Seguin ISD Trustees look to approve instrument next week

(Seguin) – Members of the Seguin ISD Board of Trustees are inching closer to approving a tool they say will help them properly and fairly evaluate the performance and duties of Superintendent Dr. Veronica Vijil. The trustees who were expected to approve an evaluation instrument on Tuesday failed to do so after realizing that more still needed to be applied to the evaluation tool – a tool they say will hopefully consider all the things that are happening right now throughout the district.

Failure to secure an instrument on Tuesday, however, came after the board struck down a motion by new Trustee Lisa Burns to move forward with what is called the Commissioner’s “recommended” Evaluation Instrument.

Burns says the instrument provides a more narrowed focus for the board at this time — allowing it to later concentrate on establishing specific future goals and priorities for the superintendent including but not limited to student performance, community relations, staff retention and development and community with the board. Burns said she believes the evaluation formats used with past evaluations were not as effective as they could have been.

After failing 1-6, Board President Denise Crettenden further explained to the Seguin Daily News of a recent workshop where the board established a consensus to come up with a more customized evaluation instrument. In fact, when it’s all said and done, she says the plan is to embed the Commissioners Instrument with the board’s format.

“There is an instrument from the commissioner that looks at a lot of data like STAAR scores and things like that and in this instrument, we looked at doing things beyond just those kinds of scores and that kind of data. So, we brought in parts of the Strategic Plan and parts of the Superintendent’s Job Description and looked at adding those in. So, a lot of that was already in the instrument that we looked at during the board workshop. We requested some changes but after having some time to review all of that again (and) after they made the changes, we had some additional changes that we wanted to make,” said Crettenden.

Crettenden says by having a customized instrument, it allows the district to take a deeper look at what is happening inside local classrooms.

“So for instance, the instrument from the commissioner as I said used a lot of STAAR test data but in the tool that we are looking at, there is also things like Istation data because kindergarten, first and second, they don’t take the STAAR test but their reading proficiency is very important and how we get to that proficiency is important so we want to look at things beyond the STAAR test,” said Crettenden.

Crettenden says it is especially vital that this tool plays alongside the district’s Strategic Plan. A strategic plan serves as the document that outlines the district’s long-term vision, mission and core values along with specific goals and objectives to achieve them.

“If you are looking at other things that are in the Strategic Plan, we have things like looking at the feedback that we get from surveys from our community, from the staff and from our students — so, those different kinds of surveys that they take and just looking at some other things – financial, facilities, all things that fall under the job description of the superintendent but aren’t necessarily spelled out from that tool from the Commissioner. We are still using that tool from the Commissioner, but we don’t all feel like that’s enough,” said Crettenden.

Crettenden says at least for the Seguin ISD, the hope is that the evaluation instrument will take into account all the different aspects in the rating of a superintendent. She says it won’t simply be rating boxes with a number.

“The instrument is all the different points that you are basically rating the superintendent on but it’s not just a number. You do give a number but it’s also comments, feedback, goals, things that you would like to see changed. It’s really a great time to explain and give feedback to the superintendent,” said Crettenden.

Crettenden along with other board members feel they are doing their due diligence in nailing down this evaluation instrument. In light of the many concerns as well as the many successes throughout the district, board members say it’s their responsibility to make sure things are kept fair and accurate and that results of any instrument lead to the future success of the district.

“We have a great opportunity to set goals for future things based on the things that we have seen in the last year. So, while it might not be spelled out in one section, it’s under the umbrella of some of these things,” said Crettenden.

Trustees are expected to again take action on the evaluation instrument during its regular board meeting. That meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 21 at 6:30 p.m. in the Seguin ISD Board Room. The board room is located inside the district’s Administration Building.

Dr. Vijil’s evaluation is slated for some time in February.