Business View City & Municipal | August 2022

19 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 7 HURST-EULESS-BEDFORD INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DI STR I CT their employees happy and getting them what they need.” While the pandemic changed the world of work profoundly for everyone, HEB ISD has remained a shining example of a government agency taking care of its people during a national crisis. “Last year was a tough year,” recalls Superintendent Joe Harrington. “Everyone talked about 2021 being the return to normal. The irony is that, without the prior year, last year would’ve been the most disruptive year in the history of education – and we called it ‘normal’. The number of people who were out because of the Omicron variant greatly increased the number of substitutes we needed, but they weren’t available. I’ve never experienced anything like it in my life. We did what we needed to do, but our teachers were exhausted.” Harrington acknowledges that their focus has truly shifted to make employee wellness a central consideration in all school board decisions. He notes, “We don’t know if we have all the answers yet, but we’re going to see if we can figure it out. Student achievement will always be number one, but we’ve got to take care of our staff so they can take care of our students. That will be a top priority moving forward.” For a number of years, HEB ISD has been able to outperform the nation-wide standards. Having long been evaluated by the Education Resource Group, an organization founded “to provide public education with a framework for managing Superintendent, Joe Harrington Board President, Matt Romero Board Secretary, Julie Cole