Education
BY SHAHERYAR KHAN
Education Edition
2024
Readers, welcome to your annual CI Education Edition! This guide features the latest updates and resources about local K-12 public school options in your community, ranging from new campuses to budget details to bond elections. The story below features a special election coming up in November for the District 4 seat in New Braunfels ISD. Page 13 examines what happened to cause a slow down in application numbers for the FAFSA and includes a graph on application numbers in Comal and New Braunfels ISDs. Pages 14-15 provide an update on plans for the Texas State Technical College’s local campus, and Pages 16-17 is an interview with Bob Popinski, a director at Raise Your Hand Texas, a nonpro t organization that advocates for reforming and raising standards in public education in Texas. In the interview, Popinski explains the funding mechanism of public education in Texas, and he provides insight into why districts are currently facing budget shortfalls. Our cover story on Pages 18-19 explores how those funding struggles are speci cally putting pressure on Comal ISD, despite its growth. We look at how the district is trying to retain talent in the midst of a budget crunch.
What's inside
FAFSA changes, delays lead to decrease in application numbers (Page 13)
Kayla Brooks General Manager kbrooks@ communityimpact.com
Texas State Technical College’s local campus begins to take shape (Pages 14 15)
Comal ISD faces budget shortfall for rst time (Pages 18 19)
NBISD accepting candidates for District 4 trustee special election
New Braunfels ISD is currently accepting appli- cations for candidates interested in running for the District 4 board of trustees seat. The election, scheduled for Nov. 5, will ll the unexpired term of former trustee Jackie Sanders, who resigned in April due to personal reasons, according to an Aug. 1 news release from NBISD. Some context The District 4 seat became vacant following the resignation of Jackie Sanders, who had served on the board of trustees until her departure in April. The NBISD board of trustees voted to hold a spe- cial election to ll her unexpired term, according to the release. Sanders beat incumbent John E. Tucker in May of 2023, who was a former NBISD trustee from 2020-2023. The conditions The district approved changes to the sin- gle-member trustee election districts in June, after hiring a demographer to review and recommend adjustments to better represent the NBISD com- munity, according to the release.
Applicants had until Aug. 20 to apply for candi- dacy and must be residing in District 4, according to district documents. To be eligible, candidates also had to meet criteria such as being a U.S. citizen, at least 18 years old, registered to vote in the district and not be a convicted felon. Meet the Candidates Two candidates declared their intent to run for the District 4 seat: • John E. Tucker: The former board trustee has more than 30 years of experience as an architect, primarily in school construction, according to the NBISD website. He worked for Dallas ISD from 1995-2011 leading contracting and procurement. • Will Moravits: Moravits is a college instructor at Texas State University where he teaches political science. Moravits is a husband and father of two children, according to the NBISD website and previously held positions as a school teacher and police o cer.
John E. Tucker
Will Moravits
New Braunfels
District 4 New Braunfels ISD
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NEW BRAUNFELS EDITION
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