Victoria Schoch said Monday’s Boerne ISD new teacher orientation proved “to me, you can always come home.”
The Boerne native endured a long path through distant school districts, COVID restrictions and day care employment to land a job in the district she attended as a youth.
At the same school she attended as a youth.
Schoch joined nearly 130 new coaches, speech therapists, librarians, teachers and other employees in a Boerne ISD training room Monday to hear their names, specialties and schools announced during the day-long new teacher orientation.
Complete with an NFL-style draft – Communications ans, teachn braria es onda es an day ay nd n.
a n omor thch Director Bryan Benway and Athletic Director Stan Leech excitedly announcing teachers’ names, their specialties and their schools, which were shown on large overhead screens – Boernewelcomed their newcomers all morning before getting down to some lesson-sharing in the afternoon
Schoch will be a resource teacher at Fabra Elementary – the same school she attended when growing up.
“I went to Fabra, starting kindergarten there in 2000,” she said. Her path led her to Boerne Middle School North and then Boerne High, where she graduated in 2013.
She said she went to college at Texas Tech in Lubbock “because I thought it was the farthest away I could get from my family,” she laughed.
“Not my family, really. I was just -- in the ‘Boerne bubble,’ and I wanted to go out,” she said, but quickly adding, “And when I was out, I realized I wanted to come back.”
While her exit was swift, the return trip took time. With detours. And disease.
After her December 2018 graduation from Tech, she hired on in the Pearsall ISD, where she remained until COVID swept through the state and nation.
“Then I moved back to Boerne, worked at a day care, taught pre-K, and then got a job in the Bandera (Independent) School District, but lived here in Boerne.”
While devoted to her teaching, she remained focused on Boerne ISD.
“I had the notifications turned on. If there was a job posted, I would check every day,” she said.
Then one day, she got a call.
“I remember getting the phone call. They said, ‘Do you want to come home?’ And I was like YES, I do. That was awesome, I couldn’t believe it.
“I have wanted to work in Boerne for so long, and it has finally happened,” she said. “When this opened up, I knew I could finally come home.”
This new teacher meeting was a special one for Boerne Superintendent Dr. Thomas Price as well. After seven years at the BISD helm, 17 years as a superintendent and 37 years in education, the 2023-24 school year will be his last. Price announced last month that this would be his last year in education.
Price talked to the new staffers about the effort needed to be a teacher: the difficulty, the hours – and the reward.
“It’s not a 9-to-5 job, or a 7:30-to-4 job, it’s not,” Price said. “It’s something that if you don’t love, I mean really love what you’re doing, it’s going to be a painful career.”
He quickly qualified his statement with lofty schoolroom insight. “You’ve got to love it and know that, every single day, you make a difference,” he said. “You’ve got to know why you get up in the morning to do this.”
He told the new teachers that they are entering a profession where they are expected to be leaders, molding and crafting young minds to become leaders themselves.
“We want our teachers to be leaders,” he said. “The big thing to remember is, we are you. You're a reflection of us. And we’re a reflection of the community.”
The 130 new instructors are part of the 1,300 staff members who on Aug. 10 will welcome the district’s 10,800 students back to school.
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