The Littlefield Independent School District Board of Trustees met in Regular Session on Monday, October 21st at 7 p.m. in the Board Room of the Jerry Blakely Administration Building to discuss a 19item agenda.
The meeting was called to order at 7 p.m. by Board President Gary Birkelbach and the invocation was given by Will Williams. There was nobody present for the public forum.
The minutes from the previous meeting were approved by general consent.
Primary Principal Staci Sumners began the Administrative Report with an update on Primary, stating that their enrollment is sitting at 330 total students.
“We are still hanging on to our 105 three and four-year old students,” she explained. “We finally got all of the amendments for it and we have the 75 headstart slots, which is a huge increase from when I started here. When I started we only had 34 headstart slots and now we have 75, so we’re excited about that. Headstart has been out at our campus helping with testing for our three and four-year old students. They’re also coaching some of our teachers and working with some of our behaviors for our kids who have come in from an unstructured environment. The adjustment into a structured environment has been a little difficult for some of them.”
She added, “Our Fall Festival will take place on Oct. 28th form 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. We’re going to bring out five or six food trucks, will have games and face painting, the event is open to anyone who would like to come. On Tuesday, Oct. 29th, our kindergarten kids have a Scarecrow program that will take place at 9 a.m. at the Junior High Auditorium. The Book Fair is arriving the same week, as well. Fall pictures are coming up as well.”
Monica Acevedo gave an update on Junior High, stating that their enrollment is sitting at 282 total students. They have 87 sixth graders, 106 seventh graders and 89 eighth graders.
“Next week is our last week for volleyball and football. Volleyball will be at Childress and Football will be at Roosevelt,” she explained. “NEEDS (UMC) came out Wednesday and gave a presentation on vaping. Fifth grade came over and attended that with us. Thursday, the DA’s office and Police Department came out and spoke to our kids. They did an excellent job of communicating what needed to be communicated to our kids. These two presentations were much needed.”
She added, “Nov. 1st is our PD day. World Travelers will come in and speak to the teachers. We’ll have one teacher assigned and it’s where they try and get some of our students to go and travel and do different things. We will also have two other presentations. Also, Nov. 1st we will have the ‘Watch Your Back’ program come in and talk to our teachers about the newer vapes and drugs that are hitting the streets, so that our teachers know what to look for. Next week is our Red Ribbon Week and our UIL Writing is Nov. 5th and UIL Meet is Nov. 20th in Dimmitt.”
High School Principal Brent Green stated that High School was sitting at 384 students for enrollment.
“We have lots of kids going lots of different places,” he said. “Our Chess team competed in a tournament in Lubbock, our seniors went to the South Plains College Fair last Tuesday, and then on Thursday our juniors went to the South Plains Career Expo at the Civic Center in Lubbock. The Lamb County Extension Agency brought in an assembly over Fentanyl. This week our FFA is at Convention and will be gone all week.”
He added, “Our Band received 1’s last week at the Regional Marching Contest, advancing them to Area. Our One Act Play has a fall play coming up and will be performing for our students, the public and will have a performance for the junior high and elementary students. Our Open House is on Oct. 28th.”
Assistant Superintendent Amber Hays gave an update on Elementary’s enrollment, saying, that they have a total of 241 students; 90 third graders, 71 fourth graders and 71 fifth graders.
“Their attendance from the beginning of school to current is 97.24%. That is not an easy accomplishment. They are implementing a new math curriculum. That is very tedious to do, it is a lot of work for teachers and administrators, but they have really dug into it. They will be celebrating drug free week the last week of the month.”
She added, “They have the UIL Meet in Muleshoe on Nov. 13th, they will also have a Math and Science family night on Nov. 19th at 5:30 p.m.”
Athletic Director Bo Bryant gave an update on athletics, saying, “Fall sports regular seasons are winding down, the varsity volleyball team is sitting in fourth in district and will see Bushland on either Nov. 4th or 5th in the first round. Cross Country competed at district last week with Jordan Randle finishing 50th, Brandon Marines was 43rd, Cesar Garcia was 34th, Thomas Jasso was 28th, and Ramiro Candelario was 14th. On the girl’s side, Arian MacDonald was 45th, Sophie Garcia was 39th, Adrianna Caudillo was 36th, Brinley Acevedo 30th, Anaei Ojeda was 24th, Evelynn Castillo was 12th and Cobi Saldana finished 6th, which made her a Regional Qualifier. The girl’s team also finished fourth overall after not having a team last year, so Coach Jarrod Thomas was very happy with how they did this year.”
He added, “Football is down to our last two regular season game. Varsity is sitting at 5-3 overall, we dropped a heart- breaker at Muleshoe last Friday. We played Idalou this week and then will close out next week at Roosevelt. JH and varsity will be at Roosevelt and JV will be here. Girl’s basketball started up last week, they’re practicing in the morning before school and she said she still has about 12 girls that are still in volleyball. Boy’s basketball started up Wednesday.”
Brette Southard gave an update on the Special Education program, saying they’re getting ready for snapshot day.
“October 8th our junior high and high school self contained kids took about 20 something kids to Frenship for a Field Day and it was a good time,” he said. Mrs. Butler’s Class also helped wash about 600 potatoes for the Potato Supper the other day.”
Item five on the agenda was to deliberate and take possible action to approve a waiver for a Modified Schedule for State Assessment Testing Days.
“We’ve done this for the last few years, it gives us the opportunity to work with only the kids who are testing on those days, which are April 16th, 17th, 23rd, 24th and 30th,” Superintendent Mitch McNeese said. “It allows are staff to be all hands on deck and there won’t be any distractions in the building.
