El Paso Matters – Q&A: SISD District 4 Trustee Candidates in May 3 Uniform Election

Caryn Gonzalez: Short term: 1. Increase transparency and communication 2. Hire a permanent superintendent and exit the conservatorship status 3. Support students, teachers and staff. Long term: 1. Improve fiscal responsibility and get SISD out of the red 2. Motion to re-hire the staff that was affected by the RIF! 3. Motion to bring back fine arts to our elementary schools! I will measure success by academic performance, community and teacher feedback, financial accountability and program effectiveness.

Paul Guerra: We need to continue offering our students dual credit hours, during the 2023-2024 school year, 3,938 students earned a total of 42,695 dual credit hours. Also continue with our early college where they can earn an associate’s degree. We can measure our success by student achievements, making sure they are reaching their potential and ensuring that we are offering them the highest quality education for all students, also making sure they have a safe and supportive learning environment.

Raul Villalobos: My short-term vision for the district involves addressing the immediate concerns regarding budget deficits without cutting staff or programs further. Long-term vision for SISD is becoming a school district that other districts emulate, and where teachers, staff, students and parents want to be a part of and proud of it. I would measure success by advocating for a bottom-up evaluation of supervisors and a sensing session bi-annually about job satisfaction and performance of supervisors.

Caryn Gonzalez: As a former educational administrator, I managed a complex budget, ensuring resources were allocated efficiently to support strategic priorities. I have experience in financial planning, cost analysis and maximizing resources to achieve organizational goals. I also had a proven track record of developing and implementing policies that improved efficiency, compliance and overall effectiveness. I have worked closely with teams to evaluate curriculum programs that prepare students for success.

Paul Guerra: I have been on the board for 14 years and during my tenure I have sat on several committees which include policy, curriculum and finance. This has enabled me to be better informed and ask the tough questions that pertain to each committee. So, I do have the experience when it comes to budget, curriculum and policy.

Raul Villalobos: During my 20 years on active duty in the U.S. Army, I served as associate professor and program director for the Army Baylor orthopedic surgery PA program and IPAP. During this time, some of my responsibilities included structuring, delivering, and evaluating medical education with 100% pass rate on national certification exams and defense boards for all candidates. My experience as part of a national disaster response force, required me to familiarize myself with all of the above items.

Caryn Gonzalez: My top budget priority is to focus on ensuring that every dollar spent directly benefits students, supports our teachers and strengthens our schools. Investing in student achievement, competitive salaries, classroom resources and school safety. Doing so by seeking grants and alternative funding sources, reviewing expenditures and cutting inefficiencies, avoiding short-term fixes and implementing multi-year financial strategies that ensure stability. Our community does not need to pay higher taxes!

Paul Guerra: First priority is to tackle our budget, we need to have budget workshops so we are aware where we stand with the budget. We need to look at all departments to make sure we are fiscally responsible, also take a look at our ADA, we can’t afford to lose any more students since this will impact our budget. I support providing property tax relief for homeowners but we need to have responsible tax policies that balance relief for property owners with the need to invest in our children’s education.

Raul Villalobos: Budget priorities include investing in talent retention, funding fine arts and STEM at every level which directly impacts student learning, maintaining and modernizing school campuses and security measures. It does not need to include cutting staff and programs. We need to look at furloughs and redundancy within the district to help balance the budget by implementing cost-saving measures, and reducing administrative overhead allowing more funds to be directed to classrooms.

Caryn Gonzalez: SISD has beautiful facilities and already has state of the art programs. SISD offers six elementary academies, all high schools have advanced academies. SISD offers dual language, robotics, dual credit, early college high schools, the best mariachi programs, and other fine arts and athletic programs; this is just to name a few, I could go on and on and on. What we need to do is actually promote all the good that SISD has to offer instead of focusing on the negative.

Paul Guerra: In 2023-2024, 2,551 CTE students in Socorro ISD earned 3,415 state-approved industry-recognized certifications showing proof they are ready with the skills and knowledge to succeed in the workforce. Scholarships and grants earned by the class of 2024 graduates total $64 million, we also have an early college in every high school where they can earn an associate’s degree, which we have saved parents over 15 million dollars. This is what makes Socorro attractive.

Raul Villalobos: We need community outreach programs that capitalize on the excellent programs SISD already offers for students. These programs need to be exploited to engage the community to increase enrollment. SISD’s early college programs at various campuses, IB program and architect academy at El Dorado, the health professions academy, diesel mechanic, culinary arts, teatristas, mariachi and cosmetology/barbering programs at Socorro High School amongst others in the district need to be capitalized on.

Caryn Gonzalez: I will promote transparency and accountability by having open and accessible communication, publishing timely meeting agendas and encouraging the community to attend board meetings. I will implement a quarterly meeting with my constituents to provide district updates and receive community feedback/input and I will also make myself available with an open-door policy.

Paul Guerra: We need to build our trust with the community and the only way to do this is to have community meetings throughout the year. The community needs to be aware of issues and decisions that the board has agreed on. We need to show them we have accountability in our decisions.

Raul Villalobos: First of all, open and accessible meetings with clear meeting agendas accessible ahead of time allowing SISD constituents to review key issues ahead of time. Secondly, hold public Q&A sessions before issues arise to avoid issues that plague SISD at the moment. Next, have user-friendly budget reports that everyone within SISD can understand how their tax dollars are being used. Lastly, have a public review of board performance annually.

Caryn Gonzalez: This is a tough question! SISD is in a very sad predicament at this time. There’s many challenges ahead. One challenge will be in optimizing class sizes. It’s crucial to ensure that class loads remain within a manageable limit to maintain effective teaching. We must also support the remaining employees by providing PD and classroom resources. Another big challenge would be that we must rebuild the community trust! We must have open and transparent communication with all stakeholders.

Paul Guerra: The next plan is to make sure that we are still ensuring the highest quality education for all students, also making sure that we have a safe and supportive learning environment for all students.

Raul Villalobos: Balancing the budget long term while retaining talent is the biggest challenge. Unfortunately, given the circumstances, the decision was made. We need to look at strategic long-term planning to avoid this again in the future and avoid emergency spending and unnecessary tax hikes. We need transparent budgeting by engaging the community in budget decisions to build trust and ensure taxpayer dollars are used effectively. We need to maximize “free money” resources (i.e. grants).