Name as it appears on the ballot: Stephane Rovelo
Note from the Candidate to the Voters: I believe education is the great equalizer of our time and that every child deserves access to a quality education. Let’s work together for a stronger Garland ISD that provides better opportunities for our students.
Ballotpedia Link:
https://ballotpedia.org/Stephane_Rovelo
Campaign Website, Social Media, Endorsement Links:
Campaign Contact Information:
Candidate-Submitted Bio:
My name is Stephane Rovelo, and I am running for Place 1 of the Garland ISD Board of Trustees. I grew up in Mesquite and was raised by two immigrant parents. My mom was born and raised in France, and my father is a native of El Salvador. They both came to the U.S. to attend college, where they eventually met before moving to Dallas and getting married.
I grew up in Mesquite with three sisters and graduated from the University of North Texas with a Bachelor’s in Strategic Communications. After working in the private sector for a few years, I moved to South Korea and began my journey in education by serving as an English teacher for elementary students. When I returned to the U.S., I started teaching at Richland Collegiate High School while pursuing my teaching certifications. During this time, I married my wife, Kristine, and we moved to Garland and started a family. Once I became certified, I began teaching in Garland ISD as a science teacher at Sam Houston Middle School for three years.
While teaching, I attained my Master’s Degree in Educational Administration and earned my principal certification simultaneously. I then served as Assistant Principal of Richland Collegiate High School for a year and as Principal for two years. I graduated from Leadership Garland Class 43 (the best class!) last year and stepped down as a principal at the end of the school year to spend more time with my young children.
I live in Firewheel Estates with my wife, Kristine, and three children. Stephanie, 9, and Eleanor, 5, attend Beaver Elementary in GISD. Benedict, 3, will be eligible for GISD pre-K next year. I have felt extremely blessed to be afforded the privilege of being at home with my kids since May. I hope to provide greater educational opportunities for all GISD students, mine and yours, as your Place 1 trustee.
Outside of spending time with my family, I have been volunteering with my church, Watermark Community Church, for the past 6 years to mentor a group of students from the time they enter middle school until they graduate high school. These kiddos only have one year left! I also enjoy playing complicated board games and fishing in Rowlett Creek.
Questionnaire Answers:
1) Have you held any positions within the city/ISD, either with the city/ISD itself or with non-profit / community service organizations?
I taught middle school science in GISD for three years and currently volunteer on the Leadership Garland Alumni Committee.
2) Have you attended a city council or school board meeting in person?
Yes. I have attended both city council and school board meetings in person.
3) Have you read the city/ISD budget? If so, did you have any takeaways from it?
Yes, I have. As a high school principal, I became familiar with school financing, and I recognize that its complexity can be daunting to many, especially those with no experience in education. In the 22-23 school year, GISD’s expenditures outweighed its revenue for the first time in recent history. The same was true for the following year, and we are also on pace for that to be true for this school year. To be clear, this is a problem for all districts in Texas, not just GISD. While there are always plenty of ideas for how to trim the budget, the reality is that over 80% of our budget is dedicated to staffing, and the easiest way to trim is to lay off employees, which is not in the best interest of student success.
Bills are making their way through the Texas Legislature that would provide funds to help pay for teacher salaries and an increase for the amount of money that the state provides for students. Both of these would help to address the financial challenges of GISD. If these bills do not pass or the proposed raises are not large enough, GISD will need to find a way to adjust revenue or spending so that we do not continue running deficit budgets and deplete our fund balance.
4) What would you say is your primary responsibility in the position you are running for?
School board trustees have four explicit responsibilities to the district:
- Set the vision and goals for the district
- Hire and evaluate the superintendent
- Approve budgets
- Adopt district policies
5) What other responsibilities do you believe come with this role?
Communication with the community. School board trustees have the unique privilege of being community members who make high-level decisions for the district. Our responsibility is to communicate with the public to educate and listen to their perspectives. When GISD considers options such as closing schools or creating 5-year goals for the district, it is the board’s responsibility to be out in the community listening and educating. I believe that our district would benefit from a more visible and vocal board, and I will push for this change as your Place 1 trustee.
6) Name three things that you want to accomplish while in office.
