The Littlefield Independent School District’s Board of Trustees met in regular session Monday night to discuss an 18-item agenda.
The meeting was called to order at 6:58 p.m., beginning with the administrative report.
High School Principal Dr. Jerry Russell gave the board an update as to what is ongoing and coming up at his campus, saying, “A lot of good advances happened here recently in cross country. The JV Girls team won out on their side...then our entire varsity boys’ team advanced as a whole team, first time ever in the history of Littlefield that they won the district cross country meet as a team for the boys’ side. Band, just this past Saturday, got straight ones at their competition. They’ve got their area competition at P.E. Shotwell Stadium in Abilene on Saturday.”
“We’re also kicking off UIL this week for academics. I think we’re looking at around 100 of our 350-ish kids that are going to participate in that,” Russell said. “Hopefully we can run a spirit bus to the Talkington game this Saturday; we’ll see how many kids sign up for that. We are running a spirit bus on Tuesday of next week to the regional cross-country meet, probably going to be varsity and JV football and volleyball kids, more than likely. So hopefully we’ll take two buses and get a big crowd out there for regional cross-country. Our parent meetings will be the first week of November, and then we’ll have an open house before Thanksgiving break.”
Superintendent Mitch McNeese spoke on behalf of Littlefield Junior High School for updates on their campus. “We have two football and volleyball games left in the season; both groups have worked really hard and shown great improvement. Junior High UIL is getting their teams ready, and their competition is in December.”
Supt. McNeese also spoke about what is coming up at Littlefield Elementary. “They’re also ramping up for UIL, and the UIL writing contest is November 5th, and their UIL meet is November 10th in Muleshoe. They also have some music programs that’ll be getting cranked up there in December.” Supt. McNeese then touched on some things happening at Littlefield High School.
“It was good to see the 2006 football team back in town. I think 23 of the 30member team were here. Some of the coaches made it back, and there was also a tribute to Coach Boomer.
He’s a great man; he had 247 wins under his belt and 30 years of coaching here.
Then this Friday we’re going to do one for Coach Blakely.”
Garry Ozbirn gave the invocation, and the minutes from the previous meeting were approved by general consent. There was nobody present to speak during the public forum.
Item six on the agenda was to deliberate and take possible action to approve a waiver for a modified schedule for state assessment testing days. These testing days are as follows: English 1-April 13, English 2-April 14, Biology April 21, U.S. History- April 21, and Algebra-April 27.
“What this waiver allows us to do is allow just those kids that are testing to be at the school that morning, and then everyone else shows up at lunch,” Supt. McNeese said.
The motion to approve the waiver for a modified schedule for state testing days was made by Will Williams and seconded by Ozbirn. The motion carried.
Item seven on the agenda was to deliberate and take possible action to approve House Bill 3 Goals.
“The key takeaway in this...is that in all areas, we regret the previous goal. Except for goal 1, and that was the 3rd grade class last year or two years ago, we tested higher than last year’s class. Everything else we exceeded where we were and even had to move some of those goals up from where we were with up to 14% gains. We know that in our CCMR, our goal is to hit 100%. We already know that we will achieve that one, and we’re on track.”
The motion to approve House Bill 3 Goals was made by Ben Diaz and was seconded by Cody West. The motion carried.
The eighth item on the agenda was to deliberate and take possible action to approve the Targeted Improvement Plan.
Asst. Supt. Hays spoke on what this plan includes and why they must use it.
“We are on comprehensive improvement for our elementary campus based on our 2024-2025 scores; that was when we hit 67%...that was in the bottom 5% of the state,” Hays stated. “They put you on a comprehensive improvement plan, and that is a twoyear plan...We’re running our PLCs weekly; in those PLCs, we work on lesson internalization. That is where you understand the lessons, what your TEK is, and the rigor of what should be taught. We will have data DLCs so that we’re constantly looking at where students performed, what we’re going to intervene on, what we need to change about instruction, and where we’re targeting next.”
She added, “There is a $400,000 grant this year; it’s open, and we get it for three years. We don’t know the exact amount every year, and so we’ll know after the end of this year what that amount is. 100% of that grant, we’ve decided we’re giving back to the staff. It’s for their additional work in the summer.”
The motion to approve the Targeted Improvement Plan was made by Eric Vargas and seconded by Diaz. The motion carried.
Item nine on the agenda was to deliberate and take possible action to approve ESL Evaluation for the 20252026 school year.
