Cumby football coach resigns

The Cumby ISD School Board held their board meeting Thursday, Feb. 17 where news was shared that Tom Dracos will be returning to Cumby ISD to take up the post as interim athletic director due to head football coach and athletic director Charles Boles resigning to coach at Water Valley ISD.

Mrs. Wheat, senior sponsor and a group of students from the senior class then gave a presentation regarding their class trip to New Braunfels May 15 to 18 which includes a tour of the state capitol, a trip to Schlitterbahn, floating the Comal river and exploring the natural bride and caverns.

The entire cost of the trip is just over $8,000 with half being covered by the senior fund. Wheat shared that there were donations pledged but they have not been received yet.

Students have been working to earn partial coverage of their trip by volunteering to work concession stands and set up for school dances. Students who volunteer more will have more of their trip covered, those who volunteer less will have to pay more out of pocket for their trip.

Wheat shared that out of 32 seniors, 20 of them are going and have signed contracts ensuring their behavior and attendance will remain in good standing.

There will be 5 chaperons, Mrs. Wheat, Anita Comer, Joe Juarez, Justin Jones and Trinity Mosley which will provide options for students who may not want to spend all day on the river and instead hang out in the hotel.

David Tremor shared that it takes good students who represent the school as good role models on these trips that keeps the senior trip going year after year.

Tony Aguilar asked if students will be required to adhere to certain social media standards since they will be attending a school sponsored trip and the possibility of a set of guidelines for students to sign was discussed.

In other business, third grade teachers Misty Sawyer and Kristen Poe presented student outcome goals to the board sharing that they and the students have been working very hard to meet student goals and fill the COVID gaps caused by COVID outbreaks and missing school.

The board also approved a resolution adopting a budget amendment for the Hopkins County Appraisal District to allow the county to retain funds used to litigation.

Contracts for Elementary and High School principal were approved with Doug Wicks being approved for one more year as elementary principal and Megan Petty being approved to continue as high school principal next year for her first official year as principal.

The Cumby City Council attended the board meeting to discuss a building code adopted in 2015 requiring educational facilities with an occupancy over 50 people to build a safe room that can withstand 250 mph winds and hold every student in the building.

“If the safe room is built to the specs, how many classrooms would we lose,” Marsha Krotky asked.

“Two to four,” Shelly Slaughter, superintendent answered with Aggen confirming.

“We’d still have to use portables,” Slaughter continued, “Which is what we were trying to eliminate with this new building. Keeping the kids inside a building is safer.”

Cory Wood of HWH shared that the cost of the safe room built to the 2015 code for 250 mph winds would be around $200 to $250 per square foot coming to a total of one to two million dollars on top of the cost of the high school.

Heath Aggen from Goodwin, Lassiter and Strong, shared that the code can be amended by the city council to reduce the requirement for the building to only withstand 200 mph winds which keeps the cost low and allows for the new high school to stay the same.

Tremor shared that the safety of the students is top priority, bringing them into a main building and not out in the open or walking between campuses during a storm. “Even if this safe room to the 200 mph specs, it will still be the safest building within five miles,” Krotky said.

“Or more,” Aggen added sharing that around 50 years ago De Kalb was hit by a tornado that took the roof of the elementary and the school had to bring in a bunch of portable buildings.

“There were a lot of nervous parents,” Aggen said.

Jason Hudson, board president, shared that the board’s goal was to plan realistically and have a master plan that covers 30 years out with phases for each building and where new ones can be placed.

“The goal is to shift each entrance to face the interior so that we have an internalized campus,” Hudson said. “Our long term plan is very well though out. We’ve spent two and a half years planning and holding comprehensive meetings.”

The board made a plan for Slaughter and Aggen to work on a memo to submit to the city council regarding a change to the code for the council to vote on at their March city council meeting. Next the board discussed updates on the ongoing construction.

Wood shared that conduits for power were run under the track and the dirt work was finishing up.

“Symmetry will be starting next week,” Wood said. “They’re currently ahead of schedule but rain may delay them a bit.”

Aggen shared that the drawings are 95% finished which means the last step is to review them and look for any possible changes.

“They should be 100% by the first week of March,” Aggen commented.

Bids for contracts will be opened in March and possibly presented in April if any are received.

A tentative date was proposed in April for the presentation of final drawing and approval of contracts with construction predicted to start in May.

The next order of business was to hear administrative reports.

Jeremy Bain, technology director, shared that he and Tony Crouse, campus police, were working on replacing the bus camera system for a better one at a one time cost of $8,400 instead of an annual cost of over $6,500.

Bain also shared that 66 new touchscreen Hp Chromebooks for the elementary were received and distributed.

“I’m still putting together the carts for them,” Bain added.