San Marcos Chamber Of Commerce Discusses Strategic Initiatives, State Of The District At 2019 State Of The City Luncheon

By, Terra Rivers, Managing Editor

On Wednesday, March 27, the San Marcos Area Chamber of Commerce hosted the third annual State of the City luncheon at Embassy Suites and the San Marcos Convention Center.

Representatives of the City of San Marcos, Hays and San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District joined local elected officials and local business leaders for the event to hear remarks by Chamber Board Chairwoman Jessica Pizana, Chamber President Jason Mock, Mayor Jane Hughson and SMCISD Superintendent Michael Cardona on the current state of the city and school district.

“Better half of three years ago, San Marcos was put on my radar,” Mock said in his opening remarks. “I saw potential; I saw growth. I saw opportunity…”

Hughson thanked her fellow local officials and organizations like the Chamber of Commerce for their help to make San Marcos a more economically diverse community.

“As your mayor, I am pleased to report the state of our city is strong,” Hughson said. “We are the heart of the innovation corridor, but the real heart and heart-beat of San Marcos is its residents.”

Hughson said San Marcos’s population is estimated at 64,000 as of January 1, and at the city’s current growth, San Marcos’s population is projected to cap 85,000 within the next ten years.

In her remarks, Mayor Hughson also highlighted the city’s five primary initiatives identified by the San Marcos City Council.

In 2018, the City of San Marcos was focused on five initiatives to make San Marcos stronger: Stormwater Management, City Facilities, Workforce Housing, Public Transit and Community Partnerships.

Hughson said the city city’s progress in two of those initiatives, stormwater management and community partnerships, has allowed them to be replaced for new initiatives in 2019.

Hughson noted that the San Marcos City Council has accelerated stormwater improvement projects in areas such as Sunset Acres, Wallace Addition and other neighborhoods and adopted new higher flood protection standards.

The City of San Marcos’s collaboration with Hays County and the San Marcos CISD has been successful in providing regional resources and leadership necessary to identify opportunities, according to Hughson. And the effort is ongoing.

“Our first council initiative has been to develop a plan for workforce housing within our community,” Hughson said. “With our increased population, we know that people are moving here seeking a good job and a place to live. However, our community has a lack of and a need for affordable and diverse housing options.”

Since 2015, San Marcos has added 1,500 new single-family homes and 9 new apartment complexes. 

Hughson noted that 70 percent of San Marcos’s renters are not students, and the reason is that the median home price in San Marcos is just over $200,000, and the median family income is just under $50,000.

Hughson said this year, the city has created it’s workforce housing taskforce comprised of 19 community members to develop a strategic action plan to meet the needs of current and future residents.

The San Marcos City Council’s public transit initiative has been expanded to multimodal transportation.

The city of San Marcos partnered with Texas State University to bring the bikeshare company Veoride to the streets of San Marcos.

Currently, the company has 350 bikes on the streets of San Marcos and 150 electric bikes.

Hughson said the council’s two new initiatives are workforce development and downtown vitality.

The city will aim workforce development opportunities at residents who are unemployed, underemployed or making a commute to work.

The Downtown Association, Main Street, Texas State University, the City of San Marcos and other stakeholders are partnering to begin a revised downtown master plan process and develop strategies for vacant or neglected buildings.

Superintendent Cardona addressed the valuable elements of education within SMCISD, which can’t be measured in accountability systems.

The San Marcos CISD floral program designed and made the arrangements for the state of the city.

“Those are the things, [floral design and arrangements], that you don’t see, that aren’t measured in the accountability systems,” Cardona said. “Those of you that know me know I love to be held accountable for a lot of stuff, but it doesn’t tell the story of what we do for our children, of the work that our teachers and our principals do for our children.”

San Marcos CISD strives to ensure students are college confident and career and military ready when they graduate.

Cardona noted that San Marcos CISD has a unique partnership with organizations throughout the community. During the interviews for a school safety director, the assistant chief of the San Marcos Police Department sat in on the interviews.

“All those things that we sometimes take for granted are things other school districts don’t have,” Cardona said. “That is the state of our district; the community partners such as yourself [attendees] have stepped forward.” 

Cardona highlighted accomplishments of students and teachers in the district.

The Bowie Elementary Voyagers took on the challenge to innovate and create a K-2 three-five pilot program, which focuses the curriculum on what is best for the child.

Nineteen out of the nineteen students in the Certified Nursing Assistant program earned their CNA Certification last year, which will allow them to earn money while attending school and potentially graduate without student debt.

Twelve Advancement Via Individual Determination students will have the opportunity to visit Harvard and two other universities this year.

He said the currently testing system in Texas holds students accountable for two or three levels above their grade level instead of at their grade level; the message the education system in Texas and standardized testing is giving kids is damaging to them. 

He gave a shout out Representative Erin Zwiener, who was not present, for being the first representative to invite him to the capitol and actually listen to what was wrong with the system, to try to address it and put him, as an educator, a superintendent, a teacher, a principal, in touch with the people that could address it.

Cardona said that property values and school finance are not going to have equilibrium until they are both fixed.

Cardona closed on an update on where the school district is going; forty-four SMCISD students applied and were all accepted to attend a UT Summer Camp this summer camp.

“We want our kids going all over the place,” Cardona said. “Whether they choose to go to Texas State here local or UT or they choose to become doctors. Where they choose to go is up to them; it’s up to us to get them prepared to go wherever their journey takes them.”

This year, SMCISD was able to provide laptops to freshman and sophomores. Next year, the district will provide students between grades six and twelve laptops.

 “To quote Andrew Carnegie, ‘Teamwork is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results,’” Pizana said. “The growth and prosperity of our community is not due to the work of one entity or one person. It is due to the hard work and vigilance of everyone sitting in this room today.”