CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas —
Corpus Christi ISD Superintendent Dr. Roland Hernandez is focused on maintaining the district's momentum from two successful years while addressing ongoing challenges as students prepare to return to classrooms for the 2026-2027 school year.
In a recent interview, Dr. Hernandez reflected on obstacles the district faced in the previous school year and outlined his vision for the upcoming academic year.
Addressing key challenges
Dr. Hernandez emphasized the importance of student attendance as a primary obstacle.
"Some of the obstacles that we always face is just to remember to focus on attendance, helping our families understand the importance of that so that kids are in school every day," he said.
The district also navigated significant changes through school consolidations at the end of the previous year.
"We had some transitions at the end of last year also as we were considering consolidation of schools, which I think went really well after following a long process but one that certainly wanted to get the feedback from the community," Dr. Hernandez said.
Despite these challenges, the superintendent expressed satisfaction with the results.
"I think that they were very beneficial because we did have a successful year as we're looking at our preliminary data on student performance, and we know that's our highest priority is how our students are doing academically," he said.
Safety remains a top priority
Safety continues to be a cornerstone of the district's focus.
"We wanna focus on safety in our schools," Dr. Hernandez said. "We continue to have the audits statewide for them to come and visit campuses just to make sure that things are in place and doors are locked, things like that."
Dr. Hernandez acknowledged that managing a large school system requires constant attention to communication.
"With big systems like Corpus Christi ISD, obstacles always are just to focus on communication so that we keep our families informed. There's just a lot changing from year to year," he said.
Consolidation benefits students and teachers
Dr. Hernandez addressed concerns about school consolidations potentially leading to overcrowded classrooms.
"The good thing there is that I know that the first thought that people might have when we talk about consolidations is bigger schools. It might be a bigger enrollment on the campus, but the classrooms are pretty much gonna stay the way they have been or be more balanced," he said.
He explained that the consolidations strategically utilize existing space.
"These teachers and students that we have from the campuses that have been closed will move to schools that had space, which means there were empty classrooms, and so the numbers per teacher will still be the same if not less," Dr. Hernandez said.
The superintendent emphasized that this approach maximizes resources while maintaining quality education.
"If you have a school that's half empty, you wanna be able to fill those classrooms up, but all the teachers moved over to accommodate the kids and then the instruction will continue with all the special resources," he said.
Looking forward with optimism
Dr. Hernandez expressed enthusiasm about continuing the district's positive trajectory heading into the new school year.
"We're very excited about the upcoming school year. We've had two great past years and we just wanna continue that momentum. Continuous improvement," he said.
He had a special message for families with young children entering the system.
"What I would tell parents, especially those who have pre-K students and kindergartners starting, this is the beginning for them. We're excited about them," Dr. Hernandez said.
The superintendent encouraged community engagement and open communication.
"Reach out to the district when there are questions. We're here to support them, so are their campus principals and teachers. Wanna make this our best year ever and a lot of that comes with just communication and giving them the resources they need," he said.
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