August 20, 2007
School Board reduces tax rate by 31.6 cents

The Hays CISD Board of Trustees on Monday unanimously approved a $96.2 million general operating budget for school year 2007-08 and adopted a tax rate of $1.46 per $100 valuation. The new tax rate reflects a decrease of 31.6 cents from last year’s rate.

Nearly 80 percent of the budget, $76.7 million, is dedicated toward salaries. This year’s budgeted expenditures are more than $13 million higher than last year.

“The growth in enrollment is driving our budget,” said Carter Scherff, Hays CISD Chief Financial Officer. Projections for this year are 13,100 students, he said, compared to 7,400 in 2000-01.

Scherff noted that property values have nearly tripled during that time, from $1.04 billion in 2000-01 to $3.05 billion this year.

“We’ve done what we can to deal with the tremendous growth and at the same time keep our tax rates as low as we can,” said Chip DuPont, President of the Hays CISD Board of Trustees. “We’re getting commercial growth along with the residential growth and the tax burden is spread across the community instead of on the backs of the taxpayers.”

First day of school enrollment projections are 12,841 students, Scherff said, adding that several elementary school campuses are preparing “capacity lists.”

“Some of our schools that historically don’t have a great number of signups in August, but have a lot of students show up for school on the first day, are already well beyond capacity now,” he said.

Four portable buildings (eight classrooms) have been added to Fuentes Elementary and three have been added each at Science Hall and Green Elementary schools. Tobias Elementary School, which has been at or over capacity since it opened in 2003, is anticipating more than 900 students this year.

Two new elementary schools, located in the Blanco Vista subdivision in San Marcos and in the Camino Real subdivision in Niederwald, are currently under construction, expected to open in August 2008.

“This is the last year we will not open a campus for the foreseeable future, unless we see a change in the growth,” he said. Based on projections, Scherff estimated, a new school would need to open in 2009 and two in 2010 to address growth.

“We will start to put a committee together to look at the next bond package, as well as determining the attendance zones for the two new schools,” DuPont said. “We’ve got some strong people in this community who understand the challenges we face. The decisions made by this committee could set the direction for the next five to 10 years.”

In other business, the School Board:

• Approved a final budget amendment of $3.5 million to fund technology expenditures, extensive improvements to Tom Green Elementary School and the reworking of South Campus of Hays High School for The Academy @Hays and curriculum and instruction offices would be funded through the district’s fund balance;

• Approved the redemption of $1 million of the bonds approved by voters in 2006, for a savings of $1.2 million;

• Extended to February 28, 2008 administration’s authority to refund $60.8 million in bonds for a potential savings to the district of $1.75 million.

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August 8, 2007
Back-to-school planned for August 23

Back-to-School at most campuses in Hays CISD will be Thursday, August 23. Students and parents will have an opportunity to meet teachers, pick up schedules, finalize immunization verification, check transportation schedules and begin to get back into the rhythm of school.

Back-to-School at all nine elementary school campuses begins at 6 p.m.

Barton Middle School Back-to-School night is also August 23, and begins at 6:30 p.m.

At Chapa Middle School, schedule pick-up is from 1-8 p.m. on Wednesday, August 22 and runs until 8 p.m. Back-to-School night is August 23 at 6:30 p.m. Open House at Chapa will be September 20, at 6:30 p.m.

Dahlstrom Middle School has a noon -6 p.m. schedule pick-up on August 23, and then at 6:30 p.m., an Open House for 6^th graders. At 7:30 p.m., the Open House is for 7^th and 8^th graders.

Wallace Middle School’s WEB Program for 6^th graders is August 23 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. This orientation includes information and activities about transportation, lunch, lockers and schedules. At 6:30 p.m., Back-to-School will begin for students and parents to pick up their schedules, meet teachers and check bus schedules.

The Academy @Hays Back-to-School night is Wednesday, August 22, at 6 p.m.

For Lehman High School students, schedule pick-up is from noon to 7 p.m. on August 22. A Lobo Kick Off will be at Shelton Stadium at 5:30 p.m. on August 23, and on September 10, LHS will conduct its annual Open House at 7 p.m.

