YISD to hold public hearing on its latest school FIRST ratings

Yoakum ISD will hold a public hearing at 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 2, at the YISD Administration Building for the district’s financial accountability rating system, or FIRST data, as it is now known by the Texas Education Agency.

School FIRST reporting aims to improve Texas public school accountability by adding several new layers of transparency to the reporting of a school’s financial management practices.

Schools must now hold public hearings, for example, upon the release of their annual FIRST reports, during which administrators are expected to explain what each rating represents and how their performance compares overall in each of its indicators, comparing both current and previous year data sets to schools of similar size and makeup, as well as those within general geographical areas.

TEA has even amassed enough data sets now that they can assess a program’s overall effectiveness against what it costs a district each year to gain a better picture of its overall strengths and weaknesses.

After the results are presented, the public can then offer their comments to close out the FIRST report hearings.

Also at the Monday meeting, trustees plan to:

• Review their reports from the counties’ Tax Assessor Collectors.

• Hear enrollment reports from the campus principals.

•Certify the year’s tax rolls.

•Choose their representatives for DeWitt and Lavaca counties’ appraisal district boards.