Lfd. ISD Board of Trustees meets in regular session

The Littlefield Independent School District Board of Trustees met in regular session on Monday, Sept. 21 ^st in the Board Room of the Jerry Blakely Administration Building of Littlefield ISD.

All of the Board members were in attendance for the meeting along with Superintendent Robert Dillard. There were also several guests present for the meeting, including, Brad Heffington, Charles Heffington, Kim Heffington, Tanner Heffington, Jeff Shelley, Neal Ray, Jennifer Ray, Tim Gau, Bryan Gregory, Brent Green, Mike Read, Tom Whistler, Lupe Marquez, Danny Marquez, Carrie Hanlin and Derek Lopez from the Lamb County Leader-News.

The meeting was called to order at 7 p.m. and the invocation was given by Adrian Solis.

Nobody spoke during the Public Forum and the minutes from the previous meeting were approved as read.

Brad Heffington addressed the Board concerning the possibility of creating a strategic planning committee, saying, “I’ve been talking to some people and I think the Board and the District need some formal strategic planning as we transition maybe to new administration. Mr. Dillard did a radio interview after he first got here and they asked him, ‘what do you do following a Jerry Blakely?’ and he said you can’t replace a Jerry Blakely, but we want to build on and make better the things that he did. And, I think as a school district we still need to have that goal in mind as we transition in the future whenever that may be. I think we need to be making some plans for that.”

He added, “One of the things I would like to see that group talk about, one of them being the Lubbock Outer Loop coming to Shallowater. I think over time Shallowater is going to grow, we have opportunities to attract some families to come here. There are some things going on in the city that will help do that. Also, we have some really old facilities that need to be replaced. With the industry that we have here, I know we’ve talked about this some, but I believe we need to build some new facilities to attract good teachers and retain the ones we have and the families that we’re losing. I’m not saying that the facilities are the answer, but they’re part of an equation.”

Heffington also said that he feels real strongly about doing more to be able to retain their local students.

“We’re doing a good job of sending people off to college, but they get jobs and don’t come back,” he explained. “We haven’t had a vocational advisory committee since before Mr. Blakely passed away. I don’t know what we’re doing on that, but I would like to see some things there because we need electricians, plumbers, carpenters, there is a need for those services here and we could train those kids to do that.”

He added, “We need to have a support system that supports our staff and our teachers and we need to have the kind of schools that our employees want to bring their kids to and not drop them off somewhere else while they’re on their way to get a paycheck from Littlefield ISD. We need to make it where they want to bring their kids here. I think as we transition into the future, that would be a very important step for us to have.”

The motion was made by Solis and seconded by Johnny Castillo to pursue the creation of a strategic planning committee. The motion carried.

Coach Green led the Administrative Reports with an update on athletics, saying, “Volleyball is in full swing with high school starting district this week and junior high getting their season underway this week as well. Junior high football got started a few weeks ago with Post and followed it up with Idalou last week. We don’t have big numbers down there at the junior high like we used to, and I’m not just talking about in the football program, but just kid wise, period. We don’t have the numbers in those programs like we’ve had in the past.” He added, “JV football is competing really well. They lost on the last play of the game to Post, they got behind 20-8 against Idalou and came all the way back and had the ball to tie that thing up at the end and fell just short. Varsity wise, we’ve struggled the last couple of weeks; we’ve got some guys we have to get back and we’re working hard to get those kids back and be where we need to be when district starts in two weeks. We’re hoping to get a couple of those kids back over the next couple of weeks. The kids are resilient, they’re doing a great job and working extremely hard.” Mr. Dillard gave an update on online learners, saying, “We have really good attendance going on. Mike and I did percentages earlier and there is a little bit under 10% of junior high kids, who are remote learners right now and about 17% of Primary kids, 18% of high school kids and 16% at the elementary. We started out between 25% and 30%, so kids are starting to come back.”

