by Vi Burgess, editor-in-chief
On Thursday, September 20, the CSISD Board of Trustees convened for their monthly public meeting, led by the president, Dr. Valerie Jochen, as well as the superintendent, Dr. Clark Ealy. After the pledge, conducted by four College View High School Students, the meeting began with an official list of items on the agenda; the agenda is available through the CSISD website here.
After recognitions of employees who have achieved business and transportation certifications, Dr. Ealy announced that through the CSISD Education Foundation and Team CSISD, approximately $84,000 has been raised since the beginning of the school year to fund teacher grants, student scholarships and recognition programs; the deadline to apply for teacher grants is October 4.
The Board of Trustees then moved to take H-2, otherwise known as TASB or Senate Bill 507, which covers the use of cameras in Special Education, off the agenda for the month’s meetings due to additional modifications that the bill is undergoing by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Mike Martindale, the deputy superintendent for business and operations, presented a proposal to refinance or refund some of the bonds from 2009 to 2011 for a total savings amount for the district at $4,619,200. Martindale also presented the Quarterly Investment Report for the fourth quarter, lasting from May 31 to August 31, in which the district reported a net change and loss of $37, 521, 735.72 as a result of expenditures largely from the general fund.
The main topic of the meeting was the recently finalized recommendations of the Boundary Adjustment Committee, which were presented to the Board after revisions had been made in the forums held on September 6. 7, and 14. The Board strove to emphasize that the rezoning was based on comparability and equity between schools; though the only major change in the proposal was the switch of Nantucket to Pecan Train Intermediate, to MS 3, to CSHS as well as allowing current freshmen along with sophomores and juniors to grandfather in high schools, the percentage of low socioeconomic students remained within a few percentiles across all middle schools and both high schools.
A recurring concern on the school board was the fact that while CSISD currently has 13, 203 students as of September 20, it is one of the fastest growing school districts in Texas. Thus, in the next ten years, several major projects beyond Pecan Trail Intermediate are extremely likely to occur: elementary school 10 will open in 2018, CSHS will have an addition that allows them to accommodate 600 more students, middle school 3 will open, and a third high school will be built when CSHS and Consol reach capacity in approximately 5 years. The Board decided to meet to fully address all remaining concerns about item K2, rezoning, on the following dates: September 27 at 6 p.m., October 3 at 5 p.m. and October 11 at 5 p.m.
The last two items on the agenda for the evening were presented by Jon Hall, the executive director of facilities. Hall proposed that CSISD agree to an Interlocal Agreement with the City of College Station regarding the funds needed to accommodate the increase of traffic caused by the opening of Pecan Trail Intermediate in the fall of 2017. Additionally, Hall proposed a set amount of money from the 2013 bond be used in its original purpose to renovate and repurpose a warehouse mainly as a new location for CSISD servers in order to provide for an expected increase in the number of students in CSISD. Both motions passed unanimously.
The Board of Trustees will next hold a public meeting on Tuesday, October 18, 2016.
