The Littlefield Independent School District Board of Trustees met in regular session on Thursday, January 20, 2022 at 7:00 p.m. in the Board Room of the Jerry Blakely Administration Building to handle a 15-item agenda.
The Invocation was given by Adrian Solis and the meeting was called to order at 6:58 p.m. by Board President Lance Broadhurst.
The following board members were present: Gary Birkelbach, Lance Broadhurst, Johnny Castillo Jr., Pat Demel, Adrian Solis, Hervey Valdez, Jr., Will Williams and Superintendent, Mike Read.
Guests present were Mitch McNeese, Bev Boldes, Brette Southard, Rachel Moreno, Bryan Gregory, Amber Hays, Brent Green, Adam Solis, Monica Acevedo, Tom Whistler, Staci Sumners, Carrie Hanlin, Melissa McDonald, Melete White, Robert Rollo, Allan Wolf, Aaron Rivera and Derek Lopez with the Lamb County Leader News.
Multiple student organizations were on-hand at the Meeting to give thanks to the School Board members for School Board Appreciation Month. Each group gave the school board some form of treats and verbal appreciation for all that they do for the School District.
The Minutes from the previous meeting were approved by general consent.
Next was the Administrative Reports, as each campus administrator began with a thank you to the school board for all their work and time that they put into the school district.
Staci Sumners, Lfd. Primary Principal stated that their enrollment is sitting at 303 students with 57 Pre-K students, 87 kindergarten students, 82 first graders, 74 second graders and three three-year olds.
“The biggest push we’ve had on our campus this year is literacy and getting kids to read. We’re trying to think of creative ways to get our kids excited about reading,” she said. “I found this book called “Rot: the cutest in the world and it is about a potato. We’re going to do some family engagement with that. We’re reading the book in the classroom and then we’re going to send a potato home with the kids that we provide and let the families dress the potato up as storybook characters. Kids will bring their potatoes back and we will have some book talks in the class room and let the kids talk about a story that they’ve read and why they chose that character and then we’re going to have a potato parade.”
She added, “We will be celebrating the 100 th day of school on Jan. 28 th . Students and staff can dress up like a 100-year old person, or wear something with 100 items on it. Also, our kindergarten team has been working with Region 17 with a pilot program for Eureka Math. Since we’ve been back, they’ve started teaching this 30-day module from Region 17 with Eureka Math. Going in and observing it, it is very rigorous for our kindergartners and their mental math skills are amazing. We’ll be soon adding 1 st grade into this pilot program as well.”
Elementary Principal Tom Whistler went over their enrollment stating that they are sitting at 279 students, including 94 third graders, 98 fourth graders and 87 fifth graders.
“Our fifth graders took Benchmark tests last week and have some work to do between now and May. We’re working on our attendance every day,” he said. “We had been doing really well, but here recently we’re starting to peak a little bit. We’re working on our Focus Friday schedules and have an idea of when we’re going to start. Our teachers are working on that to see which kids we need to bring in to get that extra help. Our staff and kids are all working very hard.”
Junior High Principal Adam Solis stated that their enrollment is sitting at 291 students, including 101 sixth graders, 90 seventh graders and 100 eighth graders.
“Mrs. Thomas has been a huge asset for us. She has taken it upon herself to kind of break things down,” he said. “She is taking a lot of data from all of the testing that we do and has made it a whole lot easier for our teachers to take that data and compare to some of the old STAAR Testing to see where we are at. Our first Focus Friday day will be Feb. 4 th .”
He added, “Some of our Band members made the All-Region Band and will be participating in the clinics and concerts at the Lubbock Civic Center on Jan. 28 th and 29 th . The Maroon Honors Band and the Maroon Band are currently preparing for pre-UIL and UIL contests coming up in February and March at Frenship.”
Dr. Amber Hays explained that High School enrollment is sitting at a total of 350 students, including 95 freshmen, 94 sophomores, 78 juniors and 83 seniors.
“Attendance has been challenging; we’re sitting at a little over 81% since we starting back this semester,” she said. “We’ve gotten as low as into the upper 60’s and had as many as over 100 out at one time. It is getting better and we do have lots of COVID letters and doctors notes coming in.”
She added, “We had the County Show and Area Show. We had 54 entries, and out of those, we only had four that didn’t make the sale. I was really proud of our Ag Mech projects. Ian Cozart ended up with second overall for his gate, which was beautiful. Friday we have our Cross Ex Debates virtually. Hereford is putting it on, but it will be an all day virtual thing, before we get into district. One Act Play will be performing ‘The Women of Blood Wedding’, it is a Spanish tragedy. Edwin Gallegos made ATSSB Texas All-State Band for the fourth year. That gave him a total of $2,400 in scholarships and I think that is very, very challenging for an individual to hit that four years straight.”
“Our PCT Class recently got their CPR certification. We benchmarked at the of December and are using that data to create additional remedial classes and also to drive our Focus Fridays.”
Athletic Director Jimmy Thomas gave an update on athletics, saying, “Basketball is in full swing as we get set to start the second half of district play. Our varsity boys are 8-14 overall, 2-3 in district play, and if you’ve seen us play, everything has been a barn-burner. Our JV is 3-1 in district and our freshmen are 3-0 in district. On the girl’s side, the Varsity is 17-9 overall, 5-2 in district play, while the JV is 5-2 in district play.”
He added, “We’re still playing four junior high teams; we had to reschedule some games, so our boys played on Tuesday in Brownfield and our girl’s played here on Thursday. UIL softball started two Fridays ago and Baseball started this past Friday. Track, Golf and Tennis are around the corner. Our two track meets are on Thursday, March 3 rd and Friday, March 4 th . Junior High will be on the third and High School on the fourth. Ty’Jae Chambers was named First-Team Defensive End in the LBK AJ Small School Super Team.”
