STAFF REPORT

Danny Gonzales took the scenic route to a seat on the San Marcos CISD board of trustees.

Danny Gonzales

Last week, trustees voted 4-2 to appoint Gonzales to represent voters in the place 1 single-member district. He was picked over two other contenders, John Roppolo, the longtime chief investigator for the Hays County District Attorney’s Office, and Sophia Downing, a child daycare center owner.

“My commitment to the school district … didn’t waiver when [the election] didn’t go as planned,” Gonzales said. “I believe we can manage the growth that is happening in our community. The growth is here and it’s going to continue.”

Districtwide enrollment is expected to reach 8,206 by 2018 and 8,993 by 2023, according to an analysis by Southlake-based demographer Bob Templeton who administrators hired early last year to forecast growth trends. If the demographer’s projections prove to be accurate, the school district will see a 9.3 percent enrollment increase during the next five years and a 19.7 percent increase during the next 10.

(Enrollment actually decreased slightly, however, between the 2012-13 academic year and the start of 2013-14 academic year, falling from 7,547 to 7,514, according to the Texas Education Agency. Templeton’s study foresaw a 0.4 percent increase.)

At an Aug. 4 trustee meeting, board president Kathy Hansen and trustees Margie Villalpando, Judy Allen and Paul Mayhew voted for Gonzales; trustees John Crowley and Lupe Costilla backed Roppolo for the position.

Gonzales works as production manager at Martin Marietta Hunter Cement in Comal County and has served as board president of the San Marcos Manufacturers Association and the San Marcos Youth Baseball and Softball Association. He told the San Marcos Mercury that he will be candidate for school board next May. Roughly bisected by Texas 123, District 1 straddles southeastern Hays and northwestern Guadalupe counties and encompasses the Sunset Acres and Mockingbird Hills neighborhoods and the Hills of Hays, Cottonwood Creek, El Camino Real, Rancho Vista, El Bueno Campo, Country Side, Emerald Acres and Brookhollow Estates subdivisions.

Assuming Gonzales draws an opponent, the election to complete the last two years of Narvaiz’s unexpired term will share a ballot with the board’s two at-large seats, one of which has been held by Allen since 2003 and the other by Mayhew since 2012.