(Seguin) — The Seguin ISD Board of Trustees is making preparations to conduct the evaluation of Superintendent Veronica Vijil. The board met for two and a half hours Wednesday night to determine what evaluation tool and what data would be used to evaluate Dr. Vijil’s performance from over the last year.
Board President Denise Crettenden says the workshop session was an attempt to make sure that the board reached a consensus on how it would like to conduct the evaluation.
“So, we wanted to find a way to comply with the rules of making sure — you know, you have to evaluate the superintendent within a certain amount of time, but also making it relevant and making it helpful to the superintendent. And we have new board members. Some are very new and some, who just haven’t done an evaluation yet. We were going over all that as well,” said Crettenden.
Part of the challenge is the fact that Dr. Vijil has been the district’s top administrator for a little over a year. She was named interim superintendent in October of 2023, following the departure of Dr. Matthew Gutierrez, who left take a job with another district. Dr. Vijil had the interim tag removed in February of 2024.
Crettenden says that the board needs to get the evaluation done in a timely matter, but board members also want to make sure they use it to provide valuable feedback to Vijil.
“This is one of the of the most important things that we do in our job as school board members — is to evaluate the superintendent. So, we really want it to be, not just check the box. Even though it is February and kind of an odd time of year to try to be evaluating, we wanted to make sure that we were working on a tool that is still helpful. And of course, we are looking at an additional evaluation after things like STAAR scores come out and after our end-of-the-year data. But we wanted to make sure that this one was helpful too, and just worth everybody’s time. It’s a big deal, and it’s a big part of our job,” said Crettenden.
The board also wants to make sure that the data that is used to measure Vijil’s performance aligns with her time in the district. Board members spent more than two hours on Wednesday night going through the evaluation tools that would be used by the board when it conducts the evaluation next month. There were lots questions raised during the meeting about the data. Dr. Vijil took over after the start of the last school year, and board members questioned if it would be fair to judge her performance based on numbers that happened when she either wasn’t in charge, or when she had just taken over the operation of the district. That includes looking at STAAR test scores from last year. Some STAAR testing begin in the early spring, when Vijil had only been superintendent for a short time.
Crettenden says the board worked through the document and was given the chance to consider what issues they may want to consider when the evaluation is done. She says not all of the data will be applicable to Dr. Vijil’s performance, but she says much of it will help to provide a baseline and a framework for the board to consider during future evaluations of the superintendent.
The board took no action on the item on Wednesday night, but Crettenden says it gave them a head start on making that decision.
“We didn’t set the vote for tonight, so that people had time to digest this if they do have some additional changes or things that they want. But I think we gave enough feedback that we’ll have a tool that we can pass at next week’s meeting,” said Crettenden.
The board is slated to formally adopt the evaluation tool and process that it will use for Dr. Vijil’s evaluation during its regular meeting next week.