He added, “One of the things that teachers are seeing happen is that many of the remote kids are not performing very well. The fact that they have a choice is not a good thing, in a lot of cases, because it is easier for some families to not have to go through the everyday schedule and that is something we’re fighting. But, it is getting better and every week we are getting a few more kids back in face-to-face learning.”

Elementary Principal Tom Whistler gave their enrollment numbers saying they have a total of 285 students at Elementary; including 98 third graders, 88 fourth graders and 99 fifth graders.

“Our numbers are about where they’ve been the last year or so. We have 47 students that are working from home and we started out with 82, so we’ve gotten about 40 kids back,” Whistler said. “We had a little Constitution Day music program. We didn’t gather in the building, we had it outside. We had some parents show up and park on the street and listen to the kids and I think the kids had fun with it and the parents enjoyed listening to them.”

He added, “UIL is coming up on Nov. 4 ^th , so we are beginning to work on our UIL teams and getting those together. I believe it is in Friona this year. We also have some reading intervention this year and Mrs. DeLoach has done her beginning of the year testing and has her groups that she is working with right now.”

High School Principal Mike Read gave their enrollment numbers saying they have a total of 364 students at the high school; including 98 freshmen, 80 sophomores, 91 juniors and 95 seniors.

“We have 298 kids doing in person learning and 66 remote learners. When we started this school year, we had 88 kids doing remote learning and I hope we continue to get kids face-to-face, because it is a better setting when we have them in front of us, as far as teaching.”

He added, “October 13 ^th is going to be school pictures for 9 ^th through 11 ^th grade and October 14 ^th will be senior picture day. The way we’re going to do this is, we’re going to take our senior pictures with all of our kids who are in person and then after lunch we are going to bring those remote kids in, so that we can get their senior picture taken. Same with all of the other grades, so that they too can have their pictures made.”

“October 15 ^th is going to be FAFSA day, our LEARN representative will be here working with all of the seniors on filling out financial aide for college. Our FAFSA rep. Is Sarah Moreno and she will be here working with all of the kids during their English IV period. Our kids are finally starting to settle in after six weeks. It was a pretty good transition from day one to about the fourth week of school. It makes a lot of difference for us when we have those kids up and down that hallway, and I hope we don’t have to go through what we went through last spring, because it is a different environment when those kids are not in those halls.”

Next, the Board discussed FIRST (Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas), in which LISD once again received a perfect score of 100.

“Each year, all school districts in the state of Texas are rated on financial efficiency through the measures set forth in the Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas,” Supt. Dillard said.

The motion was made by Gary Birkelbach and seconded by Pat Demel to approve the 2019-2020 FIRST report as presented by Supt. Dillard. The motion carried.

Supt. Dillard informed the Board that they have three trust properties that have been approved by other taxing entities, which are 123 N. Austin, 125 Texas and 144 Thompson Street. All of these are empty lots.

The motion to approve the sale of the current trust properties as recommended by Supt. Dillard was made by Solis and seconded by Williams. The motion carried.

County AgriLIFE Extension Agent Kendra Calahan requested that the Board take action to recognize 4-H as an official extracurricular activity and Extension Agents as adjunct faculty members for the 2020-2021 school year.

The motion was made by Williams and seconded by Demel to recognize 4-H as an official extracurricular activity and Extension Agents as adjunct faculty members for the 2020-2021 school year, as recommended by Supt. Dillard. The motion carried.

Supt. Dillard went over the LISD Goals quarterly evaluation for the 2020-2021 school year and the motion to approve the evaluation as presented was made by Solis and seconded by Demel. The motion carried.

Supt. Dillard went over the Facilities Maintenance Priorities Plan, saying, “Paragon Sports Constructors has completed total replacement of the drainage system and turf at the football field and completed new base and turf installation on the baseball field. I know that I am biased, but I think that we have the most beautiful baseball field that I have ever seen.”

