Harlandale Impartial College District Superintendent Gerardo Soto was named the area’s superintendent of the 12 months by the Texas Affiliation of College Boards.
Area 20 contains all faculty districts in Bexar County, stretches out towards Kerr and Atascosa counties and reaches components of the Southwest Texas border. Every year, the TASB picks one superintendent from every area to acknowledge “achievement and excellence in public faculty administration.”
“I’m honored to serve a neighborhood that believes so deeply within the energy of schooling,” Soto mentioned in a press release after his household, campus management and college board members shocked him with the announcement on Tuesday morning.
“This recognition is a mirrored image of the work we’ve completed collectively for the betterment of our college students,” he mentioned in a press release.
Harlandale ISD’s board of trustees unanimously selected Soto to be its superintendent in 2019 whereas the district was being investigated by the Texas Schooling Company for board dysfunction and monetary mismanagement.
Regardless of a TEA-ordered state takeover of Harlandale ISD and the appointment of a board of managers that adopted, Soto stayed on on the helm.
“We felt strongly that Mr. Soto will present the power to showcase our educators in Harlandale ISD,” then-board president Ricardo Moreno mentioned throughout a board assembly in 2019. “We’re assured in his potential to level us in the precise route.”
Since then, Soto led the passage of a $125 million bond in 2022 for main initiatives together with a brand new Profession and Technical Schooling Middle and multipurpose enviornment, earned the state’s highest monetary score and generated $3.8 million in state bonuses for roughly 200 of the district’s most “efficient” lecturers.
Harlandale ISD has additionally develop into a mannequin in profession and technical schooling, as extra college students enroll in workforce coaching and business certification packages every year regardless of a declining enrollment. The district enrolls about 9,700 college students a 12 months.
Underneath Soto’s tenure, the district additionally launched the Makerspace Middle, which companions with employers like Toyota, JCB, the DoSeum and San Antonio Water System to offer college students with hands-on studying and STEM exploration throughout all grade ranges.
General, Soto has greater than 31 years of expertise in public schooling, beginning out his profession as a paraprofessional after which turning into a trainer. Earlier than turning into superintendent, Soto labored at Harlandale ISD as principal of Frank Tejeda Academy — the district’s different campus — and later as govt director of operations.
Soto will go on to be thought of by the TASB for the State Superintendent of the Yr title, and a winner shall be introduced at a faculty directors conference this fall.
The state recipient is awarded $5,000 and college districts of the opposite 4 finalists every obtain $1,000. To be thought of for the title, faculty boards must nominate their district superintendent.
“Mr. Soto leads with each goal and coronary heart,” mentioned present board president Norma Cavazos. “His management brings out the most effective in all of us.”