For Hays High School students, senior schedule pick-up, parking permits and textbooks will be available from 1:30-4 p.m. on August 20. Those hours are the same on Tuesday, August 21 for juniors, and on Wednesday, August 22 for sophomores. On Thursday, August 23, Fish Camp will be for incoming freshmen from 2-6 p.m. at Bales Gym. Parents are encouraged to join the students at 6 p.m.

The first day of school for the 2007-08 school year is August 27.

Bus information will be posted on the district website as soon as they are available.  School supply lists are posted: http://www.hayscisd.net/schools/Supplies/supply.html

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August 8, 2007
Hays CISD receives teacher mentor grant

Hays CISD’s teacher induction/mentor (I/M) program has received a $225,000, two-year grant from the Texas Education Agency. The district will match about $45,000.

The bulk of the grant funding will go toward stipends for qualified mentor teachers who agree to assist new-to-profession teachers. In addition, the grant will pay for professional development and substitute teachers. Eight campuses—Chapa Middle School, Wallace Middle School, Lehman High School (LHS), Hays High School (HHS), Green Elementary School, Hemphill Elementary School, Tobias Elementary School and Elm Grove Elementary School—were named in the grant award, based on various criteria, including attrition the previous year.

The deans of instruction at LHS and HHS, Christi Growt and Yarda Leflet, and Joanne Klaerner in Central Administration Office’s Curriculum and Instruction Division wrote the grant application.

Bob Presley, Hays CISD Deputy Superintendent, initiated the district’s I/M program more than a decade ago to help new-to-profession teachers in their first few years in the classroom. The program includes staff development, classroom observations, leadership development and one-on-one “guided” conversation between the new teacher and his/her mentor teacher.

“We don’t want our new-to-profession teachers just to survive the first couple of years in the classroom, we’re trying to give them the tools to thrive,” Presley said. “We believe that the success of our I/M program is one of the reasons the district was selected as a grant recipient.”

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August 7, 2007
School Board sets maximum tax rate

The Hays CISD Board of Trustees on Monday set a maximum tax rate of $1.4613 for 2007-08, a decline of 31.67 cents over this past year.

The Board will conduct a public hearing and then vote on the tax rate and the 2007-08 budget, at the August 20 regular meeting.

“With this rate, we will be able to maximize state funding and still see a reduction of more than 31 cents,” said Carter Scherff, Hays CISD Chief Financial Officer.

The maximum rate was set after a lengthy state-of-the-district discussion that included student performance, curriculum initiatives, enrollment projections and the district’s $120 million budget.

Property values surpassed the $3-billion mark, Scherff said, which reflects an increase of 17.6 percent from last year.

A new demographic report (available on the district website, link to report ) shows enrollment at the beginning of the school year to be about 13,130 students. The district ended the year with 11,954 students and began the 2006-07 school year with 11,496. By the fall of 2008, enrollment is projected to be 14,414.

Two new elementary schools, Camino Real Elementary and Blanco Vista Elementary, are currently under construction and set to open in August 2008. In the meantime, Tom Green, Tobias and Hemphill elementary schools will continue to be the most crowded, Scherff said.

“Our next overcrowded school will be Science Hall Elementary School,” said Dr. Kirk London, Superintendent of Hays CISD. He noted that the two new elementary schools will relieve Hemphill, Tobias and Tom Green, but not Science Hall Elementary School.

According to the enrollment projections, conducted by School District Strategies, by January 2012, enrollment in Hays CISD will increase 26.7 percent, from January 2007. Enrollment in the district is expected to average about 1,100 more students every year.

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August 7, 2007
Trustees review 2006 bond progress

While it rained 22 days in June and nearly every day in July, Carter Scherff, Hays CISD Chief Financial Officer, assured the School Board that all of the major projects of the 2006 bond are on schedule.

“But we don’t have many rain days left,” he quipped.

Framework is showing at Blanco Vista Elementary and Camino Real Elementary, which are scheduled to open by August 2008. Estimated construction cost is $15.5 million for each school.

Major renovation at Buda Elementary School “is on track completely,” he said. Air conditioning/heating systems will be replaced, all classrooms will be painted and new ceilings will be installed, and kitchens at both the upper and lower campuses will be upgraded. Budgeted construction cost of the Buda Elementary renovation is $3.6 million.

“We are starting to take back the classrooms this week,” Scherff said.

