Devine ISD heads Back to School
Category: School News
Devine to host first home football game Friday, Natalia and Lytle on the road
The Devine Warhorses will host their first football game at home this Friday, August 26, kickoff is 7:00 pm against SA Memorial in a non-district game. JV does not have a game on the schedule for this week.
Natalia Mustangs will travel to Jourdanton to take on the Indians; kickoff is 7:00 p.m. in a non-district game. The JV will host Jourdanton on Thursday at 5:30 at home in Natalia.
The Lytle Pirates will travel to Jefferson; kickoff is 7:30 p.m. in a non-district game. The JV will play at Jefferson on Thursday at 5:0 0 p.m.
HS principal discusses offering 6 career education courses in future, Devine ISD adopts tax rate
By Anton Riechcer
The Devine ISD school board voted unanimously Monday at adopt a 2022 tax rate of $1.0946 per $100 of property value to support a general fund budget of $20.3 million.
Local schools meet the grade, earn “B”s in accountability ratings
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) today released 2022 A–F accountability ratings for districts and campuses, the first to be issued since 2019. All three of our local school districts received a B, with Devine ISD scoring 81, Lytle ISD-86, and Natalia ISD-88.
Continue reading “Local schools meet the grade, earn “B”s in accountability ratings”
Devine ISD to host
Meet the Teacher Nights
All campuses in Devine Independent School District will host parents and students to a “Meet the Teacher” night at the following dates and times:
JJ Ciavarra Elementary – Thursday, August 18 – 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Devine Intermediate – Thursday, August 18 – 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Devine Middle School – Tuesday, August 16 – 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Devine High School – Tuesday, August 16 – 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Parents and students may go to teachers’ classrooms any time during the time periods listed above.
At the elementary and intermediate campus, parents may bring labeled school supplies to their child’s room. Parents will be able to put money in the child’s lunch account, join PTO, donate gently-used school clothing, and confirm bus numbers and routes.
Elementary and Intermediate students should receive a postcard in the mail next week stating their teacher(s) for the school year. At both campuses, parents may check in the office if they are unsure of their child’s room assignment and/or if registration information is not complete.
Middle and high school teachers will be in their classrooms to talk to parents about their classes and about the expectations of the class. Middle school students may pick up their class schedule in the cafeteria. If you have any holds such as immunizations or proof of residency, report to the office to turn in your documents and pick up your schedule. High school student schedules will be given out in the multi-purpose room.
Reminder: All immunizations (when applicable) and proof of residency requirements (3rd, 6th, and 9th graders) must be complete before students can pick up their schedule and attend school on the August 22nd. If your student recently received immunizations, please bring an updated record to the school office at your earliest convenience. Proof of Residency documents should be emailed to enrollment@devineisd.org or dropped off at the campus office.
If you are needing help with the Parent Portal, the computer lab at Devine Middle School will be open each Tuesday in August, starting August 9 at 6:00 p.m.
Pirate LookOut! provides an extra layer of safety
PROGRAM WELCOMES PARENTS AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS WHO WOULD LIKE TO HELP US MONITOR OUR CAMPUS GROUNDS
Requirements:
A criminal history background check is required for all school volunteers, including parents and guardians. If you want to be a Pirate LookOut!, and do not already have an approved Lytle ISD background check for this school year, you must go to Central Office between 8am and 4pm to complete the background check. (Typically happens the same day.)
LookOut! volunteers agree to:
Bring your driver’s license to pick up an orange vest and ID badge provided at the campus front desk during the LookOut! shift.
Move around the campus exterior grounds on foot – priority areas are outside the school buildings.
Keep conversations to a minimum so you can continue to look for potential risks trying to access the school.
Before investigating SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY THAT IS CONCERNING, please call our Lytle ISD School Resource Officer at 210-478-0055, the campus front desk, or in the event of an emergency, call 911.
ESD 2 hears Devine VFD fire chief discuss goal of becoming a full “combo” department with some paid staff around the clock
By Anton Reicher
The Devine Volunteer Fire Department has approved paying some emergency personnel beginning with the fire chief and assistant fire chief positions, Chief Greg Atkinson reported to the Medina County Emergency Services District No. 2 board on July 19.
“We’ve gotten to a point with the Fire Academy, the EMT work and all the things we are doing that we have to have some consistency with the people in the building,” Atkinson said.
The chief also reported to the board that the association that Medina County Emergency Services District No. 6 in Hondo has requested a proposal for Devine VFD to contract to provide fire and first responder services in their area.
