The Littlefield Independent School District’s Board of Trustees met in regular session on Thursday, June 15th, in the Jerry Blakely Administration Building to discuss a 15-item agenda.
The meeting was called to order at 7 p.m. by Board President Pat Demel and the invocation was given by Will Williams.
Allison Hollis was present to speak during public forum regarding concerns throughout the District.
The minutes from the previous meeting were approved as presented.
Item five on the agenda was deliberation and possible approval of Innovative Courses for the High School 2023-2024 school year.
“The High School will be offering five new innovative courses for the 2023-2024 school year,” Superintendent Mike Read said. “The courses will be general employability skills, video game programming, health and wellness, emergency medical technician, and Sports Medicine one and two.”
He added, “The video game programming course will be taught by Logan Mitchell, and will cover how to design and create video games. Health and Wellness will be taught by Delight Davis and will cover the basics of exercise, diet, sleeping and reducing stress. The EMT class will be taught by Jenna Ozbirn and Mike DeLoach. This course will prepare students to become volunteers on the ambulance crew. Students can start this course at 17-years-old, but they can’t take the test until they are 18-years old. Sports Medicine one and two will be taught by our Athletic Trainer, and we’re actively searching for a certified trainer because our previous trainer, Bailey Delacruz is going back to in-classroom teaching. If we can find a trainer, they will be teaching these classes. All of these courses will create CTE funding, which is a higher multiplier.”
The motion was made by Gary Birkelbach and seconded by Hervey Valdez Jr. to approve the Innovative Courses for the 20232024 School Year. The Motion carried unanimously.
The next item on the agenda was deliberation and possible approval of Property and Casualty Insurance Bid for the 2023-2024 School Year.
“Our bid came in at 18.2% higher than last year due to the fact that we added $2.5 to $3 million of turf projects and we also added $350,000 bus barn project,” Supt. Read said. Both items increased in value based on what it would cost to replace them with present day replacement costs.”
The motion was made by Valdez and seconded by Williams to approve the Bid with TASB on the Property and Casualty Insurance for the 2023-2024 School Year. The motion carried unanimously.
Bryan Gregory gave an update on the Facilities Maintenance Priorities Plan. “They’re starting to make some progress at the new high school site,” Mr. Gregory said. “That rain we had knocked them back about three weeks; it was just so wet that they couldn’t get out there. But, it’s starting to dry up and they’re going to catch up and they’re not concerned that it is going to prevent them from finishing on time. We meet with them every other Thursday to see what the status is everything is.”
“Our softball field just has some minor things going on still; the cover over the stands is complete and is a very nice addition to the complex. We have a guy out of Lubbock that is hydroseeding, that was part of the Paragon project. They came in and rebuilt the detention pond – all that rain we had, the sides started caving in. They rebuilt that and are lining it with erosion resistant fabric right now. The baseball field bleacher covering is being worked on, the pillars are already in place and the plan is for them to show up Friday morning and start putting up steel. That is going to change the look out there and it will be as good of a place to play ball as anywhere in the South Plains.”
Supt. Read went over the LISD Employee Insurance Contribution for the 2023-2024 School year.
“LISD is currently paying $600 for each employees health care insurance,” Supt. Read explained. “We are continuing with TRS active care Blue Cross Blue Shield, whose rates have decreased due to the funding from the State of Texas. I’m recommending that we keep our employee contribution at $600 per employee. This is a great benefit for the 187 employees who are insured through the district.”
The motion was made by Williams and seconded by Birkelbach to approve the LISD Employee Insurance Contribution for 20232024. The motion carried unanimously.
Item 11 on the agenda was was deliberation and possible approval of Budget Amendments.
Supt. Read went over the Budget Amendments that were going to be made, saying, “We need the following budget amendments, which will be moving budget from one function to another and not using fund balance for the needed increases.”
The motion to approve the budget amendments was made by Birkelbach and seconded by Williams. The motion carried.
Next on the Agenda was the Financial and Investment Review and Report.
Bev Boldes gave the report, with this being the first Budget Meeting, as well as going over Federal Funds.
“We’re just getting started on the budget; right now we have the payroll, which is the largest part of the budget. I’ve worked numbers with what we think we’re going to do right now and have come up with a preliminary, which is pretty even with where it was last year. I have not made changes for new personnel or moved people around, so I had to budget with our old staff for right now, so it is a very rough number at the moment. Out of General Operating it’s about the same budget as it was last year.”
She added, “We also had eight retirees, and when they leave they’re up there on the pay scale so we’re replacing them with employees who are lower step level employees with less experience. Mr. Gregory is also working on the transportation, maintenance and cafeteria budgets. We’re going to start putting those numbers together and updating things, but I’m trying to get payroll done first because it is the biggest portion.”
The motion to approve the Financial and Investment Review and Report was made by Valdez and seconded by Williams. The motion carried.
Pursuant to Texas Government Code Section 551.074, the Board went into Executive Session at 7:31 p.m. to discuss personnel. They reconvened into regular session at 8:07 p.m.
The Superintendent Selection options was tabled for another meeting.
The motion was made by Birkelbach and seconded by Williams to approve the contracts for Probationary Contract Certified Staff Members Taylor Herrera (Licensed Specialist in School Psycology) and Briley Fisher (Certified Assistant in Speech Language Pathology) for the 20232024 School year as recommended by Supt. Read, Principals and SPED Director. The motion carried.
There was no action taken on the Texas Civil Commitment Facility.
At-Will Personnel, Meagan Land will be an aide for Pre-K and Blake Green will be an aide for Junior High.
Resignation letters were turned in for Emily Castillo and Rob Ogle.
Supt. Read did not have any Board Training Information for Board members at this time.