The Littlefield Independent School District Board of Trustees met in regular session on Monday, July 13th in the board room of Jerry Blakely Administration Building, where they went over a 17- item agenda.
The meeting was called to order by Board President Reese Rogers at 6:57 p.m. and the invocation was given by Garry Ozbirn.
There was nobody present to speak during public forum and the minutes of the previous meeting were approved by general consent. There was no Superintendent Report to discuss.
Lesa Kloiber was in attendance to discuss Littlefield ISD’s Preliminary Values. “Of the 16 jurisdictions that we administer in Lamb County, everybody’s value went down with this new legislation and the exemptions, except Littlefield ISD,” Kloiber explained. “It’s only because you’ve had enough new growth and construction to more than cover it. You’ve probably lost about $12 million with this new exemption; every business now gets a $125,000 exemption. It hit the cities really hard, every other school went down in their value, but you guys had enough growth and construction to cover it.”
She added, “ On your M&O (Maintenance and Operations) value, you’re looking at an approximate increase of $64 million, and on your I&S (Interest and Syncing) value, you’re looking at a $36 million increase. It’s due to a couple of things, there is a lot of stuff going on at Continental Dairy, and the other thing is, The Texas Civil Commitment Center has had a huge enlargement and has doubled their size out there. That added roughly $21 million, and one account at Continental Dairy added $31 million; most of it was equipment and the rest was inventory. You’re seeing some good things, but you guys are lucky.”
No action was necessary. The next order of business was deliberation and possible approval of Lamb County Appraisal District Budget.
“We have a proposed increase of 3.79-percent, going from $1.55 million to $1.95 million. We did put in for a 5-percent salary increase, just so that we can keep employees. We’ve had a lot of trouble keeping people the last few years. They’ve been there 10-15 years and we get them all trained up, and then they go somewhere else for money. $5,000 for appraisal services. The firm that does our appraisals for utilities and industrial and minerals, they showed me they’re spending so much more on fuel, so they did submit an increase on that.”
She added, “Software and support, our software is very unique, we can’t just go anywhere and purchase software. We have very few choices and they’re having so much trouble hanging on to employees, most are based out of the Dallas area, so that increase is based off of what they’ve given us. That totals a $40,000 increase. Appraisal District’s are year-to-year, every year is separate; when we budget this, all entities proportionally pay towards our budget, but at the end of the year, we’re done and have to start over, so if there is any money left over, it goes back to the entities. Just because we’re budgeting this much, doesn’t mean we will spend this much.”
The motion was made by Ozbirn, seconded by Will Williams to approve Lamb County Appraisal District Budget. The motion carried unanimous.
The next item on the agenda was deliberation and possible action to approve TASB Policy Updates 124, 125, and 127.
“TASB comes out with Policy Updates two or three times per year, depending on when they push those out,” Supt. McNeese said. “124 and 125 never got sent to me, so I asked them if I could push those out through this board meeting, there’s really nothing we can do, we have to approve them, it’s just how we set eyes on them. I went through each and every one of these and there is nothing in there that throws up any red flags, so everything will be OK, we just need to get it approved, so that we can get them updated in our manual.”
The motion was made by Shawnna Hastings and seconded by Ben Diaz to approve TASB Policy Updates 124, 125, and 127. The motion carried unanimous.
Item eight on the agenda was deliberation and possible action to approve Milk Bid.
“We actually had a second bidder come in this year, Gandys turned in their bid about 10 a.m. Thursday morning,” Supt. McNeese said. “When you look at the price by pint, Food King comes in $.49 and Gandys comes in at $.39, but then you work your way across looking at reputation, quality and district need. It comes down to Lowe’s Food King #8 winning the bid with a score of 935 to 895.”
He added, “Gandys was going to have us purchase our own Milk Coolers in good condition, while Lowe’s Food King #8 provides those for us. To buy 5 coolers at $8,000 apiece, Lowe’s wins this bid hands down. I recommend we go with Lowe’s Food King #8.”
The motion was made by Williams and seconded by Hastings to award the Milk Bid to Food King #8. The motion carried unanimous.