ESD No. 6 currently contracts with the Hondo and Yancey volunteer fire departments.
“They have some questions on the level of services they are getting right now,” Atkinson said. “I have been approached asking if it was okay for our association to submit a proposal.”
Regarding the new paid positions, Atkinson said the initial focus will rest mainly on administrative work and maintenance.
“The goal is to eventually become a full ‘combo’ department and have some paid staff on here around the clock,” Atkinson said. “But right now we hope we can supplement two to four people here from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. which is our hardest time to get volunteers.”
Atkinson said the addition of paid personnel “raises the level of protection we can offer to the community and the professionalism that goes with that.”
Asked if Devine ISD will lose its status to apply for grant funding as a volunteer department, Atkinson said that because the salaries are funded through the volunteer association rather than the taxing district the department would maintain its volunteer status.
“The rules are written to the advantage of rural communities such as this,” he said.
If services are extended to ESD No. 6, that emergency services district would contract with the Devine VFD in the same way as the local ESD No. 2 presently does. Atkinson compared it to the way Allegiance Mobile Health provides ambulance service to multiple ESDs in the county.
“Our goal would be to build up a system very much like we have in place here,” Atkinson said.
The advantage to the Devine VFD would be a bigger pool of personnel to draw from and distribute as needed, he said.
“There are times right now where if we have a lot of people leave for the weekend, say Memorial Day weekend, we are left saying ‘Hey, we need mutual aid assistance from other departments because we only have one or two people available,’” Atkinson said.
In his presentation to the ESD No. 2 board, Atkinson reported that in the previous 49 days the Devine VFD had responded to 17 fires, seven medical runs, four accidents, two public service events and two utility problems. Although fire activity remains high, the total of emergency runs is down from the previous year.
“This is probably the first time in my 20 years in the fire business that I’ve had more fire calls than rescue calls,” Atkinson said. “That’s pretty much unheard of for a volunteer department.”
For the year to date, the Devine VFD has logged 770 man-hours of in-house training and another 692 man-hours of off-site training, costing $3,452, Atkinson reported. At present, the department has eight firefighters ranked as Fire Fighter 1 under National Fire Protection Association standards, and five ranked as Fire Fighter 2.
The department also has five certified fire instructors, four EMS instructors and seven wildland firefighting instructors.
“In a department of our size to have that many fire and EMS instructors and certified firefighters is a blessing,” Atkinson said. “It also shows the work ethic of the people here.”
In Texas, it is still possible with some volunteer departments to simply show up and get to ride the fire truck, he said.
“Here, if you come in you have to have certain training accomplished to meet the state minimum requirements to hold a fire certificate,” Atkinson said.
He also brought the board up to date with regard to the Fire Academy project designed to train high school juniors and seniors to work in fire rescue and emergency medicine.
“We are working on a schedule to fix the training with a school day,” Atkinson said. “We’re working on when we can conduct the necessary skills tests.”
San Antonio College is allowing the Fire Academy to use their live-burn training facility for that testing.
“Everyone has been extremely supportive of this,” Atkinson said. “It’s exciting to watch it come together.”
Treasurer’s Report
The ESD No. 2 treasurer’s report states that the district has $326,879 in its operating fund at American Momentum Bank and another $99,889 in a money market account at Security State Bank. Adding $63,704 in an interest and sinking account at Security State Bank and the district shows $490,473 in total cash. The Fire House loan is at $777,187. The ESD paid $9,812 in expenses for the month of June, including the Fire House note payment $7,828 and other regular expenses such as utilities.
Total property tax revenue, interest and other income was projected to be $426,200 for the 21-22 fiscal year.
The next ESD No. 2 board meeting is tentatively set for August 9.
Local schools struggle to fill job openings
Devine and Natalia ISDs are among many Texas schools battling staffing shortages for the upcoming school year . School is slated to start August 9 in Natalia, August 11 in Lytle, and August 22 in Devine.
Natalia ISD had 4 unfilled positions as of this week.
“In my 22 years in education, I have never seen it like this,” said Natalia ISD Superintendent Harry Piles. “This has been most challenging. I’ve never had multiple individuals actually decline a contract after going through all the interviews and getting to that point. I currently have four spots open, so what I am going to recommend to the board is that we hire paraprofessional aides to help fill in, while we continue to search for teachers.”
In other cases, some classes will just “be a little larger than we’d like,” especially at the secondary level where staffing has been most challenging, Piles adds. He also noted that he appreciates how staff has come together as a team to adjust and fill in where they are most needed.
