Seguin ISD gets good response from the community regarding the creation of new Safety Task Force

Seguin, TX, USA / Seguin Today

Cindy Aguirre

(Seguin) — The Seguin ISD is applauding the public’s response in helping the district enforce its security measures even more at local campuses. The request to the community was made by Superintendent Dr. Matthew Gutierrez soon after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde where 19 students and two teachers lost their lives.

In that letter to parents, Dr. Gutierrez stated, “this week I have spent sleepless hours reflecting on the safety of our Seguin ISD family. At a bare minimum, every child should be able to attend school everyday with absolutely no threat of violence. This is the basic foundation of our public education system. Our schools employ many safety protocols and practices, which we are constantly evaluating and improving. However, I know that we can do better. And to do better, I am inviting our school community to be a part of the process.”

Sean Hoffmann, the chief communications officer for the Seguin ISD, says the district has been overwhelmed by the public’s response to that invitation to be a part of a new Safety Task Force which will be created this summer.

“Not surprisingly, the response has been tremendous. We’ve been literally overwhelmed. As you know, we opened up through a letter from Dr. Gutierrez out to our school community that he was seeking individuals who might want to serve on a school safety task force. We had that window open from May 27 through June 3.

Basically, we asked individuals to email us if they were interested in learning more about being on this task force and we received over 150 emails of community members – a wide variety of community members who are interested ranging from students to staff members to parents, to business owners, some individuals who are retired and may be retired law enforcement or retired military who are wanting to step up and learn more and serve on this committee so we are elated that so many want to be a part of this and share their ideas on how we can make our schools safer,” said Hoffmann.

Hoffmann says in this process, they will make contact with these individuals to share a June 23 meeting in which the district will layout its current safety system at Seguin High Schools’ Performing Arts Center. They can either attend a noon or a 5:30 p.m. meeting that day. Hoffmann says the idea then will be to lock down a committed group so that the district can move forward with its overall plan.

“We realize that summer is a busy time. People take vacations. They are out and about. However, we want people on this task force who can commit to coming to our future meetings so that we are getting good responses, good feedback, good input from these individuals on some of their ideas and input on our school safety measures,” said Hoffmann.

Hoffmann says once this committee is established, there will be an opportunity so that everyone can have an input into the safety of our campuses.

“We are also looking at doing a Thought Exchange survey also you know for the entire community to tell us once we get this task force up and running to get that feedback from all of our stakeholders,” said Hoffmann.

District officials say they hope to reevaluate and polish off all current protocols and practices so that they may be implemented in time for the upcoming school year.

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