Tyler

By MEGAN MIDDLETON
Staff Writer

Tyler ISD trustees OK’d the use of more than $111,000 in emergency funds for repairing “hazardous” drainage situations at the varsity fields at John Tyler and Robert E. Lee high schools at their board meeting Tuesday night.

The district closed the fields earlier this month to begin maintenance, which includes the installation of a new drainage system and reinstallation of Bermuda turf.

The fields were originally designed for football, officials said. But soccer now also uses those fields.

Drains located outside the sidelines for football are actually inside the sidelines for soccer, creating safety issues, officials said.

“We’ve had to cover those (drains) up over the years with wood planks, with Astroturf on top of them,” TISD Superintendent Dr. Randy Reid told trustees Tuesday. “We considered it to be an unsafe circumstance after looking at the pictures and going out and checking out the field.”

The district looked, at one point, at putting an artificial surface on those fields, but believed it would be cost prohibitive, Reid said.

“We found what we believe to be a reasonable solution,” he said.

To correct the problem, the district is relocating the drains, installing more drains and a French drain to get the water off the field, and regrading the fields, officials have said.

“We had to get those done in a timely fashion so the fields would be ready to go for practice when the football teams return in a few weeks,” Reid said, noting they may still have to stay off of them for the first few weeks.

Since they were in a time crunch, Reid has said the district used money earmarked for other projects not as time sensitive to go ahead and begin the work to the fields. The approval Tuesday was so the district could replace those funds with money from unrestricted funds in the budget.

Reid said Tuesday he believed this was a “very cost-effective solution” for these fields.

Board Vice President Michelle Carr said she is glad the district is taking care of the problem, noting the large amount of use the fields see from various groups of students — from drill teams to soccer to band to football.

“I think it was money well spent,” Ms. Carr said.

Board President Ron Vickery also said this is a “very wise use of this money.”

Reid noted this is not a long-term solution given the amount of traffic the fields see.

“It is a physical impossibility to keep a quality turf field, a grass field, in play 12 months a year when there’s never a break ... and never growing time for that grass,” Reid said, noting it can grow in the summer, but by the end of football season it’s damaged again.

In future bond elections that may address high schools, this is an issue to keep in mind, Reid said.

Tabled Item

Reid recommended, and the board approved Tuesday, tabling a vote on a memorandum of understanding for the Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program (JJAEP) because Smith County superintendents are making one more attempt to work out a compromise with the Smith County Juvenile Board in regard to handling “discretionary” placement students.

“We are back in quasi-negotiations,” Reid told the board Tuesday. “I do intend to attend the next juvenile justice board meeting and engage them in a discussion about the compromise effort that we’ve put forth.”

Superintendents from the eight Smith County school districts voiced concerns to the juvenile board in May about the increased cost of sending certain student offenders to the county’s JJAEP. The cost for “discretionary” students jumped from $75 a day per student to $203 a day per student, officials have said.

An official with the county’s juvenile services has said the county can charge the districts the actual costs for each student, adding that rates went up considerably since they were last adjusted 10 or more years ago and it now costs $203.47 per day per student.

Juveniles considered “man-datory” placements will continue to be sent to the JJAEP, as required by law.

Reid expects to have information back about the issue prior to the school board’s August meeting.

CURRICULUM BUYS

With the board’s OK, TISD will buy $525,000 worth of additional CSCOPE curriculum materials for language arts, math, science and social studies.

CSCOPE is an online curriculum tool the district purchased in February for teachers that features lessons using the 5E model of instruction. The 5E model is the new standard for teaching at TISD that aims to engage students more in learning and help them think on a higher level. The 5Es are engage, explore, explain, elaborate and evaluate.

The board previously approved the purchase of CSCOPE materials for the first six weeks of school.

This purchase is for additional CSCOPE materials for the rest of the school year.

The majority of the money to pay for the purchase is coming from an instructional sustainment fund set aside for this purpose, officials have said.

Materials include hands-on tools, graphics and books for the classroom, said Kim Tunnell, director of curriculum and instruction for TISD.

More materials will be purchased as funds become available, Ms. Tunnell said.

“Because we’re so committed to the shift in changing our instructional delivery model to the 5E model and getting kids more engaged in their learning, we know that we’ve also got to support our teachers with the tools and resources to be able to do that,” she said prior to the meeting. “It’s not fair for our teachers to get a brand new curriculum with no tools in which to implement it.”

The board also approved the purchase of eStar Response to Intervention software for $30,000 and the Earobics web-based software for more than $330,000.

The Earobics software is a research-based literacy program TISD plans to use in pre-kindergarten through third grades as an intervention tool for students who have trouble discriminating between sounds and words, which can lead to problems with reading fluency and reading comprehension, Ms. Tunnell said.

The eStar Response to Intervention software is a program that will allow the school district to track and monitor interventions and student progress, mostly of regular education students before they are referred to special education.

A report has shown that TISD has an over identification of students to special education.

“What we’re trying to do is make sure we’re addressing every child’s need before we have to identify them as special education,” she said. “This gives us a tool of tracking and recording that information.”

OTHER ACTION

Trustees also approved a memorandum of understanding with the Camp Tyler Foundation, which effectively turns over maintenance and custodial services at Camp Tyler to the Camp Tyler Foundation. TISD, which was responsible for those services, will pay a monthly fee of $15,000 to help it maintain that property.

Also Tuesday, the board approved: 2007-08 amended budget; gifts and donations; tuition rates for 2008-09; a 403 (b) Plan for TISD employees; Region VII contracted services agreements; remodeling of the Plyer Student Services building; and PDAS calendar and appraisers.

Trustees also heard an update on the “Portrait of a Graduate” training process from the R4 Group and an insurance consultant’s report.

Staff writer Casey Knaupp contributed to this report.