He added, “The softball field is ready for turf installation. Turf installation was scheduled to be completed on all fields by Sept. 11 ^th ; however, some crews were shut down due to COVID. The project is currently projected to be completed the first week of October. Once the project is completed, BuyBoard will issue LISD a refund for 1% of the total cost of the project. The hash marks on the football field were installed with incorrect measurements and had to be re-installed. Because of this and a few other issues with the field, Paragon will replace the entire playing surface after football season is completed at no additional cost to LISD.”

He also gave an update on the Bus Barn and Shop project, saying, “Surrett Steel Buildings has completed the erection of both the Bus Barn “Shed” and the Shop. The “Lift Station” has been installed and the “skin” on the old shop at the Bus Barn has been replaced as well. Surrett’s crew is working on the office area, with HVAC and Electrical remaining to be completed. It all looks great.”

The motion was made by Birkelbach and seconded by Williams to approve the construction update as presented by Supt. Dillard. The motion carried. A second motion was made by Williams and seconded by Hervey Valdez Jr. to approve the updated Facilities Maintenance Priori ties Plan as presented by Supt. Dillard. The motion carried.

Estimates of revenue for the 2019-2020 school year using the most up-to-date template designed by Omar Garcia - based on TEA-generated Student FTE averages for the 2019-2020 school year were presented by Supt. Dillard.

Updated revenue projections for the 2019-2020 school year continue to show a substantial overpayment and a decreased revenue allocation by TEA for the current fiscal year. The Student FTE average for the 2018-2019 school year was 1,226.662–a decrease of 11.566 Refined ADA compared to the 2017-2018 average. It is important to remember that Revenue estimates for the 2019-2020 school year are based on the 2018-2019 school year Student FTE average of 1,226.662. As a response to the COVID-19

Disaster, TEA has also issued guidance regarding student attendance accounting as it affects School Finance. The first four six-weeks attendance periods were used in combination with historical data from the fifth and sixth six-weeks attendance periods for the previous two years to establish the Refined ADA that has been used to compute revenue payments. According to adjustments made by TEA to the ADA for 2019-2020 school year, calculations show a Refined ADA of 1,167.020, a decrease of 63.367 compared to the 2018-2019 average. Moreover, the decline in ADA will directly result in decreased state revenue for the year.

As of September 1, 2020, LISD cash reserves were invested in two basic areas: deposits with AIM Bank at a current approximate annual rate of return of .1043% (the August average 13-week (91 day) Treasury Bill Rate), with the remainder in State-Approved TexPOOL Investment Pool. As documented in the Financial and Investment Summary Report, the pool rate for August was .1768%. It is projected at current principal and rates, the District would earn approximately $10,700.00 in interest in a 12-month period. The District will continue to seek the best rates available to continue to accrue the best return available for our Fund Balance.

Supt. Dillard further reported that Continental Dairies Southwest paid a Revenue Protection Payment in the amount of $1,910,939.00 during the 2019-2020 school year. Because LISD granted the deferral of annual Supplemental Payments (based on ADA) of $132,800.00 once again, Continental Dairies Southwest now owe LISD a total of four such payments in the 2020-2021 school year totaling $531,200.00.

Supt. Dillard predicts that when the audit is completed, the District will add to the current Fund Balance.

The motion to approve the report was made by Castillo and seconded by Demel. The motion carried.

Supt. Dillard recommended that the Board engage Webb, Webb & Wright as their auditors for the 2020-2021 fiscal year.

The motion was made by Birkelbach and seconded by Williams to engage Webb, Webb & Wright as their auditors for the 2020-2021 fiscal year as recommended by Supt. Dillard. The motion carried.

The board adjourned to executive session at 8:26 p.m. and reconvened in regular session at 10:07 p.m.

Supt. Dillard reported that he has accepted the resignations of Michael Demel and Daisy Baiza. The motion was made by Solis and seconded by Williams to approve the hiring of atwill staff member Laura Parker as recommended by Principal Read and approved by Supt. Dillard. The motion carried.

Supt. Dillard reported that he will be retiring at the end of the 2020-2021 school year.

Information on school board training was presented and the meeting was adjourned at 10:20 p.m.