The Littlefield Independent School District’s Board of Trustees met in Regular Session on Monday, September 23 in the Board Room of the Jerry Blakely Administration Building to discuss a 12-item agenda.
The Meeting was called to order by Board President Gary Birkelbach at 7 p.m. and the invocation was given by Will Williams.
There was nobody present to speak during Public Forum and the minutes from the previous meeting were approved by general consent.
The next order of business was the Administrative Reports.
Primary Principal Staci Sumners started the Administrative Reports with an update on the Primary Campus. She stated that they have a total of 330 students, including 107 pre-k students, 67 kindergartners, 61 first graders, 74 second graders and in their self contained SPED rooms they are at 21 students.
“We did our fourth annual community picnic on Aug. 26th, where we handed out 400 hot dogs, chips and drinks,” she said. “We have a lot of families and community members there. We had games, we had kites the kids were flying, kids were playing on the playground and we had some tricycles, bikes and scooters that the kids thoroughly enjoyed. We had a Constitution Day parade inside of the building, tonight [Monday], we had our family reading night, it was all things superhero. We had everything from a book walk, cookie decorating, super words, making a super hero, reading books and being able to win some books. We had between 120 and 130 families that attended the event. Our Wildcat Pantry is open and has already helped multiple families with food boxes and clothing.”
She added, “We just completed Dibbles testing last week and will be setting our intervention groups. We are also looking at Istation in reading and in math and we have started goal setting with every one of our kids, including our pre-k kids. We’re setting up parent conferences to review the data from the beginning of the year and one of the things we’re working on is to be able to show the kids their growth. We have level-up boards that we’re working with to show the kids, here is where you are and then when they take their IStation assessment they’re leveling up and going to the next level to show them their growth. We are also starting superhero clubs, starting the second six weeks we will have an ABC Club, a 100 Club, site word club and a shoe tying club. First grade has challenged me to reading 100 books; they by class have to read 100 books before I read 100 books and if they win, I have to kiss a pig or something and if I win, their teacher has to do it.”
Elementary Principal Jerry Russell stated that they have a total of 241 students.
“Attendance wise, fifth grade is winning, they’re at 98.3%, the other grade levels are at 97.6% and 97.2%, so overall our attendance rate is 97.7%, which is pretty good for the first six weeks,” he said. “We along with Junior High will be attending a vape program that will go over the effects of vaping for kids.”
He added, “Pick up and drop off has been much better since day one and overall the community within the school the culture within the school has been fairly positive based off of the feedback we have gotten. We’re really trying to use Facebook and Parent Square to promote our building and send lots of positive and encouraging moments to parents, lots of pictures. Also, any Friday that you want, during football season would be a great time, but we’re going to do it all year. My third, fourth and fifth graders line the halls in our building at 7:50 a.m. and we sing the school song and the fight song without fail. It is amazing the videos I’ve taken from day one when it was like crickets in the hallway to now it is loud and proud and lots of singing. It’s really cool to watch the kids get some pride in what they do and have pride in their school.”
Junior High Principal Monica Acevedo said that they have a total of 282 students, including 86 sixth graders, 107 seventh graders and 89 eighth graders.
“Our sports are going strong, Volleyball played Childress this week, we had our Cross Country Meet on Saturday and I was really proud of our kids. Football is also going really well,” she said. We have a program on Oct. 16th, Elementary will come over and UMC will come out and do a presentation over vaping and drugs. Nov. 1st my staff will see a presentation from the former Drug Officer to address vaping through the Watch Your Back Program, which is through Texas A7M AgriLife Extension. In will give our staff insight into some of the new drugs hitting the streets and new vape pens hitting the streets.”
She added, “We have completed our TMSFA, we used IStation in place of that for our 7th grade students. Nov. 7th we are hoping to get High School’s theater arts program to come over and perform “Charlotte’s Web” for us and Elementary.”
High School Principal Brent Green talked about their enrollment, saying that they have a total of 385 students, including 112 freshmen, 84 sophomores, 98 juniors and 91 seniors.
“We’re up nine students since the last time we talked,” he said. “Homecoming last week was a big success. FFA has been busy, the freshmen went to a Greenhand conference a couple of weeks ago, they’ve went to a welding competition at Lorenzo, some kids showed at the Tri-State Fair and we had some show at the South Plains Fair. They also have another event in a few weeks. We hired Mr. Franks for that department and he brings a lot and we’re looking forward to seeing that program continue to grow. Jenna Ozbirn’s PCT Class went to a boot camp at Covenant last week, which was really cool because they get to see a whole lot of different areas, they get to do a lot of different skills in different departments. It really helps them decide and understand what it is like in different departments. Five of Mrs. Ozbirn’s students from last year are in nursing school, four of those kids, as a result of the certifications they got last spring, are already working. Three are working at Covenant and one is working here at one of our Assisted Living places. All four of those kids are also currently enrolled in nursing school.”
