Dear SMCISD Voter:

I was elected to the Board of Trustees for SMCISD in 2015 after campaigning on six specific goals: (1) lowering our elementary teacher-student ratio, (2) attracting and retaining the greatest teachers in the world, (3) having great central administrative leadership and strong campus leadership, (4) creating direct pipelines from graduates of our academies to jobs at a living wage, (5) greatly increasing college readiness by challenging our achievers, and (6) changing the culture from the boardroom, to the administration, into the campuses and classrooms and among the students to one of pride in who we are and a pursuit of excellence.

During my term, we made great progress towards many of these goals.  We capped elementary classes at 22 and then unanimously took a $100 million bond to the voters that passed overwhelmingly and will provide more classrooms at every level of education.  We gave educators the largest compensation increase over any three-year period in history, including fully funding health care, while maintaining a budget surplus.  We brought in a new superintendent and cabinet with deep curriculum and classroom experience and a dedication to closing achievement gaps so that demographics don’t have to be destiny.  Together, we took the first steps towards changing the culture, and made progress improving graduation rates and increasing rigor across the curriculum so that our kids are ready to go anywhere and everywhere.

I am running for re-election because the next three years are going to determine whether we continue the strides and see large performance gains or fall back into the cynicism and distractions of the past.  If elected, I promise to continue to work to reduce classroom sizes, continue to improve the quality and contentment of our faculty, support our administration, and improve college and career readiness. In the past, many of our kids were told they were getting college and career ready, when they were not.  Those who have gone on to college are too often forced to take remedial classes or are failing out before earning a degree.  Meanwhile, many of our career readiness courses are roads to nowhere, or at least roads to no jobs.  We must increase the rigor at every level, and we need to be prepared to deploy the resources the teachers need to get this done.  If we don’t, another generation of San Marcos graduates will be consigned to continue in poverty or worse — it’s that important.

I’d appreciate your vote,

John W. McGlothlin