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Board Notes
A Summary of the
January 11, 2010, Tyler ISD Board of Trustees Workshop
Meeting
Board Approves
Exterior Design for Two Campus Renovations
The Board of
Trustees approved the exterior elevations and floor plans
for Birdwell Elementary and Owens Elementary.
Mike Craig,
architect
with
Eubanks-Harris-Roberts-Craig, gave a presentation to the
Board of Trustees with the proposed exterior elevations and
floor plans. The Birdwell Elementary School proposal
includes 17,000 new square footage and 55,000 square feet of
renovated space. The campus will have a new front entrance
location and the renovations will be in line with the other
600-student new campuses currently being constructed by the
District.
Owens
Elementary School will have 29,500 square feet of new space
and 45,000 square feet of renovated space. According to Mr.
Craig, the campus will have a new monumental front
entryway. This new design will create a secure front entry
office like other newly constructed campuses. New
facilities at the campus will include cafetorium, gymnasium,
library, computer room, art rooms, new classrooms, and an
enclosed courtyard.
Food Service
Discussed at Board Meeting
Director of Food
Service, Victor Olivares, presented to the Board of Trustees
a report about the District’s Food Service Program. The
Food Service Department consists of approximately 150
employees. The department feeds an estimated 6,500 breakfast
meals a day and 14,900 lunches a day. Currently there are
10,709 students qualified for free lunch and 1,428 qualified
for reduced meals. The campuses are feeding a high
percentage of students district wide. All schools are over
60% participation.
The challenge
the food service department faces is finding ways to
increase participation in the schools with the lower
free/reduced rates. In an effort to face this challenge,
the food service department has:
1.
Utilized the webpage to educate families on the Food Service
program
2.
Included Food Service Facts on menu backs each month
3.
Closely monitored the campuses on a weekly basis to ensure
quality and presentation
4.
Continued the food advisory committees at middle schools
5.
Will consider a food advisory committee at a few select
elementary schools
Each new school
year the Food Service Department has the challenge of
processing just over 5,000 meal applications. The state
has also helped with this approval process by allowing
districts to utilize the “Direct Certification” program.
This program is computer generated and automatically sends
information, qualifying students based on the household food
stamp status. This process qualifies an additional
5,000-6,000 students for free meals.
Science
Discussed at Board Meeting
Coordinator of
K-12 science, Linda Benolken, presented to the Board of
Trustees a report about the science curriculum. She
explained that as we look at the overall district scores and
compare 2008 to 2009 scores, we see increases across all
subpopulations. The score of 50 was the state standard for
meeting expectations. Economically disadvantaged showed the
highest increase from 54 to 60. Ms. Benolken said Tyler ISD
has some celebrating to do for scores changing positively
during the first year of implementing a new Cscope science
curriculum. There are gains in overall percent passing and
commended scores for 5th , 10th, and
11th grade students. The goal of the District is
to increase the number of students performing at commended
levels each year to have a solid science foundation for
secondary science coursework at both the middle school and
high school levels. Tyler ISD has some campuses performing
above these district average scores and some campuses
performing below these district averages when each of the 25
campuses is looked at individually.
Ms. Benolken
said that in order for our district and campuses to meet the
state standards in this 2010 year in science, Tyler ISD will
need to make a 5 percent increase in each of the
indicators. To be acceptable (55%) or recognized (80%).
The criteria for a campus to be Exemplary remains at 90%.
She said the current 7th graders will be held to
new high school science graduation requirements. The high
school TAKS test will phase out and students will be
required to take End of Course assessments in Biology,
Chemistry, and Physics. These tests will measure a
students’ academic performance in each of these core high
school courses and will also be counted as 15% of a
student’s final grade for each of these courses.
Tyler ISD did
what no other district in the state has done. Ms. Benolken
said the District provided all consumable and non-consumable
materials for every teacher in the district. Only perishable
items or items that are typical of a student or campus list
are not provided by the team.
Materials lists
for all the hands-on science activities are created by the
science team. An on-line ordering system for campuses has
been created so teachers can fill them out once every six
weeks. The Science Department orders the materials. And as
they arrive they are taken to the John Tyler Life Skills
classroom where students count and sort them into individual
campus and grade level boxes. The Instructional Specialists
are then notified when their campus materials are ready for
pick-up. Ms. Benolken said they are so thankful and
appreciative of Mrs. June Allen’s willingness to take on
this extra project with her Life Skills students. It has
allowed the science facilitators to spend more time in the
classrooms and with teachers.
Tyler ISD
currently has all 6th -12th grade
science teachers receiving five to seven full days of staff
development through the Texas Regional Collaborative for
Science at UT Tyler. These teachers receive training in
technology and research based science strategies. There are
a number of staff development opportunities held for science
teachers both during the day and after school in the Pay for
Knowledge program. There will be mandatory staff
development starting this summer from the state to begin
gearing up for the new Science TEKS and End Of Course (EOC)
testing in our near future.
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