What your newly elected state reps are prioritizing for Denton ISD

Both of the elected Republicans represent districts that include portions of Denton ISD, and both have served their hometown school districts as volunteers.

Denton ISD Superintendent Jamie Wilson moderated the hourlong discussion, directing the new leaders to discuss issues that some Texas teachers, students, administrators and homeowners want action on. Tax relief topped the list of priorities for both Hayes and Thimesch.

Texas is experiencing enormous population growth, which strains schools even as the state allotments to public schools haven’t matched demand for more schools, more teachers and other infrastructure required to educate Texas children.

“Constantly through the campaign trail, I’ve heard over and over that property taxes are an issue for homeowners,” Thimesch said. “So I know that that is something that we’re going to have to talk about. We need to understand when we talk about cutting property taxes that we’re cutting revenue from somewhere, so we need to consider how can we provide a new or alternate revenue system to provide for the revenue that we’re cutting through property taxes.”

Hayes said tax relief was a perennial problem voters brought up as he campaigned.

“There was an interim committee to help study that,” he said. “We will continue to try to come up with some relief. Fortunately, with the very large surplus that we’re going to have here in Texas, probably at least half of that will go back to reducing property taxes.

The new representatives said legislators and communities will have to think outside the box to bring more resources to the state’s public schools, which include tiny rural districts, suburban districts and urban districts.

Thimesch said different districts have different needs, and legislators have to consider the diversity of public schools as they broach new and existing laws. Hayes said he thinks state agencies should have to enumerate their regulations and decide which 10% no longer serve their constituents.

Wilson brought up recent surveys that found that up to 77% of Texas teachers are thinking of leaving the profession, and invited the representatives to share their ideas to retain talented but exhausted educators.

“We have to improve the workplace conditions for teachers, and I use that term very broadly,” Hayes said.

“It begins with compensation. We’re very fortunate here in Denton ISD to be one of the top 10% of all school districts in the state of Texas. That’s a huge compliment to our school board and to our district superintendent, as well as all the principals. But there are a lot of school districts that don’t find themselves in that position.”

Hayes said the workplace improvements should include more help in the classroom, different approaches to student discipline and attention to retirement funding for teachers, which rarely offers cost of living adjustments after retired teachers begin drawing from their retirement.

“If we would do those things, I think it’ll make a huge improvement,” Hayes said. “Because you can’t lose 76% of your teaching force. It’s just not going to work. Because we have no shortage of students. We have a shortage of teachers. We must train and retain and improve ... teacher circumstances.”

Thimesch said students deserve teachers who aren’t preoccupied with bureaucratic demands.

“I feel like, so often, our teachers are working 60-plus hours a week,” Thimesch said. “And I feel like over the years that we’re not respecting our teachers, as an educational choice. I think, first and foremost, we really need to respect our educators. For parents, our kids often spend more time ... with that teacher in the classroom than the parents. So we really need to make sure that educators are respected.”

From a legislative perspective, Thimesch said respect for educators looks like requiring less paperwork and bureaucratic tasks of them in favor of more opportunities to teach and build relationships with students.

The new representatives discussed standardized testing. Thimesch said legislators should know that current testing requires third graders to type their answers, even though third graders don’t have formal typing skills. Hayes said testing has its place, but he said there are problems with the STAAR test.

“We all have smart enough educators that could come up with a test that would work, but it seems like, no matter what, over the years that I’ve seen ... there’s always something wrong with the test, Hays said. “What’s wrong with y’all? I mean, come on, come up with a test that works.”

Wilson closed the discussion with a question about school security. Thimesch said makes schools safe requires educators and law enforcement officials to be at the same table.

“We have rural districts where it would take, if something were to happen in this school, it would take them an hour to get there,” she said. “We’ve got suburban districts that one ISD can encompass, you know, over a dozen different cities. That’s a dozen different law enforcement agencies that can be called on if something were to happen. And then you’ve got your urban districts which, again, have very different needs.”

Hayes lauded Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to invite a committee to examine the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.

“Some excellent suggestions are coming out of that,” he said. “I’ve read some of their official reports. And a lot of it is, as Kronda said, coordination and communication.”

Neither mentioned reforms to laws governing guns in Texas.