The Littlefield Independent School District’s Board of Trustees met in regular session Thursday at noon to discuss a 13-item agenda.
The meeting was called to order by Board President Birkelbach at 12:13 p.m. and Will Williams gave the invocation.
There was nobody present for the public comment portion of the meeting and the minutes from the previous meeting were approved as presented.
Superintendent Mitch McNeese gave the Superintendent Report, stating, “Coach Green said that High School senior English students got to tour the WT campus the other day, Ag Mech students took projects to the Austin Stock Show with Vince Villanueva and Teagan Miller winning blue ribbons for their projects. Livestock judging went to Houston and it was a good start and good experience for those students. The annual Cake Auction and Cheer tryouts will take place on April 2nd.”
He added, “For Primary, total enrollment is at 329, with 104 prek, 69 Kindergartners, 62 first graders and 73 second graders. They have a family learning night recently called ‘Once Upon a Fairy tale.’ The event was a lot of fun and created opportunities for families to learn how to help their students with math at home. Handson activities were provided for the families and also Head Start held a resource fair on Tuesday, March 11th, where families could learn about resources available for support. The South Plains Food Bank provided their mobile food bank to shop for needed food items, close to 95 families received food from the market.”
Item five on the agenda was to deliberate and take possible action to approve the 2025-2026 School Calendar.
“Option A was the calendar that the staff chose,” Supt. McNeese said.
The motion to approve the 20252026 School Calendar was made by Williams and seconded by Reese Rogers. The motion carried.
The next order of business was to deliberate and take possible action to approve a low attendance waiver. “Just like last year, we’ve had some flu come through here. This waiver allows us the opportunity to waive our low attendance days for all campuses on Jan. 21st; Jan. 22nd for Primary, Elementary and Junior High; Jan. 23rd for Elementary and Junior High and Jan. 24th for Primary, Elementary and Junior High,” Supt. McNeese said. “In order for us to be able to do this, the attendance has to be 10% lower than it was a year ago on the days we’re requesting.”
The motion to approve the low attendance waiver for days was made by Sal Acevedo and seconded by Williams. The motion carried.
The next order of business was to deliberate and take possible action to approve trust property disposition.
Supt. McNeese stated that there was one trust property disposition for approval.
The motion to approve the trust property disposition was made by Rogers and seconded by Williams. The motion carried.
Supt. McNeese went over the facilities and maintenance priorities plan, saying, “We met with Teinert and they’re going to go through another punch list and they’re going to work on that over Spring Break. We’ve walked that campus quite a bit and there is still a lot for them to do. Coach Gregory and I are going to walk the campus again after Spring Break and see where we’re at and we’re going to get it done right. I was guessing it will probably take until May to get everything done correctly and the way we want it.”
He added, “We’re still having trouble with the dust collector in the wood shop. As far as the Junior High goes, it is behind schedule, they keep telling us it will be done by October and we can move in over Christmas, but the calendar is set up for us to not even be thinking like that. If it happens and they get it done then we’ll move in in January, if not, we’ll wait until the following year. The junior high is completely gutted, there are no walls between the classrooms and they’re starting to put new walls in. There is concrete busted out in some spots where they’re putting new plumbing for the new restrooms and they’re running into issues with the new door frames as well. The new football stadium lights were installed and they’re bright.”
There were no budget amendments.
Destiny Chavarria went over the Financial Review and Report.
The motion to approve the Financial Review and Report was made by Acevedo and seconded by Rodgers. The motion carried.
Item 11 was personnel matters including the resignation, appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline, dismissal and/or compensation of individual district employees.
Under Texas Government Code 551.074 the Board went into executive session at 12:34 p.m. and returned to the open meeting at 1:16 p.m.
A motion was made by Williams and seconded by Acevedo with Rogers abstained to approve contracts for probationary contracts of certified staff as recommended by myself, principals, athletic director and LCSSA director. The motion carried.
A motion was made by Rogers and seconded by Williams to approve contracts for Term contracts of certified staff as recommended by myself, principals, athletic director and LCSSA director. The motion carried.
A motion was made by Williams and seconded by Rogers to hire Alicia Newton as a fourth grade math teacher and Kimberlyn Brunet as a sixth grade math teacher at the junior high. The motion carried.
Resignation letters were presented on Ryan Menasco, Tami McGehee, Carlen Cagel, Mary Jane Rangel, Crystal Sanders and Dina Cristan.
A motion was made by Williams and seconded by Acevedo to offer letters of reasonable assurance of employment for all of our At-Will Personnel, as reccommended by Supt. McNeese and Principals. The motion carried.
Supt. McNeese informed the Board that the Region 17 training is on March 26th.
With no further business to discuss Board President Birkelbach declared the meeting adjourned at 1:21 p.m.