Devine ISD has 10 open positions still listed on their website, and administrators were not immediately available to say if any of those have been filled. There are also 4 additional positions listed on their website, for which applications are accepted year-round.
Another educator commented that the shortage hit hard and fast.
“It’s hard to be competitive with the benefits offered by San Antonio schools,” said Dawn Schnieder, Director of Student Services at Devine ISD. She also noted, “The staffing shortage wasn’t even gradual. It sort of hit us all at once across the state.”
The statewide staffing shortage is so bad that several rural school districts in Texas have made the jump to 4-day school weeks to incentivize educators and compete, according to The Texas Tribune. In their extensive coverage they cited school safety issues, Covid protocol, and tensions surrounding race and gender issues. TEA also launched a Teacher Vacancy Task Force.
On the other hand, Lytle ISD was happy to state they have filled all positions, which Superintendent Michelle Smith attributes to a special effort by staff early on to help with recruitment of educators.
“Recruitment is at an all time low with the exiting of educators in the field if education and few college students electing the field as a degree plan,” Lytle Superintendent Smith said. “We have called on our Pirate family to assist in the recruitment of educators to fill our openings and we are proud to say they have come through with numerous quality applicants enabling us to start the year fully staffed. Our employees reached out to family and friends who might not otherwise have known about our openings. We hired several qualified educators as a result. We are also looking forward to using our PTECH grant to create a “grow your own program” beginning in 23/24 enabling our students to obtain a no cost bachelor’s degree in education.”
Devine’s Superintendent Grandjean was not immediately available for a comment on press day.
DEVINE ISD (the following openings and job descriptions were still posted as of this July 26):
Elementary School Special Education Aide (PK-2)
Must meet ESSA ‘Highly Qualified’ requirements (48 college hrs./2 yrs. or attend TOPP training at ESC 20) and local criteria. Must have knowledge of basic computer operations and skills; ability to operate personal computer and educational software; ability to work with students and teachers effectively; effective organization, communication, and interpersonal skills.
Criminal Background/Fingerprinting Required.
Intermediate School 4th Grade Teacher
Generalist EC-4 and/or 4-8 or Generalist EC-6 Bachelor’s degree with valid Texas teaching certificate; knowledge of curriculum and instruction; ability to instruct students and maintain highly structured and orderly environment; strong organizational, communication, and interpersonal skills.
Intermediate School Special Education Teacher (3-5)
Bachelor’s degree with valid Texas special education teaching certificate; ability to demonstrate competency in core academic subjects; general knowledge of curriculum and instruction; ability to instruct students and manage behavior; strong organizational, communication, and interpersonal skills; knowledge of special needs students; ability to develop IEP through ARD committee process; plan and use appropriate instructional and learning strategies.
CPI training preferred.
Middle School Special Education (Math) Teacher (6-8)
Math 4-8 (preferred) or Generalist 4-8 and Special
Education Certified Bachelor’s degree with valid Texas special education teaching certificate; ability to demonstrate competency in core academic subject; general knowledge of curriculum and instruction; ability to instruct students and manage behavior; strong organizational, communication, and interpersonal skills; knowledge of special needs students; ability to develop IEP through ARD committee process; plan and use appropriate instructional and learning strategies. CPI and behavior management training preferred.
High School Teacher (9-12) (ESSER funded)
ELAR 8-12 or Math 8-12 (preferred); Science or Composite Science 8-12; Social Studies or Social Studies Composite Bachelor’s degree with valid Texas teaching certificate; ability to demonstrate competency in core academic subjects; general knowledge of curriculum and instruction; ability to instruct students and manage behavior; strong organizational, communication, and interpersonal skills.
High School English Teacher (9-12) tentative
ELAR 8-12
Bachelor’s degree with valid Texas teaching certificate; ability to demonstrate competency in core academic subjects; general knowledge of curriculum and instruction; ability to instruct student and manage behavior; strong organizational, communication, and interpersonal skills.
Pre AP & AP certified preferred or training required. ESL certified preferred or willingness to obtain certification
High School Math Teacher (9-12)
Certified Math 8-12
Bachelor’s degree with valid Texas teaching certificate; ability to demonstrate competency in core academic subjects; general knowledge of curriculum and instruction; ability to instruct students and manage behavior; strong organizational, communication, and interpersonal skills; MA preferred. Pre-AP and AP Calculus certified preferred or training required. ESL certification preferred or willingness to obtain certification.