Brette Southard gave an update on the special education program, saying, “I’m sitting here thinking about some of the issues that had come up since August. A text, a call from administrators and a lot of the issues have dissipated. I’m sitting here at this point of the year and I feel better about a lot of things. I think the problem solving and collaborating with administrators and the fidelity of our special ed teachers and special ed para-professionals to get in there day-in-and-day-out and keep after our kids and behaviors and make those things diminish. We’re seeing improvement in a lot of those things.”
Jared Bryant of Bolinger, Segars, Gilbert & Moss, L.L.P. went over the highlights from the 2020-2021 Littlefield Independent School District Audit. The motion was made by Solis and seconded by Williams to approve the 2020-2021 Littlefield Independent School District Audit. The motion carried.
Robert Rollo, Allan Wolf and Aaron Rivera from Parkhill were on hand to talk about future projects. No action was necessary.
“We’ve had a couple of really good meetings since we last spoke,” Rollo said. “We met with the high school staff a week ago and kind of went through prioritization of what we’ve identified as eight different projects. Then we went in front of citizens committee and the Strategic Planning Committee today [Thursday, Jan. 20 th ] and they kind of reconfirmed that the path we’re going to recommend and the final prioritized long range facilities master plan is correct. That would be construction of a new academic high school building with a heavy emphasis on CTE. Additon of classrooms at the existing high school to support the middle school/junior high closure.”
He added, “What we do with the existing gym and other facilities at the current junior high remains to be seen, we’re not in fullblown design yet. We would do as much renovation in the existing high school as we could to bring it up to modern code to turn it into a junior high. We would have to add on to the cafeteria and then if we can, we’ll add an auditorium as the next priority to the new high school.”
There was also no action necessary for Trust Property Disposition.
“The purpose of the strategic plan is to clarify direction for Littlefield Independent School District. The committee came up with making classrooms more meaningful and relevant for students and teachers; developing a culture, climate and environment that values collaboration; building relationships with local businesses and organizations and spread our message of stories, inspiration, success and opportunity to the community, parents and staff.”
He added, “We do good things, we just have to do a little bit better job of preaching our sermon. We put our mission statement and our vision statement on there and one of the things I really like about this plan is the values: Empower teachers to design relevant experiences for students; empower students to identify and pursue their dreams; valuing the development of life skills as equal to the teaching of the content; valuing learning over teaching; having the courage to be innovative and create new structures and systems of learning and having the courage to release old habits and begin new ones.”
Supt. Read also stated, “Our priority focus area kind of lined up with what we were talking about with Parkhill tonight, which is quality of education. We want to provide the best possible education for every kid that we have. Facilities, first and foremost, CTE programs of study, culture of respect, customer service and teacher/employee well being. If we approve this plan it will be in place for five years and I recommend that we approve this plan.
The motion was made by Valdez and seconded by Castillo to approve the Littlefield Independent School District Strategic Plan that will run through 2021-2026. The motion carried.
The motion was made by Demel and seconded by Castillo to approve the Emergency Paid Sick Leave provisions of the FFCRA for District employees through June 30, 2022. The motion carried.
The School Board went over all of the motions necessary for the School Board Election:
The motion was made by Solis and seconded by Williams to order a General Election for the election of two At-Large Trustee positions to be held on May 7, 2022. The motion carried.
The motion was made by Williams and seconded by Castillo to approve the Notice and Order of General Election for Early Voting and for Election Day. The motion carried.
The motion was made by Solis and seconded by Valdez to approve the Resolution to have a joint election on May 7, 2022, with the City of Littlefield. The motion carried.
The motion was made by Williams and seconded by Demel to approve the Joint Election Agreement with the City of Littlefield. The motion carried.
The motion was made by Solis and seconded by Demel to approve the Early Voting locations and times and Election Day polling and times. The motion carried.
The Motion was made by Birklebach and seconded by Williams to appoint Janine Butler as the Early Voting Clerk and Jessica Longoria as the Deputy Early Voting Clerk, Retha Williams as the Early Voting Ballot Board Judge and Theresa Villanneuva as the Early Voting Ballot Board Alternate Judge. The motion carried.
The motion was made by Solis and seconded by Birkelbach to appoint Janine Butler as the Elections Administrator. The motion carried.
The motion was made by Williams and seconded by Valdez to appoint Retha Williams to serve as Election Judge on Election Day and Janine Butler as Alternate Election Day Judge. The motion carried.
The motion was made by Solis and seconded by Birkelbach to appoint Theresa Villanneuva to serve as Bilingual Election Clerk. The motion carried.
Bev Boldes went over the Budget Amendment and the motion was made by Solis and seconded by Birkelbach to approve the Budget Amendment as presented. The motion carried.
Boldes also went over the Financial and Investment Review and Report and the motion was made by Solis and seconded by Williams to approve the Financial and Investment Review & Report as presented. The motion carried.
The Board moved into Executive Session at 8:28 p.m. to discuss personnel matters and they reconvened into Regular Session at 9:05 p.m.
The Motion was made by Solis and seconded by Castillo to approve the Superintendent Appraisal. The motion carried.
The motion was also made by Birkelbach and seconded by Valdez to approve the Superintendent’s three-year Contract from July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2025. The motion carried.
A resignation letter was presented on Dana Gregory, Brenda Bobadilla, and Duncan Douglas.
Recent At-Will Personnel hires include: Jennifer D Anne Sanchez – Primary Aide Stefanie Vargas – New Elementary Aide Jeremy Saenz – New Custodian at the Primary Brenda Hernandez – New cafeteria employee.
Supt. Read presented information on School Board Training to the Board.
There being no further business, President Broadhurst declared the meeting adjourned at 9:07 p.m.