The Littlefield Independent School District’s Board of Trustees met in Regular Session on Thursday, January 23, 2025, in the Board Room at Littlefield High School.
The meeting was called to order by Board President Gary Birkelbach and the Invocation was given by Will Williams.
There was nobody present to comment during Public Forum and the minutes of the previous meeting were approved by general consent.
Item four on the agenda was Administrative Reports.
Brette Southard began the Administrative Reports saying that there are about 391 students in special education within the Coop, with about 180 of those in Littlefield ISD.
“We’re continuing to see an increase due to dislexia and the changing law there and keeping up with being compliant with that and getting services to those kids to get them caught up,” Southard said.
Primary Principal Staci Sumners gave an update on her campus stating that their enrollement is sitting at 327 with 103 Pre-K students, 67 kindergartners, 62 first graders, 73 second graders and 22 in self contained.
“Testing wise, our pre-k kids started their circle testing, we’re also i- station testing, second grade just did a benchmark in reading and math. We’re making it look just like the STAAR test, the kids have open ended responses and it’s all on the computer. We’re trying to get them ready for elementary when they hit third grade.”
She added, “Our first graders have a program coming up on Valentines Day at the Junior High Auditorium. Headstart has been on campus recording our pre-k teachers for their class observations, making sure they’re meeting all the criteria for Headstart.”
Elementary Principal Jerry Russell stated that their enrollment is sitting at 244 total students.
“Prior to this week the most I have seen out in one day is eight students,” Russell said. “We have interim testing (Practice STAAR Testing) Monday and Wednesday, so next time y’all meet, I’ll have numbers to show you where we stand. You all have some really good staff members in this district, I’ve worked a lot of places, and you guys have some great teachers, great paraprofessionals, and they’re great with kids. Kudos to you all for putting together a group of people that love on kids, support kids and are willing to try and do things academically to make sure the kids can be successful.”
Junior High Principal Monica Acevedo said that they have 87 sixth graders, 109 seventh graders and 89 eighth graders for a total of 285 students.
“Our middle school All-Region Band competed on Saturday in Lubbock at the Civic Center,” she said. “The Police Dept. came by on Tuesday and introduced themselves to our self contained kids. That is something that Mr. Southard, myself and Sgt. Martinez had talked about, was them coming in and getting to know some of our self contained kids, that way if they have interactions with them out in town they will know who they are and if there is anything that they need to do to make the situation a little easier for the kids. Our kids loved it.”
She added, “Our next plan is to plan a field trip to the police department, so they can familiarize themselves with that. We also want to expand it with our resource kids as well. We are done with our first round of interim tests and have started our tutorial groups, which are based off of how the kids did on the tests. Our second round of interim testing will be at the end of February.”
High School Assistant Principal Veronica Savala explained they have 113 freshmen, 86 sophomores, 93 juniors and 88 seniors for a total enrollment of 380 students at high school “The High School All-Region Band kids competed this past weekend, our Cheerleaders just competed in Ft. Worth at the State Cheer Championships, where they improved from 46th to 25th and their biggest improvement was with the fight song,” she explained. “UIL events are coming up and all students have been placed in their UIL classes to further prepare them for their events. We had 11 students place in the Ag Tech competition, with one student continuing on to the State Competition.”
Item five on the agenda was to deliberate in closed session under Texas Government Code 551.074 to discuss possible candidates to be appointed to fill the At Will vacancy until the next trustee election (May 2025).
The Board went into Executive Session at 6:19 p.m. to discuss personnel, Pursuant to Texas Government Code Section 551.074. The board returned to regular session 7:30 p.m.
The next item on the agenda was deliberation and possible action, in open session, to appoint a replacement trustee to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of At Will Trustee Pat Demel until the next trustee election (May 2025) and take any and all further action necessary to seat such replacement trustee.
The motion was made by Williams and seconded by Reese Rogers to appoint Graham Henley to fill the vacancy of At-Will Trustee created by the resignation of Pat Demel until the next election which will occur in May of 2025. The motion carried.
The next item on the agenda was 2025 School Board Election.
