The Levelland ISD School Board held their monthly regular meeting Wednesday that covered several updates and a handful of action items.
Kicking off the meeting were ABC students Joleigh and Jordyn Ruiz who led the pledge before the beginning of the meeting.
Levelland ISD Superintendent Becky McCutchen explained that every year a resolution is brought forward by the local 4H Club requesting to be deemed an affiliated extracurricular activity.
This resolution includes the county extension agents with the Hockley County Agrilife Extension office as adjunct professors for this purpose. This would include agents Wes Utley, Kerry Siders, Tristyn Galindo, and Ashley Hanson. With the 4H group active in the surrounding areas, they makes up a large portion of extracurricular activities for students.
Effective September 1, 2023, House Bill 3033 defines a “business day” to mean “a day other than: a Saturday or Sunday; a national holiday under the Texas Government Code; or a state holiday under Texas Government Code as it pertains to the Texas Public Information Act. All other days are considered “business days” regardless of whether the governmental entity is closed.
However, a governmental entity, such as Levelland ISD, may choose up to 10 “nonbusiness days” outside of those days covered in the bill for the 2023 calendar year. These “nonbusiness days” will not count as business days for information requests made through the Texas Public Information Act.
Levelland ISD reviewed its school calendar to determine which school days it would like to designate as “nonbusiness days” for the remaining 2023 calendar year. Consideration was given to the Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks, as well at the district’s fall break in October.
Levelland ISD currently has a District of Innovation plan in place that allows flexibility and more local control to meet the needs of the students and district. It also allows the district to obtain exemptions from certain provisions of the Texas Education Code. One of the exemptions is in the area of Teacher Certification, which allows the District to employee non-certified CTE and fine arts teachers.
An amendment was approved for the plan which aids in the difficulty of staffing. With the teacher shortage, the district has had their own staffing problems. After looking at some of the area schools, administrators asked the board for more flexibility for their non-traditional teachers trying to enter the education sector.
McCutchen explained that the CET program was taking longer than one year on average to finish. The change to the program would grant additional time to a teacher going through one of the programs, allowing them to stay in the classroom, even should they not finish the program within a year.
This would all be according to principal discretion, with extensive background checks like any other employee working with students, but would also give these teachers more time to complete their programs to become fully certified educators.
McCutchen added that Levelland will continue to seek highly effective certified educators for teaching positions. By establishing local certification instead of requirements set in the Texas Education Code, Levelland ISD will be able to best serve students by employing high quality educators that might not ordinarily qualify under the traditional teacher certification pathway. The flexibility in allowing Levelland ISD to make local decisions about teacher certification would provide a better opportunity to offer innovation in course selections for CTE and high demand courses as well as hard to fill positions.
Upon hire, the district will continue to encourage all staff to attain credentials as set forward by the State Board of Educator Certification. Based on local need, this exemption from teacher certification requirements will enable greater flexibility in staffing and will enrich applicant pools in areas of need.
This would allow the district to provide the following: - Provide more flexibility in scheduling; - Provide more options for students in class offerings; - Allow degreed individuals who may not be certified to teach hard-to-fill or high demand courses; - Allow experienced teachers to teach a course in an area they have qualified knowledge but do not have that particular certification; and - Allow industry certified and, or trade professionals to teach specialized certification courses.
The principal may submit to the superintendent and, or the designee a request for a local certification outlining the individual’s credentials, qualifications. The principal must specify in writing the reason for the request and document what credentials the teacher possesses to qualify this individual to teach the proposed subject.
The superintendent will report the action to the Board of Trustees at the first board meeting following these assignments. A teacher certification waiver, state permit applications, notifications, or other paperwork will not be submitted to the Texas Education Agency or other district stakeholders.
Special Education and Bilingual/ESL teachers will continue to be SBEC certified.
Moving forward, McCutchen explained that at last count, current enrollment is at 2,609.
With the development of the Levelland Community Facility Committee, their first meeting was held September 6.
In attendance, there were 28 community committee members, three board members (Facility Sub Committee) and five Levelland ISD District Administrators The agenda included the elected committee chair and vicechair.
The group reviewed Parkhill, Smith & Cooper - November 15, 2012 Summary of Facility Assessment of District needs, Five Year Planning Window, and the Levelland ISD Current Facility Study.
Future meetings are slated for: - Monday, September 11, 6 p.m., High School Facility Tour; - Monday, September 25, 6 p.m., Intermediate and Carver Facility Tours; - Monday, October 2, 6 p.m., meeting at the Central Office to review information; - Monday, October 9, 6 p.m., Capitol Elementary, South Elementary and Transportation Department Facility Tours; - Monday, October 23, 6 p.m., meeting at the Central Office to review information - Tour ABC and Middle School, TBD and additional meetings TBD.