Two candidates are vying for the District 5 seat on the Hays CISD board of trustees in the May 8 election. Joe Muñoz, an Austin police supervisor, served for more than a decade as a school board member representing District 2 until he resigned in September when he moved residences. Driftwood computer consultant Marty Kanetzky is also seeking the District 5 seat, which covers a wide area in the western part of the district including Driftwood, Mountain City, Plum Creek and Buda’s western neighborhoods around Garlic Creek.

Joe Muñoz

MUNOZ

Age: 52
Job: Austin police supervisor
Website: joefmunoz.com

Why are you running for school board?
I’ve got the experience and there’s a lot of work to be done.

Do you have the experience to be an effective school board member?
I have more than 100 hours of training as a trustee and over 400 accreditation hours. Under my watch, the fund balance has increased from $2.2 million to over $27 million while at the same time the student enrollment has doubled from 6,000 to 14,000. I have more experience than any sitting trustee and my dedication to the board is unequivocal. I don’t think anyone else has 99 percent attendance – I’ve only missed two school board meetings in 10-plus years. We’ve successfully opened seven campuses during my tenure and seven were under budget.

With development growth slowing in the district, what policy changes does the board need to make?
We are a bond election behind. I’m a proponent of no portable buildings in the district. The perfect situation for us would be to have no portables at all – it’s a waste of taxpayer money moving portables every year when we could be using the money for new buildings. We need more attention to employee salaries, they need to be re-evaluated. If we want to hire the best, we’re going to have to belly up to the plate and pay the best.

Do parents in the district feel like they have enough say in the way district business is conducted?
It’s a two-part answer. They have a voice with their school board member and [secondly] every parent has a right to sign up and speak their mind at the beginning of every meeting during the open forum.

Has the school district’s budget been growing faster than enrollment growth and inflation?
The school district budget has increased but it’s no different than any fast growing school district on a corridor such as the I-35 corridor. Yes, it’s grown but we had to keep up with growth of students and their needs. We’ve committed to long-term budget plans. When I got on the board over 60 percent of busses were more than 15 years old and most of them were not air conditioned. We committed to a 10-year plan to rectify that. [Today] every bus in the district that a child takes to and from school is air conditioned and at the same time, no busses are over 10 years old. We have a safe and reliable fleet. So, of course, we have had to spend to meet those goals. It’s no different than any other school district.

Does the school district have too much debt?
We have more than a normal school district but have average for a fast-growing district. We can’t compare ourselves to a regular school district because we have to compare ourselves to a fast-growing district because it’s much different. Because we did have a bond that failed, we’ve been playing catch up and we’re still one bond behind. Hopefully, that bond will alleviate overcrowding and at the same time allow us to stop using portables.

Marty Kanetzky

KANETZKY

Age: 53
Job: Computer consultant
Website: martykanetzky.com

Why are you running for school board?
The main reason that I’m running for school board is because I think we can do a better job of educating our children and I think we can do a better job of managing our assets and spending our money more effectively.

Do you have the experience to be an effective school board member?
My web site lists a lot of my experience as a volunteer. I’ve come before the school board on numerous occasions to make sure we raise our academic standards and that we spend our money wisely. I also have many years of experience in computers and I’m pretty sure I can be of help to the district in making sure we use technology more to our advantage.

With development growth slowing in the district, what policy changes does the board need to make?
Even if we’re having development growth, all our decision making processes need to be better. We need to close the loop. I think we have good intentions and we have been doing a fairly good job of planning but where we’re falling down is closing the loop – measuring whether we are succeeding in getting to our goals. We need to have a much better process, much more timely review, to make sure we are on track to achieve those goals and plans.

Do parents in the district feel like they have enough say in the way district business is conducted?
As I have been walking the neighborhoods, one of the comments I come across fairly often is people who say the district is doing a good job of taking care of “x” type of students but not taking care of “y” type of students. Some parents may have the perception that the district is emphasizing and looking at one group of students. That’s their perception – I’m not saying that’s necessarily the case – but I think the school district may need to do a better job of communicating their decision making.

Has the school district’s budget been growing faster than enrollment growth and inflation?
In some areas, I think so. There’s all sorts of statistics you can look at – you can make statistics say pretty much whatever you want to – as an overall statement I just think there are areas where we can spend our dollars more wisely. The student information system purchased prior to this one is a glaring example.

Does the school district have too much debt?
I think we can and should be looking at ways to reduce our debt. When you look at the fact that we have $340 million in debt, and look at all the statistics to see what that is per-student, we are well above average for school districts in the state for our debt-to-student ratio. I think going forward we need to look for ways to reduce that debt.