents. We get it.’ The world has changed,” said Dr. Vijil.
The first step toward student success, however, is just making sure that kids get to school. Dr. Vijil says there is nothing more important and asks that all families make attendance a priority this upcoming school year.
“I also need to say to the parents that we need your kids at school. We really really really need them at school and you know, COVID again was a time where we did things differently. We are back to school. We are ready. We have so many activities. We’ve got wonderful staff here ready to welcome them. It’s easy to get into a habit. Let’s break those habits and let’s make school a top priority. All together, we can do this,” said Vijil.
While the majority of Seguin ISD students will be heading back to school today, the district’s youngest students at Ball Pre-K won’t be arriving at their campus until Monday, Aug. 19.
Meet the Teacher for Ball Early Childhood Center is scheduled for today and Friday. Parents should have already been notified of their specific time to visit the campus.
Meanwhile, the Seguin ISD is asking that families check their respective school’s Facebook page for changes or other specific details and reminders these next few days. They also ask that parents of bus riders allow for some extra time for their child to be picked up or dropped off. They say it often takes a few days for the bus schedule to iron out.
Seguin ISD families are also encouraged to visit a host of resources available on the school district’s website at seguinisd.net