LG School Board Handles Lots Business at Monday’s Meeting
Library books were the topic of a speaker at Monday night’s meeting. Jeremy Janda reiterated his concern that the district is still purchasing books that contain vulgar and sexually explicit language. He stated that he has been bringing this to the attention of the school board beginning 33 months ago. He said, “I tried really hard to do it the right way, come to the hierarchies, and not make a big stink of things. Over that time period, there are some changes that have been made which have been good. But at the end of the day, we still are having new books ordered and they are still inappropriate.” He said he now believes that the problem lies with the Texas Library Association. Their recommendations are where many of the lists of books come from.
Administrative Reports
Superintendent Andy McHazlett said he was excited to say that all seven members of the board had attended the summer leadership institute. LGISD was one of only a few school boards that had 100% attendance.
Assistant Superintendent Stacy Eilers reported that new teacher in-service will begin on Aug. 1 and the rest of the staff will return on Aug 5. Students will begin on Aug. 15.
Director of Operations Sharon Muzny told the board that the maintenance staff is working to complete all the maintenance orders before school begins. There are many purchase orders that have been submitted for the beginning of the year. In the transportation department, the district lost the trainer last semester and another employee is currently getting that training for the district CDL drivers so that training can be done in house.
Camp Summit
Tracy Head reported on the success of Camp Summit. She told the board that this is the seventh year for Camp Summit which is an invitation only reading intervention camp for students in kindergarten- 2nd grade.
Student Transfers
Superintendent reported to the board that the district has accepted a total of 76 transfer students for the 2024-25 school year – 41 at the elementary campus, 12 at the middle school campus, and 23 at the high school campus. The students are transferring from 11 different school districts – Bastrop, Columbus, Fayetteville, Flatonia, Giddings, Hallettsville, Round Top/Carmine, Schulenburg, Smithville, Snook, and Weimar.
Grading Guideline Change Second grade will transition back to a skill-based report card, similar to what prek, kindergarten, and first grade are currently doing.
New Library Material There was a new list of proposed library purchases brought to the board. The deadline for board members to challenge the books on this list is Aug. 14, 2024. Action (if needed) will take place at the next board meeting on Aug. 26, 2024.
Budget Amendments
• The first payment on the maintenance tax note is due on Aug. 15 which is prior to the August board meeting. As this expenditure was not in the budget adopted in August 2023, a transfer of $24,000 from Instruction to debt service was needed.
• Dr. Walker requested that unused funds from media services, campus leadership, counseling, and extracurricular activities in the amount of $4,250 be transferred to instruction for beginning of the new school year.
• Dr. Pineda requested $7,000 to be transferred from instruction to professional development.
• The district hosted 19 non-LGISD playoff games which brought in almost $20,000 more in local revenues than was budgeted (There were only eight the previous year.) With the increase in games and revenues, an increase in expenditures was also realized – an off-setting amount in extracurricular expenses for game workers, officials, and custodial services as well as an increase in security expenses. To cover the unexpected expenditures, and not increase the budget deficit, there was an amendment it to increase the local revenues by $19,973 as well as an increase to extracurricular activities in the amount of $18,752 and security and monitoring services in the amount of $1,221. Since the increase in expenditures is offset by the increase in revenues, there is a net effect of zero which keeps the adopted deficit of $2,106,634 unchanged.
It was also stated that these non-LGISD playoff games have helped the local economy with hotel occupancy and restaurant revenue.
TASB Policy Updates
There were several policy updates recommended by TASB (Texas Association of School Boards.) Of note, the policy on safety/emergency operations plan added a clause that states “The superintendent shall develop procedures to notify parents regarding violent activity that has occurred or in being investigated at a campus or other district facility or at a district-sponsored activity. For more information on the TASB policies go to https://www.tasb.org.
Internet Policy
There will be no change to the district internet use policy. Director of technology, David Bennett reported that the district has installed a new firewall to increase the protection from hackers.
Designated Non-Business Days
The Texas Legislature requires adherence to timelines that reference business in compliance with the Texas Public Information Act. Business days do not include weekends, national holidays, state holidays, the Friday before or Monday after a national or state holiday, and up to 10 additional designated days per calendar. The board has designated the following four days for the remainder of the calendar year: Nov. 27, 2024; Dec. 23, 2024; Dec. 27, 2024; and Dec. 31, 2024.
Disaster Pennies
The board approved a resolution to declare the intention to access “disaster pennies” as authorized by Texas Tax Code Section 26.042(e) in adopting its tax rate for 202425. The disaster pennies are available only if the governor has declared the county as a disaster area. Governor Abbott declared Fayette County a disaster area on May 7, 2024. The resolution would increase the maintenance and operations fund and decrease the interest and sinking. This will not cause an increase in the tax rate for the district.
Residential Contract with Bayes Achievement Center A student at LGISD that has had escalated behaviors and safety concerns that cannot be met within the district has not met the recommendations to return to the campus. It has been determined that the student remain at a residential facility until these goals have been met. The district has entered into an agreement with Bayes Achievement Center, Inc. The fiscal implications for this are $274,407.15 (fixed cost) for Aug. 1, 2024 to July 31, 2025. High cost funds (HCF) help offset the financial impact on local education agencies (LEA) that provide educational services to highneed children with disabilities. High-need children with disabilities receive additional educational services with exceed three time the average per pupil expenditure (APPE.) HCF covers only costs identified in the child’s individualized education program (IEP) and associated with providing direct special education and related services. High cost funds received in 2023-24 school year - $206,093. The minimum high cost funds projected to receive in 2024-25 school year - $174,854. Local education agency (LEA)s are required to “set aside” 25% of their individuals with disabilities act (IDEA-B) allocation to fund the cost of non-public residential placements. An LEA that requests additional funding from the state to cover the costs if a residential placement are reimbursed the cost less their 25% contribution. LGISD set aside $99,553 for the 202425 school year. The estimated cost of staff utilized while the student was at LGISD was $85,000. The admission, review and dismissal (ARD) committee determined even with two staff members during the school day, that the student still needed more support.