McAllen ISD Superintendent sits down with ValleyCentral as new school year begins

MCALLEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — Students and teachers at McAllen Independent School District start a brand new school year this week. McAllen ISD Superintendent Rene Gutierrez spoke one-on-one with ValleyCentral to get an outlook on the school year.

Gutierrez said the biggest change for students this school year will be implementing the state-mandated cellphone ban issued by HB 1481.

"We are going to allow the students to bring their phones, but they just need to put them away, turned off and have them in their backpack," Gutierrez said. "The other option would be to leave it at home and not bring it at all. But we understand that parents want that sense of security if their child needs to call them in an emergency."

This week the McAllen ISD School Board approved their student communication policy that will comply with HB 1481. The details include the following:

Gutierrez also highlighted the new challenges of implementing Artificial Intelligence in the classroom and ensuring students use it effectively.

"This new generation is very technology driven," Gutierrez said. "We are training our teachers and our staff and utilizing the resources that we need to utilize technology wise. This is to be able for our students to use it where it is going to enhance our learning and enhance our academic performance," Gutierrez said.

But McAllen ISD is aiming at providing students more opportunities for it's students to pursue higher education and be prepared for careers.

"We want to continue to enhance our dual enrollment with South Texas College, along with University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, and enhance dual enrollment," Gutierrez said. "We want to to give them courses and rigor so that when they leave McAllen ISD, our kids have a career pathway already lined up, either through higher education or through Career Technical Education."