Posted 6:40 am Thursday, September 18, 2008
TISD Trustees To Discuss Jones, St. Louis School Combination
By MEGAN MIDDLETON
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
Tyler ISD trustees will discuss possibly building a single facility for two schools up for replacement in the Nov. 4 bond issue during its regular board meeting tonight.
The meeting will take place in the Dr. Jack L. Davidson Conference Center at the Jim Plyler Instructional Complex, 807 W. Glenwood. Closed session begins at 5:30 p.m. The regular session begins at 7 p.m.
The school board will talk about the idea of building the St. Louis School and Mattie Jones Elementary as one facility.
No decisions have been made, and no action will be taken on the issue at tonight's meeting, the superintendent said.
Under the current $124.9 million bond proposal, six campuses would be replaced. Those campuses include Clarkston, Griffin, Orr, Jones and Woods elementary schools as well as the St. Louis School for students with special needs.
TISD Superintendent Dr. Randy Reid said this week that he has discussed the idea of a joint Jones and St. Louis with groups from both school communities but wants the public to have a chance to weigh in on the idea.
"What I'm intending to do Thursday night is to put the option in front of the public so if there's questions out there, we would have an opportunity to answer them before we make any final decisions," Reid said.
He said the reasons for looking at this option include to "better reach the needs of all of our children" as well as financial savings the district could gain by operating one facility instead of two.
If TISD were to choose to combine the schools, Reid said the administration would propose that the St. Louis School facility on Walton Drive remain and retain its name, but the program for students with special needs would become a wing of a new Jones Elementary facility.
The administration would recommend that the wing would retain the Wayne D. Boshears name, he said. The school for students with special needs is currently called the St. Louis School-Wayne D. Boshears Center for Exceptional Programs.
Reid noted that ultimately the decision about the names would come from the board.
He also said they would recommend to the board using the existing St. Louis facility, with some minor modifications, as a Head Start/Pre-K center.
The superintendent said the district has been sharing this idea with the primary communities impacted and so far has had "no real negative response."
He said, though, that as he talked with these groups, there were people who had concerns.
"You don't do something like this without people raising questions," he said. "But as we've walked through the questions, we've had answers that people have felt good about."
The TISD board will ultimately determine what the district does on this issue.
The $124.9 million bond issue that goes before voters on Nov. 4 represents Phase 2 of a multi-phased approach to tackling facilities in TISD and calls for addressing elementary schools first.
The $96 million Phase 1 bond program, which voters approved in 2004, replaced Austin, Bell, Bonner, Douglas, Peete and Ramey elementary schools and built a brand new elementary, Jack.
MORE BOND ITEMS
Trustees will consider approving the architectural and engineering contracts for the schools proposed to be replaced as part of the bond issue.
Under the contracts, Eubanks-Harris-Roberts-Craig would be the firm for Clarkston, Griffin, Orr and Woods elementary schools, while the combination firm team of Corgan/Sinclair & Wright Architects would be the architects for Jones Elementary and the St. Louis School.
If approved, "our architects will begin their design processes almost immediately," Reid said.
They may also begin to put together a staging plan for how the district would, for example, move portables or deal with parking at those sites where the current facility will remain as a new facility is built.
Reid has said before that the district moving forward with these contracts in no way should be perceived as the district assuming the election is wrapped up.
"We really are intending only to be prepared if the bond does pass to move forward as fast as possible from that point on, because time is money," Reid said Monday. "We just want to do the prudent thing and be prepared to move forward quickly if the bond does pass."
The board will also consider choosing its 2008 bond delivery method. The administration is recommending the "construction management at-risk" method, which is what it used in the 2004 bond and what Reid called, "the most used method" especially for districts the size of TISD.
OTHER ITEMS
Also on Thursday, the board will consider approving the 2008-09 amended budget; gifts and donations; revisions to the Texas Association of School Boards Update 83; a local policy related to final exam exemptions; self-funded insurance plan; renewal of stop-loss insurance for medical benefit plan; pre-demolition asbestos abatement at Ramey Elementary; an order related to the Nov. 4 bond election; and sale of property for delinquent taxes.
The purchase of an English as a Second Language (ESL) Reading Intervention program for secondary schools is also on the agenda for approval at Thursday's meeting. According to the agenda, the administration is recommending that the Journey's Intervention Reading program for $80,900 be paid to assist all ESL students and their teachers in grades six through 12. The requested amount would use funds from Title III.
The board will also consider purchasing a rapid communication service for $36,000. The service will allow the district to "deliver thousands of voice messages to the home and mobile phones of all student contacts, district employees and school board members within minutes," according to TISD board agenda information.
The board will also hear a school safety and security audit, technology update and an update on enrollment and staffing.
