The Littlefield independent School District’s Board of Trustees met in regular session on Thursday, Jan. 18th to discuss a 13-item agenda.
The meeting was called to order at 7 p.m. by Board President Pat Demel and the invocation was given by Gary Birkelbach.
There was no one present to speak during public forum and the minutes from the previous meeting were approved by general consent.
The campus principals and AD Bo Bryant were on hand to give reports on their campuses and athletics.
Primary Principal Staci Sumners stated that their enrollment was sitting at 315 students, including 96 pre-kindergartners, 60 kindergartners, 68 first graders and 91 second graders.
“We have had a rough comeback from the holidays with attendance. We’ve had a lot of illnesses still, so we’re still struggling with attendance,” she said. “Christmas was very busy over December, we did our cook book sales at our campus and had a huge turnout for families who wanted to buy our cookbook. We had a great turnout at our Holidays around the world event. Families really enjoyed that and we also had another awesome event taking place that same night, which was the coat drive. We went through 100’s of coats on our Christmas night. Our kids brought in 320 ornaments that were decorated by our students for the Christmas Tree our at Continental Dairy.” She added, “Our data in I-Station has been amazing. Our intervention that we have in place is called WIN (Whatever I Need) and every Friday the kids get split into different groups to get help with whatever they need. Our pre-k kids will also be starting that up in February.”
Elementary Principal Tom Whistler said they are sitting at 224 students, including 73 third graders, 68 fourth graders and 83 fifth graders.
“ We started tutoring after school for fifth grade this week,” he said. “ We will start benchmarking next week for all grades. We went to UIL in November and got second place overall and we had a lot of kids and individual teams place first, second and third as well. We will be going to Rotary Club again on Feb. 1st to recognize 14 students for third six weeks. In December, we took about 160 students to the Lady Raiders game on Dec. 13th. That was an attendance and behavior trip.”
He added, “Premier Cheverolet of Littlefield presented us with a donation of $3,000 on the last day of the first semester that we will be able to use towards supplies and things.”
Junior High Principal Monica Acevedo explained they are totaling 289 students, including 101 sixth graders, 87 seventh graders and 101 eighth graders.
“With Band, Jan. 26th and 27th, we have All-Region Band in Lubbock at the Civic Center. They go and perform on Friday and then they go for contest on Saturday,” she said. “In February, Band will also have Pre-UIL the 29th and then on March 7th they will have UIL in Sundown. That will be our Maroon Band and our Maroon Honors Band.
She added, “February 27th, we will have NJHS inductions at 9:30 a.m. With our tutorials we are doing one week of full reading and then a week of math so the kids are not bouncing back and forth. An organization called Fight Another Day is going to come out and speak to our kids about mental health and provide some resources hopefully before the end of March.”
High School Principal Amber Hays said that they have a total of 361 students, including 85 freshmen, 96 sophomores, 92 juniors and 88 seniors.
“We had two students, Matthew Rios and Curtis Gallegos make All-State Band; we are proud and excited for them to represent us. We also had All-Region Band and Jazz Band at SPC. On Feb. 16th, Solo and Ensemble Band will be competing at Abernathy. Our robotics team will be competing at Meadow on Jan. 26th and will hopefully qualify for State again.”
She added, “We did benchmarks in December and have geared up to break all those kids up into tutorials and when and where they need to go.”
Athletic Director Bo Bryant gave an update on athletics, saying, “The Wildcat Classic went really good and we had a good turnout. Our girls were the runnerups, losing a close one to Clarendon in the Championship. The boys were the tournament champions taking down New Home in the championship. Both teams have been playing very well. The varsity girls are 18-6, 7-0 in district and the JV girls are 21-2, 70 in district. They have five games left. If we can win out and get first in district, it’s looking like we will pair up with Kermit or Stanton in the first round.”
