Lots of exciting things are happening at CISD! During the school board meeting last night, February 13, 2023, the CISD board approved the collaborative effort of local law enforcement and the District.
After approval from the CISD School Board, Colorado City City Council, and the Mitchell County Commissioner Court, the county and city will each add a law enforcement officer to their roster that will serve at the campuses of CISD during the school year.
The School Resource Officers (SRO) will be on both campuses of the District and will serve the rest of the year as deputy and police officers for the county and the city. Funding for the SROs will be split between the partnerships, and CISD will use grant funds to supplement its portion of the SRO compensation.
The Colorado City Police Department and the Mitchell County Sheriff's Department will recruit and hire the SRO to begin service during the 2023-2024 school year.
The CISD board gave Dr. Larry Polk, superintendent of CISD, complete autonomy to approach the City of Colorado City and the Mitchell County Commissioner Court to make this advancement in safety for our campuses. While Dr. Polk brought the idea of collaboration, the full support of our school board made the SRO program a reality.
With the unanimous approval of the School Resource Officers, uniformed officers and their vehicles on each campus will add an extra layer of safety to both campuses.
With the focus of instructional time being a high priority, the board praised CHS Principal Rebecca Russel and Vice Principal Steve Komppa for the new policy regarding student usage of cell phones that was instated at CHS on February 13.
Continuing with approvals, the board approved compensation to the CISD auxiliary staff affected monetarily when the school faces closure due to bad weather. Acceptance of this resolution by the board allows the auxiliary staff payment for days they couldn't complete hours due to conditions out of their control.
Colorado ISD will continue its partnership with TSTC (Texas State Technical College) in Sweetwater, allowing students opportunities in career and technical education programs that prepare our students for further education toward future careers.
With the testing season upon us, Assistant Superintendent Denise Farmer made a presentation regarding STAAR Redesign that informed the board of the changes to the existing STAAR test.
Providing resources to students, parents, and educators was imperative to the board as they saw examples of cross-curricular and open-ended format changes being made to STAAR. One resource discussed was the TEA website: https://tea.texas.gov/student-... .
"I know we have had nights that we provided training for parents in the past. Is that something we can do, especially with the new test? I feel like a lot of people aren't aware of how difficult the test is," said CISD Board President Emily Strain.
Dr. Polk presented the TASB (Texas Association of School Boards) Statement for Facility Analysis Report to the board for approval.
"From this report, we will have a running record as a baseline for all of our facilities and repairs needed. This allows us the opportunity to be preventive and set aside money from within our budget to take care of these needs," said Dr. Polk
The Facility Analysis Report provides the District with an assessment of facility condition needs and supplies a predictive structure for repairs.
Upon approval School Board Trustee Jamie Alvarez had this to say,
"Knowing that you will have that good outline, you're not going to get hit all the sudden or even retrospectively, more proactively you would be able to gage those things and prepare; the board, the community as a whole, being transparent is the key."
With the school board, administration and collaborative partnerships working together, we see, WE ARE BETTER TOGETHER come to fruition.
CISD welcomes the community at the next board meeting scheduled for March 27, 2023. Board agendas and minutes from past meetings can be found on our website.