Marion ISD selects finalist for superintendent of schools

Seguin, TX, USA / Seguin Today

Cindy Aguirre

(Marion) – The Marion ISD Board of Trustees has named its lone finalist for the position of superintendent of schools. The school board on Monday unanimously approved the appointment of Dr. Don Beck. Dr. Beck currently serves as the assistant superintendent for secondary education for Channelview ISD.

Prior to that, Dr. Beck served the Houston area school district as the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction. He also recently just ended serving as the district’s interim superintendent.

Dr. Beck tells KWED radio and the Seguin Daily News that he and his family couldn’t be more excited about this new appointment and look forward to moving to the area.

“It’s something we were looking forward to. We’ve been wanting to get back to the San Antonio area. That’s where our family is. That’s where daughter is. Our son is going to school at Texas State (University) and it just gets us back into the small town feel. That’s where I grew up in myself and I absolutely love that aspect of it and so it was just a great opportunity for us,” said Dr. Beck.

Dr. Beck, who is originally from Devine, brings with him a total of 24 years of experience in education. Many of his earlier years were spent serving in districts such as Devine and La Vernia.

Dr. Beck says although Channelview is a 6A school district and serves 9,565 students, he is ready for the change in challenges and benefits of overseeing the Marion ISD. 

“There is a difference from the bigger towns and the smaller towns. When you get to the smaller towns, everybody wants to be a part of everything and that’s one of the things that I love about small towns. The kids have the option of doing a lot of things because it is available. But as far as just the challenge of going from big school to small school, the good thing is I’ve done that. I’ve been there. I’ve lived it and so I’ve never been afraid of work. I will have to wear a little more hats than I have to here, of course but am looking forward to that challenge and the opportunity to do so,” said Dr. Beck.

More importantly, Dr. Beck says he looks forward to continuing the traditions of Marion and all while tackling the challenges of growth and everything else that comes its way.

“To be honest with you, the biggest goal that I have is to actually match some of the goals that the board has as well too. When you live in a small town, and you are having the rapid growth – there are times when you want to keep those traditions that are in place in a small town as people are moving in and the goal is to somehow try to keep it small. Even though I did go to the University of Texas, you think of A&M as a small university even though it’s a massive university like the University of Texas but people see A&M as a small university because it just feels small and that’s just kind of the things that we’d like to be able to do there is to keep those traditions that are in place where when people come in and you are a Marion Bulldog, they know you are a Marion Bulldog and so just being able to do that, I think it would be great to keep those traditions in place. It’s just going to take some work to do that,” said Dr. Beck.

Welcoming Dr. Beck to the district is Karl Harborth, the vice president of the Marion ISD Board of Trustees.

Harborth says the district is pleased that Dr. Beck rose to the top in a pool of approximately 40 candidates. He says the district was even luckier to have had two highly qualified semi-finalists both of which had a lot of positives to them and very few negatives, if any.

“We liked the diverse experience he has over his years in education, and he is at Channelview (ISD) now and was the interim there for 10 months prior to their current superintendent coming in and we are really hoping to get somebody with that bigger district experience to continue to help Marion move forward as we grow,” said Harborth.

With growth being a district challenge, Harborth believes Dr. Beck’s overall experience made him the top choice.

“I think it’s the next step in the Marion ISD and the growth that we are experiencing or about to experience, it’s going to take a lot of things that hopefully his experiences in a larger district –and he’s held some positions in other districts in  various sizes —and I think he can take those experiences and help really continue what’s already been set forth by the current administration in Marion and lead us in the right direction,” said Harborth.

Dr. Beck is married to wife Christine. They have four children. They include daughter, Bailey, an elementary teacher in the Hays Consolidated ISD; son, Andrew, a first-class midshipman for the U.S. Naval Academy; son, Chandler, a high school senior who again will be attending Texas State and daughter, Eryn, a current eighth grader.

By law, the school board has to wait 21 days until it can officially approve and hire Dr. Beck as the district’s new superintendent. Once that date arrives, Dr. Beck says he will immediately begin to transition into the position. Dr. Beck will replace current Superintendent Kelly Lindholm who in December announced her decision to retire after serving the district in a variety of roles over the last several years.

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