The Littlefield Independent School District’s Board of Trustees held their regular meeting Thursday night in the Board Room of the Administration Building.
Board President Lance Broadhurst called the meeting to order at 7 p.m. and the invocation was given by Adrian Solis.
Prior to getting to the agenda, Student organizations representatives from Littlefield High School were in attendance at the School Board Meeting to address the Board members for School Board Appreciation Month.
Students representing LHS at the Board meeting were: Dylon Redman student council President; Judith Alvarez student council secretary, NHS rep and Vice President of Spanish club; Anahi Ordonez President of Spanish club, dash of student council, secretary of T.A.F.E. and NHS rep; Ali Vasquez President ofArt Club; Kamryn Palma Vice President of Art Club; T.A.F.E. President Alibi Torres and Trinity Davis Vice President and FCA was represented by Taryn Golden and Chloe Sawyer.
There was no one present for Public Forum and the minutes from the previous meeting were approved as read.
High School Principal Mike Read gave an update on the high school stating that they have 355 students currently enrolled.
“Our attendance has been much better this first three weeks of the second semester,” Mr. Read said. “We ended the first semester with a 96.9% attendance rating. That is outstanding for high school.”
Mr. Read discussed STAAR End of Course retakes and thanked Delight Davis, Nicole Shelley and Martha Carabajal.
“They did an outstanding job of getting these kids prepped and ready to be test ready,” he said. Focus Friday’s start on Jan. 29th and will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. We’re designing this session to be intense remediation for kids in English, math, science and social studies. We have the schedules out and teachers know what they are going to be planning to do.”
He added, “Students are prepping for UIL competitions. CX Debate is on Feb. 3rd, in Denver City.”
Junior High Principal Mitch McNeese said that they have 279 kids at his campus, with 88 sixth graders, 95 seventh graders and 96 eighth graders.
“In the past month, we’ve had student council elections and coming up we have NJHS inductions,” McNeese said. “We’re still planning out how we are going to do that. We have Focus Fridays coming up and it looks like we’re going to have about 80% of the Junior High coming up on Fridays to get that extra help.”
He added, “I’m so proud of our teachers and what they have done this year. It has been very difficult. We’re also working on getting our attendance where it needs to be.”
Elementary Principal Tom Whistler said that they are sitting at 280 students; 96 third graders, 89 fourth graders and 95 fifth graders.
“We’ve been doing practice tests; fourth grade this week and fifth grade last week to see who we need to bring on Fridays and we’re going to have the majority of our kids there, because we’re behind,” Whistler said. “All spring last year and the first 12 weeks this year we were trying to catch kids up. Second semester we started where we needed to be in mid-September.”
He added, “Third grade will be working on reading and math, fourth grade will be working on reading, math and writing and fifth grade will be working on reading, math and science.”
Amber Hays said that the Primary currently has 314 students.
“We fmished our middle of the year benchmarking for Primary, so for our Focus Fridays we’re going to be targeting our reading very heavily,” she said. “We are also dealing with a lot of the gaps that Mr. Whistler expressed as far as those gaps and we are working to fill those. The teachers have made huge strides at eating that elephant and we’re getting there, but it does take a little time. The teachers have done an amazing job at tackling that.”
Coach Brent Green gave an update on athletics, saying, “We have a lot going on in athletics. Our junior high girls have three games left, and the boys have four games left. The varsity girls are sitting at 7-1 and are second in the district behind a really good Brownfield team. The varsity boys are 4-2; they lost a heart-breaker at Lamesa the other night throwing us back into a three-way tie for second place.”
He added, “Softball started their official practices this week. Coach Logan has 22 girls out, which is a big number with basketball still going on. He expects to gain between 6-10 girls, when basketball wraps up. Coach McNeese has been working with his baseball guys during our athletic period and they started Practice on Friday. He has 22 out there right now and has 42 signed up, which is a huge number for baseball. We also have about 45 kids in the off-season program that aren’t involved in basketball.”
Green also stated that the football turf would be completed by next week.
Next on the agenda was trust property disposition.
The City of Littlefield is taking care of the demolition and clearing of all trust properties deemed by the City to be dilapidated, substandard, or unfit for human habitation. They have also engaged tax attorneys to advertise and sell marketable trust properties for the purpose of collection of delinquent taxes.
LISD has agreed to release its rights to the properties to the City; however, each time there is to be a transfer of trust property, each taxing entity has a vote on whether or not to approve the sale.
