KINGSVILLE, Texas — About 10 months ago, the Kingsville Independent School District welcomed Superintendent Dr. Cissy Reynolds-Perez and since then, she's made every effort to give her students the best education they can get.
On Tuesday, several education, city, county and even state leaders were in Brahma Nation to highlight the transformation of Kingsville ISD.
"To be the best, you give your best," said Dr. Cissy Reynold-Perez. "That I learned from Mr. Molina and Mr. Anderson, the band directors at H.M. King."
Kingsville has always been home to Dr. Perez, and for almost a year now, she's been working towards the transformation of the school district and how she can make it better than what it was before.
"Faith makes things possible, not easy," said Dr. Perez.
"My wife and I saw when we first moved to Kingsville back in 2007," said Representative J.M. Lozano, a Texas House Member who oversees District 43. "There was a lot of negativity in the community that was wrongly placed."
Dr. Perez wants to turn that around, and so far, has been by expanding the opportunities for students.
"We're definitely boosting our college and career readiness programs," Dr. Perez added.
"We are capitalizing on our career technology programs. Our facilities are fantastic for auto-tech. We're looking at airplane mechanics. We have a welding program that's phenomenal."
For Kleberg County Judge Rudy Madrid, a strong community starts with the school district.
"We can take 10 steps forwards as community leaders," said Madrid. "We can go fight for everything we want in Austin. I'll fight in D.C. for everything that we want, but at the end of the day, unless you have an effective school district, we're going to take back steps. She's [Dr. Reynolds-Perez] changed all that. In one year, look at all the success she's already had."
Education and local officials said teamwork-works and they plan on keeping their partnership strong now and in the future.
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