The Levelland ISD Board of Trustees held their monthly meeting last Tuesday where public forum was the focal point of the meeting.
Several individuals took the opportunity to voice their grievances and concerns in front of the board and administration.
Beginning opening comment were two educators from Levelland Middle School, Martin Torez who teaches sixth grade students and Gene Burton who teaches eighth grade students.
Both educators spoke about a recent physical altercation that had occurred at their campus.
Torrez reminded the board of the Code of Ethics adopted by the district in 2023 and explained that the group has not been adhering to the code.
Additionally, Torrez added that this year has been difficult at LMS with the addition of another grade. To that point, he added that many of the schools quality educators have made the decision to leave.
Torrez wrapped up his time with sharing his concerns that a parents word may outweigh the educators. He added that the board and administration are here to serve the student, parent and employee, but they cannot pick and choose.
Burton followed Torrez and cited an incident involving a physical altercation between two students at LMS on April 4.
Burton explained that the student had already had an issue with physical altercations on the campus within the school year. Burton was able to restrain the student while in compliance with the Texas Administration Code Chapter 8910-53.
He reported that no other administrators or resource officers responded to the incident until after the incident was over. Burton added that several teachers reported to him that they were afraid of the student.
One day later, Burton says he was called in by campus administration and was told he would be reprimanded for actions that were described as unacceptable and a liability to the district.
Burton felt that what he was being told was accusatory and the decision to reprimand him had already been made. He also stated that the administrator informed him that if any legal action was taken, the video from the cameras would not be in favor of the district.
Burton presented the board with a report that covered more than 11 pages of information including witness statements. He stated that on April 8, administrators informed him that the reprimand had been lifted.
Burton finished his open comment time by stating teachers and staff should not be found at fault immediately. He explained that the automatic response to a disgruntled parent should not be to immediately offer up staff to avoid legal liability.
Burton stated that Texas educators have to be held to a high standard but being threatened with punishment for doing a job is intolerable.
Sandy Bridges took time to speak to the board about pulling out of the Special Educational Cooperative program. Bridges explained that the program has been one of the best in the state and the special education services was bringing in more than $700,000 a year in transfer student funds.
She also highlighted that 26 employees were involved in the program and questioned if they wanted to leave the district due to the pull out of the program.
She called the pull out another administrative decision without proper research and consultation.
Delight Davis capped off the open comment portion of the meeting by talking about the recent survey sent to teachers. She explained that the survey was sent to teachers through district email. That means the district would know who and how teachers responded to the survey.
Davis shifted her focus to administration during her comment stated that LISD has lost roughly 400 students who have transferred under Superintendent Becky McCutchen. She believes the high transfer rate is due to lack of discipline in the schools, to administrators not being on campus, and to teachers who don’t feel supported.
Davis questioned if anyone was talking to teachers that were leaving and asked them the reasons why they were leaving.
Davis also provided more examples of concern such as the shutting down LIS with consulting with board members or the community and without consulting teachers. She also questioned the finances of the district stating that vendors used to paid on the 15th and the 25th of every month and claims that now vendors are being paid sometimes as much as 60 days later Heading into action items, the board was asked to consider the approval of instructional materials for 2024-2025.
It was explained that Amplify is the adopted Reading/Language Arts curriculum for kindergarten through fifth grade. Boost is also the supplemental online component to Amplify that learners can use.
Amplify Tutoring is the intervention piece. The item was required to be approved by the board due to the total purchase exceeding $50,000. The item was approved by the board.
Moving forward, Board Policy CH(LOCAL) states that the board delegates to the superintendent or designee the authority to make budgeted purchases for goods or services.
However, any single, budgeted purchase of goods or services that costs $50,000 or more, regardless of whether the goods or services are competitively purchased, shall require board approval before a transaction may take place Administration asked the board to approve the technology department’s request to purchase replacement technology ,with the quote from Dell to replace technology for students.
This purchase would be for 9th Grade Chromebooks, 5th Grade Chromebooks, ABC Tablets, and staff devices with totals of $62,850 to Apple Education and $279,907.40 to Dell Technologies.
In regard to safety and security equipment, the district is looking at replacing, upgrading the current cameras, access control and implement required safety systems district-wide to ensure the safety and security of students and staff.
This item is for the cameras, access control, and silent panic buttons. The quote receded from 5G Security is $381,284.47. The item was approved by the board.