Superintendent’s report

Howe ISD Superintendent

Kevin Wilson announced that they have filled the positions of an aid and food service that were left vacant last month from resignations.

He reported that the construction of the retaining wall on the east of the Summit Hill property was completed on Monday. They will be irrigating and sodding the north side of that campus property.

Plans are in place to remake the front door entrance at the high school to move the office by the front entrance. The ISD wants to get a cost estimate for what the construction would be for that project. Corgan Architects have agreed to do the drawing at no cost. The plans would involve utilizing the library as an area for check-in for visitors.

Wilson also said they filed a waiver for a bilingual program waiver that stated if a school has more than 20 ESL (English as a Second Language) students (per grade level) of the same language, they are expected to have a bilingual classroom. Wilson said in the middle of the year, that was difficult to do especially with a teacher shortage in the bilingual area.

With Texas House Bill 3, the ISD is required to offer a full-day PreK program. But TEA (Texas Education Agency) is allowing a waiver for up to three years. Wilson said he will file a waiver for this year and plan to offer a full-day program next year as space is currently available.

House Bill 3 also put forth an early education allotment that can be used for various promotions of literacy and math at the elementary level, specifically from pre-K through third grade. A high focus is on reading levels as TEA states that only 58 percent of students across the state come to school kindergarten-ready and only 40 percent of kids meet the standard for grade reading in grade 3. With the bill, all of the kindergarten through third-grade teachers and principals are required to attend a reading academy by 2021 which will cost approximately $5,000 per teacher. Also, a new certificate program “Science of Teaching Reading” will be required for all reading teachers.

An allotment was created for CCMR (Career, College, Military Readiness) based on the enrollment. The amount not used must be returned. It’s designed to reimburse college entrance exams such as ACT, SAT, and TSI. It pays, on a reimbursement, for the students to take the test once during the junior and senior year. There area also bonuses for economically disadvantaged students if they meet the CCMR criteria.

There is also a teacher incentive allotment which allows a three tier designation to school districts that choose to have a designation system. Based on the situation, teachers could receive incentives from $3,000 to $32,000 based on a number of factors.

“One of the legislature’s goals is for a teacher to be able to earn $100,000,” said Wilson. “There’s a lot to learn about this and that money is funded by TEA if we choose to go through with that.”

House Bill 3 also made changes in the GT (Gifted and Talented) programs where each ISD could designate for reimbursement for up to five percent in the GT program. That is now being funded by basic allotment with no cap on the amount of money reserved for GT.

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