Seguin ISD extends contract for superintendent, approves salary increase

Seguin, TX, USA / Seguin Today

Cindy Aguirre

(Seguin) — Seguin ISD Superintendent Dr. Matthew Gutierrez will continue to serve the district for an additional two years. The Seguin ISD Board of Trustess Tuesday night unanimously approved to not only extend his contract for an additional two years, but also increased his salary to $230,000. That’s an increase from his current salary of $210,000.

School board President Cinde Thomas-Jimenez says just as they wanted to retain and give competitive compensation to teachers and other employees, the board also wanted to keep its “exceptional superintendent” and ensure that his pay was commensurate with the quality of his work.

Thomas-Jimenez says Dr. Gutierrez has never faltered while moving forward to improve curriculum during this challenging year. Additionally, she says he plans to implement new strategies designed to ensure the success of all students for the upcoming school year and beyond.

“We are very in tuned on keeping Dr. Gutierrez here at Seguin ISD so we did raise his salary and we did so because we looked at other superintendents in the region as well as superintendents in the state that have similar schools in terms of population and size and we discovered that he was really on the low end of the spectrum of those salaries and we’ve asked quite a bit of him over the last few years especially the last year. The last 15 months have been pretty critical, and we feel as though through his leadership, the district has come through and continued to move forward and we are starting to work towards the goals that we set back when we went though the (Exceptional) governance (training) and we have big plans for next year and we are going to continue to work towards student success. We are really happy that he has worked within the district to promote people who he’s been growing, and training and people are working their way up the ladder here in the district. We are very proud of that,” said Thomas-Jimenez.

Thomas-Jimenez says the decision to extend his contract only illustrates that the board is listening to the community and its stakeholders. She says they have spoken clearly in expressing their appreciation that he has chosen to stay with the district.

More importantly, Thomas-Jimenez says the school district’s image has improved, and this has contributed to the growth and overall quality of life in the community.

“The region typically speaks of the Seguin ISD in a negative light, and we wanted to see that changed and so we challenged him with that one when we hired him and we are starting to see a lot of people coming into the district because they want to be in the Seguin ISD. We are also seeing a lot of new growth here in the city which means that there is a lot of confidence that things are going well with the school district,” said Thomas-Jimenez.

Dr. Gutierrez says he is grateful for the vote of confidence and looks forward to continuing to move the district toward even more accomplishments.

“I’m just really grateful and thankful for the show of support from our board and the contract extension — the faith and trust that they have in me to lead this wonderful district and I just could not be more excited about what the future holds for the Seguin ISD,” said Gutierrez.

Dr. Gutierrez says there’s plenty yet to tackle and will continue to keep all decisions student focused.

“We’ve done some amazing things over the past four years and COVID did little to disrupt that. We continued to lead the way with a lot of innovative initiatives and I am looking forward to a sense of normalcy next year in opening the school year just as we did back in 2020 and continuing the efforts that we’ve been working on the past four years that are aligned to our strategic plan in starting the work that is going to come from the System of Great Schools that we are now part of through the Texas Education Agency. So, in the future, there is going to be some significant changes that are going to be coming to some of our struggling schools so that we can better serve not only the students but their families and I’m just thankful again for the trust and the opportunity to lead forward two additional years,” said Gutierrez.

The school board met behind closed doors for over two and a half hours to discuss his evaluation and to consider a salary increase. District officials point out that Gutierrez did not receive any type of salary increase last year.

The two-year extension puts him to June 23, 2026. It’s been four years since Gutierrez first took over the position in 2017.

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