School Board Race: Giroux Fires Back at County Republican Chair

OPINION — In response to Jeff Betty’s article on the San Angelo ISD school board elections, Mr. Betty says the gentlemen running for the at-large seat are both Republicans. This is true. He also says it’s a non-partisan race, which is also true.

That being said, neither the Republican nor Democrat chairs for Tom Green County should weigh in on which person they think the voters should vote for. It was inappropriate for Mr. Betty to write this article using the office he holds as the county republican chair. Mr. Betty claims that it would be cowardice of him not to give his opinion if asked. I’d like to know who asked him for his opinion and why he felt he needed to present it on San Angelo LIVE!.

Mr. Betty says Mr. Layman has the experience needed on the school board because he has been there for 18 years. When he started on the school board in 2001, he had no school board experience, which is the case with all the trustees on the school board. The only way a person gets experience is by trying and doing. If I’m elected to the board, there will still be six other votes who have the long-term experience Mr. Betty says we need there.

Over the last seven years San Angelo ISD has been on a downward trend. The school board claims it has a graduation rate of 94.7 percent. I’d like them to tell me what the average GPA is of that 95 percent? The district needs to be turning out the best students possible. The children of San Angelo deserve the ability to go to whatever college or university they choose. They should all have the opportunities the students of the 60’s 70’s and 80’s were blessed with.

My opponent claimed at our last forum that the teachers should not receive merit pay. His reasoning? Teachers would tell each other what they make, which would cause a problem among teachers who are not up to standard. We cannot afford to lose teachers, Mr. Layman says. So I would have to assume it is his position that we need anyone who can fog a mirror to fill teaching positions.

I want the best teachers possible in our classrooms teaching the children in our district.

I want San Angelo ISD to blossom into the district that students want to transfer into.

We constantly hear about parents wanting to send their kids to Wall, Veribest, Miles and Christoval. When TLCA opened we lost 1500+ students. That is $13,725,000.00 per year of lost funds the district does not have to educate students.

Mr. Layman claimed this only affected us one year, but that is not true. Every year those students are not attending classrooms in our district we do not receive the nearly $14 million.

Shannon Hospital, Community Medical Center and the Chamber of Commerce came out in support of the 2018 bond, stating we needed to support our schools because people and large companies look at schools when relocating to a new city. I have no idea why they would be looking at how pretty the schools are.

As a parent of school-age children, I am concerned about school scores and ratings. Lincoln middle school is a PEG school which means the TEA has stepped in with a turn-around plan. As a part of this plan if your child attends Lincoln you can ask for your child to be transferred to Lee or Glenn or another school district. We have several other schools in the San Angelo ISD that are close to becoming PEG schools. These are the things that prospective people thinking about moving to San Angelo will be looking at.

My opponent keeps talking about how well San Angelo ISD students are doing in different UIL events throughout the district and the state. How many of the 15,000 students in San Angelo ISD are a part of these programs? Let’s get back to the job of educating our children and making them the best students in the state of Texas.