Attendance, behavior top of mind for new principals
MARFA — This week marks the start of a new school year for Shorthorns kindergarten through 12th grade, with district faculty welcoming students back to campus Monday morning with festive fanfare.
Elementary school students clutching colorful backpacks were greeted by Marfa Junior High and High School cheerleaders — decked out in full uniform and pom poms — mascot Bullette and Marfa Police Department officers upon entering the cafeteria. They enjoyed a breakfast of cereal, toast, apples and a choice of white or chocolate milk before lining up by grade level to head to the elementary campus.
Back in the auditorium, junior high and high school students filled the seats as an opening ceremony of sorts began. Counselor David Natividad first introduced all of the teachers, who chose different walk-up songs for their processions towards the stage. Science teacher Lora Loya strolled up to “I Look Good” by Chalie Boy, while Interim Superintendent Arturo Alferez climbed stage stairs to “The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme).” Students clapped and cheered in support.
Alferez gave introductory remarks, welcoming students back to school and reminding them “what a great staff we have.” He promised a successful year was to come and encouraged students to be patient with teachers and administrators as schedules and classes continued to get worked out. “We’ve worked so hard over the summer to get classes and programs for you guys,” Alferez said.
This year, both campuses are under new leadership, with freshly-hired principals Rosie Martinez and Dr. Candy Dominguez at the helm of the elementary and junior high and high school campuses, respectively. Martinez and Dominguez are working in tandem to ensure their campuses run similarly, they said, especially when it comes to school attendance and student behavior — their targeted areas of improvement — moving forward.
“If you don’t have the kids here and they’re not behaving, then there isn’t any learning happening,” Martinez said. “We need our kids here, and we need them in the classroom, comfortable, happy, without any of the behavioral issues interfering with the education.”
Martinez — who previously served as the elementary special education teacher — said there were no major behavioral issues taking place at the elementary school, moreso just classroom interruptions that could be prevented if students showed continual respect for teachers and peers. On the first day of school Dominguez refreshed junior high and high schoolers with a presentation on cell phone use, dress code, vaping, bullying and disciplinary policies.
In addition to attendance being a determining factor of student success, it is also a determining factor of school district funding. Last year, the elementary school averaged a 93.48% attendance rate, Martinez said, which she hopes to increase to around 95 to 96%. The average attendance rates for the junior and senior high last year were 89% and 93%, Dominguez said. Her goal is to increase the junior high attendance rate to 94% this year and the high school attendance rate to 96%, she said.
“It is important to come to school every single day,” Dominguez told junior and senior high students in the auditorium on Monday. “Absences do add up.”
Dominguez said she plans to be consistent, calling parents every time a student has an unexcused absence — one that is not approved by school officials — to make sure students don’t accumulate a large amount of absences. Parents will also be required to come into the buildings in order to check their students out. Phone calls will no longer be accepted, she said.
This year, the district even plans to go as far as involving Judge Dina Jo Marquez, Marfa’s justice of the peace, who will issue citations to parents with students deemed truant. “Students who have 10 or more days of a recorded unexcused absence within a six month period in a school year are deemed truant by the state standards,” Dominguez explained.
Marquez said she is still in discussions with district leadership about what the process will look like, but she intends to follow the Texas Education Code, section 25.093, which allows courts to charge fines, in increments of $100 up to $500, for “parents contributing to nonattendance.”
“We don’t expect to have a problem, but we do have her support,” Dominguez said.
A parent open house to discuss new, more stringent attendance policies as well as new disciplinary procedures — currently pending school board approval — is scheduled for September 3. Both Martinez and Dominguez stressed the importance of parent and teacher involvement and transparency on the issues.
The role of junior high and high school principal was vacant for a year before Dominguez stepped in, meaning she’s got her work cut out for her getting everyone on the same page. “We have a lot of work [to do], but I am here to provide support and guidance,” Dominguez said. “I have high expectations from the top down, including myself. We are looking for growth in every capacity.”
Growth is certainly down when it comes to the district’s enrollment. As of Tuesday, the district had a total of 188 students enrolled — 74 at the elementary level and 114 at the junior and senior high levels. Just five years ago in 2019 Marfa ISD’s enrollment was 341 at the start of the school year. Dominguez said administrators are “actively recruiting,” students when possible.
