The Littlefield Independent School District Board of Trustees met in Regular Session on Monday, November 18th at 7 p.m. in the Board Room of the Jerry Blakely Administration Building. The meeting was called to order at 7 p.m. by Board President Gary Birkelbach and he also gave the Invocation.
There was nobody present to speak during Public Forum and the minutes from the previous meeting were approved by general consent.
Primary Principal Staci Sumners began the Administrative Reports with an update on Primary stating that their enrollment is at 328 students, including 103 Pre-K, 66 Kindergartners, 63 1st graders and 74 second graders. They also have 22 students in self contained.
“Attendance is something we struggled with during the second six weeks, due to illnesses, but we have worked really hard on keeping things clean and hand-washing, so our attendance has gone back up and are excited with that,” she said. “Since our last meeting, we had our Scarcrow Program for Kindergarten, High School performed a skit for primary for Drug Free Week. We had our annual Halloween Costume parade and we also finished up the beginning of November with a book fair, where we sold close to $6,000 worth of books.”
She added, “We had picture day and then we took some second graders to Muleshoe for U.I.L. Our Chess team placed third overall, we had one child place fifth in a tie. Our Music Memory Team placed third overall and we had one individual place third; in Oral Reading we had a 4th, 7th and 8th place finish; in Creative Writing we had a 3rd place and a 5th place, and in Storytelling we had a 1st place. We’re super proud of all of our kids that went and the teachers and coaches who stayed and worked with them after school. Coming up we have our Family Christmas Night on Monday, Dec. 9th, we will Santa and Mrs. Clause come out and take pictures with everyone. Picture retakes are on Dec. 10th and our Christmas singa- long will be on Dec. 20th followed by Christmas parties that afternoon. We have finished taking a second round of Benchmarks for our second graders and many of our kids got to level up on our Level Up Board.”
Elementary Principal Jerry Russell stated that their enrollment is sitting at 243 students with 88 third graders, 74 fourth graders and 72 fifth graders. They also have nine in self contained.
“Attendance has been steady at 97%, we would like for it to be a little better, but it’s been good,” he said. “We have our attendance/ good behavior party is going to be on Dec. 17th, those kids will be taken to Texas Tech for a basketball game. Our Family Night was Nov. 19th for Math and Science and then after Thanksgiving, we will have a Reading and Social Studies night on Dec. 3rd. Huge Shout out to Food King, who donated 300 hot dogs for both nights. We did really well at U.I.L., we had a lot of teams place first, second and third in various events, we had a lot of kids place individually, we had a lot of kids make the finals in speaking, so it was a really good day for our kids. We will have an awards ceremony for these U.I.L. kids before Christmas Break.”
Assistant Superintendent Amber Hays gave an update for Junior High, stating their enrollment is at 282 students, with 87 sixth graders, 106 seventh graders and 89 eighth graders.
“Monday was picture day, Band had great success in Hale Center, where 13-16 kids made the Band, three kids made first chair and one of those was a seventh grade,” she said. “They also participate in U.I.L. on Nov. 20th. One Act Play performed at Talkington on Nov. 13th with multiple kids winning awards. They are going to perform that play for the public on Nov. 21st at 5:30 p.m. and for the Junior High on Nov. 22nd at 9 a.m.”
She added, “They’re going to be starting their interim testing on Dec. 3rd.”
High School Principal Brent Green gave an update on their campus, saying that their enrollment is at 379 students, with 112 ninth graders, 83 sophomores, 94 juniors and 90 seniors.
“Attendance-wise, we’re a little over 95%, at 95.1%, this time last year we were at 93.8%,” he said. “We’re not doing anything different, I think what it is is just the way we have attacked it the last three years, it has been a work in progress and I think we’re finally seeing some of the results from that and not just at our campus, but at the junior high too. By this time last year, I bet I had filed on 810 kids, this year, I have filed on 1.”
He added, “Theater got to have their performances recently. We had our Veteran’s Day Program last week, it was more student led this year and they did a great job. Gary Ozbirn was our guest speaker. Student Council had their district workshop last week in Lubbock. Mrs. Ozbirn’s students were in Lubbock all day Thursday doing their Clinicals. FFA had a deal at Whitharral where two teams made it to the Area competition in Canyon. Our Chess kids went and helped Mrs. Sumners kids before their U.I.L. meet. We’re making plans to get moved into the new building and we feel like we have a good preliminary plan to get this done efficiently and smooth.”
Athletic Director Bo Bryant gave an update on athletics, stating, “Varsity Volleyball finished their season 17-15, they lost to Bushland in Bi-district, who is looking like they may win the State Championship. They had a good year and I was proud of them and their coaches. Football, 7th grade ended with a 2-6 record, 8th grade was 7-1, and were the district champs, JV white was 0-3, JV Maroon was 8-2, and our Varsity, we’re currently 7-4 ending up 2nd in district. We played Friona last week in Bi-district and won, 72-36, and we will play Crane in Lamesa on Friday at 7 p.m.”
