Megan Navarro
WIMBERLEY — Employees within Wimberley ISD have an opportunity to recommend their peers to be named Texan of the Month.
Since February 2024, the district has been awarding its staff members — 23 in total so far — through the program, which was created as a way to highlight those who go above and beyond.
This also came about from WISD’s revitalized strategic plan that was adopted in 2023, where one of the elements was to prioritize supporting faculty and staff excellence. According to communications director Allen Bruggman, the Texan of the Month program was created to give staff recognition, make them feel valued for the work they do and highlight them in alternate ways outside of receiving a paycheck.
“If you ever look at our whole strategic plan, there's a huge spreadsheet with different priorities and goals and ways to meet those objectives,” explained Bruggman. “One of them within faculty and staff excellence is the highlighting of staff who do a great job and so, this program was created with that in mind: to give staff recognition, to have them feel like they're part of the process and, through the nomination process, make them feel valued for the work that they do.”
Texan of the Month is solely nomination-based, Bruggman said. The district sends out a form that is always available for employees to recommend their peers — even those who may be on a different campus — for “living out the vision of the district,” which is excellence, innovation and service.
Then, a committee consisting of those who work within the superintendent’s office sit around the table to deliberate and decide the nomination that is most compelling and abides by the mission as closely as possible.
“[The announcement] usually ends up being the beginning of the next month … The committee usually comes together that last week of the month and looks at submissions,” Bruggman explained. “If someone is nominated in August of the same school year, we keep all of those submissions from throughout the school year and consider everybody who's been nominated throughout the school year. So, we look at new ones and ones that have already been submitted the last week of that month and then, of course, reach out and try to schedule and make sure all the different people can be there at the same time the following week.”
When WISD launched the program, it sent out a call for businesses who would like to sponsor a $250 prize. Bruggman shared that within the first approximately two days, seven businesses had committed to being a part of the effort.
So, the district has the business who writes a check or brings the cash prize for the winner, but then, also, others stepped up to want to do something every month as well, Bruggman said. Gift cards or certificates have been provided by The Med Spa, Salon Devino and The Leaning Pear restaurants. Along with this, WISD is also able to give each recipient a Texan of the Month coin to also commemorate the award.
“I think the coolest thing for me that was maybe reaffirmed was just the fact of how supportive our community is and how supportive they want to be to our staff members. In so many ways, these businesses that stepped up to do the sponsorship and to award the money and the other other gifts to the winners,” he said. “It’s very validating that the school district feels that support from our business community and from the people who want to make our teachers and their staff members feel special.”