High School Science Teacher (9-12) OR High School Science Teacher w/Boys’ Athletic Coach or Girls’ Head Softball (9-12)
Science Composite 6-12 or Science Composite 9-12 or Science 6-12 or Science 9-12
Bachelor’s degree with valid Texas teaching certificate; ability to demonstrate competency in core academic subjects; general knowledge of curriculum and instruction; ability to instruct students and manage behavior; strong organizational, communication, and interpersonal skills.
High School Math Teacher (9-12) OR High School Math Teacher/Boys’ Athletic Coach or Girls’ Head Softball (9-12)
Certified Math 8-12 and Physical Education K-12
Bachelor’s degree with valid Texas teaching certificate; ability to demonstrate competency in core academic subjects; general knowledge of curriculum and instruction; ability to instruct students and manage behavior; strong organizational, communication, and interpersonal skills; MA preferred. Pre-AP and AP certified preferred or training required. ESL certification preferred or willingness to obtain certification
High School Spanish Teacher/Athletic Coach (9-12)
Secondary Spanish 6-12; Physical Education K-12
Bachelor’s degree with valid Texas teaching certificate; ability to demonstrate competency in core academic subjects; general knowledge of curriculum and instruction; ability to instruct students and manage behavior; strong organizational, communication, and interpersonal skills.
Substitutes for Nurses
Minimum Requirement-Medical Assistant
Bus Drivers
CDL and Criminal Background/Fingerprinting Required
Custodian(s)
Criminal Background/Fingerprinting Required
Cafeteria Worker
Criminal Background/Fingerprinting Required
We are an equal opportunity employer who fully and actively supports equal access for all people, regardless of Race, Color, Religion, Gender, Age, National Origin or Disability.
Natalia ISD (the following openings and job descriptions were still posted as of this July 26):
Digital Communications Teacher & District Public Relations (9th-12th)
2022-23 JobID: 475
Position Type: High School Teaching
Business Education Teacher (9th-12th)
(Coaching Opportunities available)
JobID: 490
Position Type: High School Teaching
Math Intervention Teacher (6th-8th; ESSER)
2022-23 School year JobID: 481
Position Type: Junior High School Teaching
US History Teacher
2022-23 School year
6-1 vote, Natalia enters Guardian Program to protect schools
By Anton Reicher
The Natalia ISD school board voted Monday to approve proposed 2022-2023 district budget of $13.5 million, a 7.6 percent increase from the previous year.
Also, the board voted 6-1 to institute the Texas School Guardian Program, an integrated school security program to manage the risk of active shooter violence by arming key members of the staff and faculty. The program is already in place in the Devine, Hondo and D’Hanis school districts.
Regarding the budget vote, the new budget raises the starting pay for classroom teachers five percent. Under the new compensation plan, teachers will see a minimum increase of $750 up to $3,850 depending on the years of experience held.
Board president Eric Smith attributed the balanced budget to district director of finance Norma Fiddle working closely with the district administrators.
In other action, the board heard presentations from the district administration and the Medina County Sheriff’s Office about the Guardian program, developed as an effort to have an armed defensive approach to an active shooter on campus.
“We will be working with the city and the sheriff’s office to select appropriate staff members for the program,” Smith said. “We also implemented a $500 stipend for the staff members who will be going through the rigorous training to be ready for the next school year.”
The action comes in the wake of the May 24 shooting massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde that left 19 students and two teachers dead. Smith said the action by the board was informed by a community survey conducted by the district in which 88 percent of the 700 responses favored research into the possible adoption of the program.
The program requires 16 hours of training by a licensed and certified Department of Public Safety instructor. Training requires live fire qualification and simulation exercises.
Paul Almendarez voted against implementing the new security program, with all other board members voting in favor.
DYSA donates $42,350 to re-do basketball courts in Devine
At the June 20th school board meeting, the board approved the funding donated by DYSA to re-do the basketball courts across from the Intermediate School.
A motion made by Chris Davis to approve the funding, seconded by Carl Brown, passed by vote of five to zero.
The board also approved a $42,350 donation by the Devine Youth Sports Association to renovate a basketball court near the intermediate school. Donations to the district greater than $2,000 must be approved by the board.
Work planned involves stripping off the old asphalt, adding curbing around the court and filling it with fresh asphalt. Future donations by the association would cover the cost of painting the court.
“Quite a nice donation for them to take care of that basketball court,” board president Nancy Pepper said.