He added, “Basketball is going, the girls have been playing for a couple of weeks. Our numbers are pretty good, we have 17 7th graders and 16 eighth graders, so they both have an A and B team. In High School, we 10 on JV and 12 on Varsity. The varsity is sitting at 2-6 and have played a tough schedule. She wanted to schedule tough competition because of how tough district will be. The girls begin district play on Dec. 10th. The Boys have started and we have 22 7th graders and 19 eighth graders, so both will have A and B teams. He has about eight kids in high school that he has been practicing with, some will be varsity some will be sub-varsity.”
Brette Southard gave an update on the Special Education department, explaining, “Our snapshot date was the last Friday in October, our outlying districts were at 165, in Littlefield we had 218 for a total of 383,” he said. “I looked at October of 2023 we had 189 students. We’ve had a lot of moveins and the changes in dyslexia law, we’re going to have to be accountable for that increase.” Item five on the agenda was a discussion of the Safety and Security Meeting. Asst. Supt. Hays went over the meeting, saying, “We went over that we implemented our Silent Panic Alert technology and tested it with our emergency responders to make sure that when we send those they show up at the right campus and where they are supposed to be. We also discussed doing walk throughs with all of our First Responders at the new high school. TEA will be coming for a soft walk through at the new high school, to make sure all safety is exactly as they have it outlined. Our Guardians went through additional training this summer and they will do another one in January to be ready for all that we can be and hopefully never need to be.”
No action was necessary. The next item on the agenda as to deliberate and possible approval to accept the donations to the district for the purpose of helping to purchase new scoreboards.
Superintendent, Mitch McNeese wanted to extend a huge thank you to LCEC, Prosperity Bank, First Federal Bank, Wellington State Bank, Teinert, Lowes and Parkhill.
“These are the groups that donated to our scoreboard fund and I appreciate everything that they’ve done to make it possible to get that new score board that we have out there at the football field, “Supt. McNeese said.
The motion was made by Pat Demel and seconded by Hervey Valdez to accept the donations to the district for the purpose of helping to purchase new scoreboards. The motion carried.
Item seven on the agenda was to deliberate and take possible action to approve Trust Property Disposition.
This item was tabled until the next meeting.
The next order of business was to deliberate and take possible action to approve West Texas Food Service Cooperative Agreement.
Supt. McNeese stated, “This Coop was established to help and maintain school district have access to the lowest possible costs for food items that meet the federal and state standards of the schools. I recommend we continue our membership and participation in that Coop, we’ve been in it for a long time.”
The motion was made by Will Williams and seconded by Demel to approve continued membership and participation in the West Texas Food Service Cooperative. The motion carried.
Item nine on the agenda was to deliberate and take possible approval to assign fund balance for the estimated cost of the demolition/ partial demolition of the current junior high building.
“We had reached out to Parkhill to get some sort of estimated cost, so that we could assign some fund balance,” Bev Boldes said. “We don’t have to do that right now, they actually gave us a very high number that we know we’re going to have to try and get them down. There is no need to assign right now until we get some better numbers. At the end of our August 31, 2024 audit, we had almost $800,000 already assigned for construction.”
No action was necessary.
The next item on the agenda was to deliberate and take possible action to approve a Budget Amendment.
“The first amendment is to add a budget for our football and softball scoreboards, we thought the work would be done in the prior fiscal year, so we did not budget for it in this current year,” Destiny Chavarria said. “However, some of the work was completed in this fiscal year, so we need to add that budget, and we are expecting that $80,000 in donations, so we’re going to increase our revenue line and then our expense line where it is going to be paid out of as well.”
She added, “ The second amendment is simply to change functions, to change where we pay our copier lease from.”
The motion was made by Reese Rogers and seconded by Williams to approve the 2024-2025 budget amendment as presented. The motion carried.
Item 11 on the agenda was to deliberate and take possible action to approve Financial and Investment Review and Report.
Chavarria went over the Financial and Investment Review and Report.
The motion was made by Valdez and seconded by Demel to approve Financial and Investment Review and Report. The Motion Carried Next on the agenda was a Discussion of the Facilities and Maintenance Priorities Plan. a) Football Stadium Lights b) Softball Scoreboard No action was necessary. Item 13 on the agenda was Personnel Matters Including Appointment, Employment, Evaluation, Reassignment, Duties, Discipline, Dismissal and / or Compensation of Individual District Employees: Pursuant to Texas Government Code Section 551.074 the Board went into executive session to discuss personnel at 7:37 p.m. The Board returned to regular session at 8:40 p.m. a) Certified Personnel: No Action Necessary b) At-Will Employees Hired: No Action Necessary (Resignation given on Hannah Fort) Supt. McNeese informed the board of training opportunities and with there being no further business to discuss, Board President Birkelbach declared the meeting adjourned at 8:41 p.m.