Board hears administrative reports
The Cumby ISD board met Monday to recognize the new counselor Dona Gavlick and hear her goals for the school’s counseling program and approval of the consent agenda which included considering the cancellation of the Nov. 2, trustee election.
The board voted to table the consideration of a mask requirement.
Gavlick presented the Counseling Character Program, sharing her plan to improve student’s mindfulness, social skills and behavior.
“I’m very honored to be the counselor for Cumby ISD,” Gavlick said before giving her presentation.
Gavlick also shared that she hopes to see students displaying positive character traits such as trustworthiness, responsibility, open-mindedness, acceptance and kindness.
Gavlick also hopes to help teach students tactics for coping with anxiety and stress during test time, online safety and service to the community as well as sharing resources for parents and helping teachers develop behavioral strategies to implement in the classroom.
“I plan on sending out a climate survey to teachers to assess student goals, feelings and needs,” Gavlick said.
“I just want to say we appreciate you being here and helping us,” board president Jason Hudson said.
Elementary Principal Doug Wicks shared that enrollment is up to 216 students with attendance at 91%. Last Thursday the elementary had 36 kids absent, and by Monday only 23 students were absent. Wicks shared that campus activities were reduced this year due to current COVID protocols.
Donna George, high school principal, shared that enrollment at the high school is currently at 220 students with 94% attendance. George shared that she had been visiting with students and educating them on the importance of practicing COVID protocols such as social distancing, when to wear a face covering, being aware of their surroundings and sanitizing their hands.
George also shared that there is a parent meeting at the football field tonight, Sept. 15 at 5:30 p.m.
George and Wicks also shared the current strategies in place to help curb the spread of COVID sharing that elementary students are not gathering the cafeteria for morning announcements, dismissal times are staggered to prevent students from gathering outside as they wait for their ride, masks are readily available in the elementary and high school offices.
George shared that some of the high school cross country runners had taken it upon themselves to get a mask after the number of cases started going up.
“We’ve stressed that we don’t want to have to close down school or cancel extracurriculars, so we need to keep cases low,” George stated.
Updates on the bond for the track and high school included reminding the board of the facilities committee meeting, and sharing that HWH plans to break ground on the track at the end of Sept. and dirt work for the high school is estimated to begin in January.
As details come in and more information is gathered, the board will discuss the cost and planning a groundbreaking ceremony.
The board then discussed grants that the school has received that has helped cover salaries, stipends, hiring a counselor, math and summer school curriculums, hiring paraprofessionals and covering trainings for early childhood teachers.
The board also discussed the percentage of students that met expectations on STAAR, EOC or TSI testing and set goals for the coming year.
The last item of business was to discuss the sale of land located on FM 275 North, near the baseball field.
Board member David Tremor made the motion to seek an appraisal for the land so that it could be sold, with the board agreeing that selling the property was a step in the right direction due to the cost of maintaining land that does not generate revenue for the school.
Future agenda items included the mask mandate, facilities updates, extra duty stipends, consideration of a fourth bus route and the administrative reports that were not heard Monday night.