- Since 2012, literacy rates for GISD third graders (as indicated by state assessments) have been largely stagnant. While we are certainly still in a recovery period from COVID, the reality is that every district touching Garland ISD has at least improved from where they were in 2012.
- Students who cannot read by the end of third grade have a 23% chance of dropping out of school compared to a 4% chance if they are proficient readers. As your candidate, I will guide the board to dedicate time and resources from pre-K to third grade to ensure our students are proficient readers before 4th grade. Ultimately, improving reading outcomes is better for students, better for educators, and better for Garland ISD.
- Our educators are not earning a large enough cut of incentive-based pay. In 2023, our teachers and support staff only earned about 35% of the $10 Million in outcomes-based funding our district is eligible for. This is money available from the state left on the table at a time when we face a national teacher shortage. As a board member, I will work with fellow board members and our superintendent to create support to help our educators bring home a bigger piece of the pie. We all know that teachers are the single largest determining factor in student success, and improving educator outcomes-based pay is better for students, better for educators, and better for Garland ISD.
- Garland ISD deserves to have a board that engages with the community and provides opportunities for feedback and understanding. Last year, Garland ISD passed new goals to guide the district’s initiatives for the next 5 years. Everything the board does is meant to be tied to these goals, with the ultimate question of every decision being, “How will this help us to achieve our goals?” The process of creating our new goals was a missed opportunity for board members to gather the community and educational leaders together and develop a set of objectives aligned with the vision of all members of GISD. This missed opportunity serves as just one of many examples of a school board that can be disengaged from its community. As your trustee, I commit to emphasizing the responsibility of the GISD board to the community members to be vocal and visible concerning significant matters in the district. This will not only help with transparency but will also work to create a more educated and involved public, which will feed straight back into improving outcomes for our students as everyone becomes bought into the mission of our schools. A vocal and visible school board is better for students, better for educators, and better for Garland ISD.
7) Are there programs or services you want to see reduced in size or canceled? Why?
The key to cutting programs is first understanding if they are impactful for improving student outcomes. As a board member, asking the right questions is the key to understanding what is working and what is not. As it stands, I am not convinced that our MAP testing platform is working in the best interest of students as it provides feedback solely based on student growth. While tracking student growth is incredibly important, the reality is that a student can grow by large margins and still not meet testing standards set by the state. I believe that further discussion is necessary before making a decision, but this is a subject worth discussing.
8) Are there programs or services you want to see created or expanded? Why?
I would like to see support for the Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) expanded for our teachers and support staff. The TIA is money provided from the state to eligible teachers based on student outcomes and performance reviews. Think of it as a type of incentive pay for teachers that they can earn on top of their yearly salary. In 2023 Garland ISD educators and support staff earned about 35% of what our district was eligible for. We need to help our employees pull down more funds to ensure that we are retaining the highest quality team in GISD. This ties into my second priority for the district.
9) What are your strategic objectives for your district, the city, or the ISD?
I want to increase the literacy rates of our pre-K through third-grade students so that we see improved outcomes at every consecutive grade level.
Secondly, I want to increase the income teachers and support staff receive through TIA to retain high-quality personnel.
Lastly, I want to serve as a vocal and visible board member who stays engaged with my community. An educated and engaged public helps contribute to and feel like an integral part of the district, which will create stronger buy-in from students.
10) What are the city’s/district’s biggest challenges, and how do you want to address them?
The biggest challenges we face right now are the looming threat of unfair school vouchers/educational savings accounts and stagnant reading outcomes at lower grade levels.
When it comes to vouchers/ESAs, our power is exercised by reaching out to our representatives and advocating that we support our public schools and provide equal funding responsibilities across the board.
For reading, we need to track literacy rates by grade level and make that information consistently public to the board. Board members currently receive literacy data for our third graders, but learning about student performance after testing results in reactive decisions that aren’t best for students.
We need to track and adjust student performance as students go from pre-K to third-grade levels instead of waiting until game time (third grade) to determine how students will perform. Additionally, I would like to learn more about our pre-K program for GISD to understand why we do not open more seats, which would lead to increased literacy for our students. I am interested in expanding our pre-K programs after learning more about the perspectives of district-level administration.
Campaign-Related Filings
Application and Petition for Office: