A longtime music educator who has served as the interim director of Lehman High’s band program has been selected to fill the role on a permanent basis.
Earlier this month, Hays CISD officials named Jose Valenzuela as the school’s next director of bands. Valenzuela fills the role left by longtime Hays CISD band director Joey Lucita, who in April was named as the director of bands at Johnson High.
Valenzuela, who has been serving as Lehman High’s interim band director since January, has been involved in music education for more than 30 years. During that time, he has helped his students win an array of awards and honors.
“He has only been on our campus for a semester, but you can already see the impact he is having. Just after our U.I.L. competition this year, judges were complimenting him and our students for the sound. Students under his direction achieve quick results and high honors.”
–Denisha Presley, Lehman Principal
Hays CISD hired Valenzuela in August 2018 as the director at Simon Middle School.
“He has only been on our campus for a semester, but you can already see the impact he is having. Just after our U.I.L. competition this year, judges were complimenting him and our students for the sound,” said Lehman Principal Denisha Presley. “Students under his direction achieve quick results and high honors.”
Valenzuela began his education career in July 1989 as the assistant band director for Sharyland ISD in Mission. Soon after, he was named the associate director of bands for Donna High.
During his 20 years at Donna High, the band was a semifinalist in the Texas State Marching Contest consistently from 1996-2010. Valenzuela founded Donna High’s Mariachi Band in 1993.
Soon after its founding, students in the program had a 100% high school graduation rate and at least a 99% rate of enrollment in a four-year university, community college or vocational school upon graduation from high school. Valenzuela regularly toured the Mariachi band to universities and colleges around the country to allow students to visit places to which they had not traveled, to experience university campuses, and to audition for scholarships.
“I am proud to say that my students went to some of these universities and started university Mariachi programs that are still around today,” Valenzuela said.
In 2010, Valenzuela became the director of bands for J. B. Alexander High School in Laredo. Under his direction, the band won numerous awards including being named a semifinalist for the Grammy Music in the Schools Program. During the 2016-17 school year, Valenzuela was name a quarterfinalist for the Grammy Outstanding Music Educator of the Year award.
Valenzuela holds a Bachelor of Music (specializing in horn and vocal performance) from Sam Houston State University. In 2013, he was named the Krispy Crème Southwest Sector Teacher of the Year. He is also a member of the Texas Music Educators Association and has presented at conferences for a number of state and national music educator professional organizations.