The Academy @Hays, the district’s alternative high school of choice, is housed in a wing of Barton Middle School, currently the most crowded middle school, Scherff said.

Scherff presented a proposal to the School Board for moving The Academy @Hays, plus offices for central curriculum and instruction staff, to Hays High School’s South Campus.

“We have to have the space at Barton,” said Dr. Kirk London, Superintendent of Hays CISD. “By reworking the South Campus, we’re providing space for curriculum and instruction, The Academy, student assessment, plus we’ll have programs for Hays and Lehman students on both ends of the spectrum.”

He described classes, both during the school day and after hours for students who need remediation or extra assistance passing their core courses, as well as computer labs for students “to get ahead so they can have more space for extracurricular activities in the school day.”

“With the new 4-by-4 requirements (four “core” subjects for four years), students are not going to be taking as many electives,” he said. “They’ll have to take the electives outside the school day. This will provide a lot of benefits to our secondary students.”

Scherff included the reworking of South Campus for The Academy @Hays and curriculum and instruction offices in a financial proposal that also targeted extensive improvements to Tom Green Elementary School, and would be funded through the district’s fund balance.

While the 2006 bond included $600,000 for Tom Green Elementary School, that is not enough to cover the necessary improvements, he said.

“This project is going to take a lot to complete,” Scherff said. “It is a $4 million project, but it is the right thing to do for the school. These kids will have everything the students at other schools in our district have.”

The renovation will add six classrooms and a gym, and improve the library, cafeteria, and computer lab.

“The project that we have proposed will complete the school,” he said. “Four million dollars is worth it just for the way they feel about the school,” said School Board Member Ralph Pfluger. “When they heard it was being proposed, the news liked to blow the roof off.”

“We feel good about this,” Dr. London said. “They deserve it.”

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August 7, 2007
School Board hears TAKS report

Four elementary schools in Hays CISD—Elm Grove, Negley, Fuentes and Tobias—achieved “recognized” status under the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, and seven of the nine elementary campuses are “right on the fence of going to the next higher rating.”

John Thornell, Executive Director of Assessment for Hays CISD, gave the School Board a thorough review of each campus’ performance on the TAKS during a state-of-the-district workshop Monday. He also offered some analysis about how the district is moving toward recognized status.

“We don’t have to get every campus at recognized to get a recognized rating,” he said. “But we can’t have anyone at the bottom of the acceptable rating. I don’t see any reason that our close elementary campuses (that are currently acceptable) can’t come up next year.”

“Several campuses are very close—three or four students—to the next higher rating,” he said. “In math, six of the nine elementary campuses are at the recognized performance level. Buda and Negley (elementary schools) will receive gold performance acknowledgements from TEA for commended performance in math.”

All elementary and middle school campuses in Hays CISD achieved recognized level in writing, he noted. High school students do not take a TAKS writing test.

“In science, six of the elementary schools were in the recognized range,” he said, noting, “Green had fantastic improvement in science scores.”

“Green is our shining star campus,” he said, “based on how much improvement they made this year. Had the accountability (bar) not moved up, Green Elementary would have been recognized this year. They missed it by two students.”

On a district level:

• 88 percent of the students (recognized) passed the reading/English-Language Arts portion of the TAKS, a gain of 2 percent over last year

• 90 percent passed writing (recognized), a gain of 2 percent over last year

• 72 percent passed math (acceptable), a gain of 2 percent over last year

• 70 percent passed science (acceptable), same as last year’s performance

• 89 percent passed social studies (recognized), a gain of 3 percent over last year’s performance.

“Math and science are currently preventing the district from achieving recognized rating,” he said. 

Dr. Kim Pool, the district’s new Executive Director of Secondary Curriculum and Dolores Riley, Executive Director of Elementary Curriculum, backed up Thornell’s analysis with strategies to improve student performance.

During her first weeks on the job, Dr. Pool interviewed a number of instructional staff and administrators to determine district curriculum needs.

“I want to value the work that has happened in this district, but also to talk about what we have to do differently,” she said. “We can change without improving, but it is impossible to improve without changing.”

A guaranteed and viable district curriculum is needed, she said. “It is the responsibility of the district to provide this.”

