By FRANCISCO E. JIMENEZ
Staff Writer
reporter@sbnewspaper.com
Among the upcoming races for Rio Hondo ISD School Board is the Place 2 seat, pitting incumbent and Board Secretary Susan G. Lopez against challenger Jessica Alvarado Gonzales.
Lopez cited her experience as a veteran board member in a statement, adding further her relationship with the community as a “lifelong resident.”
“To the community and voters of Rio Hondo, I am an experienced board member with eight years on the board,” Lopez said. “I am a proud mother of two daughters, Jennifer and Jayme Lopez and a graduate and lifelong resident of Rio Hondo.”
Acknowledging an issue poor school districts throughout the state have faced, Lopez pointed to employment stability at a time when budget cuts were made as examples of her leadership.
“While I have been on the board the school district has faced many challenges, but I am happy to say that while other school districts may have been letting go of some staff, we had no budget cuts and have kept our staff,” Lopez said, making mention in her statement of the working relationship between her and the rest of the board. “My accomplishments on the board during my tenure have been made with a board of seven. The board consists of seven of us, a team of eight with our superintendant (SIC). We are an effective board who make decisions for the better of our district.”
“I will continue to strive and advocate for our children, teachers, administration and our community,” Lopez added. “I will continue to serve our district as a member of a board, not as an individual. I will continue to bring this district leadership, honesty and determination, and most of all fairness.”
Gonzales, who has dedicated much of her time to various organizations, is running for public office for the first time in her career.
Committees Gonzales said she has served on include the RHISD School Health Advisory Council, in which she once served as chair and currently serves as vice chair; the Rio Hondo High School site-based committee, the district’s educational improvement committee, Abriendo Puertas as well as Gear Up: Bridges to the Future of Partnership.
Also, Gonzales has served on the Rio Hondo Pony League Board of Directors for six years – four of which as board secretary.
“I was also on the board for the Rio Hondo Sports League, and I’ve been the secretary there for three years,” said Gonzales. “I’m also an Associate Municipal Judge for the City of Rio Hondo, cheer coach for the junior division for our youth sports league, and for two years I was a member for the Rio Hondo Economic Development Board.”
Among the projects Gonzales said she has assisted with include Arroyo Days and toy drives. “So I’ve been pretty involved actively for the past six years, and I still am,” Gonzales said.
Concerning the state of RHISD, Gonzales feels the district is not preparing graduates for college.
“They’re using a curriculum called CSCOPE,” Gonzales said. “They’re not coming home with any books; they’re giving them worksheets. How is that going to prepare our kids for college? When they get to college, they’re reading 20 to 30 pages a night. That’s not preparing them for college. If they’re not going to provide our students with books, then give them other resources. There are a lot of parents who don’t have the internet at home, and they are having to Google a lot of these questions and problems because they don’t know it themselves.”
Bullying prevention is also a big part of Gonzales’ campaign, she said.
“There is a lot of bullying going on at the schools,” the challenger said. “Maybe (students) are getting bullied and don’t know how to communicate with the teacher.”
Additionally, parental involvement is an issue of importance to Gonzales, who said the district “could do better” in reaching out to parents and communicating with them. It’s something that, if elected, Gonzales said she’ll stress.
“That’s what it’s going to take, people to step up and try to get these parents involved as much as we can because these teachers do need the help,” said Gonzales. “We also need to take care of our teachers, because if we don’t have healthy teachers, we don’t have healthy students. If we don’t have healthy students, we don’t have a healthy community.”
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