Out of the 392 school districts that are members of the Texas Rural Education Association, the Fort Stockton Independent School District School Board was selected as the winner of the School Board of the Year award for the 2021-2022 school year.

TREA released the news yesterday evening after narrowing the top school board nominations down to five leading up to the decision.

The Fort Stockton ISD School Board currently consists of Flo Garcia, Andy Rivera, Freddie Martinez, Sandra Rivera, Ursula Sanchez, Anastacio Dominguez, and board president Billy Espino.

Fort Stockton ISD Superintendent Dr. Gabriel Zamora said that he made the nomination for his school board because of the commitment they have shown to rapidly improve the school district in every aspect since his tenure began.

The intro to Zamora’s nomination for the board stated:

“The Fort Stockton ISD Board of Trustees deserve to be TREA School Board of the Year because they are deeply committed to improving every aspect of our schools. This school year the board participated in the planning process and approved the implementation of some of the most innovative school improvement programs in the state. As superintendent of FSISD since June of 2021, I believe the improvements this school year will play a key role in the positive evolution of Texas education and to traditional practices.”

The following are items that the school board approved since June of 2021:

• First ever independent school district to partner with Texas Tech K-12 Special Purpose District to utilize Fort Stockton ISD teachers to use their asynchronous curriculum for students to increase course offerings and ability to serve rural students during a pandemic.

• Established a novel/alternative pay system for teachers that is designed to recruit and retain top talent using a complex formula based on an advanced understanding of state requirements.

• Approved the use of “ability grouping” for math and English courses using a locally designed quantitative based program to help improve all student outcomes.

• Conducted comprehensive analysis of Fort Stockton ISD facilities and unanimously voted to call for a $110 million dollar bond election with five propositions to be voted on for May 7 election.

• Approved the realignment of elementary grade levels at Apache and Alamo Elementary.

• Approved the creation of an Alternative Education of Choice (AEC) campus by repurposing a building used for administration that was previously a small campus.

• Redesigned organizational duties and structure of administrators to establish a mentorship and developmental program for leaders.

• Increased the number of assistant superintendents from one to five, this allowed the district to balance central office responsibilities and workload to the point that assistant superintendents were each assigned to a home campus to serve as mentors to the campus principals and leadership teams.

• Approved the use of ESSER Funds to add a campus curriculum director to each of the five campuses for the first time in district history.