The next item on the agenda was deliberation and possible action to approve Fuel Bid. “We only had one fuel bid from Farmers Coop Elevator out of Levelland and I recommend it’s approval,” Supt. McNeese said. “They will come and fill our tanks that sit out here where the old Littlefield Coop used to be. We used to be with Centergas Fuel, but they closed up shop in the middle of the year last year, so we had to start calling around and the Coop took us up on it and beat everybody else by far.”
The motion was made by Eric Vargas and seconded by Ozbirn to award the Fuel Bid to Farmers Coop Elevator. The motion carried unanimous.
The next order of businss was to deliberate and take possible action to approve Student Handbook / Code of Conduct.
Assistant Superintendent, Amber Hays, went over the changes in this year’s handbook and code of conduct, stating, “We don’t have a lot of changes to the handbook, because it is not a legislation year. These are all online for parents to read in English and Spanish. The only changes we made this year are: on page 36, makeup work for unexcused absences will be eligible for a max grade of 70. We’re trying to combat our problem with kids being absent so much. We added a statement about CCMR commitment and explained how you get a CCMR point. It carries 40-percent of our AF rating, so it is a huge deal. No matter how many things you complete, you only get one point and it is a local graduation requirement for LISD grads to have a CCMR point. If they don’t, they have to file an appeal with the principal, that way it holds their feet to the fire of getting a CCMR point, since it carries so much weight with our accountability rating.”
She added, “On page 89, students who are placed in AEP and ISS will not be able to have an open campus, and lunch will be provided by the district.”
The motion was made by Ozbirn and seconded by Diaz to approve the Student Handbook / Code of Conduct. The motion carried unanimous.
Supt. McNeese went over the Facilities Maintenance Priorities Plan with the board to give them an update on where all of the construction projects going on around the district currently stand. He stated, “At the new high school, we’ve had a leaky roof since day one. With the recent rains, of the 12 classrooms upstairs, only one room didn’t have water damage. We had a guy come in, Greg Carroll; he is the one who designed our roof and is contracted by Parkhill. He designed our roof, picked all of the materials, so he went and looked at it. The manufacture is GAF. Where the office is and the roof of the gym, we have no leaks, when that ran out they went with GAF and went over the rest of the roof, that is what’s failing. Carroll is guaranteeing that we will not pay a penny, because they’re going to have to replace the entire roof. It should happen during this upcoming school year and they will be able to do it and not interrupt school. It should take a month or two, three at the most. They will also take care of anything that needs to be replace inside the school due to the water damage.”
He added, “The Elementary Science room that used to be the music room is about 50-percent complete there. There’s new flooring, paint, lights and ceiling tile. Elementary is also getting a new entry on the west side with double glass doors and a cinder block wall so everything doesn’t blow inside the building. This will be a science lab for all three grades at Elementary. The Carpet Gym entry is getting some stairs to replace those old railroad ties that go straight up to the door. At Primary, the classrooms are getting some new flooring in the backs of the classrooms where the floor transitions from carpet to laminate. New furniture for Primary and Elementary is going to arrive on July 27th. The teachers in each building got to pick what they wanted in their classrooms. New shades are going to be put up at the elementary playground, two at Primary between the concrete slab and the playground, one at high school and two at the High School Softball Field. They should be installed by August 15th.”
No Action was necessary.
Destiny Chavarria went over the Investment Review and Report and there were no budget amendments at this time.
The motion was made by Ozbirn and seconded by Williams to approve the Financial and Investment Review and Report. The motion carried unanimous.
The Board went into executive session, under Texas Education Code 551.074, to discuss personnel matters at 7:41 p.m. they returned to the regular meeting at 8:01 p.m.
Item 14 on the agenda was Personnel Matters Including the Appointment, Employment, Evaluation, Reassignment, Duties, Discipline, Dismissal and/or Compensation of Individual District Employees. a) Certified Personnel Contracted: A resignation was given on: Ashley Adkins. b) At-Will Personnel – Hired: Maria Delgado The next order of business was to deliberate and take possible action to approve purchase of a New Pickup.
The motion was made by Hastings and seconded by Cody West to approve the purchase of a new pickup. The motion carried unanimous.
Supt. McNeese informed the Board of training opportunities.
With there being no further business to discuss, Board President Rogers declared the meeting adjourned at 8:03 p.m.