He added, “The varsity boys are 21-3, 5-1 in district. We lost to Brownfield in district right before Christmas, didn’t play our best game, so hopefully when they come here we can get them. JV Maroon is 15-4 and JV White is 610. Everything else is going or about to get going; softball started last week baseball and golf started this week, tennis starts next week and then we will start track at the end of the regular basketball season. Realignment is Feb. 1st, we turned in 364 and the cutoff was 368, so we will be staying in Division II.”
Item five on the agenda was to deliberate in closes session under Texas Government Code 551.074 to discuss possible candidates to be appointed to fill the District 3 vacancy until the next trustee election (May 2024).
President Demel closed the regular meeting at 7:19 p.m. and he re-opened the meeting at 7:48 p.m.
The next item on the agenda was to deliberate and take possible action in open session to appoint a replacement trustee to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of District three trustee, Lance Broadhurst until the next trustee election (May 2024) and take any and all further action necessary to seat such replacement trustee.
The motion was made by Birkelbach and seconded by Will Williams to appoint Reese Rogers to fill the vacancy of District 3 trustee created by the resignation of Lance Broadhurst until the net election which will occur in May of 2024. The motion Carried unanimously.
Rogers was sworn in and took his seat at the Board table.
Superintendent- elect Mitch McNeese stated, “All itemes listed under this section have been arranged by Underwood Law Firm to assure compliance with federal election law. I recommend that the Board take action on each item accordingly.”
Item seven on the agenda was 2024 School Board Election. a) The motion was made by Birkelbach and seconded by Hervey Valdez to order a General Election for the election of two Precinct Trustee positions to be held on May 4, 2024. the motion carried. b) The motion was made by Birkelbach and seconded by Williams to approve the Notice and Order of General Election for Early Voting and for Election Day. The motion carried. c) The Motion was made by Williams and seconded by Sal Acevedo to appreove the Resolution to have a joint election on May 4, 2024, with the City of Littlefield. The motion carried. d) The motion was made by Johnny Castillo and seconded by Acevedo to approve the Join Election Agreement with the City of Littlefield. The motion carried. e) The motion was made by Valdez and seconded by Williams to approve the Early Voting locations and times and the Election Day polling locations and times. The motion carried. f) The motion was made by Williams and seconded by Castillo to appoint Neil Gonzales as the Elections Administrator. The motion carried. g) The motion was made by Birkelbach and seconded by Williams to appoint Neil Gonzalez as the Early Voting Clerk and Jessica Longoria as the Deputy Early Voting Clerk, Retha Williams as the Early Voting Ballot Board Judge and Stephen Butler as the Early Voting Ballot Board Alternate Judge. The motion carried. h) The motion was made by Castillo and seconded by Valdez to appoint Retha Williams to serve as Election Judge on Election Day and Janine Butler as Alternate Election Day Judge. The motion carried. i) The motion was made by Williams and seconded by Valdez to appoint Neil Gonzalez to serve as Bilingual Election Clerk. The motion carried.
Item eight on the agenda was to deliberate and take possible action to approve Trust Property Disposition.
Supt.-elect McNeese stated that the property was off of N. Hwy. 385.
The motion was made by Birkelbach and seconded by Valdez to approve the sale of trust properties as presented. The motion carried.
Item nine on the agenda was deliberate and take possible action to approve Budget Amendments.
Bev Boldes presented two budget amendments to the board.
The motion was made by Valdez and seconded by Acevedo to approve the budget amendments as presented. The motion carried.
The next order of business was to deliberate and take possible action to approve the financial and Investment Review and Report.
The Financial and Investment Review and Report was presented by Boldes.
The Motion was made by Williams and seconded by Valdez to approve the Financial and Investment Review and Report as presented. The motion carried.
Item 11 was personnell maters. The motion was made by Castillo and seconded by Acevedo to approve the Superintendent Appraisal. The motion carried.
Supt.-elect McNeese presented Board Training information to the board and President Demel declared the meeting adjourned at 8:09 p.m.