“All items listed under this section have been arranged and forwarded to LISD by Underwood Law Firm to ensure compliance with Federal Election Law. I recommend that the Board take action on each item, accordingly,” Superintendent Mitch McNeese said. a) The motion was made Sal Acevedo and seconded by Hervey Valdez to order a General Election for the election of two (2) At-Will Trustee positions to be held on May 3, 2025. The motion carried. b) The motion was made by Johnny Castillo and seconded by Acevedo to approve Order of General Election and Notice of General Election for Early Voting and for Election Day. The motion carried. c) The motion was made by Acevedo and seconded by Williams to approve of the Early Voting locations and times and Election Day polling location and times. The motion carried. d) The motion was made by Acevedo and seconded by Williams to appoint Otoniel (Niel) Gonzalez as the Elections Administrator. The motion carried. e) The motion was made by Castillo, seconded by Acevedo to appoint Otoniel (Niel) Gonzalez as the Early Voting Clerk. The motion carried. f) The motion was made by Acevedo and seconded by Castillo to approve Resolution to have a joint Election on May 3, 2025, with the City of Littlefield. The motion carried. g) The motion was made by Acevedo seconded by Rogers to approve the Joint Election Agreement with the City of Littlefield. The motion carried. h) The motion was made by Williams and seconded by Valdez to appoint Janine Butler as the Deputy Early Voting Clerk, Steven Butler as the Early Voting Ballot Board Judge and Maria Gonzalez as the Early Voting Ballot Board Alternate Judge. The motion carried. i) The motion was made by Valdez and seconded by Williams to appoint Janine Butler as the Central Count Station Manager and Tabulations Supervisor, and as the Central Count Judge. The motion carried. j) The motion was made by Henley and seconded by Castillo to appoint Janine Butler to serve as Election Judge on Election Day and Steven Butler as Alternate Election Day Judge. The motion carried. k) The motion was made by Acevedo and seconded by Williams to appoint Maria Gonzalez as Billingual Election Clerk. The motion carried.
Item eight on the agenda was deliberation and possible action to adopt a resolution that accomplishes the following: Approves the settlement of pending litigation styled Region 17 Education Service Center, et al v. Conterra Ultra Broadband, LLC, in the 72nd District Court of Lubbock County, Cause No. DC-2022CV-1601; and Authorizes the District’s Superintendent and the representative of the Region 17 Education Service Center to take any and all action necessary and execute any and all documents required to enter into and effectuate the settlement agreement in such Litigation.
The motion was made by Acevedo and seconded by Williams to adopt a resolution that approves the settlement of pending litigation and authorizes the District’s Superintendent to take any and all action necessary to execute any and all documents required to enter into and effectuate the settlement agreement. The motion carried.
The next item on the agenda was to discuss Junior High School’s Local Improvement Plan.
“In Sept. or Oct, we talked about our ratings,” Assistant Superintendent Amber Hays explained. “We are real familiar with the A-F ratings, but we also deal with federal ratings and they fall a little bit different. They break them down in to sub-pops and each campus goes over every demographic. Our junior high was targeted and needed additional support in hispanic in math across that whole campus.”
She added, “We changed the curriculum in elementary to help build a better base to get them there. This plan had to be written because of that target. It only has to be discussed here and put on the agenda, it does not have to be submitted to TEA. The bigger scheme we’ve already talked about, as far as district-wide what we’re going to do to resolve this. This plan is just what we’re doing at junior high; we did a new curriculum at junior high last year and so we’re giving additional support to teachers so that they can better implement that. We’re also hitting those targets in small groups, that’s what the rest of this plan talks about.”
No Action Necessary Item 10 on the agenda was to discuss Facilities Priorities Plan.
After the meeting, Asst. Supt. Hays and Supt. McNeese gave a tour of the new high school and explained what each room was designated for.
No action was necessary There were no Trust Property Dispositions.
There were no Budget Amendments.
The next order of business was the Financial and Investment Review and Report.
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 14 on the agenda was to consider and approve Personnel Matters Including the Appointment, Employment, Evaluation, Reassignment, Duties, Discipline, Dismissal and / or Compensation of Individual District Employees: a) Certified Personnel – David Rendon was hired as the Automotive Tech. Teacher and Stephanie Brashear was hired as a Reading Interventionist.
Resignations letters were received on: Bev Boldes (Director of Finance / Chief Financial Officer), Bonnie Anderson (Director of Bands), Monica Acevedo (Junior High Principal), Madisyn Franklin (Second Grade Teacher) Board training information was presented by Supt. McNeese.
With there being no further business to discuss, Board President Birkelbach declared the meeting adjourned at 7:52 p.m.