During Monday night’s meeting of the Brownwood ISD Board of Trustees, East Elementary and second-grade teachers Mary Salazar and Emily Justice were recognized for their performances regarding the state-adopted Bluebonnet curriculum.
Deputy Superintendent Liesa Land told those in attendance TEA’s authorized grant providers have consistently observed strong instructional momentum at East Elementary
“A Nov. 12 visit provided TEA Educational Service Center 15 the opportunity to see the excellent work in action, and to recognize the commitment of East Elementary, and campus and district leadership,” Land said. “They said they were proud to showcase East Elementary and appreciate the ongoing collaboration across Brownwood administration that makes the growth possible.”
Salazar and Justice had the largest gains overall from module 1 to module 3. Since the beginning of the school year, their approaches went from 64 percent to 83 percent, their meets went from 36 percent to 61 percent, and their masters went from 25 percent to 42 percent.
Also Monday night, the winners of this year’s Christmas card contest were recognized – Coggin Elementary 2nd grader Abram Delgado and Brownwood High freshman Dayana Cruz Sanchez.
During the business portion of the meeting, BISD Superintendent Dr. Joe Young reported there will be savings from several items completed regarding the 2023 BISD bond, along with interest income from the bond money. Once projects are completed, BISD will have extra money to spend on the projects in the three bond propositions – school facilities, Gordon Wood Stadium, and the MAC.
A public hearing was then held on the FIRST Financial Report. BISD received a grade of 78, down two points from last year. BISD lost the two points from the year prior due to having just 30-40 days of cash on hand, when the expectation is 90 days.
Dr. Young then presented the seat belt cost report, which requires the district to have three-point seat belts on all busses. If that is not the case, a report must be prepared and presented to the state regarding how much the upgrades will cost.
BISD owns 22 busses and seven are equipped with three-point seat belts. Young reported nine busses could be prepared and retro-fitted at a total cost of $295,000, while the other six busses would need a complete overhaul with new flooring and seats, at a cost of $420,000 – or $715,000 total for the 15 busses that are currently not up to standard.
Trustee Tim Wilson asked the cost of a new bus with three-point seat belts, and was told the cost was around $150,000. Discussion was then held whether it would be more cost efficient to buy new busses opposed to updating the older ones, some of which are more than 10 years old. No action was taken.