He added, “Theater Arts will be performing ‘Charlotte’s Web’ on Sunday Nov. 3rd for the community, Nov. 5th we will do one for the high school and then on the 7th we will be going to the junior high to perform for the third through the eighth graders.”
Athletic Director Bo Bryant gave an update on athletics, saying, “Fall sports are in full swing and everyone is getting close to district play. Volleyball’s varsity is 15-8, JV1 is 13-7, JV2 is 4-6. Cross Country hosted their meet here Saturday, it was a big event with lots of people here. Coach Thomas is doing a great job with those kids and just getting people here to Littlefield. They have one more invitational in Canyon on Saturday. We will actually be hosting the District Junior High Meet on Oct. 5th and then our High School District Meet will be Oct. 5th at Mae Simmons in Lubbock.”
He added, “Football, our seventh grade is 1-1, eighth grade is 1-1, JV White is 0-2, and our JV Maroon is 4-0. The last two weeks we combined the JV’s and just had one JV going. Varsity is 3-1 with two non-district games left home against Brownfield and at Coahoma. District will begin on Oct. 11th at home against Slaton. Basketball is right around the corner with the girls first day of practice is Oct. 16th and the boy’s first day of practice is Oct. 23rd. Lastly, our new scoreboard got installed and was ready to go for the homecoming game, the new play clocks are awesome. We really appreciate all of our sponsors who helped out with that.”
Brette Southard stated that they have about 205 kids in the Littlefield system and about 157 in the outlying districts that they are responsible for.
Item five on the agenda was to deliberate and take possible action to adopt a resolution designating the District’s nonbusiness days for the 2025 calendar year for purposes of the Texas Information Act.
“We started this last year, we get to choose 10 non-business days, either a weekend or national holiday,” Superintendent Mitch McNeese said. “We followed the same schedule we had last year and I recommend it’s approval.”
The motion was made by Sal Acevedo and seconded by Hervey Valdez to adopt a resolution designating the District’s nonbuisness days for the 2025 calendar year for purposes of the Texas Information Act. 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 were two trust properties to consider.
The motion was made by Williams and seconded by Reese Rogers to approve Trust Property Disposition. The motion carried.
The next item on the agenda was to discuss the Facilities Maintenance Priorities Plan.
Bryan Gregory gave an update on the construction at the new high school, saying, “The school construction continues to go really well. They hit some milestones in the last couple of weeks; they’ve started laying some tile flooring in the very front entrance. They plan to have permanent power in that building by the end of the month, right now everything is being ran off of temporary power, but they plan to have that in place by the end of the month and once that happens things really start taking off. The new Auxiliary Gym Floor is set to be delivered this week and it will have to sit in there and acclimate for week or two before they can lay it down.”
He added, “They have some light fixtures inside the classrooms down stairs. It is all LED stuff, it is really nice and really bright. They’re going to start putting ceiling titles up pretty quick. Thursday or Friday of this week they plan to finish the paving area on the approaches going into the parking lot. The horseshoe drive through, they’re getting the groundwork done on that and is scheduled to be finished in the next two or three weeks, weather permitting. We decided to add eight or nine parking spots in front of where the junior high offices will be on the north portion of that horseshoe.
No Action was necessary. The next order of business was to deliberate and take possible action to approve Financial Review and Investment Report.
Destiny Chavarria gave the Financial Review and Investment Report.
The motion was made by Williams and seconded by Acevedo to approve Financial Review and Investment Report. The motion carried.
Item nine on the agenda was Personnel Matters Including Appointment, Employment, Evaluation, Reassignmentt, Duties, Discipline, Dismissal and / or Compensation of Indivdual District Employees: In accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code, Chapter 551, Subchapters D and E, the Board went into executive session at 7:48 p.m. and they returned at 8:27 p.m. a) Certified Personnel: No Action Necessary b) At-Will Employees Hired: No Action Necessary The next order of business was to deliberate and take possible approval of the signing of a resolution opposing the Final Land Protection Plan and Environmental Assessment for the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge.
The motion was made by Valdez, seconded by Williams to approve the resolution opposing the Final Land Protection Plan and Environmental Assessment for the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge. The motion carried.
Supt. McNeese informed the board of training opportunites and with there being no further business to discuss, Board President Birkelbach declared the meeting adjourned at 8:29 p.m.