“ESL evaluations are required every year,” Hays explained. “We have about 10% of our total student enrollment in ESL. When a child enrolls in a Texas school, you fill out a language survey. If that is listed as anything other than English, we are required to test them within a time frame and determine if they qualify for the need of an ESL program.
Parents can approve or decline services, but whether they decline services or not, you are then obligated to TELPAS test them, and that is federal. About 8% of our 155 students who are exited in the school year. So that means they were advanced on their tests and were successful in the classroom as well as in their STAARS.”
The motion to approve ESL Evaluations for the 20252026 school year was made by Shawna Hastings and was seconded by Ozbirn.
The motion carried.
Item ten on the agenda was to deliberate and take possible action to approve TIPS (The Interlocal Purchasing System) Resolution.
“Anytime we spend a big chunk, we go this route, just to satisfy the procurement rules. We don’t always end up with the best prices; we can continue to negotiate once we get their prices.
That guarantees the state that we didn’t just go off and spend money,” Bryan Gregory said. “Anytime you spend over $50,000, you have to do certain things.
You either have to get three formal quotes, or you can go to the BuyBoard or TIPS, and because BuyBoard and TIPS are joined at the hip with TEA, then we’re guaranteed if we end up buying from someone who is a member of BuyBoard, it’s a guarantee that they’re not gouging the district.”
The motion to approve TIPS (The Interlocal Purchasing System) Resolution was made by Ozbirn and seconded by Williams. The motion carried.
Item eleven on the agenda was to deliberate and take possible action to approve the BuyBoard Resolution.
The motion to approve was made by Ozbirn and seconded by Williams; the motion carried. Item 12 on the agenda was to deliberate and take possible action to approve the Head Start Agreement.
The motion to approve the Head Start Agreement was made by Hastings and seconded by Vargas. The motion carried.
The next order of business was to deliberate and take possible action to approve the purchase of suburban.
“What we choose to do is a legal way to do it; we put what is called an RFP, or a request for a proposal, in the newspaper, and we have to run it for two consecutive weeks. We’ve received two bids; we got one from Premier Chevrolet in Littlefield, and we got one from Levelland...In this instance, Premier was about $2,000 less than Levelland Chevrolet,” Gregory said.
“When we make a decision on big purchases, we have to follow what is called a weighted decision tree, where your price is weighted at 55%, reputation of the people you’re buying from is weighted at 10%, quality of the product is weighted at 10%, does it meet district needs is weighted at 10%, any past work you’ve done with the company is weighted at 10%, and then any other factors are weighted at 10%. Each of the areas are rated on a scale of zero to ten, zero being poor and ten being excellent.
At the end of that process, you take your scores with the proper weighting assigned to it and you end up with a number at the end, and the higher number should get the edge. I’m of the opinion we should buy local; I think that’s just important.”
The motion to approve the purchase of suburban was made by Vargas and seconded by West. The motion carried.
The next item on the agenda was to discuss Facilities and Maintenance Priorities Plan.
No action was necessary.
The next order of business was to deliberate and take possible action to approve the Financial and Investment Review and Report.
“Our report is lacking because everything on there is prior to audit adjustments. So, everything that we’re putting in right now, there are still some things that might be a little bit higher; some things might be less.
We talk about all the things that we pay for in September, and even in October now, they are items that were received or rendered prior to that. So, in August, that’s our prior fiscal year, so all those things get adjusted though what I’m doing right now, audit cleanup.” Destiny Chavarria said. “So, if you look at our budgeted amount, we’re expecting to receive $2.2 million there, and at the bottom you’ll see the total of our required debt payments. So, our payment and our money earned will be close, which is what TEA wants...so we might have to dip a little bit into our cash positions there, which is our fun balance. That’s what TPA wants us to do: as little as we can, dip in, but utilize that money and don’t throw that piece of it.”
The motion to approve the Financial and Investment Review and Report was made by Williams and seconded by Ozbirn. The motion carried.
Under Texas Education Code 551.074, the Board went into executive session at 7:49 p.m. to discuss personnel matters. The Board returned to the open meeting at 8:14 p.m.
Item 16 on the agenda was Personnel Matters, including the Appointment, Employment, Evaluation, Reassignment, Duties, Discipline, Dismissal, and/or Compensation of Individual District Employees.
The At-Will Personnel are Gabriella Enriquez, Junior High Education Aide, Kat Moreno, Elementary Special Education Aide, and Kathleen Ingram, Primary Special Education Aide. The resignations received were Natalie Bergara (Elementary) and Bree Boney (Elementary).
There was no Board Training Information at this time.
With no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 8:15 p.m.