A comprehensive and focused district-wide professional development program is imperative for students to “experience high-quality instruction from teachers who have been trained.”

Finally, a systemic consistency of practices and procedures will be critical to quality delivery of instruction, she said.

“Many of the practices are campus-based,” she said. “I’m not saying we need to eliminate that flexibility. But we do need to provide district structure. These random acts of improvement, or initiatives taken on by the campuses may not address district goals in the most effective manner. An aligned systemic approach will produce the greatest results.”

Dr. Pool suggested a 12^th grade through kindergarten perspective.

“Our end result is that they graduate,” she said. “We want them to leave prepared for college and ready to excel. So we have to be able to start with what we want them to know and work our way back to kindergarten. Every year our teachers are instructing every bit of the current year’s curriculum to prepare our students for the next grade, building the foundation for learning.”

“If we’ve waited for the 3^rd grade teacher to teach the student everything that student needs to know on the 3^rd grade TAKS test, we’ve waited too long,” she said.

Dr. Pool asked the Board to consider a curriculum management program, CSCOPE, developed by 10 Education Service Centers in Texas. About one-quarter of the school districts in Texas use the CSCOPE. On Monday, the School Board approved the subscription to the CSCOPE Curriculum System Cooperative.

“Teachers will see the expectations, based on the state curriculum, bundled and placed on a timeline,” she explained. “CSCOPE adds specificity so the teacher doesn’t spend her time interpreting what the student expectations mean. That way the student is provided quality instruction on every student expectation before he takes the high stakes test.”

“We’re hoping our teachers see this as a resource,” said Dr. Kirk London, Superintendent of Hays CISD. “This is something we’re giving to help them, particularly in the areas they may not be strong in. We don’t have time to write the curriculum. Somebody has already written it.”

“What this district has ahead of it is a very difficult thing: to raise the educational standards of our students in a very diverse population,” said Ralph Pfluger, School Board member. “One of the keys is those teachers being part of the change. If a person is unable to join in, if this is going to be a distraction to the program has a whole, and after a reasonable amount of time, they may be happier working in another district.”

“This will create a common amount of emphasis and focus across the district,” Thornell said. “The curriculum management says, ‘This is assigned to what you were supposed to teach in a certain amount of time.’ And our scores will reflect that. The focus has to be where the focus needs to be.”

“The principals are on board 100 percent,” Dr. London said. “It should have a correlation to our commended scores also. We’re not leaving things out that the students are expected to know. We will work real hard this year at helping our teachers. We’re so close, it’s doable.”

“If we as a group can have high expectations for ourselves and the students, make sure everyone is teaching the district curriculum and teaching it well, differentiating instruction for students and tracking their progress, I know we’ll see some major strides,” Mrs. Riley said. “Probably the most important thing that we can do to improve student achievement overall is to identify those specific struggling students and develop intermittent goals for them. It will be imperative that we continue the intervention long enough to make sure it is working and track their progress continually along the way. The instructional strategists will be a great assistance to teachers in helping them develop the appropriate intervention for individual students and creating a monitoring plan.”

Mrs. Riley mentioned some of the staff development that took place over the summer, including the three-day Bilingual Institute and math and reading training. Teachers were busy writing science curriculum as well as creating grade-level vocabulary lists for each subject area.

Research shows that economically disadvantaged students lack a strong academic vocabulary base, so the district will require students to master specific vocabulary words at each grade level. These students will have, then, a much larger bank of vocabulary words entering middle school, which will help them have a firmer foundation on which to build new concepts/skills, she said.

Some elementary science teachers have stated that they need more training in the content, so staff development will be provided during the school year. Demonstration lessons by experienced teachers will be videoed and then be available for teachers to view from their classroom or from home.

Mrs. Riley also said that increasing the quality of questioning in the classroom will be a priority. More challenging, in-depth questioning will promote higher level thinking in the students.

She discussed the importance of administrators closely monitoring the curriculum.

“Teachers want principals to visit the classrooms so they can see the great teaching that is occurring and teachers be affirmed,” she said. “Through regular walkthroughs, principals will also recognize those teachers in need of assistance and provide support for them quickly. Teaching is a profession in which one is constantly growing professionally. It is our responsibility to help every teacher improve her/his craft so that students can achieve a high level of academic success.”

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