Board approves changes to district plan

Along with a minor change, the Como-Pickton CISD school board approved a revision in the District of Innovation (DoI) plan to allow for a future possibility of changing health insurance providers for district educators and heard a report on assessments from kindergarten through third grade students.

“I think it’s no secret to you [the board] that our teacher and educator health insurance in the state of Texas is horrible,” superintendent Greg Bower said. “It’s no new news to you.”

In 2002, the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) of Texas created a health insurance program for employees and their dependents, according to the TRS website. Districts joined the program but have not been allowed to back out due to adverse selection, according to the Texas Tribune. Adverse selection happens when more sick or expensive districts than healthy districts join the program, creating risks for the health insurance company and higher premiums for holders.

Bower asked the board to allow a revision in the DoI plan that could permit CPCISD to shop around for better insurance in future.

“Sometimes our teachers’ raises didn’t meet the increases in the insurance that was offered,” Bower said. “So from year to year, there were some teachers who actually lost pay.”

According to the Texas Tribune, the state’s contribution of $75 per employee has not changed while health costs have skyrocketed. Bower said other districts have implemented revisions in their own DoI plans to shop around, but he is still hesitant to fully committing. The revision

“I wanted some school districts to be guinea pigs, and I still do,” Bower said. “I’m still not ready to commit our school because I need to see how it works out for other school districts.”

The other change allowing the start date to be earlier if needed. Assistant superintendent Jana Andrews said this move was sparked by the problems in creating a district calendar caused by COVID-19.

“Remember this year with COVID, when we were looking at needing to build in some breaks - particularly in the spring semester - we went back out to get, in particular, staff input,” Andrews said.

The board approved the DoI plan unanimously.

Elementary principal Linda Rankin and CTE director Michael Bowen gave updates on goals set by the school board. Beginning-of-the-year reading and math assessments were given to students in kindergarten through third grade in September, and very few met the standard set. Rankin reminded the board students had missed nine weeks of instruction.

“I believed my teachers worked extremely hard at the start of this year to fill in some of those gaps and continue pressing forward with their content and grade level material,” Rankin said.

In third grade, no students passed neither the math nor reading assessment, which was a released STAAR test, but Rankin said she expected results like that.

“That [test] is based on the end-of-the-year third grade content,” Rankin said. “This was a released STAAR taken at the beginning of the year that way we can see their progress and help target those areas as we move up.”

Another round of assessments will be given in February, and Rankin said she looks to see improvements among students.

“Those teachers are already excited about how hard those kiddos are working and the growth they’re already seeing,” Rankin said.

Bower noted the state has suspended the A-F accountability ratings for this school year but has kept the STAAR tests in place, and he added measuring up to pre-pandemic standards would be “difficult” if the tests remained in place. However, the district “will make it work, one way or the other,” Bower said.

In readying students for college, a career or military enlistment, Bowen said he has laid the groundwork in the spring such preparing students to earn a certification or scheduling college visits. In the fall, he added, the school hosted two ACT exams and had a total of 43 signups with some students taking both tests.

“That is exceptional participation in ACT for our school,” Bowen said. “That’s the highest I’ve seen in 17 years.”