Superintendent Robert Dillard said that he feels that it is in the best interest of the District to approve the sale of the current Trust Properties. The motion made by Gary Birkelbach and seconded by Pat Demel to approve the sale of Trust Properties as recommended by Supt. Dillard. The motion carried.
Mr. Read presented TASB Localized Policy Manual Update 116. All policy considerations in Update 116 are suggested by TASB Legal Staff to meet legal requirements; therefore, it was recommended by Mr. Read & Mr. Dillard that the Board add, revise, or delete LOCAL policies as recommended by TASB Policy Service and according to the Instruction Sheet. The motion to add, revise, or delete LOCAL policies as recommended by TASB Policy Service and according to the Instruction Sheet for TASB Localized Policy Manual Update 116 was made by Solis and seconded by Hervey Valdez Jr. The motion carried.
The motion to order a General Election for the election of two Trustee positions for Places 1 and 3 to be held on May 1, 2021, was made by Solis and seconded by Demel. The motion carried.
The motion to approve the Notice and Order of General Election for Early Voting and for Election Day was made by Birkelbach and seconded by Johnny Castillo. The motion carried.
The motion to approve Resolution to have a joint election on May 1, 2021, with the City of Littlefield was made by Solis and seconded by Will Williams. The motion carried.
The motion to approve the Joint Election Agreement with the City ofLittlefield was made by Williams and seconded by Valdez. The motion carried.
The motion to approve the Early Voting locations and times and Election Day polling locations and times was made by Solis and seconded by Castillo. The motion carried.
The motion to appoint Janine Butler as the Elections Administrator was made by Williams and seconded by Demel. The motion carried.
The motion to appoint Janine Butler as Early Voting Clerk and Pam Trotter as Deputy Early Voting Clerk, Johnny Rosemond as the Early Voting Ballot Board Judge and Stella Martinez as the Early Voting Ballot BoardAlternate Judge was made by Solis and seconded by Williams. The motion carried.
The motion to appoint Johnny Rosemond to serve as Election Judge on Election Day and Janine Butler as Alternate Election Day Judge was made by Castillo and seconded by Valdez. The motion carried.
The motion to appoint Stella Martinez to serve as Bilingual Election Clerk was made by Solis and seconded by Williams. The motion carried.
The Texas Department of State Health Services has provided resources for School Districts to be able to Vaccinate eligible Staff and/ or Students for COVID-19.
The motion to approve the COVID -19 Vaccination Program as recommended by Supt. Dillard was made by Castillo and seconded by Solis. The motion carried.
Supt. Dillard and Mr. Read presented detailed Financial and Investment summaries including current status, and projections for revenue and expenditures for the 2020-2021 fiscal year.
The motion to approve the Financial and Investment Review & Report was made by Solis and seconded by Castillo. The motion carried.
The Board went into executive session at 7:59 p.m. and returned to regular session at 9:26 p.m.
The motion to approve the hire of Madison Mikeska as Speech Therapist as recommended by Supt. Dillard was made by Williams and seconded by Valdez. The motion carried.
Membership of the Strategic Planning Team was discussed and the motion to approve the Membership of the Strategic Planning Team as recommended by Supt. Dillard and Mr. Read was made by Solis and seconded by Williams.
The motion to approve the elevation of Mr. Adam Solis to the position of Junior High School Principal with his contract beginning July 1, 2021, was made by Birkelbach and seconded by Valdez with Adrian Solis abstaining. The vote was six for, 0 against.
Mr. Read reported that the Primary Principal position will be opened for application from candidates outside the District.
The motion was made by Solis and seconded by Williams to approve the Superintendent Appraisal. The motion carried.
Mr. Dillard reported the acceptance of resignations from Brandi Lee, who will be leaving the employment District, and Brent Green, who will remain an employee ofLISD. Therefore, the District will be planning to fill those positions.
Recent At-Will Personnell hires include:
Madelene Acosta, Jr. High School Teaching Assistant; Sonia Balderas, High School Teaching Assistant; Shea Cantu, Jr. High Full Time Substitute Teacher; Madison Ingle, Heart Start Teaching Assistant; Carmelo Lovato, Primary School Full Time Substitute Teacher; Mayra Rico, Elementary School Full Time Substitute Teacher; Jerry Sanchez, High School Full Time substitute Teacher; Joel Silvas, Primary School Custodian and Jennica Williams, Primary School Teaching Assistant.
Mr. Read presented information regarding upcoming Board Training and Board President Broadhurst declared the meeting adjourned at 9:45 p.m.