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Each month, Texas State University President Dr. Kelly Damphousse sits down with faculty members, staff, students, alumni, and community members for a conversation about all things TXST — the past, the present, and the bright future of the university.
Part of the TXST Podcast Network: https://www.txst.edu/podcast-network.html
- How did you end up becoming the superintendent?
- That's a great question. So, life choices.
- Life choices, right?
- Life choices.
- Choices you make in high school affect college. Choices you make in college affect life after, right?
- Oh yeah, so I began working at SeaWorld of Texas, believe it or not, and I loved it.
- What was your undergrad?
- Political science with a minor in management.
- What do you do with public science degree? Become a superintendent or SeaWorld employee. I'm so glad today to be joined by my good friend Michael Cardona, who is the superintendent for the San Marcos CISD, I gotta get it all in there. There are a lot of letters in there.
- A lot of letters.
- So what is the C? Is consolidated, right?
- Consolidated.
- So what does that mean?
- That means many years ago we consolidated with Martindale going out towards Prairie on Highway 80. So we took over, they used to be an independent school district and once you come together, you're consolidated. Kinda like Hayes Consolidated Independent School District.
- OK, I see that a lot. I just didn't know what was consolidated.
- Yeah, I didn't either.
- So how many high schools do you have then?
- We have one high school.
- Just one high school.
- We are a one high school town.
- But then how many elementary schools do you have?
- We have seven elementaries. We have one pre-K center, fully functional pre-K center and then two middle schools.
- You know, the town I grew up in was pretty small, like 1900 people. And we had, elementary school was called the elementary school and the junior high was called the junior high. And the high school was called the high school. I think it actually, it may have had someone's name on it, I'm not sure. But it was just like pretty small town. But everyone was always together. So from kindergarten and grade one all the way to grade 12. Same kids all the time. But you have to kind of funnel people towards high school eventually, right?
- We do, we funnel and then we get the influx of the Austin traffics. Austin displaces some of their families.
- Sure, people wanna move to a great town like San Marcos. Right?
- Correct, yes.
- Well, tell me a little bit about yourself. Like I know quite a bit, but I love to hear the whole Michael Cardona story. So how did you end up becoming the superintendent?
- That's a great question. So life choices. So I was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. Went to private school K-12.
- Did you know that one out of eight students at Texas State is from San Antonio? And we have like 40,000 alumni down there. So San Antonio is like our second home.
- My mother graduated from Texas State.
- Yeah. Oh, I did not know that.
- Let me rephrase it. My mother graduated from Southwest Texas State.
- Southwest Texas state. I'll give you that.
- And she still calls us that.
- By the way, I appreciate you wearing the Texas State. People who are just listening can't see this beautiful sweatshirt that he's wearing. But if you're watching the video, you can see he's got this beautiful Texas State shirt on.
- Thank you Athletic Department. They took care of me. So it was good. But yeah, so Texas State's been in our blood but I grew up private school. I went to Texas A&M. Life choices, you know, thought I was smarter than the professors my freshman year. And kind of found out pretty quickly I wasn't. And so when I graduated in 1989, kind of didn't know what I was gonna do. Law school is what I wanted to do. Low GPA kind of negated that opportunity.
- Life choices is right. Choices you make in high school affect college. Choices you make in college affect life after.
- So I began working at SeaWorld of Texas, believe it or not. And I loved it.
- What was your undergrad?
- Political science with a minor in management.
- What do you do with political science degree? Become a superintendent or SeaWorld employee.
- Beluga Whales and Dolphin Stadium.
- That's pretty cool.
- Yeah, it is. It was a neat pathway.
- Is there like a level, like this is like the worst job at SeaWorld and this is like the best job and you're like in the upper echelon?
- Yeah, park operations is probably the hardest job 'cause they're out in the parking lots and they're cleaning up everybody's mess. And probably education is probably the best 'cause they're touring all the little kids. They're in air conditioning most of the day. And then somewhere in between are the, you know, media people and things like that. So the trainers were the Dr. Damphousses of the world. They were looked up to.
- My kids did a be a dolphin trainer for a day thing one time in Mexico. And they just, it was like the best pictures of their childhood was a swimming around with the dolphins and stuff like that. They had a lot of fun.
- It was a neat experience. But life choices again, you know, Anheuser-Busch took over SeaWorld from Harcourt Brace and literally overnight my 80 hour a week job turned into 20 hours a week.
- Wow.
