January 26, 2004
Lehman athletic, band directors named

The Hays CISD Board of Trustees on Monday unanimously approved the hiring of Steve Davis as athletic director/head football coach and Joey Lucita as band director of Lehman High School.

Davis has served as the athletic coordinator and head football coach for Austin High School since 2002. He worked for Westlake High School from 1992 to 2002, including football offensive coordinator since 1997.

Lucita has worked for Hays CISD since 1994, most currently as associate band director at Hays High School. His responsibilities at Hays include director of Symphonic Band 1 and Jazz Band.

The district received more than 120 applicants for the head football coach and more than 50 for the band director. Dr. Kirk London, Superintendent of Hays CISD, noted the extensive screening process for the applicants. A committee of teachers and administrators narrowed the applicants down to five for each position. Two teams of teachers, parents and administrators interviewed the five applicants for each position and narrowed those to three. Finally, Dr. London and Elsa Hinojosa, principal of Lehman, interviewed the three applicants for each position, and recommended Davis and Lucita to the School Board.

“Both individuals clearly put academic achievement above their respective programs,” Ms. Hinojosa said. “They are student-centered and have traits we need to create positive programs from the ground up. They recognize the importance of significant relationships in a learning environment.”

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January 26, 2004
Trustees OK district financial audit

The Hays CISD Board of Trustees on Monday heard a “clean opinion” from Chief Financial Officer Carter Scherff in regards to the district’s financial audit.

“Essentially the audit said the financial statements fairly present the financial position of the district,” he said. “Of note in the audit was an increase in the fund balance of nearly $1 million from what was budgeted.”

The audit was conducted by Pattillo, Brown & Hill, headquartered in Waco hired by the district this past year following a request for proposal process.

The Board approved modifications to Lehman High School bleachers, lighting, restrooms and concessions totaling nearly $450,000, to be paid for primarily from interest earnings on the 2001 bond. About $43,000 of the total will come from the school’s construction budget.

With these modifications, “subvaristy” football and soccer games from the district’s middle schools can take place at the Lehman field. The stands will seat approximately 500 people and will be similar to the bleachers at Barton Middle School. The lighting will be sufficient to play night games, but will not be as bright as that at Shelton Stadium.

“This is easily the best choice and most economical choice,” said Dr. Kirk London, Superintendent of Hays CISD.

District enrollment is growing at a 5.4 percent clip, with an increase of nearly 60 students between the end of the fall semester and the beginning of the spring semester. District enrollment is 9,090 students.

As a result of the growing enrollment, three classes at Hemphill and Buda elementary schools exceed the state’s mandate of 22 students to one teacher.

“We have two options,” said Bob Presley, Deputy Superintendent. “We can add three teachers at a cost of about $105,000, or we can apply for a class-size waiver from TEA, which is allowed because we are a fast-growth school district.”

Adding teachers and splitting classes at this stage of the school year is “upsetting to those students and would not be in their best educational interests,” said Hemphill Elementary Principal Mike Hanson.

“This is an indication that our growth is going to continue to increase and we are going to continue to have to make contingency plans to deal with the growth,” London said. “When we get over 24 students per classroom, that’s as high as we want to go. Hemphill is one of the schools we’re going to be looking at placing portable (classrooms) over the next few years.”

The Board was presented with a draft academic calendar for the 2004-05 school year, as recommended by the calendar committee, made up of parents and representative teachers throughout the district. After concerns from a few Board members about the timing of Spring Break—the week before Easter rather than March 14-18, when both University of Texas and Texas State University plan Spring Break—staff was asked to continue to gather information about surrounding districts’ calendars and report the Board’s concerns to the calendar committee. A final calendar will be considered at the School Board’s February 23 regular meeting.

The Board approved the purchase of three buses—two 47 passenger and one 22-passenger buses—for a total cost of $185,639, funded from interest earnings. The buses replaced four buses that had to be removed from service.

The Board briefly discussed the feasibility of a controlled retirement incentive plan, as recommended by the Texas Comptroller’s School Performance Review.

“If we decide to go forward with this we will need to have the program approved in March,” Scherff said. “It can work. It must be open to all staff and it cannot be a retire-rehire program. It must be a one-time offer.”

Scherff said the savings could exceed $1 million.

“I think it’s something we need to study,” Dr. London said. “I’m not advocating it, but we need to study it.”

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January 21, 2004
Transfer applications available until June 1

Applications for transfers—from one school to another within Hays CISD, as well as from another district into Hays CISD—will be available at the Central Administration Office beginning Feb. 2.

Deadline for transfer applications to be returned to the Central Office is June 1.

Those students who have approved transfers on file for the 2003-04 school year and who wish to attend the same school will not be required to complete a new transfer application for 2004-05. However, those students who will be moving from an elementary school to a middle school, or from a middle school to a high school, must apply for a new transfer.

In addition, the district requires a new transfer application for any younger siblings, who are entering a school that is outside their attendance zone. All transfers are subject to class size availability and will be considered on a case-by-case basis depending upon the campus requested.

“The school district believes in an open transfer policy that allows parents to put their children where they want to as long as there’s space and it doesn’t require us to hire additional teachers,” said Dr. Kirk London, Superintendent of Hays CISD. “Requiring all transfer applications to be in by June 1 will allow us to do a better job of hiring the right number of teachers.”

Moving the deadline to June 1 from April 1 (as it was in years past) gives parents two months additional time to make a decision about transfer application, London said. And not requiring parents to fill out a transfer application every year will reduce paperwork for both parents and the school district.

According to district policy, the approval of a student transfer may not increase the ethnic imbalance percentage between the home campus and the requested campus by more than 5 percent. Also, campus principals may make recommendations to the superintendent or designee for student transfers to be revoked because of noncompliance with the compulsory attendance law or the district tardy procedures.

Transportation for students granted permission to attend schools outside their attendance areas will not be provided by the school district.

Lehman High School, the district’s newest school, is scheduled to open in August with the 8th graders from Wallace Middle School, and 9th and 10th graders who live in the Wallace attendance zone. Elsa Hinojosa, principal of Lehman High, has been meeting with next year’s Lehman students and their parents throughout January to answer any questions regarding transfers and to assist the students in registering for school next year. 

Since Lehman will not have an 11th or 12th grade this next year, Hays High School and The Academy @Hays will have all of the 11th and 12th graders in the district and buses will run to and from Hays High School for these students. However, those 9th and 10th graders who live in the Lehman attendance zone and wish to attend Hays High School must fill out a transfer application. For more information regarding Lehman High School, please call: 268-8454.

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