LGISD Holds Monthly Board Meeting
Some highlights from Monday’s La Grange monthly school board meeting: Personnel Items
Four teachers were approved for the 2025-26 school year. They are Myra Dippel – elementary school special education; Shelby Lane – assistant band director; Brittany Oruonyehu – high school teacher/coach; and Steven Richards – high school German teacher. Tiffany Denham will transfer from elementary special education to middle school special education. Other new hires are: Katherine Raj – middle school education aide; and Jaedyn Robinson – high school/middle school food service worker.
Resignations were received from: Kimberlee Anderson – high school special education teacher; Marlene Glaiser – elementary education bilingual teacher; Nicholas Parker – elementary teacher/ coach; DelLani Cavaness - high school/middle school food service worker; Danis McEachern - high school/ middle school food service worker; Alesandra Solorzano – education aide; and Sherian Tofel – Norma Webb receptionist. Public Comment
Becky Snyder addressed the board with two concerns during the time for comments from the public.
The first item addressed was the Teacher Incentive Allotment that was discussed last month. She said, “At last month’s meeting we were presented with the basics of the teacher incentive allotment program established by the state. While I appreciate that the state is funding this, I hope that the district will consider establishing and funding a local program for those not included in the state funding ... Counselors, librarians, and paraprofessionals all play a role in student success that can’t be rewarded under the state program.”
The second item she addressed was the reconsideration of books.
“It is nice to see that the long list of books being reconsidered is almost complete and should be noted that no new books have been added for reconsideration since the board policy was changed last summer and only a couple of books have been removed from the purchase list. While I don’t agree with the decision to remove books, I do support the members of the committees who have spent many hours reading books that they likely would not have chosen to read. If the majority of the committee felt the need to remove a book, I hope that it came with careful consideration and discussion or deliberation. Because basically the books have been on trial ...
“The ‘Hate U Give’ was retained by the committee that read it. However, an appeal was made and it is my understanding that a single reader was able to override the decision of the committee. I have read through the board policy trying to figure out how or why this was allowed ... If appeals are going to be allowed, both sides should be able to do it.”
Keilers Recognized by Board for Region 13 Award Pam Keilers was recently recognized as the star teacher of the month for April for the whole Region 13, not just La Grange but the whole region.
School Board President Gary Drab remarked, “Listening to Dr. Pineda and Mr. McHazlett saying what all you do at the high school, I was impressed.
There are 57 districts in region 13. Some of them have 40, 50, 100 campuses. So, now on behalf of the board congratulations Ms. Keilers on your award. It’s very exceptional and very well-deserved.”