- And, you know, lost all my benefits. And so, you know, at the time my first wife, she was a teacher, lifelong teacher. She still is a teacher in San Antonio. And she kind of made a nonchalant comment to me and said, you know, you always complain about the work ethic of kids. You need to find something to do. Why don't you try teaching and see if you can change the work ethic of kids.
- You're so smart.
- Yeah. I was still, it's that whole theme, right. I think I'm smarter than the world. So I went alternative certification in region 20 and started teaching at a school I would say that nobody ever wants to teach at, students with emotional disabilities. In San Antonio they come from the entire county. Typically they were gang related. And so fairly early on realized like education's second to building relationships with these kids and then they'll take care of the education part. And they did that. I actually started here at Southwest Texas State University getting my master's degree. I have nine hours through Southwest Texas State. And then quickly kind of became apparent I couldn't make the drive. It's just logistically an issue.
- That's one of the reasons we've gone so heavily into online. So many people are, in fact, my son-in-law who got alternate certification, he's a teacher in College Station. He's getting his master's degree online because you just can't make the drive all the time.
- Correct. So I moved to UTSA. And it was a little bit more manageable. And then I had a great principal, principal said, hey, I think you make a great administrator, so why don't you move into educational administration. And then that kind of began the pathway. And I always tell people like, my journey is really about people who probably believe more in me than I believed in myself. Pushed me out of my comfort zone. And I had great, great mentors who kept pushing me. Eventually I became principal in San Antonio at a middle school and then led me to become principal at the high school my brother graduated from in 1981. It was our neighborhood high school. So I found that ironic that I became the principal at the school he barely made it through.
- He can identify with those kids though, right?
- They were me. They were me and did some great work, worked with great people, great teachers doing great work. And then that got me noticed. The school scores got us noticed because we're, you know, a school that 88% kids in poverty, 80% Hispanic. We had our first Dell Scholar, Gates Millennium Scholar, you know, in Northeast. And that got me noticed by HISD, Houston Independent School District. And I worked there for a few years as their chief of middle schools, which was a completely different learning experience being in the largest urban system in the state of Texas. And just had another great mentor who kept pushing me to like, you can be a superintendent. And that at the end of the day was my journey. Like I started realizing like I wanted to control what happened with a group of kids. And so that led me to apply for, you know, many jobs that didn't work out. And then for some strange reason, San Marcos came calling and this is my first and only superintendent job. And so I've been here about eight and a half years.
- Well we're glad to have you here. And we do claim you as a former student. So there you go. If not a graduate, well, you know, let's talk about alternate certification. I mentioned that my son-in-law did that. About how many teachers do you hire now that come through that pathway where they get a degree in something else, then decide later in life they wanna be a teacher. About how many people do you think percentage wise maybe?
- Currently right now we have about 34 teachers.
- 34 teachers.
- Oh, 34 teachers. Who are alternative certification. Now that does not include, like we have automotive teachers who they get industry based certification. They don't have to go that traditional alternative certification pathway. And so 34 actual teachers are in that alternative certification pathway. It's growing.
- It's becoming a new thing. And in fact, we're actually working really hard. Our College of Education dean is very much in this area, this space right here. Because students are getting, they can get certification through a lot of different ways, but we think we can actually provide a really good platform for them. And so, yeah. And by the way, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Texas State graduates more education majors than any other school in Texas. And so more Texas teachers have a Texas State degree than any other degree in the world. So there you go.
- Correct.
- More than Harvard.
- Y'all have secondary. You do the residency program.
- Yes.
- And we have to my knowledge as of last year, the only secondary residence in the state of Texas.
- And we have a neat program in Round Rock too, where it's called the Grow Your Own program, where ACC is teaching 11th, 12th grade kids, kind of the preliminary college courses. Then they come to us in the Round Rock Campus and get their education degree and then they go back to Round Rock where they pay them to do their internship or their student teaching as they used to call it back in the day. And then they become teachers in the school district, which is a real cool program to get kids when they're really excited about becoming a teacher. 11th to 12th grade, they're kinda locked in. Like, that's what I wanna do. And sometimes they kinda lose their way, but this gets them kind of continuously thinking about this 'cause there is a teacher shortage, right? You're always facing that.
- Very much so, it's hard. I mean, people don't understand. We can't even find Spanish teachers and we're in Texas. It's almost impossible to find certified Spanish teachers.
