HISD board addresses short agenda

The Hallettsville ISD Board of Trustees met in its regular meeting Wednesday, April 10 addressing a short list of agenda items.

Regarding agenda items, the board voted to approve early dismissal at noon during the last week of the school year.

Superintendant Dr. Jo Ann Bludau told the board the early dismissal was held last year and seemed to work out good.

“At the end of the year there are all kinds of activities such as graduation award ceremonies at elementary and the junior high,” Bludau said. “The teachers liked it because it gave them time to wrap up their grades and have students stay back who needed to finish up whatever things needed to be done.”

She said with finals planned this year, she sees no reason for attendance to be a factor as the students will need to be present for the test.

After hearing from the district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, Dr. Mandy Bucek, who reported on new adoption materials for proclamation 2024 and instructional materials allotment and TEKS certification, the board approved these items.

The board voted to table a Parking Lot Phase 1 change order from Frontier Development, Inc. for $37 thousand.

Board president Brian Smith reported that all board members completed their board training.

Following executive session, the board approved the hiring of Kara Steward as the EC-fourth grade teacher, Ashley Albrecht as the Career and Technical Education Teacher - Health Science Technical Education and Logan Lisenbea was hired as the Social Studies (Government & Economics) Teacher / Coach.

Financial Report:

Hallettsville ISD chief financial officer Farrah Jernigan reported 95.94%, $8,668,638.03 of taxes have been collected year-to-date.

Jernigan reported bills paid through March amounted to $827,867.79.

Facility Reports:

The district’s maintenance director Johnny Densman reported the high school back parking lot is now complete and the lights do a good job lighting up the lot.

High School principal Mason Briscoe presented a list of year end events to the board that included various banquets scheduled as well as award ceremonies.

Recognitions:

Prior to the meeting, Alana Cinadr and Anna Steffek were recognized as the latest CNA graduates, while Crossroads Bank was presented a TASB 2024 Business Recognition certificate. Crossroads Bank was represented by Clay Hermann.

Board president Brian Smith presided over the meeting with board members Brian Henneke, Marna Klimitchek, Holly Cliffe, Dennis Herring, Justin Smith and Ryan Bludau present for the meeting.