The motion was made by Hervey Valdez and seconded by Williams to approve a waiver for a Modified Schedule for State Assessment Testing Days. The motion carried.
The next order of business was to deliberate and take possible action to approve House Bill 3 Goals.
“Out of those 11 different areas that we set goals in, we are making progress towards eight of those goals and are on track. There are three areas that we did not make progress in and there are a few things that go into that.”
She added, “We have state accountability which is our A-F letter grade, but we also have federal accountability, which runs a little different and gets into your subpopulations. One of the things we’re tackling very heavily right now is that we’ve updated our curriculum and Supt. McNeese has allowed us to spend some money and made some great decisions to get those teachers the stuff that they need. The curriculum was adopted in 2012, but the test has continued to evolve and now our curriculum is behind where that test is for the STAAR. We have to hand this material to the kids in the way that they’re going to be tested on it.”
The motion was made by Sal Acevedo and seconded by Johnny Castillo to approve House Bill 3 Goals. The motion carried.
The next item on the agenda was to deliberate and take possible action to approve District and Campus Improvement Plans for 24-25 school year.
Asst. Supt. Hays went over the District and Campus Improvement Plans for the 2024-2025 school year.
The motion was made by Castillo and seconded by Acevedo to approve the District and Campus Improvement Plans for 24-25 school year. The motion carried.
Item eight on the agenda was to deliberate and take possible action to approve the SHAC Requirements for the 24-25 school year.
“SHAC is also working on targeting the vaping and the drugs, as well as educating our kids on what are healthy choices,” Asst. Supt. Hays said. “Jenna Ozbirn is the head of this committee and she does an amazing job. She sends out monthly newsletters that target health as well as emotional health. A few things that we will continue to do is our flu shot clinic and our wellness test for our teachers to do all of the health checks. We also be doing a blood drive, as well as continuing our assemblies.”
The motion was made by Reese Rogers and seconded by Williams to approve SHAC Requirements for 24-25 school year. The motion carried.
The next order of business was to deliberate and take possible action to approve ESL Evaluation for 24-25 school year.
“We had 119 kids who were in our ESL program, of those, we exited about 10%, which is wonderful,” Asst. Supt Hays said. “In order to exit a student from the program, they have to be advanced high in their listening, speaking, writing and reading. We take the whole student with that, meaning are they being successful in class, are they successful on the STAAR, because we don’t want to pull support from a student if they still need it.”
The motion was made by Pat Demel and seconded by Williams to approve the English as a Second Language Evaluation. The motion carried.
The next item on the agenda was to deliberate and take possible action to approve TIPS ( The Interlocal Purchasing System) Resolution.
“The Texas Education code 8.002 permits regional service centers to provide services to assist schools in improving student performance and enable schools to operate more efficiently and economically,” Supt. McNeese said. “Participating in the Coop is the opinion that TIPS and this program are highly beneficial to the tax payers. This and the Buy Board on item 11 are the exact same thing, we’ve been using this for years and I recommend it’s approval.”
The motion was made by Valdez and seconded by Williams to approve The Interlocal Purchasing System Resolution. The motion carried.
Item 11 on the agenda was to deliberate and take possible action to approve Buy Board Resolution.
Supt. McNeese recommended its approval.
The motion was made by Demel and seconded by Castillo to approve the Buy Board Resolution. The motion carried.
The next item on the agenda was to deliberate and take possible action to approve Trust Property Disposition.
No action was necessary. The next order of business was to deliberate and take possible action to approve Head Start Agreement.
“Each year we sign an agreement with Headstart that aligns the agreement with LISD and Headstart,” Supt. McNeese said. “By approving this agreement we will enter into a contract for the 2024-2025 school year. By doing this we will provide Headstart services for 75 eligible students.”
The motion was made by Williams and seconded by Acevedo to approve the Head Start Agreement. The motion carried.
Item 14 on the agenda was to deliberate and take possible action to approve School FIRST Rating.
Bev Boldes went over this item with the Board, saying this is a grade on their Financial Management Process.
“FIRST stands for Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas,” she explained. “This year the 20232024 rating came out, but its based on the 2022-2023 fiscal year and we received a score of 96, which falls under superior achievement.”
The motion was made by Williams and seconded by Rogers to approve School FIRST Rating. The motion carried.
The next order of business was to discuss the Facilities and Maintenance Priorities Plan.
“ The school continues to progress very well,” Bryan Gregory said. “They have permanent power on and they expect to have an overhead inspection at the end of this month. Flooring is about 90% complete when you walk through and the elevator installation began on Monday and will take about a week. Furniture will be delivered on Nov. 18th and all of the North sidewalks and circle drive are complete. It needs to cure for about 28 days before we put anything heavy on that driveway.”
He added, “They’re still on track and are still saying they think it will be ready to go by Thanksgiving.”
No action was necessary.
Item 16 on the agenda was to deliberate and possible approval of Financial and Investment Review and Report.
Boldes gave the Financial and Investment Review and Report.
The motion was made by Demel and seconded by Williams to approve the Financial and Investment Report. The motion Carried.
The next item on the agenda was Personnel Matters Including Appointment, Employment, Evaluation, Reassignment, Duties, Discipline, Dismissal and / or Compensation of Individual District Employees: a) Certified Personnel: No action was necessary. b) At-Will Employees Hired: No action was necessary. 18) Board Training Information Mr. McNeese informed the board of training opportunities. With there being no further business, Board President Birkelbach declared the meeting adjourned at 8:02 P.M.