- Speaking of partnering with ISDs and the university, we've got a really neat program, we just started piloting it with you guys this year, the concurrent enrollment program. Let's talk a little bit about that. Tell us why you wanted to do it and then what the program looks like.
- Well, the why was, my first couple years as superintendent, I would see, you know, one or two students who were taking classes at Texas State. And I'd always ask, well, why do they get to do it? And typically it was your parents who were pretty knowledgeable about the education system that just were big advocates.
- And these were classes on our campus. It's not like sometimes dual enrollment or concurrent classes are taught at the high school by the university. But they were actually coming onto our campus.
- They were, they were.
- And they had to be connected, right? They knew somebody who knew how to do the deal.
- Yeah, they knew the system They knew the TA codes. They knew everything. They knew how to navigate the system. Well that's not the reality of who we deal with in San Marcos. And so, you know, it's always a push to try and get that opened up. Leadership matters, Dr. Damphousse. So like in a matter of six minutes, you know, the board members will say 125 years. You know, it's six minute conversation with, I'm gonna butcher his name. Dr. Sivakumaran.
- Perfect, yeah.
- You sent to me. He changed the pathway of San Marcos High School in six minutes. And so, you know, we had the first 24 kids, you know, and I looked up their GPA and you had a couple, two of 'em that struggled. But time management issues. But they're great kids.
- Well the percentage is right. Two out of 24. That's pretty good. Or 22 out of 24 had a great experience.
- They did. And they're over a 3.72, I think was their GPA. So they did things their first semester here that many people thought they couldn't do that we thought they could do. And they proved us right. I think they proved us right, that if you challenge kids, they'll kind rise to you. And let me give a shout out to your professors. 'cause your professors from the summer were fantastic. They hosted 'em up here. We brought the parents, we have, you know, a teacher assigned to make sure that these kids are taken care of. But the professors here at Texas State that said, I want to do this really should be commended for kind of going against the norm and saying, yeah, let's do it and see what happens.
- And these are pretty high performing students that we want to have them come here and be freshmen when they graduate from high school. And so, and we want to make sure everyone who's kind of thinking about college has an opportunity to experience the real version of it by actually being on campus. And they're not just, we don't have a class for your students. They're intertwined in, they're just sitting in a regular classroom.
- Correct. We have kids that are riding the bus with your Bobcats because they live near a bus route.
- Oh, is that right?
- They jump on the bus 'cause it's easier for them to get to class quicker than going all the way out to the high school and then taking a bus to come over.
- Because we have a bus that we bring over. We bus your students over here and drop them off. And we have like a counselor or someone who's kind of waiting for 'em.
- Correct.
- Because we want to make sure they're safe here too. We feel it's a very safe campus, but sometimes you get lost.
- Correct. I think we've got a good support system for them and they're exceeding our expectations.
- We're excited to partner with our local high schools and our independent school districts. Because, you know, we think about the importance of building a talent strong Texas is that we want to make sure more people have a college degree. Well it doesn't just start when they graduate from high school. It actually starts much earlier. And we talked about life choices, right? If you're in middle school and you're not thinking about going to college, if you're in high school, you're not thinking about 'til the very end. Like I didn't think about going to college until like March or April of my senior year. I wasn't even thinking it. And because of that, my grades weren't very good and I wasn't academically prepared. I didn't know how to study and so on because it just wasn't a thing for me. But if we can get young people in seventh and eighth grade start getting excited about going to college and then change their behavior, modify their behavior to align with that during high school, that makes the college transition so much easier. Even if they're a first generation student, they're already starting to think like a college student.
- Yeah, no just yesterday I was at the high school, you probably had 12 of your Greek life students, young men and young women who look like our kids doing a panel with our juniors and seniors.
- Is that right?
- Yeah. And they were fantastic. They talked about time management, making choices, who you hang out with, using the library resources, you know, to better themselves. They talked about how they carry themselves. They talked about their cellphones and what they put out in the world, how they brand themselves. And so, you know, the partnership's there and for kids that are sitting in the high school audience looking at kids who look like themselves. You had a bunch of first gen kids telling them like, don't let money be a barrier. I'm in the Greek system. There's ways to be in the Greek system. There's ways to be involved. Was something I didn't have when I was, you know, trying to get through Texas A&M. Because trying to navigate and, you know, I can't speak highly enough of how your kids yesterday represented the university. They just were honest. They were brutally honest with the kids. They talked about networking, they talked about what happens, what they're looking for, you know, in the workforce. And so I think it really, you know, got some good responses from our kids. Like yeah, OK we need to buckle down and you know, there is a pathway for us if we just make good choices.
