Bilingual Needs, Computer Costs Both on Rise at LGISD
We hit some of the highlights from last week’s La Grange Independent School Board meeting. Here’s some more.
Bilingual/ESL Annual Evaluation Report
The school board heard a report detailing that the numbers of bilingual/English as a Second Language (ESL) learners continues to rise in the district. Over the last twenty years, the number of students qualifying for the bilingual/ESL program has grown from 122 to 318, while total enrollment in that same time period has gone from 1909 to 1884.
There are four levels of student abilities that are tested in the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS) – Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced, and Advanced High. The goal for all bilingual/ESL programs is to have all students achieve the Advanced High level. According to the data from 2019- 2020 the students in grades K-1 (grade 2 is not available) achieved the following results based on ability to speak/write in English: 12.9% - Beginning, 67.7% - Intermediate, 16.1% - Advanced, and 3.2% - Advanced High. For students in grades 3-12 the results are 0% - Beginning, 19.7% - Intermediate, 56.7% - Advanced, and 23.6% - Advanced High.
The board was the briefed on the school’s extensive action plan for 2020-2021 to help bilingual/ESL students.
District Technology Purchases
The district is in need of updating technology at the high school and middle school in addition to upgrading the district access points. After director of technology, David Bennett compared quotes, it was decided to go with bids from In Tech Southwest for all purchases. The high school computer lab in room 210 will have an upgrade of 23 desktops capable of handling the Media Production and Graphic Design classes along with the other computer classes. The cost for this upgrade will be $32,845. The middle school needs to replace 193 Chromebooks to replace the aging laptops used in the classrooms. The cost for these Chromebooks is $45,741. Finally, the 148 access points in the network on all of the LGISD campuses need to be replaced. The cost of this upgrade will be $63,788. This cost includes a network web interface and the installation of the devices. These items were all budgeted in the 2020-2021 school year budget.
Asynchronous Learning Plan 2020-2021
During this time of COVID-19 schools have had to adapt their teaching to accommodate the needs of the students who cannot attend in-person classes, and the board Monday heard ways the school s dealing with that:
One way of teaching is referred to as synchronous remote instruction. This is two-way, real-time/live, virtual instruction between teachers and students when students are not on campus. The requirements of synchronous remote instruction are:
• The required amount of instructional time is scheduled each day
• It is provided through a computer or other electronic device or over the phone
• It must address the required curriculum
The other type of instruction is known as asynchronous remote instruction. This type of instruction does not require having the instructor and student engaged at the same time. The requirements are:
• Instruction is not necessarily being delivered in-person or in real time
• It may include various forms of digital and online learning such as prerecorded video lessons and preassigned work
• It must address the required curriculum.
To meet all students’ needs, LGISD chose to do a combination of both asynchronous and synchronous instruction together. What does this mean for the school?
• Students will participate in both synchronous and asynchronous instruction.
• Attendance recorded by the teacher in the synchronous class can count for official attendance for funding purposes.
• A student who misses the synchronous class can still be counted present for the day by engaging with the teacher or with the assignment during that same day in Google Classroom/ SeeSaw (whichever program is applicable to the student’s grade level.)
Changes to Facilities Fees and Rules
LGISD permits nonprofit organizations to conduct fundraising events on district property when these activities do not conflict with school use. Entities renting out facilities are provided with printed guidelines specifying required protocols. Currently, the district does not permit individuals or for-profit organizations to use its facilities for financial gain.
Rates in the district “Facilities Fees and Rules” were updated in August 2019 and there is no plan to increase the facility fees again this year with the exception of raising the high