- And I think I've seen a lot more of our athletics programs going into your schools as well. And I think those little kids especially look up to those big football players or volleyball players and they're just in awe of them, right?
- Bobcat Buddies. Coach Hewitt has the Bobcat Buddies.
- Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Over at Rodriguez Elementary and Travis Elementary where they're mentoring, you know, students. And it was one of your volleyball players that kind of made a impactful statement last year. I said, why do you do it? And she said, well, because I was this kid. I was the kid that was distracted. I was the kid that was always getting them fold remarks. I was the kid that was always getting in trouble, was told I wasn't smart, was told. And I see some of these young women here and they're just like me. And so I think if they see me being successful, you know, I think they know that at the end of the day they have an out and a pathway. And I'm, you know, she's a great young lady. She was one of your setters. So leave her nameless. But she was working with a young lady that I've been working with since she's been in kindergarten and in a year she's made a bigger impact than I was able to make in five years. And I think that's because of that female mentorship. So, and she got that young lady on the right track and she's in sixth grade now.
- Well, you know, and the amazing thing is, the truth is that while they're providing a service, they're also getting a lot out of it themselves. Because there's something about helping someone else out. How that kind of elevates your own spirit and your own self. So what's next now for you and Texas State and how we're gonna keep growing together?
- I think the opportunities are endless. You just had your professor who teaches welding, who does those computerized welding systems. And you know, you talked about elementary school, he was at Rodriguez Elementary School and he looked at me and he said, sir, I got four of your fourth graders that I could take right now to get certified as welders. They're better than my college kids.
- Wow.
- And I didn't realize, you know, what kids were capable. Had I not come down here, I would not have thought, you know, elementary kids could not do this. But I'm watching it like live. So I need to figure out how to be more involved, you know, early on. Which is great. We want him in all of our buildings. But like it's exciting. You know, our ROTC program is one example, maybe that's a future partnership. You have Army here, you know, we have the National Guard here. We've begun the process. We're working on the process of looking at Army potentially they call it changing the flag so that maybe our juniors and seniors who are in ROTC can see that pathway, perhaps career technology, some of our kids that, you know, are going to welding, to solar, you know, electrical pathway. Maybe they can get exposure up here and that might change what they think about what they can or can't do.
- And you've got a great career tech center at the high school, which is unbelievable. But a lot of those kids are thinking I'm just, you know, all, you know, their sights, their goals might be set a little bit low, but they might get exposed to a college, say, oh I can go get a college degree. And certainly they might wanna work in the field, but someday they might wanna be the manager or a business owner. And having a business degree might help with that.
- Correct, correct. It's more prevalent in our CNA program, our nursing program. We have a lot of kids that go through Round Rock and follow that pathway, but it's expanding to other disciplines now.
- Well we love our hometown high school and consolidated independent school district. I love your story. I love the fact that you're a former Bobcat as well and I love how integrated you are with the city and with our university and how forward thinking you are to come to us with ideas for partnerships. And I also love how much our staff and our faculty kind of buy into that as well. It's exciting to see this partnership because I really believe we grow together. Right? As we rise, you rise, the city rises. And if there's a kink in the chain, then that can really affect both of us. All right Michael, we have a kind of a tradition here. Every time we advertise the podcast, we always put a note in there saying if you have any questions that you wanna ask the president, fire away. And then we ask the guest to be the questioner here.
- This is a really good question.
- OK.
- OK. So the question from whoever sent it is, if you had no restrictions or meetings for a day, what would you do?
- You know, I love to read and that's the thing about my job, that's the hardest part is that sometimes, I just go meeting to meeting and thing to thing and event to event. And at the end of the day I realize that I, you know, I've just kind of poured so much out. I've not taken much in. So if I had a day with nothing to do, it'd probably be read a book. It might be a book about leadership. How I can make myself better. Or it might be just be a fiction book, I'm reading right now a biography of Winston Churchill. Because I'm interested about history but also about leadership. Like how do you become a leader like he was and the things he did, imperfect as he was, still fascinating to think about people's stories, like your story, the life choices you made that ended up where you are. So that's what I do. I just read, really boring.
- That's good, that's OK. Reading's good for you.
- Well that wraps up the podcast here with Dr. Cardona and so we're excited about learning more about Texas State through future guests that we have here. Thanks so much for joining us. States Up, everyone.